We hear a lot about U.S. companies laying off workers and shipping jobs overseas. So, amid the global pressures to downsize, how do you hang onto your workforce? We went looking for answers in Chelsea, Mich., home to a family owned manufacturer that's managed to thrive over four generations, since the company's founding in 1907. The Chelsea Milling Co. is better known as the manufacturer of Jiffy baking mixes. You know the ones. They come in those signature little blue and white boxes: mixes for muffins, cakes, pie crusts, biscuits, brownies and more. It's a company that's made a virtue out of being old-school. As President and CEO Howdy Holmes tells me, "We are clearly so far from trendy, with our products, with our packaging, with the way we do business. I mean, we're so boring, it's attractive!" As for that iconic 6 1/2-by-3-inch box? "We would be out of our mind to change that," Holmes says. "Absolutely bonkers out of our mind to consider doing that." When Howdy Holmes talks about
↧