These companies compete in many, but not all, of the same services. The two primary competitors are Maritz, Inc., headquartered in St. Louis, and Carlson Marketing, headquartered in Minneapolis. With services custom designed to meet individual customer needs, and long term relationships with customers, there is intense customer focus throughout the organization. The Associate focus reinforces the customer focus. BI Associates are advocates for the company and carry that motivation and pride into their dealings with all customers.
Associate productivity is key to the company's financial success.
BI has deployed a team-based, high performance work system supported by an integrated Associate development approach. BI's Mutual Respect Policy is a best practice and is fully deployed and culturally accepted. When BI adopted TQM as a way of life in 1984, the company used the same approach to solving its own business challenges as it would for customers. BI used performance improvement to bring TQM into the fabric of the company. The BI Way is an approach to process management driven by the goal of customer delight.