The fox is a cunning creature, able to devise a myriad of complex strategies for sneak attacks upon the hedgehog. Fast, sleek, beautiful, fleet of foot, and crafty—the fox looks like the sure winner. The hedgehog...waddles along, going about his simple day, searching for lunch and taking care of his home. The fox waits in cunning silence...leaps out, bounding across the ground, lightning fast. The little hedgehog, sensing danger...rolls up into a perfect little ball becoming a sphere of sharp spikes, pointing outward in all directions. The fox, bounding toward his prey, sees the hedgehog defense and calls off the attack. Retreating back to the forest, the fox begins to calculate a new line of attack. Each day, some version of this battle between the hedgehog and the fox takes place, and despite the greater cunning of the fox, the hedgehog always wins. Foxes pursue many ends at the same time and see the world in all its complexity. They are scattered or diffused, moving on many levels, never integrating their thinking into one overall concept or unifying vision. Hedgehogs, on the other hand, simplify a complex world into a single organizing idea, a basic principle or concept that unifies and guides everything...they have a piercing insight that allows them to see through complexity and discern underlying patterns...they see what is essential, and ignore the rest. It doesn’t matter how complex the world, a hedgehog reduces all challenges and dilemmas to simple…hedgehog ideas.

©2002 Jim Collins. All rights reserved.

We operate in a high performance environment, which is the organizational climate and culture that delivers our business concepts. By having a concept defined as what we are passionate about, best at, and our economic drivers, we can apply them to produce our company’s success. Our team members all have a common passion for exceptional customer service, doing the seemingly impossible, solving problems and providing solutions. As a company we strive to be the best at delivering high quality, digitally produced materials, with the quickest turn-around, at a cost that benefits both us and our clients. The place where these three business concepts merge is where Hedgehog strives to operate—to be the best in our field, balancing our passions and talents while still working smart enough to provide our products and solutions at a value. By having a team in place that understands and operates by these concepts and leaders who encourage cooperation and excellence, we are able to provide our customers not only high quality but also the ideal customer experience of having the right product at the right time for the right price.

Return to Top

Not a day passes that at least one person new to our company asks, "Why Hedgehog?" When we reply with something snappy like, "Because we are the absolute best at what we do!" we know the comeback question is coming. "No, I mean the name. Why Hedgehog?"

Hedgehog is much more than a name for our company. It represents the philosophy that is both our foundation and the driving force behind how we conduct business.

Seven years ago, when Hedgehog was still in the planning stages, a phenomenon was sweeping the field of business management. Jim Collins, a business professor at Stanford, had written a ground-breaking book titled "Good to Great". One of the primary tenants of this book is to find your niche and become the absolute best at it. Collins called this the Hedgehog Concept, after an old English folk story that involves a hedgehog and a fox. The hedgehog is an extremely diligent and focused animal that does not stray from its primary tasks of securing food and shelter for itself and its family. The fox, on the other hand, is infamous for being less singular in its pursuits. The fox never catches the hedgehog.

The business analogy is that an organization can constantly chase the latest and greatest trends, always at the expense of its core competency (if it ever had one), or it can focus on one area of expertise and carefully evaluate each opportunity of growth and expansion, relative to its core competency.

We have chosen the latter of these paths. Every business decision is put to the Hedgehog Concept test before needless time and effort is wasted walking down paths that are best left to others.

What is our Hedgehog Concept? We are passionate about service, doing the "impossible", and providing solutions. We are the best at providing high-quality, digitally-produced materials that profit both us and our customers.

Has it worked? We think so. And our customer's continued loyalty confirms it.

Return to Top

We operate in a high performance environment.  6 core values characterize the ideals of the corporation. By defining these values we can share common goals that focus on personal and company success and encourage cooperation and excellence.

CLIENT FOCUSED We focus our actions on our clients’ needs; we develop and sustain strong client relationships.

Key Actions:
•	Seek to understand clients—Actively seek information to understand our clients’ circumstances, problems, expectations, and needs.
•	Educate clients—Share information with clients to build their understanding of issues and capabilities.
•	Build collaborative relationships—Build rapport and cooperative relationships with our clients.
•	Take action to meet our client’s needs and concerns—Consider how actions or plans will affect clients; respond quickly to meet their needs and resolve problems; avoid over commitments.
•	Implement customer feedback systems—Implement effective ways to monitor and evaluate client concerns, issues, and satisfaction and to anticipate future client needs.

Return to Top

 

RESULTS ORIENTED We deliver on our commitments; we set aspirational goals and work tenaciously to reach or exceed them.

Key Actions:
•	Align our actions to the business strategy—Demonstrate an understanding of the business strategy; align our day-to-day actions to the strategic goals of the organization.
•	Target opportunities—Systematically evaluate business opportunities and target those opportunities with the greatest potential for producing positive business results.
•	Focus on goal achievement—Work tenaciously toward and derive satisfaction from delivering our agreed goals and commitments.
•	Establish stretch goals—Establish stretch goals for ourselves and others that are designed to achieve exceptional business results.
•	Stay focused—Be self-disciplined; measure progress and evaluate results; reprioritize as appropriate; prevent irrelevant issues or distractions from interfering with the timely completion of important tasks.

Return to Top

 

COMMUNICATIVE We clearly convey information and ideas; we encourage open and continuous communication; we listen and learn.

Key Actions:
•	Prepare our interactions and communications—Identify key messages to be conveyed based on their purpose and importance; ensure structure and clarity of both verbal and written messages.
•	Deliver clear messages—Deliver clear, concise, and accurate messages; frame messages in line with audience experience, background, and expectations.
•	Ensure understanding—Seek input from the audience; check for understanding; present messages in different ways to enhance understanding.
•	Respect accepted conventions—Use agreed standards and processes; provide timely communications and feedback to our stakeholders.
•	Be keen to listen and learn—Listen to messages from others; correctly interpret messages; respond and adjust appropriately

Return to Top

 

INNOVATIVE We generate innovative solutions; we challenge the status quo and push boundaries; we try different and novel ways to deal with problems and opportunities.

Key Actions:
•	Challenge paradigms—Identify assumptions in the way problems or situations are defined; see alternative ways to view or define problems; are not constrained by the thoughts or approaches of others.
•	Leverage diverse resources—Draw upon multiple and diverse sources (individuals, disciplines, bodies of knowledge) for ideas and inspiration.
•	Think expansively—Combine ideas in unique ways or make connections between disparate ideas; explore different lines of thought; view situations from multiple perspectives; brainstorm multiple approaches/solutions.
•	Evaluate multiple solutions—Examine numerous potential solutions and evaluate each completely.

Return to Top

 

TRUSTED We develop and maintain an environment of openness, trust and integrity; we gain the confidence of our clients, employees and suppliers.

Key Actions:
•	Display integrity and openness—Demonstrate openness in dealing with others; share personal agendas; act in a manner consistent with organizational, social, and moral values.
•	Behave consistently—Ensure that words and actions are consistent; keep our commitments.
•	Support disclosure and transparency—Show empathy and understanding in response to stated concerns; avoid minimizing or ignoring others’ feelings or concerns; focus on facts rather than relying on our own preferences or instincts.
•	Demonstrate support for others—Support deserving colleagues; provide constructive feedback; actively pursue recognition, rewards, and awards for strong resources.
•	Acknowledge contribution—Sincerely compliment others’ contributions; redirect discussions when others’ self-esteem is threatened.

Return to Top

 

DECISIVE We draw conclusions and choose a timely course of action based on relevant facts, constraints and probable consequences.

Key Actions:
•	Identify issues, problems, and opportunities—Recognize them and determine whether action is needed.
•	Gather and interpret information—Collect and integrate information from a variety of sources to better understand issues, problems, and opportunities; detect trends, associations, and cause-effect relationships.
•	Generate alternatives—Create relevant options to address problems and opportunities and achieve desired outcomes.
•	Choose appropriate action—Formulate clear decision criteria; evaluate and select appropriate options by considering implications and consequences.
•	Commit to action—Ensure stakeholder buy-in; make decisions in a timely manner; stand by our decisions once they are made.

Return to Top

Our goal is to be the leading provider of innovative solutions to our clients. We will obtain and be deserving of our clients’ loyalty. Our vision is the desired future state of our company. It motivates us and provides a sense of direction. We take pride in meeting our commitments.

212°

AT 212 DEGREES, WATER IS HOT.
AT 212 DEGREES, IT BOILS.
AND WITH BOILING WATER,
COMES STEAM.
AND STEAM CAN POWER A LOCOMOTIVE.

Raising the temperature of water by one extra degree means the difference between something that is simply very hot and something that generates enough force to power a machine—a beautiful, uncomplicated metaphor that ideally should feed our every endeavor—consistently pushing us to make the extra effort in every task we undertake. 212° serves as a forceful drill sergeant with its motivating and focused message while adhering to a scientific law–a natural law. It reminds us that seemingly small things can make tremendous differences. So simple is the analogy that you can stop reading right now, walk away with the opening thought firmly planted in your mind, and benefit from it for the rest of your life.

—Inspired by, 212° the extra degree, written by Sam Parker and Mac Anderson.

Being 212°—always making that extra effort—is a great ideal to try and achieve in both business and personal life. Here at Hedgehog, we strive everyday to make that ideal a reality. Jared, our owner, implemented a system where we can be rewarded by clients or fellow co-workers when it’s been observed that an individual has gone that extra degree to make sure a job has been completed, displayed exceptional customer service skills to make sure a client was taken care of, or just seeing a need, and without question or hesitation, filling that need. Being 212° is an attitude. It’s a way of living. By embracing it and practicing it, you see it in others. You inspire it in others. Hedgehog gets the job done…and then some.

Here are a few of our favorite quotes from the book:

Courage	Courage is fear holding on a minute longer. —George S. Patton, American Soldier & General, 1885–1945
Success	The line between failure and success is so fine that we…are often on the line and do not know it. How many a man has thrown up his hands at a time when a little more effort, a little more patience, would have achieved success. A little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success. —Elbert Hubbard, American Writer & Business Person, 1856–1915
Perseverance	In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins…not through strength but by perseverance. —H. Jackson Brown
Service	Service is the lifeblood on any organization. Everything flows from it and is nourished by it. Customer service is not a department…it’s an attitude.
Attitude	The only thing that stands between a person and what they want in life is the will to try it and the faith to believe it possible.
Kindness	It is one of the most beautiful compensations in life…we can never help another without helping ourselves. —Ralph Waldo Emerson
Commitment	If you will spend an extra hour each day of study in your chosen field, you will be a national expert in that field in five years or less. —Earl Nightingale
Belief	Belief fuels enthusiasm, and enthusiasm explodes into passion. It fires our souls and lifts our spirits.
Focus	Having a simple, clearly defined goal can capture the imagination and inspire passion. It can cut through the fog like a beacon in the night.
Perseverance	Perseverance is not a long race: It is many short races, one after another. —Walter Elliot

IMPOSSIBLE IS not a fact,

it's AN OPINION.

---

Other Favorite "Impossible" Quotes:

“If God had meant for man to fly, feathers would be sprouting on his shoulders! Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.”
—Lord Kelvin (1824-1907), a highly regarded scientist and president of the Royal Society of London, stated flatly in 1885

“Doctors and scientists said that breaking the four-minute mile was impossible, that one would die in the attempt. Thus, when I got up from the track after collapsing at the finish line, I figured I was dead.”
—Roger Bannister (After becoming the first person to break the four-minute mile, 1952)

“Well informed people know it is impossible to transmit the voice over wires and that were it possible to do so, the thing would be of no practical value.”
—Editorial in the Boston Post (1865)

“Man will never reach the moon regardless of all future scientific advances.”
—Dr. Lee De Forest, inventor of the vacuum tube and father of television.

“There is not the slightest indication that [nuclear energy] will ever be obtainable. It would mean that the atom would have to be shattered at will.”
—Albert Einstein, 1932

“Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons.”
—Popular Mechanics, 1949

In 1877 the renowned Warwick Institute tells the press that the electric light is an impossible dream and calls Edison a scoundrel. A little over two years later, on New Years Eve, Edison ushered in the year 1880 with a spectacular display of electric lights.

Return to Top