Today’s Chapter is based on the book “Just Call Me Fred: 101 Thoughts on People, Business and Life in General” by Fred Meijer, the American billionaire who was the former Chairman of the Meijer supermarket chain.
Here’s what I have learned:
The Power of People
“Four Seasons is the sum of its people—many, many good people.”
— Isadore Sharp
In his book, Fred Meijer highlights the critical role that people and relationships play in the success of any business. In fact, he firmly believed that treating others with dignity and recognizing them as an individuals is key to driving organisational success. As he once said, “People don’t want to be managed, they want to be coached.”
Notably, he was known to emphasize on the significance of addressing each of his employees by name. As he once explained, "Addressing each other by name is important. Each of us likes to be recognized as an individual."
"I sincerely believe that treating others with dignity and sharing our goals and problems has helped a group of common people go far beyond our wildest dreams."
— Fred Meijer
Meijer believes that everyone wants to feel important. By fostering an environment where individuals feel valued and appreciated, he has been able to bring out the best in his team members. As he explains, "We really have two jobs as management: to bring out the best in people in order to help them succeed and to satisfy all our customers so they will want to come back and trade with us."
Furthermore, Meijer believes that it is a manager’s responsibility to encourage teamwork among his employees. As he once said, "We have succeeded by pulling together, sharing our dreams and our worries, having respect for each other and by enjoying life." This collaborative spirit has been instrumental in Meijer's success, as he recognizes that it takes a collective effort to achieve greatness.
As a matter of fact, Meijer explains the importance of collaboration by mentioning that he would not have succeeded without surrounding himself with talented people. As he explains, "I get help every day from other people. They help me make better decisions and keep me from making stupid ones." Hence why it is primordial to foster an environment where everyone feels valued and can contribute their unique talents and perspectives to a company.
Finally, Meijer mentions that maintaining good relationships with people is absolutely crucial to any business success, whether they are employees, customers or suppliers. As such, he argues that being able to treat others with dignity and respect is an absolute must-have quality to succeed in the long-term as an entrepreneur.
"Our business is like a three-legged milk stool. One leg is the customer, the second is our suppliers and the third is our team members. If you take away one leg, you fall over."
— Fred Meijer
This reminds me of what we have learned from S. Truett Cathy, the founder of Chick-fil-A, who once said, “Businesses don't succeed or fail. People do.” Cathy at Chick-fil-A also believed that the business is merely a reflection of the character of its leadership. He believed that the key to his success at Chick-fil-A was to partner with great franchise operators.
To do so, Cathy believed that the leadership team first had to be great people in order to attract great franchise operators. As Charlie Munger once said, "How to find a good spouse? The best single way is to deserve a good spouse...To get what you want, you have to deserve what you want.”
On this line of thought, Cathy once said, “We gradually become a part of those people we associate with, whether good or bad. If you want to be a great preacher, you associate with other great preachers, and something rubs off on you. If you want to be a great businessman, you associate with other great businessmen, and something rubs off on you.”
”Our franchise Operators determine the success of the chain. They're the ones meeting customers and selling chicken sandwiches.”
— S. Truett Cathy
This is a great reminder of how important it is to work with A players. As Steve Jobs once said, “I’ve built a lot of my success on finding these truly gifted people, and not settling for “B” and “C” players, but really going for the “A” players. And I found something… I found that when you get enough “A” players together, when you go through the incredible work to find these “A” players, they really like working with each other. Because most have never had the chance to do that before. And they don’t work with “B” and “C” players, so it’s self-policing. They only want to hire “A” players. So you build these pockets of “A” players and it just propagates.”
“Never be so foolish as not to surround yourself with people who are smarter than you.”
— Andrew Carnegie
The Power of Learning
“I constantly see people rise in life who are not the smartest, sometimes not even the most diligent, but they are learning machines. They go to bed every night a little wiser than they were when they got up and boy does that help, particularly when you have a long run ahead of you.”
— Charlie Munger
As we have seen previously, Andy Grove, the former CEO of Intel, once said, "I believe in the value of paranoia. Business success contains the seeds of its own destruction." As a matter of fact, Grove believes that in order to succeed in business, it is important to be focused on staying ahead of the competition and to anticipate the next big shift in the industry.
Grove mentions that the main reason for the downfall of companies is complacency. The risk comes from the fact that when companies are doing well, the leadership teams can become complacent as they fail to recognize the warning signs that the industry is slowly changing beneath their feet. Grove saw this dynamic play out time and again, as once-dominant players in the tech sector found their fortunes suddenly in free fall.
Grove illustrates this point by recounting the experiences of his own company, Intel, as it navigated a strategic inflection point in the computer industry, where there are often changes to the rules of the game. He observes that "sometimes these rules change—often in very significant ways. Yet there is no flashing sign that heralds these rule changes. They creep up on you as they crept up on us, without warning."
His solution was to encourage a guardian attitude among his management team, where vigilance against potential threats was the default mindset. He once said, "I believe that the prime responsibility of a manager is to guard constantly against other people's attacks and to inculcate this guardian attitude in the people under his or her management."
Similarly, Meijer also recognized that in an ever-changing business landscape, companies must be willing to continuously evolve and adapt to stay relevant and competitive. He explains that "Everything now being done is going to be done differently, and it's going to be done better. And if we don't do it, our competitors will."
As such, Meijer encourages business leaders to be open to new ideas and to embrace change. He often encouraged his senior managers to listen and to cultivate new ideas. As he once said, "Cultivate ideas. If they work, give credit. If they don't work, take the blame yourself." This willingness to experiment and learn from failures was a key driver of Meijer's success.
"Whether we live or die as a company depends on how we meet the challenges of change. Whether or not we meet these challenges depends on if we enjoy them."
— Fred Meijer
This concept of continuous learning and adapting to new changes can also be reflected in the way Fred Meijer lived personally. In fact, he believed it was important for one to to learn from mistakes, especially those of others. As he once said, "A wise man learns from his mistakes. However, it's faster and less costly to learn from someone else's mistakes." This belief in the value of learning from experience is a hallmark of Meijer's approach to life.
As a matter of fact, Meijer encourages to live life in humility and to live life to the fullest and always be a student. As he explains, "The more you know, the more you absolutely know you don't know." He encourages individuals to approach life with a curious and open mind, always seeking to expand their knowledge and understanding. This dedication to lifelong learning has undoubtedly contributed to Meijer's success and the success of his company.
"Life is better understood backward. The problem is, you have to live it forwards."
— Fred Meijer
This concept of learning from mistakes of others reminds me of the concept of “Standing on the Shoulders of Giants”. As Isaac Newton once said, “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulder of giants.” Many entrepreneurs succeeded by learning from others. A great example of this is Sam Walton.
Sam Walton was a proponent of learning from others and copying what they had mastered. He believed in studying successful companies and then implementing their strategies within his own business. For example, he famously visited various retail stores to observe their operations and implemented successful ideas in Walmart stores.
Notably, Walton learned a lot from Sol Price, the founder of FedMart. He once said, “I guess I've stolen—I actually prefer the word “borrowed"—as many ideas from Sol Price as from anybody else in the business.... I really liked Sol's FedMart name so I latched right on to Wal-Mart.”
Walton was also famous for bringing a yellow legalpad at all-time in order to write down notes while visiting other retail stores. During family road trips, he would always make some time to visit other retail stores along the way. This philosophy of learning from others was a key factor in the success of Walmart.
“I believe in the disciple of mastering the best that other people have ever figured out. I don’t believe in just sitting down and trying to dream it all up yourself. Nobody’s that smart.”
— Charlie Munger
The Power of Integrity
“We look for three things when we hire people. We look for intelligence, we look for initiative or energy, and we look for integrity. And if they don’t have the latter, the first two will kill you, because if you’re going to get someone without integrity, you want them lazy and dumb.”
— Warren Buffett
Underlying Fred Meijer’s approach to business was a deep commitment to integrity and ethical decision-making. As a matter of fact, he firmly believed that keeping one’s word and admitting mistakes were essential to building trust and maintaining long-term success in business.
Meijer explains that in the old days, one’s word and handshake were all that were necessary in cementing deals. As such, in order to keep a good business reputation, he encourages us to “Keep your word at all costs.”
Another trait that shows integrity is the ability to admit being wrong. This willingness to take responsibility for mistakes and learn from them is a key factor to Meijer’s commitment to continuous improvement and ethical behaviour. As he once said, "When you're wrong, admit it."
"Live up to your promises. If you can't deliver, don't promise."
— Fred Meijer
This commitment to integrity and ethics reminds me of the importance of keeping a good reputation in business. As Warren Buffett once said, "Lose money for the firm, and I will be understanding. Lose a shred of reputation for the firm, and I will be ruthless.” Similarly, we have previously learned that Henry J. Heinz worked extremely hard in order to maintain the goodwill of his company as he believed it was the key to his success.
In fact, he explains that goodwill is a company’s most important capital. He mentions that “there is only one way to get good will. It is something that you get only by giving it.” As such, Heinz understood that if he wanted customers to recognize “Heinz” as a trustable brand name, he had to seek to produce the highest quality product.
As a matter of fact, based on Heinz’s character, it would be unthinkable for him to sell products that he did not believe were the best quality. Heinz believed it is better to work for a better business rather than a bigger business; meaning producing better products and making people better. As he once said, “we are working for success, and not for money. The money part will take care of itself.”
"Quality is to a product what character is to a man.”
— Henry J. Heinz
Furthermore, when making transactions with his customers, Henry J. Heinz always made sure to fulfill more than what was required on the letter of contract signed. As a matter of fact, “He wanted the consumer to get the worth of every penny that he paid, and he wanted the dealer to profit, not only in cash, but in holding a satisfied customer.”
While it is easy to think short-term when dealing with customers, Heinz saw the long-term reward of treating customers well. He believed it was his duty as a seller to protect his customers from lack of knowledge and to make sure that his customers receive the largest return on its investment. In fact, for Heinz, it was bad ethics and policy to sell something a man doesn’t need or more than what he needs.
As such, long before others, Heinz often provided merchandising services to his customers. As a manufacturer, he believed he had the duty to help merchants to clear off their shelves of the Heinz products he sold to them. As E.D. McCafferty mentions, “To Mr. Heinz any business transaction in which all parties did not benefit equitably was not only wrong as practical business, but morally wrong.
“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”
— Warren E. Buffett
Beyond the Book
Read "The Importance of Working With “A” Players" by Farnam Street
Read "Become A Learning Machine" by Farnam Street
Read "Standing on the Shoulders of Giants" by Farnam Street
Read "Warren Buffett: The Three Things I Look For in a Person" by Farnam Street
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