Jeff Young, Paul Young, Tom Young Jr. and Mike Young on the shop floor at YESCO.
A figurine of a goose, her gosling and some golden eggs sits on the small conference table in Michael T. Young’s Salt Lake City office. It’s there as a reminder to Young, CEO of the Young Electric Sign Co., and his brothers of the Aesop fable The Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs.
“We never want to forget what our father and his father before him taught us—that you take nothing for granted, that business is to be respected, that we are stewards rather than owners,” says Young, who with his brothers make up YESCO’s third-generation leadership team. “We’ve been blessed with a great legacy, and we all appreciate the lesson in that fable—that those who are greedy end up with nothing.”
Stewardship is a word the family uses often in describing the leadership principle that has driven the 92-year-old company. Michael Young says the concept of stewardship was instilled in them from day one by their grandfather, company founder Thomas Young Sr., and their father, Thomas Young Jr. Young and brothers Jeffrey S. Young (SVP and chief marketing officer) and Paul C. Young (EVP) oversee operations with 1,500 employees, 43 offices in 11 states and four manufacturing plants.
