Marilyn Carlson Nelson,
Carlson Cos. Inc.:
www.howweleadmatters.com
The legend is well-known in Minnesota: Curt Carlson borrowed $55 and started the Gold Bond Stamp Co. in 1938. The trading stamp concept, designed to stimulate sales and loyalty for food stores, swept the nation. His daughter, Marilyn Carlson Nelson, became CEO in 1998, and today is chairwoman of the hotel, restaurant, travel and marketing enterprise called Carlson. The author of “How we Lead Matters: Reflections on a Life of Leadership,” she told Upsize what she learned from her father, who died in 1999, and the crisis that tested the culture of the modern meritocracy she worked to create.
“My father used to say the harder you work the luckier you got. I think persistence as well as luck do play a role, particularly for entrepreneurs.
Sometimes you’re lucky, that a product hits the right time in the market. But for my Dad what I admired so much was his real persistence. Up until really the last couple of years of his life, in his 80s, he still was out selling. Never did anyone stop to chat with him on the street, that he didn’t turn it into a sales opportunity. He was a natural persistent salesperson.
In the book I mention the Carlson credo. There were two or three lessons that he institutionalized. From the time he started the company, he ended the meeting with an expression that goes like this (and we’ve had to revise it to include both genders):
The success of this company begins and ends in the hearts and minds of the men in this room.
He didn’t accept excuses that someone else was bigger, or what have you. He held himself and his colleagues accountable.
A second aphorism he shared when he made me CEO, which is:
Whatever you do, do with integrity; Wherever you go, go as a leader,
Whomever you serve, serve with caring;
Whatever you dream or innovate, dream with your all;
And never EVER give up.
The final one, which I think characterized my Dad, was just never giving up. So many entrepreneurs today if they’re not successful in five years think, ‘Oh well this wasn’t a good idea.’ Curt almost lost the company numerous times, but he just didn’t give up. He would just regroup, really try to assess honestly what had worked, what wasn’t working, make that next call and make the next call, and try to attract the right people, through all the vicissitudes.
Think: He started the company in the 1930s and now we could face a prolonged period of a soft market. If anyone’s thinking, ‘How can we make it through this period?’ We actually started in the 30s, made it through the Second World War, and all the times that followed. Just because we’re large now doesn’t mean there weren’t times that we weren’t strapped for cash, that we didn’t have to develop long-term relationships with our banks.
He just was tenacious about sticking it out. But remember, he never indulged. I mean, when we were little girls my sister and I weren’t allowed to have dessert unless it came with the meal. We were given lessons in compound returns. So everything became an object lesson.
We saw the company as a sibling, and I’m sure many of the entrepreneurs have young people who can identify with that. As we were growing up the company was growing up.
What was a turning point for the company? I find that to be a difficult question, because over time we changed the culture from command and control to a much more collaborative and inclusive culture, and we started to see results from that.
I think there was a moment at 9/11, that I can define as a turning point. I took over as CEO in 1998. So it wasn’t that long afterward, in 2001, that the culture was really tested.
At 9/11 when I heard the towers had been struck and I arrived at Carlson Companies, it was just sort of pandemonium. No one knew if there was going to be an all-out attack on the United States, schools were closing, it was bordering on panic. Everyone felt an impending threat. And I called for a telephonic bridge, it’s a story I tell in the book.
We had people from around the country on the call and people from Europe and Asia, and we reminded everyone of the credo. We said, if you make decisions based on the credo, I won’t criticize the results of those decisions, and the priorities will be to take care of your employees first, your customers second.
Then take care of your competitors’ customers, which might seem unusual but I realized since we’re in the hospitality business we were in a unique position to provide a range of services.
We had to call on the culture. The final step was, then do anything we can for the community. I think that was a moment where somehow Carlsonians, with no direction from me, just did such extraordinary things. They turned the ballroom of a beautiful Regent hotel into a relief station because it was right near the towers. They were providing food and shelter for the policemen and the firemen. TGI Friday’s was providing food for some of the people who were stranded. And in Paris they were putting beds in hotel ballrooms, so that travelers that couldn’t get back could stay.
People were creative, people were imaginative, people were empowered. And after that there was a certain pride. I think we knew it was possible that after the crisis was over that they might not have jobs, but no one asked about that. I think it’s a wonderful metaphor in a way for individuals, because it was certainly true of the organization. When we gave of ourselves it nurtured us in a very interesting way. That nurturing made us feel proud of each other, and bonded us, and it gave us great energy and a sense of promise.
Sometimes when you’re a practitioner, you try to have a third eye that’s watching you and saying, this is good, let’s build on it. But there’s something in the team beginning to understand that we’re stronger together, that we could accommodate for each others’ weaknesses and strengths. I think to some extent telling the stories of things we’ve done together is important. I think organizations need their history. You don’t have to be a large organization to have history.
My Dad did this all the time, like his credo. He didn’t say this once, he said it every year of his life. That was one of the things I was doing with my book for my family.
Finding ways to not only see your life in its various aspects and compartments but to integrate the compartments, and step back and say, how can I use this insight, whether it comes in the family or as a global leader.
One of the powerful distinguishing factors of the United States is our ability to start companies. I was asked to go to France and speak about women’s entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship in general. Even though it’s a French word, the fact is France has not been particularly friendly to entrepreneurs. The culture doesn’t even have some of the kinds of motivational phrases that we have.
We have: If at first you don’t succeed, try again. We talk about Babe Ruth and how many times he struck out. That’s our culture. We just get back at it. We may even take for granted the fact that this country loves its entrepreneurs and needs to continue to support them.
That means we need the banks to get back loaning again, we need people willing to risk and start companies, we need large companies to make sure their supply chain is open and creative so that these entrepreneurial individuals can get access.”
– As told to Beth Ewen
