More Than Skin Deep

Smells Like College Spirit
Gaynor heeds to a strategy for motivating and engaging loyal employees early on that hailed from his college days at Michigan State. “I decided to take my college experience — the school spirit — and bring it into the company,” he says. “If you’re an alumnus of a school, basically you carry that spirit through your adult life.” Much like colleges that have their own colors, mascot and fight song, so does TNG. The company’s colors are purple and white. Its mascot is the Rebel. At quarterly meetings, a cheer squad rallies up the crowd to sing the fight song. “It engages everyone, gets them excited and creates that learning, engaging environment,” Gaynor says.