Many of Chattanooga’s homegrown business successes have proven they can do well by doing good.
The companies selected this year as the most ethical businesses in the Chattanooga area by the Better Business Bureau include the nation’s biggest privately owned security company, one of the country’s top hospital billing and payment services and several decades-old businesses whose owners say they have built their companies on customer service and ethical practices.
“As we’ve gotten bigger, we’ve been able to remain true to our core values and beliefs and I think that has been key to our success,” said Mike Walden, a U.S. Navy veteran and former Chattanooga police officer who started Walden Security with his wife Amy in 1990. ‘Business is built on relationships and I think that is why it’s so important to treat customers and employees in a proper way.”
Walden Security, which has grown to become America’s biggest privately owned security company with more than 6,000 employees and annual revenues of $340 million across 28 states, is one of a half dozen businesses and non-profits being honored with the annual Torch Award for Marketplace Ethics, the highest honor presented by the Better Business Bureau Serving Southeast Tennessee and Northwest Georgia.
Walden Security, which also won the Torch award when it was a much smaller business in 1997, was selected by a team of judges for the BBB for the award in the biggest business category.