By Arthur M. Blank
Read Good Company. You will glean the kind of insights that will put you in the good company of good companies.
The Author
Arthur Blank is a keen and successful businessman with a tried and tested philosophy: Purpose and profits need to get married. His book, Good Company shares the outworking of that philosophy in his many business enterprises. Blank writes: "The marriage of purpose and profit . . . informs my 'family of businesses' today, which includes Home Depot, two professional sports teams, Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the largest golf retail chain in the world, his charitable foundation, and three Montana ranches (12).
The Book:
"Purpose and profits can -- and should -- beautifully coexist." Home Depot is proof of that says founder Arthur Blank in his book, Good Company.
This book tells the story of how I set out to do just that--to use the values that built The Home Depot to shape and lead a variety of organizations, including a long-established but struggling National Football League (NFL) team, a brand-new stadium, a startup Major League Soccer team, a near-bankrupt retail chain, a guest ranch, a nonprofit retreat center, and a family foundation (5).
What is a "good company?" It is a community, a place where customers are treated like honored guests. Blanks builds his thesis on the word, "company," which means fellowship or companionship (8). He precedes to chronicle the impact of that philosophy in ten highly interesting, personal, and fast-paced chapters.
Recommendation:
I highly recommend Good Company. It showcases the impact of a values-based organization with implications for folks in both for-profit and non-profit sectors. It is the insight of a business and community leader with five decades of proven experience. We see more successes than failures, but I never got the impression Blank was shouting, "Look at me." His worldview is "once and done" (Epilogue) and "change comes from the inside-out" (c.f. 214). These points are true in many respects, but not ultimately so; still, the wisdom and insights were worth every turn of the page. Good Company is not a MBA education, but it is certainly an education about life, hard work, and how to grow a very good company, one measured by people, profits, and the bottom line.
Key concepts:
1. Triple bottom line: People, planet, profits (10).
2. Changing culture: Changing and updating the stores' merchandise was an enormous task in and of itself, but changing and updating the stores' cultures proved to be a far greater challenge. It's hard to change a tire when the car is already driving down the road at fifty miles per hour. Arthur Blank on acquiring Bowater Home Centers (52).
3. On speed to scale: There is nothing to be gained by trying to grow faster than you can train your people to understand and live your values. We were expanding too fast (53).
4. On culture: The company culture is like a campfire. The leader must tend to the values (embers) to help keep those values alive in the hearts of the associates (30). Also, see page 164 on his "bottom line" when it comes to adhering to their values.
5. On hiring: What Charles Lazarus said to Arthur Blank shortly after Home Depot went public: "The hardest moments are when you have to look at a person who helped you get to $1 billion and realize that person can't help you get to $10 billion" (60). Overhire. These employees make better decisions and have a capacity to grow with the role."
6. On ambiguity: After buying the Falcons, Blank flew home with the team from one of their games. He spent the time asking their opinions which helped him see the demoralized players wanted to play before a packed-out stadium. About how to fill the stadium, Blank writes, "I didn't yet know how we were going to get there, but we'd figure that out" (65). He was confident because he had listened to the players and in listening determined his primary mandate as a new owner: having a sold-out stadium (65).
7. On listening: Listen to others, but don't assume what worked "there" will work everywhere (75). See also page 157 where Blank discusses the differences between football and futbol and the implications for how they designed the team locker rooms and also how they set up the concession stands to serve beer -- fans have significantly different tastes.
8. Advice to entrepreneurs: Take a long-term approach, but don't bankrupt your company in the short term. Therefore, when raising capital, "Take what you think you need, and double it--this will allow you to make the right choices for the long-term good of the customer, which [will] also happen to be the right decisions for the long-term good of your company" (88).
9. On parenting: On pages 50-51, Blank describes the way his children have caught the "serve our customers" mindset and the road each of them has taken by building a solid business foundation "by starting on the ground floor."
10. On leadership: Leaders see around corners. "Innovation, flexibility, creativity--these are the lifeblood of any successful business. If you don't see around corners, change with the times, and take the risk to try new things, you won't last long" (43).
11. On risk: Ross Perot turned down Arthur Blank and Bernie Marcus when they approached him for an initial $2 million investment for 70% share of Home Depot, which would be worth more than a hundred billion today (94).
12. On adaptation: Blanks intended to prioritize the importance of soccer and the launch of the Atlanta United soccer team by having them play the first game in the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium, but construction setbacks changed that. He writes, "So, we scrambled to adapt. Because that's what you do with a startup. Anyone who's founded a company will tell you that setbacks are the rule, not the exception" (159).
13. On innovation: Innovation means to continually push, to refuse "autopilot." "I always tell our associates: If the car is just driving safely and smoothly down the road, you're not innovating. We want the wheels to wobble--a little. Of course, we don't want the wheels to fall off, but unless you feel as though they might, you're probably taking things too slowly and too safely" (166).
14. Staying connected to customers: Leaders may not be able to "work the line," "but there are always ways for a leader to stay connected to the customer and to the act of service, and in so doing to set an example for associates and communicate that everyone is in it together. These opportunities are priceless and should be sought out whenever possible" (189).
Quotes worth noting :
1. Service: I don't know what your destiny will be. . . . But I know one thing: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve. Albert Schweitzer
2. Customer loyalty: Customers will never love a company until the employees love it first. Simon Sinek, Leaders Eat Last (New York: Portfolio, 2017, 222).
3. Employee relations: Blank stresses the importance of "putting people first" as a necessary means of providing purpose. To those who feel this is too "touchy-feely, he quotes Annie Dillard: "How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives" (The Writing Life (New York: Harper Perennial, 2013, 32). And then he writes, "If this all seems too touchy-feely, let me assure you that it's damn good business sense." Particularly, it leads to employee retention (57).
4. Relationships: "People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." (Maya Angelou, 79).
4. Wisdom: "It is the province of knowledge to speak. And it is the privilege of wisdom to listen." Oliver Wendell Holmes (63).
5. Putting people first: "It doesn't matter if you're a for-profit or a nonprofit: putting people first and listening to what they want and need is the key to success" (143).
6. Impact: "A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives." Jackie Robinson (219).
7. Impact: "I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good, therefore, that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer nor neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again." Quoted by Molly Blank, his mother. No attribution ( 226).