“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”
Thomas A. Edison
In 1986, W. Michael Blumenthal was the chairman of Burroughs Corporation. At the time, Burroughs was a leader in information technology products and services. Blumenthal had served as the 64th Secretary of the Treasury in the Carter administration, and in 1986 his signature was still on many of the dollar bills in our pockets. In his role as Burroughs’ chairman, from time to time he flew over to the various countries in the Asia Pacific region from the firm’s “World Headquarters” in Detroit, Michigan. The refueling spot for the corporate jet on the Chairman’s trips was Anchorage, Alaska.
In the mid-80s, I was a young general manager responsible for Burroughs’ Alaska office. Upon my arrival at my new station from Fresno, California, I found the Alaska office struggling. In a very short period of time, the office had suffered multiple branch leadership transitions. The team was in the midst of a highly visible pre-litigious project at Anchorage Police Department. The FDIC and the FSLIC were rapidly closing many Alaska banks, credit unions, and savings and loans in the aftermath of the oil price collapse and the S&L crisis. Unfortunately, many of these financial institutions were Burroughs’ clients.
Burroughs’ Anchorage office had a colorful history that had typecast the branch. In its not-too-distant past, the office endured a front-page news embezzlement scandal. The embezzlement conviction landed the former Burroughs’ branch manager and others in jail. Notwithstanding Alaska’s remarkable communities, unforgettable people, and stunning scenic beauty, within the corporation the Burroughs Alaska branch was rumored to be a “career Siberia.”
Despite its past and present challenges, at 29 years old I jumped at the Alaska office promotion simply because of my love of both business and outdoor adventure. Not surprisingly, a rumor persisted that I had been sent to Alaska as a comeuppance for a political miscalculation. The story was that I had angered my district manager in Sacramento. My branch manager and I had taken a CSU Fresno grant request that I had designed to our DM. When the he rejected the idea, I sent the university’s proposal over the DM’s head to executives in our regional office in Irvine, CA, and failed to mention the rejection. There at the Burroughs Western Region office, the university grant request for a $600,000 4th GL computer lab was enthusiastically approved under the assumption that it had first been vetted and approved by the District. Supposedly my DM vowed there would be consequences. Although the reality was he had long before forgiven my indiscretion, the story persisted — Fargo was sent to a perpetually troubled branch, a career dead-end…the backwater of Burroughs Corporation.
To some in Burroughs, the Anchorage station may not have been the fast track, but then the Burroughs chairman had a Pacific Rim initiative. W. Michael Blumenthal traveled via the corporate jet to Asia-Pac countries with Reto Braun, the corporate officer responsible for that region. To the corporate executives, the reason for the stop in Anchorage was practical: refuel, perhaps arrange a quick tour into the countryside, find a good restaurant for the traveling party, or discover a good deli to keep the corporate jet well stocked for the flight to Japan. To me their stopovers presented an opportunity of a lifetime.
One day Blumenthal’s executive assistant, Curt Girod called me at my office in Anchorage. Curt was the rising star from Burroughs’ Western Region that had been promoted to the Office of the Chairman. He informed me that the Chairman, his wife Barbara Bennett, and Reto Braun would like to spend the day and evening in Anchorage. Curt requested that I set up a quick tour of the countryside, and he extended a dinner invitation at the Hotel Captain Cook. At one point during the tour of the wilderness around Anchorage, Braun and Blumenthal marveled at the peaks of the Chugach mountain range out of Eagle River and Palmer. Blumenthal wondered aloud what would cause mountain climbers to seek those summits. Then he answered his own question and said, “I probably understand the drive to reach the top more than most. After all, isn’t that what one tries to do with a company in an industry.”
That night at the Hotel Captain Cook, one of many interesting questions Blumenthal asked me during dinner was, “First, what do you consider the greatest success of your young career — and then what has been your greatest mistake?” Boy did that question cause my heart to skip a beat. What a question for a 29 year-old coming from a man who had escaped Nazi persecution in Germany by moving with his family to China in 1939, survived the trauma of war in China, then reached the heights of academia, government, and corporate leadership at Crown Cork, the U.S. Treasury, Bendix, and now Burroughs. After what seemed a century-long pause for thought, I told him I could answer it all with one story. Then I shared my views of the influence campus relationships could have on the business community and market opportunities, and provided a few quick details of my 4th GL computer laboratory initiative at CSU Fresno. He interjected a few comments about his collaborations with the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. Then I shared the lessons I learned on approval process, and not getting too far out in front of my management lines of support with unendorsed ideas.
Blumenthal thought carefully about my comments and then to my relief said, “That was a wonderful story.” He advised me to never worry too much about failing or upsetting others when demonstrating initiative. He said the biggest problem he saw in young leaders was a lack of initiative, and therefore he was not apt to criticize too much initiative. He said the lab at the University of Michigan had many similarities, and he liked the idea. He advised me to continue to be creative and aggressive in my new role in Alaska. And Reto Braun then added, “Of course be creative; keep your feet moving all the time. Burroughs doesn’t need field managers we need initiative leaders in the field.” And then he leaned forward and added, “However…next time I would suggest you find the words to gain your district manager’s support!” And then he patted me on the shoulder and laughed, and everyone laughed along with him.
The chairman’s visit was a stroke of fortune, and a good way to end my first year in a branch leadership role. For a brief time, while the visit was being planned, I felt like the most connected guy in the Western Region of Burroughs. It seemed my district and regional leadership paid special attention and that the attention lingered for many weeks after the visit by Blumenthal and his staff. The PR gave me the confidence to be creative. One initiative that made a difference was a timely $400,000 computer lab grant for the University Alaska Fairbank’s School of Management. The grant request was expertly crafted by the very able Mike Rice, dean of UAF’s School of Management, and Marv Andresen an award winning SOM professor. The request received the enthusiastic approval of Burroughs’ district, region and World Headquarters, and was approved just in time to affect the School of Management’s first AACSB accreditation. The chairman’s office was sent a copy of the grant request, and Burroughs World Headquarters sent the executive responsible for higher education, Sidney Adkins, Ph.D., to dedicate the UAF computer laboratory. Needless to say, the university leadership and faculty, and Dr. Adkins knew how to cut a ribbon and made it a day and evening to remember.
I was subsequently named “Alaska Business Leader of the Year” by the UAF’s School of Management; an honor I will always cherish. Undoubtedly the recognition was influenced by this example of campus and community relations. The lab initiative provided priceless PR value, and the university relations opened numerous new market segments. A significant turnaround soon came with Alaska’s improving economy.
By early 1988, Burroughs and Sperry merged to form Unisys. The Alaska branch’s performance earned it the recognition as one of the top offices in the company. We received a plaque and a stand-alone trophy that represented our team’s excellence – one of only five branches in the country to be recognized at that level by the Unisys Chairman and CEO, W. Michael Blumenthal. On the letter signed by the Chairman there were a few handwritten lines near his signature regarding his memories of the visit to Alaska and our dinner and conversation at the Hotel Captain Cook.
The cache these successes produced was translated into a new business. I left Unisys, and Jon Peacock and I became partners in a firm being carved out of an acquisition by GCI, an Alaska-based long distance carrier, and video and data communication service leader. We gained a workable loan package from the state’s largest bank, and Jon and I and a team of 43 associates headed off into our business future. Ten years later, our firm had grown to seven offices covering Alaska to Arizona, and the Bay area to the mid-Atlantic. Our revenues grew to a quarter of a billion, and our initial team of 43 employees expanded to over 1150 associates strong. At that point our firm was acquired by a Fortune 500 company.
Alaska remains a combination of remarkable communities, unforgettable people, and stunning scenic beauty. It was because of the people I met there and worked with that the so-called “career Siberia” instead became my career breakthrough.
©2009 Ancala Equity Partners / Timothy P. Fargo all rights reserved
Next: A quick glimpse at the end-game, so we can then “begin with the end in mind”.
Tags: Business, Entrepreneur, Marketing, Motivation, Sales, Start-ups, Technology
