Hendricks Dies

"...keeping you great" Ten Minutes with the Growth Guy

HEADLINES: (warning -- big company stories today -- plus Vitamin C IV cancer update)

Ken Hendricks Passes Away -- the world lost a great entrepreneur the end of December. The co-founder of Beloit, WI-based ABC Supply with his wife Diane, they built this roofing, siding, and window distribution company into one of the largest private firms in the U.S. in 25 years with revenues of $3 billion last year. I first heard Ken speak at Jack Stack's "Gathering of Games" many years ago and I marveled at his fanatical focus on customers; his extensive training and empowerment of employees; and his embracing of financial literacy for all his employees. Anyone in a basic trades or distribution business should study and benchmark Ken's company -- just visit one of his local stores and talk to the employees. Here's a link to some latest news -- take five minutes and read the "Ken Hendricks Profile" -- it will inspire you! Ironically, he died falling from the roof of a construction project at his home. He was 66 years old. Tragic.
 
Speaking of Customer Service -- you have to take 2 minutes and read the last couple paragraphs of Jeff Jarvis's blog   (which became a BusinessWeek article) on what Mark Jarvis and Michael Dell are now doing and thinking re: blogs, wikis, and customer feedback. Here's an excerpt -- "Mark Jarvis, Dell's new chief marketing officer, acknowledges that customers are now influenced by peers, not marketers (emphasis mine): 'The challenge is how you create a network of advocates for your business.... By listening to our customers, that is actually the most perfect form of marketing you could have.'"
 
And Michael Dell's Thoughts? -- Jeff Jarvis continues "He predicts that customer relationships will 'continue to be more intimate' and response times faster. He even spoke of 'cocreation of products and services,' a radical notion from a big company. 'And I'm sure there's a lot of things that I can't even imagine but our customers can imagine, Dell says, sounding darned near like a blogger himself. 'A company this size is not going to be about a couple of people coming up with ideas. It's going to be about millions of people and harnessing the power of those ideas.' Once you can hear them." What are you doing to engage customers in coming up with ideas!?
 
I Need Your Suggestions -- if you could hear anyone speak at our fall Growth Summit, who would it be?  Have you read an amazing book? Email me at vharnish@gazelles.com or simply reply to this insight.
 
Whole Foods Gives Away Groceries When Computer System Goes Down -- Mike Jagger, CEO of Provident Security  alerted me to this neat story over the holidays of amazing customer service. The West Hartford store's cash registers went on the blink during a snowstorm so the store manager made a quick decision to just let the customers leave with their groceries without checking out until the systems could be fixed -- all in all, it cost them about $4000 in food and garnered them full page stories that cost more than that! And remember, customers are now influenced by peers, not marketers!!
 
More IV Vitamin C Cancer Research -- Ben Hoffman, CEO of CityHunt, which creates corporate scavenger hunts to increase the "experience" factor of events, knows of my advocacy of Vitamin C IVs (my entire extended family and many of my staff now get them -- knock on wood, no illness over the holidays, which is when I would normally "let down"). He sent me this link to the latest university to get the go ahead from the FDA to move forward with clinical trials -- Thomas Jefferson University, over the next ten weeks, will give high-dose intravenous Vitamin C to 20 non-Hodgkin's lymphoma patients who have failed standard treatments and have a life expectancy of less than a year. And Dr. Jeanne Driscoll, University of Kansas, will release shortly her results from Vitamin C IVs in the treatment of late stage ovarian cancer. In essence, Vitamin C given intravenously, acts like chemo, except it only kills cancer cells, not all cells. And it does it through a simple mechanism -- it creates hydrogen peroxide at the site of the cancer cell, releasing electrons that kill the cell! How simple. But can drug companies make money off something so simple -- that's the barrier.

January 22, Nashville; February 5 Indianapolis -- I'm heading to both cities to lead one-day Rockefeller Habits workshops. Open to the public, Nashville is being hosted by the local EO chapter (Clay Blevins, CEO of Comfort Supply, is my host).  Indianapolis is being hosted by Ray Hilbert, founder of Truth at Work, a Christian Leadership organization.  Information and registration for Nashville; information and registration  for Indianapolis.