October 15, 2010
Message to Garcia: 7/14/2008
I’d like to recognize at the outset that this message might dissuade some, and inspire others. My hope is that the inspired outweigh the dissuaded, and it becomes the tipping point for a culture shift that I believe is critical for us to achieve our goals we identified in the RED session together.
Mark and I spent the day with Tom Searcy today. The three of us were working with Kyle Priest (wild card from the McFarland RED session) in his role as the “Contract CMO” for TD Industries. ($350m company in Dallas, TX) We’re positioning Crown as THE provider for digital marketing and technology for TDI, and Kyle is interested in bringing us on board.
After Kyle left, Mark and I went to lunch with Tom. Lunch turned into Tom grilling us on where our bottlenecks were or would be as the sales we’re having success with (booked sales) turns into revenue and needs to be delivered upon. I expressed my desire for an organization that is both “empowered” and “aligned”. In particular, one that achieves and exceeds results without significant direction or more importantly, excuses — one that leads vs. follows. In typical Tom fashion, he asked: “what’s stopping you from achieving this”? We discussed pockets of our culture as being more “serve and wait” and look for approval and direction to accomplish results. I wasn’t sure whether it was because of the culture we’ve driven, or the people we have, or some combination of both.
We spent some considerable time discussing this and Tom eventually asked if we’ve ever read “A Message to Garcia”. He said it was an essay written in the late 1800’s about the type of person that “just gets it done”. After I dropped Tom off at the airport today, I found the essay. It is attached here. I’ve read it 3 times already tonight, asked my wife to read it, and will make sure my kids internalize it as they grow up.
I believe that we have more than our fair share of “Rowans” at Crown. Are you one of them? Would you “Carry a message to Garcia?”
Richard
Mark and I spent the day with Tom Searcy today. The three of us were working with Kyle Priest (wild card from the McFarland RED session) in his role as the “Contract CMO” for TD Industries. ($350m company in Dallas, TX) We’re positioning Crown as THE provider for digital marketing and technology for TDI, and Kyle is interested in bringing us on board.
After Kyle left, Mark and I went to lunch with Tom. Lunch turned into Tom grilling us on where our bottlenecks were or would be as the sales we’re having success with (booked sales) turns into revenue and needs to be delivered upon. I expressed my desire for an organization that is both “empowered” and “aligned”. In particular, one that achieves and exceeds results without significant direction or more importantly, excuses — one that leads vs. follows. In typical Tom fashion, he asked: “what’s stopping you from achieving this”? We discussed pockets of our culture as being more “serve and wait” and look for approval and direction to accomplish results. I wasn’t sure whether it was because of the culture we’ve driven, or the people we have, or some combination of both.
We spent some considerable time discussing this and Tom eventually asked if we’ve ever read “A Message to Garcia”. He said it was an essay written in the late 1800’s about the type of person that “just gets it done”. After I dropped Tom off at the airport today, I found the essay. It is attached here. I’ve read it 3 times already tonight, asked my wife to read it, and will make sure my kids internalize it as they grow up.
I believe that we have more than our fair share of “Rowans” at Crown. Are you one of them? Would you “Carry a message to Garcia?”
Richard