The Man Who Changed Everything

Notes from a conversation with the greatest leader I’ve ever known…

Richard Erickson believed in me long before I believed in myself. That made a critical difference in the lives of many.

Nearly everyone has someone who impacted him or her in a powerful way. This story is about a man who made a life-changing difference, not only for me, but also for countless others he encountered throughout his life. Great leaders are rare. I’m not sure they think a lot about leading. Usually, they are just getting the job done the best way the know how; by keeping their eye on the prize, and helping others rise. They understand how people tick, and they live their lives with purpose. The rest just seems to happen for them. What an incredible gift!

A young man named Richard P. Erickson, returning from the army, began working for his brother as a school photographer in Michigan. He later became a successful, territory manager in Findlay, Ohio. National School Studios was a thriving little school picture company, based in Minneapolis in the 1970s. Founded in 1936, Eldon Rothgeb and Bruce Reinecker, had done a remarkable job giving birth to their enterprise. Eldy handled the sales force and Bruce took care of production.

Through a war and poor economic conditions, they navigated fearlessly, and assembled a team of ‘young guns’ to expand outwardly from Minneapolis into other states. As you might expect, they were growing faster than they could seamlessly handle. They were both colorful characters, and were having the time of their lives.

In 1972, Eldon Rothgeb passed away in Palm Springs. Shaken by his untimely death, the top performing territory managers were worried about the future of the company. Bruce Reinecker was also concerned. So much so that he asked Richard Erickson to move his family from Ohio to Minnesota and take over sales management responsibilities.

One of Richard’s final duties in Ohio was to hire the seasonal photography crew. I was working in my father’s body shop, fixing a car for a guy named John, who happened to work for Richard. It came up in conversation that I knew photography, and before you know it, I was putting on my only leisure suit, cleaning the grime from my hands and putting my portfolio together.

Richard lived with his family on the North end of town and his office was in the basement of his home. John met me at the door and introduced me to Nancy Erickson, who offered me something to drink. To this day, I remember the kindness of her smile. A chair was across from Richard’s desk, he stood up and shook my hand as John made the introduction, “Dick, this is Mike Christman, and he would like to be a school photographer for us”. I remember his stature, his deep voice, and his bigger-than-life presence. We both had hair then, as I recall. I sat down with my portfolio in my lap, and “Dick” began to ask some questions. Half an hour later, he turned to John and said, “Well, he can talk. Do you want to give him a try?”

John responded affirmatively, and Dick offered me a job; “We’ll give you a try this fall for $125 per week, you pay your own gas and lunches. If you have to buy lunch for a customer, we’ll pay you back. We’ll need you until around Thanksgiving, and if you can sell, we may be able to keep you on.” I said, “Thank you very much, but don’t you want to see my portfolio.” To which he replied, “Oh no, we don’t need to see that. We’ll teach you what you need to know about school pictures.” To this day, I have saved it, in tact. It wasn’t really all that good. The good lord has a way of protecting us from ourselves. That day, I became “The Lucky One”.

I didn’t see much of Richard Erickson for the remainder of the fall, but for some reason, his image was front-of-mind every day. Maybe because he had a way about him that made people feel important. Or perhaps he was ever-present because every time I entered a school parking lot, someone would come out to greet me with a smile, see that I wasn’t him, and say, “Where’s Dick?”. To which I would respond, “I’ll be your photographer today”. They were less than thrilled. One time, on a very snowy day in Toledo, I saw the school custodian waiting at 6:30 a.m. to help carry the equipment in the back door. I was thrilled for the help. When he saw I wasn’t Dick Erickson, he closed the door and went inside. I was determined that next year, people would be saying, “Where’s Mike”.

Long story short, I learned to sell, had fun, made life-long friends, and kept the job. A career was there for the taking. It was simply a matter of how much do I want it, how hard will I work, and can I learn from mistakes. Richard kept watch from a distance and provided incremental challenges and opportunities along the way. In the absence of self-confidence, sometimes you need someone else to believe in you. That’s what he did for me. He trusted me to do a good job, didn’t look over my shoulder, and I was committed to not let him down. That philosophy worked out pretty well, at the end of the day.

He didn’t fully understand his impact upon so many people who trusted his lead. He was just doing his job and we were doing ours. As a result, we built an amazing company, and “Lifetouch” became a household name.

Thirty-five years later, having just retired, I was thrilled to have lunch with The Great One. He would never want anyone to call him that, and is most likely wincing in disapproval right now. What followed will forever be priceless to me. In casual conversation, he simply and concisely defined the essence of leadership.

It was a beautiful, Minnesota day in August 2007, and I had just officially retired. My family is living the dream, and I wanted to thank the man who made it possible. We were to meet at the Sofitel in Bloomington, and I was nervous about seeing him again. I can’t really explain why. It was like I had reverted into the young kid he hired so many years ago. He was the greatest leader I have ever known personally, and I felt a need to thank him for taking a chance on me so many years ago. Our journey was one of pride and passion, and on this day we were reminiscing over lunch.

As he entered the building, he didn’t see me behind him. He was talking with the doorman as if they were old friends. “Rocky,” he said, “How’s your family?” The doorman answered and beamed with pride. I smiled, remembering the confident smile Richard brought to work every day. He celebrated people; all people; and he never put himself above another person, regardless of their role in life. He would walk through our production facility every day, greeting and thanking people. He didn’t do this for effect, but rather, as a part of his character.

He noticed me and with a grin said, “There’s Mikey – What are you thinking? You’re too young to retire and we still need all the help we can get.” I half-smiled and replied, “It’s just my time.” We exchanged pleasantries and caught up on issues of health, family, economics, and weather. Those are apparently the things retired people talk about.

We sat in the lobby for an hour or so before having lunch and he was very candid as he walked me through his journey at Lifetouch, the little school picture company that grew 20% per year for twenty years and became the nation’s largest employee-owned ESOP. His eyes sparkled as he remembered the early days, people gone by, and challenges conquered.

When I told him I wanted to write about his leadership, he asked, “Why do you want to do that?” I told him I was studying leadership and considered him to be world-class. He was visibly uncomfortable. He said, “You’re retired now. Wouldn’t you rather go fishing?” I told him I had interviewed people who worked with him, and wanted to share a summary of what they had to say. He agreed to humor me. When I finished he seemed grateful for the kind words, and still a bit uncomfortable. He had managed to provide leadership for decades without putting the spotlight on himself, and he preferred it that way.

Simply stated, Richard Erickson is a humble man who commands a presence that makes people want to stand in line to shake his hand. When he spoke in the general session of national sales meetings, people have commented that they felt like he was talking just to them. They were nodding about what he wanted them to do next and they couldn’t wait to get started. No one wanted to let him down.

Highlights from lunch:

RPE
“What do you want to know? We can talk more over lunch.

MC
What was the hardest part about leaving behind what you had built in Ohio and taking on a new role at corporate headquarters?

RPE
It took a while to completely understand my role, and to realize that I wasn’t one of the boys any more. I mean, I was but I wasn’t. I had the experience, but I wasn’t part of the peer group anymore. It took a while to understand that.

MC
But your experience in the territory gave you some credibility going in, right?

RPE
Well sure. I think the part that gave me credibility was that the people believed that even if they disagreed with me, they knew I gave it the best judgment I could, based on my experience from the field. Now you’ve got production and finance responsibilities because it’s all connected. So right away, I had a lot more responsibility than my title called for. It all had to be pulled together. Production didn’t want to talk to the field, didn’t want to talk to finance . . . and that just took a long time to get sorted out. So it took awhile for me to make the adjustment and to realize that if I don’t do it now, it isn’t going to get done.

MC
Were you ever worried that the job was too big, or that you didn’t have enough experience at the time?

RPE
Of course! It’s like when I got married. All of a sudden it wasn’t just me anymore. When I was single if I had a shirt on my back and didn’t have a plug nickel it was okay, but now it was different. You have a wife and a kid and you have to grow into that. The same was true for the company. The responsibility was overwhelming at first. The company wasn’t going to go much further unless some significant changes took place. So, we got to work on it. We found some key people and involved them in the right things, and one day at a time, we got stronger. But a lot of people had some doubts. Doubts about Bruce. Doubts about me. They just didn’t know if we could do it. Especially some of the bigger operators.

MC
Back then; people did a lot of things to the beat of their own drum, right? Like Harold Orth, Lauren Johnson, Vern Benmark . . .

RPE
(Laughs) Absolutely! Vern was a piece of work. If there was a rule, he would break it . . . . . . Which was actually good . . . . . I mean, “I usually found that the people who were my biggest headaches were my best teachers”.

MC
You may have just summed up in one sentence what I value most about your leadership. I think most of today’s leaders are pretty quick to remove their biggest headaches. Not many willfully follow your logic.

RPE
(Laughs again) Yea – I guess so. But the guys would think these things up, and if you listened to them, you might say, that seems kind of logical. After all, we all wanted the same things. We wanted to serve the customer, make a profit, and get more customers.

MC
Why do you think so many people today are afraid of the changes we face?

RPE
Change is always scary and you have to work through those things. It’s always easier if you have common goals and interests, and if you just listen to each other.
The thing that gets me is why people think we are just now facing change. We have been doing things right and left since the beginning.

MC
What are some of the most important changes you remember building the company?

RPE
Pre-pay, Select-a-pack, the Micro Z cameras were all in the name of differentiating ourselves and increasing our efficiencies. And they all involved the pain and suffering that comes with change. But you work through those things. It’s a part of growing up.

MC
I remember all of those changes very well. And you are right; there was pain and there was gain. Select-a-pack gave us the ability offer choice, raise our averages, and still offer a low price. If I recall, you used to say that the price of school pictures should never be more than a carton of cigarettes and a case of beer.

RPE
You really remember that stuff? Well, that’s right. But I think we’ve kind of gotten away from the cheap seats these days. Which may have been a mistake.

MC
People say that at one point you were the last man standing who wanted to go forward with the Micro Z camera project. They say that you kept it alive while pretty much everyone else wanted to pack it in. How did you do that?

RPE
It was a huge opportunity for us to establish a point of difference. Even John Reid (VP of Sales) wanted to kill the project. He said, “I don’t think we should have these cameras. They create too many problems in the field.” I told him we are going to have these cameras and they are going to separate us from the competition. We sent cameras out, they broke, we got them back, we fixed them, and little by little we figured it out. And it did become a strong point of difference for us.

MC
If you listen to what people say about you, in particular that you didn’t use “buzzwords”, that’s a big deal. Today, the latest book or buzzword is given sanction and treated as the new silver bullet. You had a “no silver bullet” style. You just seemed to treat people well, give them direction, and trust them to do their jobs . . . . regardless of their role. It is one of the things that I respect about you and try to emulate. You have a common-sense way of looking at things. If there truly was magic in your leadership, and there was; it had to be the way people felt and how much they were willing to give as a result of that feeling. Just like the way Rocky felt when you took time to talk to him this morning.

RPE
Thank you for that. Isn’t he a nice guy? A lot of people forget to notice the person that opens your door, or parks your car, or serves you food, or works on your toilet . . . you know? . . . These are real people. They have thoughts; they have worries and concerns; They are people like everyone else. I mean, who the hell do some people think they are? . . . so special that they can’t take a moment. You know, that probably was my basic premise to the whole thing . . . respecting people. And being trustworthy. I tried never to go back on my word, and that made me very careful about what I would promise. If things didn’t work out so well, I would take the blame and move on. I think that’s how you have to do it. Respecting people.

MC
Do you still believe this is a relationship business, or has it gone beyond that?

RPE
Of course it is. You are going to have problems with customers. It’s going to happen. If you’ve got one, fix it the right way and you’ve probably got friend for life. People forget that. Your customers have to be your friends. They have to like you.

MC
As we grow into yet another phase of our company, the change seems overwhelming to many people. Perhaps it’s because people are no longer clear about the vision. You know? Where we are headed from here? Does the company still value me? That kind of thinking isn’t necessarily productive. It would appear that we have a lot of work to do around organizational trust.

RPE
Yes we do. Mike, you know when I came into this business it was an entrepreneurial company that had almost gone beyond its creators. It was operating, but it wasn’t going to go much farther. Most companies never get started. They don’t want to be born. Those that do almost never get past the entrepreneurial stage; and it has to go to the next phase – and it doesn’t want to do that. Some things change, you know. Then you go through the building phase; and if you go too far, things begin to fall apart – and then you need someone to get things organized again.
And so now we are nearing the next phase, and we are working hard to get the leadership that we need. You just can’t grow it internally fast enough to make it work. We have to get this part right to get beyond this phase. We’ve got to take it to the next generation.

MC
Are you thinking e-commerce and the next generation consumer? Are you concerned that we will remain relevant to the consumer?

RPE
All that stuff – It doesn’t just happen by talking about it. You really have to commit and stay with it. It takes organization, leadership, and knowledge; all working together. So we all go through our cycles, at the end of which if you do it correctly, you just keep doing it again and again. It doesn’t matter if you are in a territory, a division, a department, or a corporation. That is just a matter of scale. To remain relevant to the customer, we just have to know what they want and how they want it; and then find a way to do it profitably at a price they can afford. I know it isn’t always that simple – but it is what it is.

MC
As a parting thought, I want to thank you for the opportunity thirty-five years ago, and all of the leadership over the years. You were my mentor, and I am better from knowing you. And thank you also from my family. We are retiring comfortably because of the work you; Bruce, Elroy, and others did to make this company employee owned.

RPE
That worked out pretty good for all of us, didn’t it? Well, you’re welcome, and thank you for all that you did to help us grow. We’ve all done something together we can all be very proud of.

I thought about our lunch for the remainder of the week, and I still think about it. No matter what adventures come next, I will always give thanks for being blessed with the opportunity to be on Richard Erickson’s team.

Favorite Quotes:

I was a new territory manager in 1974, trying to build a school picture business out of my garage. I had never managed anything and wasn’t sure I could rise to the opportunity he had presented. I said to him, “I’m not sure I know how to be a territory manager. I’m doing the best I can, but it seems to be getting the best of me.” He replied, . . .

“It’s really not that complicated. You keep the customers you have, and you go out and get more. Every day. In that order.”

This later became sort of a company mantra, and it is a perfect example of how he was able to simplify complex problems into something you could get your arms around. He somehow turned fear into confidence with a word or two. From that moment forward, our goals in the territory were focused on business retention and sales growth. If it didn’t impact one of those two things, we didn’t need to do it.

Another favorite was how he used to thank us in advance for what we were about to do:

“We just keep growing and growing. It’s amazing! I keep looking at the sales growth and I can’t thank you enough. At this rate we will be the world’s leading company in no time.”

He didn’t try to eliminate challenges. He looked for the opportunity in them. That’s why he embraced some of the unconventional behavior in his field organization. As long as it was done with integrity, and in the spirit of winning, he respected innovation, even if it was unsolicited. And most often it was unsolicited!

“I usually found that the people who were my biggest headaches were my best teachers.”

When the internal sales growth engine was beginning to lose steam:

“Momentum is a wonderful thing when you’re on the way up. Not so much on the way down. Companies that do not grow eventually die. I see us being strong for generations to come.”
His humility remains one of his greatest qualities.

The Anatomy of a Leader

Richard P. Erickson, Chairman of the Board, (retired): Lifetouch, Inc.

• Instrumental in growing and shaping the company into the world market leader.
• Experienced 20% growth for twenty years fueled by internal sales growth, product and systems innovation, and production efficiencies, leading to record profits and competitor acquisitions.
• Led efforts to turn the company over to its employees via the creation of America’s largest privately held 100% ESOP corporation.
• Created key partnerships and aligned the company with educator associations
• Respected by all who know him as an extraordinary leader with a down to earth style, centered on respecting people – all people.
• A common-sense leader with an exemplary record of fairness.

Those who worked with him and know him best had this to say:

• Humble Beginnings
• Grass Roots Experience
• Keen Sense of People and What Makes Them Tick
• Simplified, Common Sense Approach
• Asked Tough Questions – Expected Good Answers
• Empowered Others
• Bolstered Confidence and Commitment
• Gave Expectations – Not Orders
• Valued People
• Lived and Worked with Integrity
• Approachable
• Solid Core Values and Beliefs
• Determined
• Visionary
• Compassionate
• High Credibility
• Clarity in Purpose
• Consistent
• Integrity (Honest – Trustworthy – Fair)
• Praised publicly – Criticized privately
• Communicator – Keeps it simple and focused
• Care’s About What’s Right (More than Who’s Right)
• Gratitude / Recognition
• Balanced Approach to Strategy
• Keen Sense of Risk – Reward
• Analysis without paralysis
• Gracious / Solid
• Avoids buzzwords and trendy behavior

- See more at: https://www.mchristman.com/the-man-who-changed-everything/#sthash.SzUT7on7.dpuf