Why success is much like snowflakes, sort of
By Ray Allegrezza, Editor in chief -- Furniture Today, December 23, 2001
Leave it to me to be in balmy Florida and be thinking about snowflakes. Actually, I was thinking about the correlation between snowflakes and individual approaches to success in our industry. In each case, no two are identical.
During our Leadership Conference, I got to chat with a lot of the industry's movers and shakers. What struck me was that each person had his or her own strategy for success.
Perhaps at no time was that more obvious than with our Leader of the Year recipients, Kevin and Keith Koenig of City Furniture and John Bassett of Vaughn Bassett.
Keith Koenig, who accepted our Retailer of the Year award on behalf of City and his brother Kevin, who died last month, succeeded in part with the help of imported goods.
To give you an idea of how rapidly City Furniture has grown, Keith and Kevin were not even traditional furniture retailers until the mid 1990s. They got their start in 1971 as Waterbed City, a tiny store started by Kevin after college. Today, City is ranked No. 37 on Furniture/Today's list of Top 100 furniture stores.
John Bassett, head of case goods maker Vaughn Bassett, meanwhile, has hitched his star to a predominantly made-in-America story. And thanks to his vision and can-do attitude, he is proof positive that a domestic manufacturer can survive in a market increasingly affected by products crafted offshore.
While each of our leaders has opted for different paths, they have a number of things in common. Both bring an obvious passion to their business.
When John Bassett needed help in battling imports, he called a meeting of his key suppliers. He told them: "I can't be world class if my suppliers are not… . We are in this thing together and can win if we all raise the bar."
John got buy-in. I'm not surprised. Heck, after listening to John's rousing acceptance speech, I felt like a soldier being exhorted into battle by Gen. Patton. I have the feeling that on John's team, you don't just feel obligated to play hard, you want to play hard and win.
While Keith may appear to be less intense, walk City's newest store with him and watch his eyes light up as he explains how it in essence is a living tribute to Kevin, who found the land, negotiated the deal and did much of the behind-the-scenes work.
But don't let the store's pretty face fool you. The Koenigs have earned a reputation for their ability to run back-room operations so smoothly as to make them nearly invisible.
And if you know anything about this business, you know back-room issues are more than a bear. They are like the proverbial tiger. You either ride the tiger or it rides you — right out of business.
In the course of writing this, I've amended my thinking a bit. While I still contend that no two snowflakes are identical, there are some marked similarities in the characteristics shared by our industry's leaders.
Congratulations to City Furniture and Vaughn Bassett. Each is blessed with strong, visionary leaders at the helm.
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