Freedom, Inc_ - Brian M. Carney [86]
“No way,” answered Chase. So his interviewers concluded that he was not aggressive enough.
Bill Gore saw something in Chase that the insurance salesmen didn’t. Chase would prove him right in spades.
All organizations, from start-ups to Fortune 100 companies, have business issues that require attention. Most formulate a response by asking, “Which manager should we assign to take care of the situation?”
Not liberated companies. Wary of managers who—perhaps—will grab the helm, “take care of the situation,” but forget to satisfy the needs of the people who are part and parcel of a sustainable solution, liberated companies creatively redefine the problem as: “How can we help a person concerned with a business situation to take the lead in it naturally?”
THE COMING OF THE NATURAL LEADERS
Harry Quadracci, Quad/Graphics’ CEO, and his brother Tom—a cofounder and Harry’s eventual successor—also understood how to nourish natural leadership. Quad/Graphics was started in 1971 as a small, Pewaukee, Wisconsin-based magazine printer. After a slow first decade, the company began to grow quickly. To ensure high-quality printing, it invented sophisticated equipment of its own over the years. Rather than keep its innovations to itself, Quad set up its QuadTech division to sell this equipment, even to its competitors. Harry Quadracci believed in the benefits of feeling your competition breathing down your neck.
Tom Quadracci served as QuadTech’s first CEO. In the early 1990s, Karl Fritchen was Tom’s young manager of Asia-Pacific sales operations. Fritchen’s leadership opportunity came in Japan, where QuadTech had always worked with local distributors to sell their products. One day, on the eve of a trade show, Fritchen discovered in a local English-language newspaper that their distributor had gone bankrupt. The show’s organizers promptly closed the QuadTech booth with yellow tape, fearing nonpayment. The first thing Fritchen did was wire money from the United States to the show organizers so he could gain access to the booth. Then, during the weeklong show, Fritchen met with different companies willing to represent QuadTech printing equipment in Japan. But he was not convinced. So Fritchen picked up the phone and called Tom Quadracci, his boss, in Pewaukee, Wisconsin.9
“Tom, I think we should put our own office in here,” he said. “What happened with our distributor happened to a lot of people caught financing projects when the bubble burst and they were unable to pay. I think that others may be in the same situation.” Fritchen then added one more argument against local distributors: “Here, if they sell one of our products to Mitsubishi, they can’t sell it to Toshiba. So if you link up with one, you’re missing a whole other part of the market.”
“OK,” replied Tom. “Speak to a couple of business consultants, and find out what’s involved.”
Fritchen did, and every single consultant he talked to advised him against establishing an independent distribution network in Japan. Fritchen put together a report, sent it back to Pewaukee, and called his CEO again to debrief.
“What do you think?” asked Tom Quadracci.
“I still think we should start up our own office,” replied Fritchen. “I know that all the data says the opposite of speaking directly to our customers. But I’m convinced that they’ll support us. We should do this. We’ve got a great reputation of Quad/Graphics knowing the print market.”
“Hang on a minute,” said Tom Quadracci, and put Fritchen on hold. A minute later, he said, “Karl, I’ve got Harry on the phone. I want you to outline to Harry what you just told me.”
Being in sales for the past four years and therefore constantly on the road, Fritchen had never met Harry Quadracci. Yet he repeated his arguments in exactly the same way.
“OK, sounds like a good idea,” said Harry Quadracci. “I want you to stay in Japan, find office space, hire staff, and then when you’re all done, come back to the board and explain why we did this.”
“He didn’t say, ‘Put together a plan, present it to the board, get approval,