Investing in people: The Buckner Company is a strong, diverse business that champions creativity, integrity and community service.

• Position: Profile: the buckner company

Terry Buckner is the CEO of The Buckner Company, an insurance brokerage founded in 1936 by Buckner's grandfather. When Buckner got involved, the company had eight employees; now the company has 125 employees with offices in Utah, Idaho and Colorado. The Buckner Company is a strong, diverse business that champions creativity, integrity and community service.

When Buckner came into the business in 1979, he had investigated the nature of joining a family business and instead negotiated to become the sole purchaser of the company in the future. He was aware that not many family businesses survived into their fourth generation and he wanted to make sure that The Buckner Company lasted and did well. Now Buckner is the only member of his family in this thriving business.

Early in his career, Buckner had a pivotal experience that shaped the way that he did business. He had a specific client that was as much as 38 percent of the company's revenue, but unfortunately they lost the client. Buckner reflected on how such an event makes you step back and look at yourself. This lost client forced the company to test their mettle, make sure they were committed to what they were doing and diversify so that not one client has as big of a stake in their firm. He says, "Now we don't have one client that has more than 2 percent of our revenue. The year this happened we saw a dip in our revenue, so we responded by diversifying and strengthening our portfolio to redefine ourselves."

At The Buckner Company, they are always striving for excellence and recruiting top talent. They work hard to be in tune with new trends in the marketplace and to deal with security threats facing clients' identities; they work hard to craft technology that will address those needs. Buckner says, "We are always thinking about the future, trying to stay abreast of trends in our field, which is challenging. What we really sell is our knowledge. We are a people company and work meticulously to provide our clients with excellent...