REFLECTIONS ON TURNING 60....WHAT I KNOW FOR SURE

I turned 60 last week.  It wasn't quite as traumatic as I expected.  I feel the same as I did when I was 59.  But, 60 is a great age to reflect...some would even say that one that has reached 6 decades has the right to pontificate and speak with pompous authority.  So, since I did not do anything else significant to celebrate my milestone birthday, I am allowing myself the indulgence of writing (primarily for my grandson, Elie) these 21 Things I Know For Sure.

1.  Life will not always go the way you want it.  Deal with it!

2.  Stop trying to be perfect.  It will make you crazy and nobody even cares if you are perfect.

3.  If my dog doesn't like someone, I probably shouldn't either.

4.  You will regret the things you haven't done more than those you have.

5.  Do what you love....Love what you do....And be passionate about what you are doing!

6.  No one can change what has already happened.  Whatever is done is done and it is up to us whether we use the experience to learn.

7.  A home filled with music is a happy home.

8.  If you have an opinion or make a choice that is diametrically opposed to what most others think, the world will not end!  Be an independent thinker.

9.  True friends (ones that will go to the end of the earth for you and vice versa) are hard to come by and are quite few....so treasure them.  The rest are merely acquaintances.

10.  A good friend will bail you out of jail.  A great, true friend will be sitting next to you in the cell saying, "Damn, that was fun!"

11.  There will never be peace until everybody recognizes everybody else as their equal.  Prejudice, racism, bias and hate are the root of all evil.

12.  Focusing on the positive always trumps dwelling on the negative.

13.  This too, will pass!

14.  If you don't believe in yourself, no one else will.

15.  You are only as happy as your most unhappy child.

16.  Blood IS thicker than water.  Never underestimate the Power of Family.

17.  Grandchildren are your reward for raising great children.

18.  Love DOES conquer all!

19.  It is okay to cry.  Whether it is tears of joy, pride, or even sadness, tears only show that we are human feeling beings.  Crying is NOT a show of weakness.

20.  We are responsible for our own life.  And nobody else is.  There are those that assist us along the path but our success can never be left to anyone else.

21.  Life is short.  We should DO IT NOW!

And The Journey continues..........

Customer Service? Not anymore!

Since most of my career has been spent in the Retail business, I have some idea of what makes up good customer service.  The most important element of any seller-buyer relationship is communication...and since the seller is trying to sell and the buyer doesn't have to buy, the most important thing a seller can do is listen!  And once they have listened, it is up to the seller to, at least, address the concerns and needs of the buyer/customer.  Lately, I have found that the art of customer service is, for the most part, dead.

Sure, there are exceptions to this.  I have run across retailers, like Nordstrom's, that generally treat the customer with respect and honesty - they seem to embrace the concept of the customer always being right.  Others??  Not so much.....  There are retailers that think every customer is trying to rip them off and treat them that way...there are service companies that don't timely keep their appointments and there are restaurants that have no clue how to treat a customer.  I have had people make business appointments with me and just not show up - no calls, no excuses...just rudeness!

So, why do I feel compelled to write this now?  I have just come from shopping for an auto lease...and with the exception of one dealer (my friend), was constantly treated as if I am a total idiot and literally told that I needed to do business THEIR way!  I started off each session with the same instructions:  1. I know what I want.  2. I don't want to drive the car  3. I want to deal with the Sales Manager directly, because I don't have the patience nor the time to "play the game."  4. Do you have the car or can you get it and  5.What are the costs and terms for a 3 year lease?  I also tell them they have one shot at me, so make it there best shot.  I don't think I am being unreasonable, just thrifty with my time.

It amazes me that 3 of the dealers refused to even acknowledge what I laid out for them and started the meeting with "Let's go for a test drive."  When I refused, one of them told me that he couldn't quote me then!  Another one kept running back and forth to their manager and left me sitting at a desk for 30 minutes.  The third one kind of got what I was saying but said his sales manager wouldn't let him vary from their standard operating procedure....and until I got insistant would not even ask the sales manager to speak with me....and when he did finally come over to me, was rude and out of line.  Oh, and did I mention that the first one was the dealer I had leased the last car from and had been calling me daily to get me to come in for a new car?

I think a no hassle, let's do it the customer's way dealer would be a smash hit in just about any market.  I know that I would go out of my way to give him my business and recommend him to everybody!  Since the lease on the old car is up next week, I still need to do something.....My options come down to getting a car from my friend in West Palm Beach - which would be great if he sold the models Connie wants or get the car from a family member's dealership in Miami or give Connie my car and just start walking or bicycling everywhere!  Even that would be better than having to deal with this any longer!

And The Journey continues.......

Where Have All The Leaders Gone?

In the song, "Where Have All The Flowers Gone," the final verse asks, "when will we ever learn, when will we ever learn?"  The same can be said about our so-called national leaders and the disgusting public discourse of the day.  And although I lean to the left, I am talking about the void of real leaders on both sides of the aisle.  If there is one thing I can't stand in our supposed leaders,  it is hypocrisy...the other is utter stupidity.  Let's look at some of those "leaders"..........

First there is the joke of the day...Donald Trump!    Mr. Trump is deciding whether to run for President.  Just what we need, ANOTHER reality TV star polluting the landscape.   In 1987, Mr. Trump ran a full page advertisement in several newspapers criticizing the political establishment, then run by Ronald Reagan, stating "The World is laughing at America's politicians" and endorsing the Reform Party's book of policy which included an embrace of single-payer health care and plans for a one-time 14.25% net-worth tax on all Americans worth more than $10 million....the revenue would pay off the national debt!  Today, he says he is more serious than ever before yet his rhetoric revolves around the veracity of Obama's Birth Certificate, which has been verified by the State of Hawaii and a copy of which was shown last week on ABC News.  He goes on to claim that Obama's book, Dreams of My Father was secretly written by '60's radical, Bill Ayers.  But let's face it, all of these make for great sound bites and the American people don't really have the intelligence to go beyond sound bites.

Then there are those other Republican Presidential hopefuls....Sarah Palin and Sarah Palin redux, Michelle Bachman.  Together they have not put together a single idea or proposal that will help this country.  All they do is spout fear and negatives without so much as a single intelligent idea between the two of them.  Sarah won't run, though...she would have to take too much of a pay cut from her reality show and speaking engagements...but Michelle is ready to rock with some of her best selling lines:  "Not all cultures are created equal;" "I find it interesting that the swine flu broke out under another Democratic President, Jimmy Carter.  And I'm not blaming this on Obama, I just think it is an interesting coincidence;" "Gay marriage is probably the biggest issue that is impacting our State and our Nation in the last 30 years. I am not understating that:"  "If we took away the minimum wage- if conceivably it was gone-we could potentially virtually wipe out unemployment because we would be able to offer jobs at whatever level;" and my favorite..."And what a bizarre time we are in when a judge will say to little children  that you can't say the Pledge of Allegiance but you must learn that homosexuality is normal and you should try it." 

The there is Newt Gingrich...was Newt the one Alan Simpson, former Republican Senator from Wyoming was referring to when he said, "You're diddling your secretary while you're giving a speech on moral values?  Come on. Get off of it.   Senator Simpson also said of his Republican cohorts: "I'm not sticking with people who are homophobic, antiwomen."

Finally, there is the case of Mitt Romney.  I have had the pleasure of being a business associate of Mitt's.  I have often told others that Mitt is one of the smartest, most intellectually curious people that I have ever been around.  All of my business dealings with Mitt were marked with the highest degree of integrity and that has resulted in a high dose of respect for Mitt.   HOWEVER, I can't reconcile his bevy of altered positions on important issues.  He was pro-choice and anti-gun in order to get elected as Governor of Massachusetts.  His Massachusetts universal health care program complete with a mandate that individuals purchase insurance was signed into law by him in April, 2006.   I almost could have supported that Mitt...socially progressive yet fiscally conservative.  Now, in order to appeal to the base of the Republican Party, he has changed his stance on these and other social issues...which only goes to prove that Mitt will say anything to get elected, and for that, my respect for Mitt as a leader has all but disappeared.

And the Democratic side of the ledger is void of leaders too.  Nancy Pelosi?  What a joke.  Nancy is the one who said  "We have to pass the Health Care Bill so we can find out what's in it;" duh...aren't you suppose to know what's in it before you vote on it?  And one of my all time favorites:  "I believe in natural gas as a clean, cheap alternative to fossil fuels."  Hmmmm...I know that I am not the smartest guy in the world, but even I know that natural gas is a fossil fuel!  Sorry, Nancy, your 15 minutes are up...you are a dishonest political hack!

Joe Biden?  He is embracing the long-standing tradition of the Vice-President being totally irrelevant.  Are you still breathing, Joe?

I had high hopes for Barack Obama.  I believe him to be intelligent and that he truly wants to do what's right.  However, a leader?  Not so much.  A leader knows how to gain consensus...knows how to be decisive...knows the art of compromise...knows how to instill confidence in the people.  Mr. Obama has not demonstrated any of this. 

I think New York City Mayor, Michael Bloomberg shares my disgust for uber-partisan politics when he asked:  "When did success become a bad word in America?  When did coopertion of government become treason?  The new 'politics as usual' is making a mockery of our democracy and a mess of our country?"   Who is responsible for this mockery?  The Republicans?  Yes!  The Democrats?  Yes! The Tea Party? Yes! Yes!   Republican President, Dwight D. Eisenhower understood compromise:  "People talk about the middle of the road as though it were unacceptable.  Actually, all human problems, excepting morals, come into the gray area.  Things are not black and white.  There have to be compromises.....the middle of the road is all of the usable surface.  The extremes, right and left, are in the gutters."

When did we let the extreme fringes highjack our system of democracy?  In a recent editorial, former Republican Congressman, E. Clay Shaw said, "Democracy promotes and requires debate, but it is at its best when done with dignity and respect."  How do we, with a straight face, make an issue of Planned Parenthood funding (when it accounts for less than .00005% of our budget) a cause celebre for fiscal restraint instead of an attack on a woman's right to choose.  This was not a budget issue...it was a sound bite for the extreme right.  All the while we ignore the fact that our defense budget has more than doubled in 10 years and is now larger than the rest of the world's military budgets COMBINED.  Want to reduce spending?  End the wars that we should never have been a part of,  reduce global presence, cut the 17 intelligence agencies to just 2 or 3, quit funding unneeded equipment like the $400 billion being spent on F-35 fighters in Mr. Boehner's district and go after the big wastes in the budget.  But this won't happen, because the Military-Industrial complex is running the show!  And if any politician is really honest, then they will admit that we can't solve our debt problem by cost reduction only.  They all know that revenue also has to increase in order to reduce the deficit...but, tax increases or at the very least, tax reform, is a sound bite that spells trouble in getting themselves re-elected!

Years ago, I was fortunate to hear a speech by General Norman Schwarzkopf in which he told the story of his first tour of duty at the Pentagon.  He was a young officer assigned to one of the Generals and arrived for his first day of work as the General was leaving for an extended vacation.  As the General was leaving, he instructed his young aide in the tasks that needed to be completed before he returned.  Schwarzkopf had never done any of the things that were being asked of him, so he asked the General what he should do.  The General replied, "Do what's right" and Schwarzkopf kept those instructions at the heart of all his decisions going forward.   The problem with our so-called leaders is that they that they don't have the courage to DO WHAT'S RIGHT.  They only say and do what will give them the best sound bite that will further their political ambitions.

Where have all the leader's gone?  When will a real leader step forward and have the courage to do what's right? 

And The Journey continues...............................


**Footnote:  Some of the quotes came from an essay by John P. Hart, "Dialogues for civility in politics, government" in The Sun Sentinel, 4/24/2011

Dieting for Dummies

How come it is so easy to gain weight but so hard to take it off?  I have been on a diet for at least half of my life.   My best estimate of weight gained and lost over my lifetime is close to a thousand pounds.  It seems that it takes about 5 times longer to lose weight than it does to gain...and the older we get, the harder it is to lose. 

Over my lifetime, I have been on just about every diet imaginable...and they all work to some degree.  What they don't do is ingrain the idea of maintaining weight into our pleasure seeking, feeble minds!  To date, I have participated in the following:  Stillman's Water Diet, The Grapefruit Diet, NutriSystems, The South Beach Diet, The Zone diet, The 14 day Diet, the 10 Day Diet, Phen-Fen, Dr. "Feelgood's" Magic pills, Atkins high protein-low carb Diet, The Cookie Diet, A Nutritionist's Diet, Weight Watcher's, The Juice Fast, The Fast Fast and finally, Jenny Craig.  (I am sure that I have left some out!)  I have lost 40 to 50 pounds more times than I can count. 

We all know that exercise plays a major part in losing weight.  But recently there was a published report that concluded that too much exercise contributes to weight gain.  The theory is that with exercise, the body craves more calories so we overeat.  Then there are those that say that to lose weight you should increase your cardio exercise and not do any strength training.  Others say that the key is strength training and one should decrease cardio work. What is the right formula?  I guess if you break it down to its simplest form, the answer is to consume less calories than you burn each day.  But it is never a level playing field...if you have high metabolism, then you burn more calories during the normal course of your day...but I must have the metabolism of a turtle!!  I exercise everyday more than almost anybody I know and do not grossly overeat...you'd think I would not have a weight problem!   Must be the genes!!

Somone once said to me that they eat to live and I live to eat...not exactly true but I do love food.  I love gourmet food, I love good food, and I love crummy, bad for you food like diner fare, southern fried delicasies and other assorted goodies.  That doesn't mean I only eat that stuff.  I eat plenty of salads, veggies, fruit, fish, skinless chicken, ground turkey instead of beef, whole grains and the like....but it almost seems like it doen't matter what I eat.  And it seems to me that I eat about half the quantity that I ate as a much younger person.  But I still fight the weight problem everyday!

Presently, I am back on The Jenny Craig program....or what I call Dieting for Dummies.  Eat what they tell you to and you will lose weight.  It's when I start to make substitutions that things get tough.  For instance, an ounce of Scotch equals 2 fats...so I have to figure out what to cut out to accomodate an evening Scotch!  Do I miss the good stuff?  You bet...but the goal is back in sight and I will be back to High School Playing weight by my birthday!   And then I will eat whatever I damn well please ....so I can start the cycle all over again!

And The Journey continues....................................

The Real Story, Part 5

The first order of business was to hire a staff. We immediately had a need for a secretary/ Office manager and I hired Julie on the first or second day. Having never been involved in a start-up venture before, I was unaware of just how much of a start-up we were until I gave her the first task. The night before, I had written out three letters to be sent to potential suppliers...one to those people that Jack knew, one to those that I knew and a general industry-wide letter. I then marked up a Sporting goods directory with who were to get each letter and turned it over to Julie to execute. A few minutes later, she came back to my desk and asked, "um, what do I use to type these up on?" Uh, oh...we didn't even have a typewriter (this was before PC's took over). So, I sent her to Office Depot to buy a memory typewriter and thought that would resolve the problem. She arrived back with the typewriter and came back to my desk..."Where can I find the stationery?" Hmmm....we needed to sit down and make a list of all of the supplies that we needed to get rolling...Stationery, envelopes, general office supplies, business cards, copy machine, etc, etc, etc....yep we were REALLY starting from scratch! So, after putting Julie in charge of all of those details, I set out to hire a buying and marketing staff.

At the suggestion of Ann at Doner Advertising, I called Ellen (Brautigan) Stevens in Atlanta to come interview for the marketing manager position. I had worked with Ellen some years earlier in Atlanta and she had all of the knowledge and tools to set up the advertising function - especially the business side of the retail ad biz. It didn't hurt to know that she pined to move to Florida too!! So, with Ellen hired I continued the search for 3 or 4 Buyers. Realizing that we were creating a new kind of Sporting Goods environment, I wanted to hire Buyers from several retailing disciplines so that we could create our own culture - to hire from just the sporting goods arena would get us a culture of same ol', same ol'. So, I hired a diverse group...Jay from a Mass Merchant with Sporting Goods experience for hardlines, Joe from a small Sporting Goods Retailer for footwear, Kim from Burdine's Department Stores for Apparel and finally Dave for Fishing, Hunting, and Camping. We then added Debbie as an Assistant Buyer to handle the women's apparel. It must have been a pretty good crew, because nearly all of them (with the exception of Debbie who left to raise a family and Dave who left for family reasons) stayed, flourished and were promoted to even bigger roles over the years.

July 4th rolled around and with the initial staff in place, the computer system getting installed, the construction of the store commencing, we had only a short time to purchase the merchandise, develop the buying system, receive and price the goods and get the store open. By this time, it was becoming apparent that Dick Carter was going to be a short termer....once he got the store constructed, it was apparent that Jack was going to bring in one of his old cronies from Herman's to be VP of Store Operations. Dick's vision of the store was more of a warehouse view and we had spent considerable time and effort to convince the Industry that we were NOT a warehouse...but a large Mega Store with carpet under the apparel and a stack 'em high, let 'em fly merchandising philosophy for hardlines. Our trademark open blue ceiling came about because we found that it was going to cost an extra $20,000 to paint the existing ceiling white....and all of the first 30 or more stores ended up with that blue ceiling! Our low price image was going to be reinforced by "not to be beat prices" on commodities such as tennis balls, and golf balls and well positioned opportunity buys like the $10 all leather tennis shoes and the $9.99 wall of sweat clothes featured during the Grand Opening.

Jack and I continued to battle on many issues. As a matter of fact, after we sold the Company to Kmart in 1990 we held a dinner to celebrate the sale. At that dinner, Mitt Romney gave a terrific speech about the founding of the Company and addressed each of the principals. When he came to me, Mitt said, "The Board could never understand how Roy accomplished all that he did. ..Roy would propose merchandising initiatives and Jack would reject them..Roy would propose Advertising initiatives, and Jack would reject them...and then we realized how he pushed all of the initiatives through..." and then he presented me with a pair of heavy duty knee pads! (I still have those knee pads hanging on a wall in my office!). I like to believe that the tensions only helped the creative process and got us the best solutions!

Nonetheless, we DID accomplish a hell of a lot in a short amount of time. The multi-faceted advertising campaign utilizing billboards, television and radio reinforced our commitment to "Sell the sizzle...not the steak!" That is, we sold the concept of the store as the ultimate Sporting Goods destination rather than just advertising items at rock bottom prices. The television advertising featuring comic Louie Anderson as the very antithesis of an athlete was a resounding success. (An interesting tidbit is that the scripts were written with John Candy as the star...when he proved to be wildly too expensive, we decided to use little know Louie Anderson who was to become well know shortly thereafter!) The radio ads were breakthrough advertising and the billboards with a double entendre twist were a big hit. After working 7 days a week including many 15 to 18 hour days, we finally managed to get the first store open. Grand Opening week featured many star athletes including Sugar Ray Leonard, Dan Marino, Dwight Gooden, Tim Raines, and Reggie Jackson among others. The lines of people wrapped around the store and spilled outside onto the sidewalk.

When we started this venture, we projected the first store to do an annualized volume of around $8.7 million. People in the Industry thought we had lost our minds...the average Sporting Goods Retailer did around $1.7 million in volume...no way were we going to open a store doing over 5 times that! In the first year of operation, the flagship The Sports Authority Store did $10.5 million in volume...we were a success at the store level. Now we had to get a bunch of stores open to leverage the corporate costs we had put in place to grow the Company!

That's how it all started! We continued to grow, sold the Company in March, 1990, to Kmart Corporation (that is a whole other story), and really started a growth spurt. I along with the other 3 executives signed 2 year contracts with KMart....50% of our buyout was put into escrow until the end of 2 years. I actually stayed on for 3 years after the buyout and departed in April of 1993 to found KidSource...a baby megastore concept.

Those 7 years ( I count from the time we first started working on the Sports Newco project in 1986!) were some of the most exciting of my business career. I am indebted to Jory for that first phone call, to Scott for his encouragement and counsel and to Jack for the experience..but I am most indebted to all of those that worked with us to make it happen.

And The Journey continues........

The Real Story, Part 4

What a position I had put myself in! I had agreed to join "Sports Newco" but had just told my boss that I was committed to my present job. Now I had to tell him that I was, in fact, leaving...after spending considerable time and effort convincing him of my loyalty. The apprehension was worse than the reality, though. My boss was disappointed but understanding and, much to my astonishment, supportive. Having recently uprooted his family to take the position of CEO at Child World, he understood the dynamic of having to "go for the brass ring." Gil's only request was that I stay for 3 to 4 weeks to help through the annual budgeting process and bow out of the management incentive trip to Key West. Done and done!

Meanwhile, there was work to be done for Sports Newco. First and foremost was the task of coming up with a name for the Company. There were many names floated...."Jack's" (it is obvious who that one came from), "Balls" "SportCity" and "AllSport" were all being considered. It was obvious to me that we needed help in naming the Company, so I contacted an Advertising Agency that specialized in Retail...W.B.Doner...out of Detroti, MI. I had positive experiences working with Doner at two other Companies. It didn't hurt any that one of my mentors from early in my career was Senior Vice President in charge of the Florida office! Ann Bergstrom had been VP of Advertising at Richway Stores and had taught me the ins and outs of retail advertising. So, I put them on the task of naming the Company.

A meeting was scheduled at Doner's offices. As Jack and I were still working out our notices, we flew in from multiple locations. Present at the meeting were me and Jack as well as representatives from the Investment group....Jory from Maurice Sporting Goods, Scott from Blair, Adam Kirsch from Bain Capital and Chip Ruth from Marquette. The night before the meeting, Ann and I talked and she informed me that they had not come up with a better name than "AllSport" and were going to make a presentation to us utilizing that name. However, Ann greeted our long white limo as it pulled up to the front of Doner's headquarters, hugged me and whispered in my ear "Forget our conversation of last night...surprise name coming!" Later, I was berated by Jack for daring to hug Ann...I was never sure if he really thought this was such an "unprofessional" act or if he was bothered by the impression that my relationship with the agency would preclude him from some measure of control.

As we entered the conference room, I noticed presentation books laid out at each seat...the title was "AllSport." Once the meeting started, it was explained that the creative group had worked on the name for some time but had not come up with a name other than the one that I had originally suggested..."AllSport." However, on a trip to New York the previous day, one of the members of the creative team had seen a sign at the airport...."New York Port Authority" and the name "The Sports Authority" immediately came to mind. No sooner did the words get out of the presenter's mouth that Jack slapped the table and declared, "Absolutely NOT...over my dead body will we have a name with that many letters." I, along with the others present, were stunned. The name said it all...it was a strong statement of what the store actually stood for. As we polled the room, all except Jack liked the name....he accused me of liking it only because "you hired these guys." He discounted any other opinions because "you are not retailers...you don't understand the cost of making the signs for the store with that many letters!" The discussion went on for several hours....Jack began to wear down and he had come to a realization that the rest of the room was not going to back down. So, he asked for a compromise...let's name the Company "AllSport" and have as it's tagline..."The Sports Authority." More discussion led to a tentative name of "The Sports Authority." It only became permanent after Jack tried it out on some other associates and friends of his and they all endorsed the name!

Jack and I met several times over the next few weeks...mainly as a two man team visiting key suppliers to tell them of our plans and to garner support for what, at the time, was such a radical departure from traditional Sporting Goods Retailing. We had developed a presentation whereby we laid out our plans...Huge Assortments, Everyday "Fair" Pricing, and Superior Customer Service in a MegaStore environment. Frankly, the idea of a large Sporting Goods store frightened many of the suppliers. We had to assure them that we would never lead the market down in price and would treat their merchandise with the respect that it (they believed) such richly deserved. In reality, they were scared that their present customers... Herman's, Oshman's and Foot Locker... would not be please that they had added The Sports Authority to the roster! We garnered assurances from Reebok, Adidas, New Balance, Wilson and many others during our road trip. But we made a terrible mistake....we didn't travel to Nike in Oregon....Nike had just begun to grow and it seemed on the surface that they would not be a problem. Oh, but we were wrong!!!

We had my daughter's Bat Mitzvah in Massachusetts the first week of June, 1987. Having sold the house, Connie and I bought a new one in Boca Raton over Memorial Day weekend and I set out for Florida the week after the Bat Mitzvah....the family was left behind to pack up and join me the first week in July. Arriving the first day at our temporary office ...an old Radio Shack storefront in the nearly defunct Lauderdale Lakes Mall...I found a skeleton crew consisting of the CFO, Chet Howard; the VP of Store construction, Dick Carter; and Kelly Conway, the IT manager. Jack would show up later in the week.

Having signed an employment agreement, I was required to purchase my founder's stock and promptly wrote a check for $21,428....which for me at the time, was a huge amount of money. I later found out that Jack was not required to invest any of his own money in the deal....his ownership participation was handled as a "loan" from the Company. My naivete and general lack of experience in these sort of deals caused me to invest my capital and yet receive significantly less stock than others that invested zero of their own capital! Live and learn!

Coming in part 5.....hiring the staff, laying out the store, buying the merchandise, and getting the store open!

And The Journey continues............................

The Real Story, Part 3

The Winter of 1987 was a cold and snowy one in New England. The first snow storm was in November and it seemed that we would not see our front yard again until June! In late March, I had a meeting with the CEO of Child World where I was given my performance review and a maximum bonus for 1986's performance. At this meeting, I again assured my boss that I was there to stay and had spent the last couple of months working furiously to demonstrate my dedication and loyalty to the Company. The meeting ended after 5:00 and when I returned to my office, my secretary had left for the weekend but had left me a note in the center of my desk. "Call Scott Meadow...IMPORTANT! He has called you 3 times!" I had not talked to Scott since I told him that I was out of the deal in early February and had assumed that the Sporting Goods project (if it was still alive) had proceeded in another direction.

So, I returned Scott's call. No small talk...Scott got right to the point: "We want you to come down to Newark tomorrow morning to meet the guy that is going to be the CEO of the Sporting Goods project." "No thanks," I replied...."I told you that I am out of the deal." It was like he didn't even hear me..." The flight is at 9 AM and Adam Kirsch from Bain Capital will meet you at the airport and fly with you. The meeting is at the Holiday Inn at the Newark airport. You will be back in time for dinner." Hmmmm. After much cajoling, I finally agreed to spend my Saturday in Newark. What could it hurt? It will give me the opportunity to tell them face to face that I was no longer in the deal!

On the flight to Newark, Adam told me how excited they were to be a part of the deal and how he was looking forward to working with me.....all good, if I was actually going to be in the deal! I walked into the conference room in Newark in time to hear Jack Smith pontificate about the value of promotional retailing versus Everyday Low Price Retailing. As he stood in front of the room in his satin Starter 76er's jacket, his silver hair and dark tan signaling a guy that had spent a lot of time on the golf course, he motioned to me and said "Well, this guy is suppose to be a merchant...look at these 2 Ads and tell me which one is best." I looked at the Herman's Ad and then glanced at an Ad for All American Sports Warehouse in California and I gave my honest opinion. "They both suck!" And THAT was my formal introduction to Jack Smith, the future President and CEO of The Sports Authority.

What I later learned was that the VC's had actually approached another executive at Herman's Sporting Goods and was turned down. This executive thought the idea was so outlandish that he told the COO of Herman's about the overture and joked about how foolish the deal was. Jack absorbed the information and called Scott Meadow to admonish him for approaching one of his executives and ultimately threw his own hat in the ring!

The meeting continued in a contentious tone throughout the day. We argued about the pricing policies, the marketing message, the size of the assortments, the layout of the store and any and every other detail of the proposed store. Jack was the COO of Herman's Sporting Goods and he had the Sporting Goods Industry background...but I knew Big Box retail and the challenges and opportunities incumbent in a 40,000 square foot retail store. Jack's background was Operations and Real Estate...mine covered the Merchandising and Marketing side of the business. At one point in the meeting, it became so heated that I left the meeting room and approached Jory Katlin. "Do you really think this is the guy to lead this thing?" I queried. "Why not give me a chance to be the CEO?" "Because this is the guy that can get in financed." Jory retorted. I was unusually quiet for the rest of the meeting. Game, set, match!

Returning home that evening, I was still not convinced that I wanted to be a part of the deal and was not even sure if Jack wanted me to be part of the deal. But he called on Sunday night with an offer....a really bad offer that would require me to take a deep cut in salary but included equity participation in the venture. I turned him down on the spot. No way was I going to take THAT deep of a cut. We went back and forth for a week, with Scott Meadow pulling the strings.

Finally, we came to an agreement...but now I had other BIG problems! How do I tell my boss that I was going to renege on my commitment that I was staying at Child World? How do we break the news to the kids that we were, once again, moving? Am I totally out of my mind leaving a secure position for one so tenuous? After receiving some not so glowing references from former co-workers of Jack's, could I actually have a successful working relationship with him?

These answers and more to come in Part 4.

And The Journey continues............