Spreading leadership

Three months after President Woodrow Wilson declared war on Germany in April 1917, construction began on a training camp in Greenville, SC. Camp Sevier was the last stop troops from various National Guard units made before they headed to Europe. They were there to prepare for battle with the latest offensive weaponry and defensive tactics, including machine guns and gas masks.

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Roughly a month after the first troops arrived, a middle-aged mom and her teenage daughter began making egg salad, chicken salad, ham salad, and pimento cheese sandwiches in their kitchen. They sold the sandwiches to the troops at Camp Sevier for a dime a piece—equal to $2.50 today—quite a bargain. The low price and high quality meant that the new mompreneur sold lots of sandwiches. One account claims 11,000 were sold in the first year.

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The fledgling sandwich business of Eugenia and her daughter Martha wasn’t fledgling for long. The enterprising mom soon developed a sales force that enabled her to make sandwiches and focus on growing the business. The following year, she bought a delivery truck.

If you know your American history, you know the following year is also when “The Great War” ended with an armistice shaped largely by President Wilson. The need for training troops for battle at Camp Sevier also ended, and it was decommissioned after less than two years.

Many who tell the story of Eugenia’s sandwiches and, more importantly, her homemade mayonnaise, the critical ingredient in them all, credit her with a patriotic motivation. She did it to support the war effort, they say. Given our nation's culture at the time, it was likely a part of her motivation. However, a more thorough consideration of the story of the origins of Duke’s Mayonnaise suggests that Eugenia Duke was also motivated by an entrepreneurial spirit and a ready market that provided opportunity.

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Eugenia Duke continued making and selling sandwiches even after the war ended and Camp Sevier was shuttered. She developed new markets for her sandwiches in local grocery stores and drug stores. In the summer of 1920, she opened her own restaurant, the Duke Tea Room. Eight months later, the Duke Tea Room moved into the Ottaray Hotel, the poshest hotel on the highest point in downtown Greenville.

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Just as it is a century later, owning and operating a restaurant was consuming. In the six years since Eugenia started selling sandwiches to training troops, it became apparent that while her food was really good, the secret to it all was her mayonnaise. One of her sales associates is credited with first suggesting that she focus on large-scale manufacturing and bottling of her unique mayonnaise instead of making and serving food.

Eugenia Duke bought an old coach factory along the banks of the Reedy River in 1923 and began manufacturing and bottling her mayonnaise. Over the next six years, the demand for Duke’s Mayonnaise grew so significantly that the brand needed expertise to increase production and expand the market. She sold Duke’s Mayonnaise to the C.F. Sauer Company in 1929 but remained with them as the chief salesperson for the brand.

In 1929, Eugenia Duke also sold her recipes to Alan Hart, her bookkeeper. Hart used them to start a business manufacturing sandwiches for distribution in local stores and workplaces in the Upstate of South Carolina. Whether a marketing ploy or genuine homage, Hart named his operation the Duke Sandwich Company, making good use of Eugenia’s reputation.

Eugenia Duke’s legacy, however, is more than mayonnaise and good food. Her life and experience offer insight for every leader.

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Leaders see and seize opportunities. Eugenia’s husband, Harry, had a good job as an electrical engineer with the Southern Power Company. Nothing I’ve found indicates that Eugenia’s sandwich business was started as a source of subsistence income. It was an internal drive in her that recognized the opportunity that Camp Sevier brought.

Harry and Eugenia moved to California in the early 1950s to be near their daughter, Martha. Before the decade ended, Eugenia started another sandwich-making business in California, The Duchess Sandwich Company, which operated until she died in 1968 at the age of 90.

Many, perhaps even most, leaders face the temptation of rituals and routines that can quickly become ruts. Simply exercising the responsibilities of our role can blind us to the opportunities around us. The longer we serve in a particular leadership role, the more intentional we must be to see and seize the opportunities around us.

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Leaders know their limits. As I dug deeper into the history of Duke’s Mayonnaise and the story of Eugenia Duke, it became apparent that I was raised on “the good stuff” because she recognized her limitations and sold the brand to a company that could expand the market for it.

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Earlier this week, Falfurrias Capital Partners, the Charlotte-based investment firm that bought C. F. Sauer Company in 2019, announced they are selling Sauer Brands, including Duke’s Mayonnaise, to a Boston-based private equity investor. Time will tell how that shapes the future of the South’s favorite mayonnaise, but publicly, they have said they see more growth opportunities for Duke’s and the other products of Sauer Brands. Perhaps Falfurrias felt they had reached a limit in their ability to cultivate greater market share and value for Duke’s Mayonnaise, just as Eugenia did nearly a century ago.

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Regardless of our leadership role, we must be able to recognize our limits and know when leadership needs to be entrusted to someone who can steward it more effectively into the future. A leadership responsibility doesn’t exist merely for our benefit. It’s a stewardship of the stated mission of the church, nonprofit, or professional practice we lead.

Have you reached the limit of your effective leadership? How can you grow that capacity? Is it time to entrust that responsibility to someone else? Who can help you think through the possibilities?

What opportunities await you to see and seize them? Who can help you recognize those opportunities?

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Enjoy your weekend - and eat some Duke’s Mayonnaise.

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The views and opinions expressed in my Thursday Thoughts on Leadership are my own. They do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or policies of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina or any affiliated churches.