Our Story
History
It is NOT true that our founder, Sean Griffin, was born in the Poughkeepsie Post Office and raised by postal employees. It IS, however, true that Sean was born and raised in the Mid-Hudson Valley until he left for college.Sean founded Cornerstone in 1998 at his kitchen table in Washington Heights New York – a part time business serving non-profit organizations with mailings and administrative support. The direct mail portion of the business grew, and Sean moved Cornerstone to Ulster County in 2002. The first location was the Water Street Market in New Paltz, but larger quarters were needed, and in July 2003 Cornerstone moved to South Ohioville Road.
As the number and variety of clients increased, Sean was asked to broaden Cornerstone's services – adding database management, list acquisition, political mailings, copy editing and graphic design services. Cornerstone's reputation for excellence rests on its employees – skilled people who are dedicated to helping clients navigate the increasingly complex world of postal regulations and fulfillment technology to design direct mail campaigns that get results.
Over our ten years in the business, Cornerstone has grown by understanding and meeting the specific needs of each of our clients. We measure our success by our clients' successes.
Operations
One of our greatest assets has been the bringing together of skilled individuals who, though they don't know everything, seem to know how to work together to deal with just about anything. The President, Sean Griffin, has had 8 years “dirt-under-the-fingernails” experience in navigating through USPS Postal Regulations within a large scale billing and invoicing operation. Several people now on Cornerstone's staff have worked at previous technology start-ups and intimately understand the team work needed to deliver straight-forward service and consistent results.We have also had the focus to embed procedure over personality so that the functioning of any part of the company is not dependent upon any one person’s immediate availability. This is for everybody’s benefit and makes for a more stable operational facility.
Work Philosophy
All employees are required to work in production before they do anything else. This is not just a good idea – it’s a policy! Aside from the obvious, internal cross-training benefits, Cornerstone management doesn’t want salespeople to oversell something they know nothing about, nor does it want anyone answering the phones if they are no more useful than voicemail.To assist everyone in the mental focus of working at Cornerstone, we have in place the 4 pillars of the company: Conscious Effort, Resolve, Service and Truthfulness. These four qualities – C R S T – help us form a principled environment within which all business is conducted.
It might also be of interest that our typical employee is committed in volunteer work in and around the community. This is of great benefit to everyone, for those rare people in the world who appreciate that service is a privilege and not a duty, tend to remain stable, centered and awake to the needs of all others. As a consequence, tasks get done right the first time and follow-through is strong. Mistakes, when they do occur, are handled cleanly; typically by reviewing and revising procedures. We have what we feel to be an attractively low “ego-to-responsibility” ratio which further enhances internal cooperation, manifesting into a united front in presenting the highest level of service for our clients.
Summary
If you would like to come see us, please call in advance and schedule an appointment. This might sound odd, but we are a closed-office facility in order to keep people focused on the tasks and also in consideration of the sensitive (often confidential) nature of both the mailings and the data that Cornerstone has in its custody. In this regard, we are reserved about the work we do for specific clients without their expressed permission. We are, of course, happy to sign reasonable non-disclosure agreements. Finally, for the record, Cornerstone Services, Inc. is a New York State privately held corporation and located in New Paltz, NY.Thanks for taking the time to read about our company.