Ethics and Leadership: An Executive’s Perspective; Joe Turner ’71 and ‘77

Joe Turner

Q.         How long has it been since you began First Sun Management Corporation with your partner and what has been your particular passion in managing and growing such a successful business?

A.         My business partner, Kelly Durham, and I began First Sun Management in late 1989 with six investors.  Several years later we bought them out.  Clearly our passion in managing our business has been to create an environment where people can succeed.

When we set out on this journey our vision was and still is to be the best place to work in our communities and the best place to eat as well.  We accomplish this everyday through our mission of delivering outstanding customer service.  We have two sets of customers who are affected by the execution of this mission. Our internal customers are our team members; our external customers are our daily walk-in or drive up patrons. Taking care of your customers is the single best way to insure tomorrow.  

Our company has a simple yet powerful set of values that we utilize when making all of our decisions:  

Integrity – are we honest?

Fairness – is it the right thing to do?

Relationships – do we care about others?

Performance – do we give our best?

Q.         What has been one of the greatest challenges?

A.         Being ethical in all walks of our lives is very important to us.  And treating people fair is critical and a challenge that we work at daily. Being uniformly consistent is a foundation of who we are.  Our wish is that everyone works hard for a fair day's pay and gets along with others. Sometimes that just does not happen. And we must be fair to all parties when there are differences.

Q.         What convinced you to take on such a significant leadership role as chair of the advisory board of the Rutland Institute for Ethics? 

A.         We have known of the Rutland Institute since its founding ten years ago by Bob Rutland.  As a matter of fact, Kelly's dad was a founding board member.  We believe in its mission and when asked to help we agreed.  We believe that the Institute has done a fine job with its ethics across the curriculum agenda and are pleased that a feasibility study is currently being conducted to learn how we can expand our initiative into the business arena.

Q.         Is there a particular RIE event or program targeted to business that you found especially enjoyable and rewarding to be a part of?

A.         I must say that I was honored to be part of the program for the institute’s Tenth Anniversary Gala on April 10th. About 160 community leaders, students, faculty and administrators came together for an evening of networking, dinner and a program on ethics and athletics – a very timely topic. Aside from the inaugural event when the institute was formed, this is the first celebration of its size to bring broader attention to the institute and its work.

Q.         Do you have a call to action for readers?

A.         Our call for all who read this is to help further our objective to assure that ethics is practiced at all levels, in all types of organizations and life communities. If you share our passion for and commitment to this endeavor, then please consider joining us as a member of the Rutland Ethics Alliance! https://cualumni.clemson.edu/give/rutlandalliance