Gtt^
An interview with Suzanne Clifton,
distinguished alumna, trustee
Continued from page two
or playing bridge. I've got to make a difference. I have to do something
that is an active thing for my mind, which I did not know at that time. Isn’t
that amazing. I never put it into perspecti\e until about ten years ago.
But. I had gotten out of teaching and had gotten into the business world
because my husband—Matt’s and Brook’s father—had been in the busi
ness world for quite some time. So, I knew a lot about the business world,
and I enjoyed the challenges.
In 1979 and 1980,1 worked for the Raleigh branch of the Olsten Tempo
rary Agency, which was a national company, as a sales rep doing 30 hours
a week. I believed I could handle the job and my two teenage sons at the
time. The work was very stressful. This kind of industr>' is stressful be
cause you're dealing with people, and you're handling their lives. I believed
that temporary staflTmg could be done better, and that has proven to be
true.
I started this company in 1984 stressing only quality and knowing that
was what I was going to do or it wasn't going to work. We’ve grown to
the point now that we have the value.
Our paradigms are not static. We’re being the pioneers and not the set
tlers. Therefore, the business turned out the way I wanted.
There are a lot of long days, heartaches and hardships; it has not been
easy. And it’s still not easy because of the time requirement and so forth.
However, making a difference has been rewarding.
RB: It’s interesting that you mention being the pioneer and taking calcu
lated risks, because those are the people other folks recognize and re
member down the road. That's what it's all about.
SC: You don’t know that sometimes, because a lot of people go into busi
ness for many reasons. I think that I’ve been very' lucky' that I got the re
wards later. My soul purpose was to make a difference.
RB: / think that’s kind of nice. For you to do this at this point in your life,
I think is wonderful In other words, most folks look at mid-life as a time
to slow down or look toward retirement. And then you do something like
this in 1984, and kaboom! Something’s working for you.
SC: That’s true.
RB: I think that’spretty exciting.
SC: That’s true because I was focused. I went through life doing what I
could to do the right thing. If the timing is right, and you approach life
with a plan but also care about your fellow man, then guess what? Life
works out. I’ve seen so many people in business who are motivated by
greed and deception.
RB: Right. It takes a combination of factors to make life a success.
SC: It does.
RB: Describe your personal leadership and management styles. I'm get
ting personal now.
SC: I interviewed someone the other day, and I said, “Before I start this
interview, let me tell you about myself” And the person said, “I can prob
ably already tell you, because I’ve been told.” I responded, “Picky, making
sure everything is done right, making sure that we care, but doing it in a
very organized, take-charge type of manner so that we make sure we’re
dotting the “I”s and crossing our “T”s.”
We are always looking at change. What can we do better? But I do care.
I do. If a person gives me what it takes to run this company so that we’re
all moving ahead and we’re all making a difference, I’ll give something back.
In fact. I’m having a young man come to work for me in thirty days. He
came here from Pennsylvania to consult with us the week I was at Chowan.
RB: I remember. You mentioned that you were returning to Cary to talk to
a consultant.
SC: Right. He is now my emfrioyee. He was looking for roots and a partner
ship. He came here and stayed for an entire week, and he saw what he
wanted. He saw that we cared about the people who work here, about the
staffing employees, but that we aren’t going to tolerate any slaphappy at
titudes.
I can’t stand gossip. I can’t stand people back stabbing. I can’t stand
busybodies. I’ve got to have the right combination so that we’re doing the
job, and we’re enjoying it.
RB: You reminded me of a column I read once. I think the columnist was
Ann Landers or Dear Abby. I can "t remember the exact content of it; but
she was making the point that sometimes good people do finish first.
I hope you don t mind talking about the next topic a little bit and
sharing with the public. HTtat is the state of your business today in terms
of the number of locations, the size of your staff and clientele, and pro
jected sales?
SC: We have four locations: Cary, Raleigh, Winston-Salem and Greensboro,
all of which I own. We have a franchise in Columbia, South Carolina. The
size of our office staff is, between the four locations as well as the fran
chise, I would say 54 people. We have from 500 to 700 staffing employees
that we place off sight. These are our permanent employees. We give them
READY FOR STUDENT RECEPTION—Preparing to greet students at the Ella Cobb
Camp President’s Home are, left to right: Dr Edward Dadez, vice president for
student life; Lisa Blockus, director of student involvement; and Laura Allgood,
president of the Student Government Association.
Anew student lifefor Chowan College
By DR EDWARD DADEZ
Vice President for Student Life
As Chowan begins her 149th year of ser
vice and embarks upon the journey into the
21st century, the mission of the Department
of Student Life will be to provide a compre
hensive program of services which adhere to
the overall purpose of the institution.
This is not always an easy task, but it is
one that the Department of Student Life is
prepared to undertake. It is also a challenge
that the department enjoys and strives to meet.
Campus student life is an opportunity to
enhance the value of a student’s educational
experience as an individual as well as being
an integral member of the campus community.
For new students, this is a time of learning
... growing... and becoming. Learning about
yourself and the world around you. Growing
in independence and new responsibilities. But
mostly it is becoming. It is finding out who
you are as a person and who you want to
become.
The Department of Student Life encourages
each student to get involved at Chowan Col
lege. This involvement can be in the Student
Govermnent Association, residence hall gov
ernments, intramurals, student organizations
and clubs, community and campus service,
and last but not least, your academic program
... the reason you are here at Chowan Col
lege.
Goals and objectives to ensure positive
directions and growth towards achieving three
developmental outcomes have been estab
lished. The staff of the Student Life depart
ment strives for (1) the development of the
whole person; (2) the development of healthy,
positive communities; and, (3) the integration
of each individual into the campus community.
The commitment to each student at Chowan
College is to accomplish these goals as pro
fessionally and competently as possible.
The department has begim a tradition of
setting and meeting lofty goals and making
personal contact with students and student
groups. The staff is always in pursuit of and
committed to excellence.
The tradition established is as easy as A-
B-C. We will achieve, because we believe and
care about what we do, how we do it, and why
we do it.
Efforts are moving forward and we are tak
ing a proactive approach to developing resi
dence hail communities and a campus commu
nity where students trust and respect each
other, are comfortable and secure in their en
vironment and learn, grow, develop and ma
ture with each other.
The Department of Student Life stresses
that we cannot do this alone and we cannot
do it to you, we must do it with you.
Each student is urged to get involved, take
positive risks, reach beyond and commit to
personal growth and development. When this
is done, Chowan College will become the spe
cial place that it is and all of us, each one of
us, will be the better for it.
benefits, including worker’s comp; they’re cov
ered by all that.
The clientele: I can’t even give you the num
bers. We provide service to hundreds of compa
nies. We are pleased to have the kinds of clients
that we do, but we choose them. The reason that
we choose them is because we’re not going to
allow our staffmg employees to make less than
what we believe to be the market value.
We want our client companies to be on the
same wavelength that we’re on. Our clients are
changing their paradigms and looking at the
workforce in a positive manner And the pro
jected sales . . .
RB: That might be getting a little personal but
I thought I'd ask.
SC: Well, I don’t know that 1 can give you a mon
etary figure, because it’s going to be astronomi
cal. 1 can give you a number and compare it as in
staffmg employees. We’re going into a new divi
sion and a new company within the next 3 months.
By the year 2000, core employment of a com
pany is going to be only 50 percent. Right now
staffing agencies affect probably 10 percent of the
workforce. By the year 2000, we’re going to af
fect 50 percent—through the year 2005. The 50
percent that we’re going to affect will be con
tracted, outsourced, staffed and—this is some-
Continued on page seven
CHOWAN TODAY, September1996 — Page 3