I just got a copy of The Hard Road to the Softer Side by Art Martinez, former chairman and CEO of Sears, which includes this mention of my father:
After I graduated from Harvard, I worked for Enjay Chemical, which was to become Exxon, and had some powerful mentoring from a man named Dave Thomas. He was the first person I ran into in the marketplace who recognized that businesses should run from the outside, that they should spend a lot of time paying attention to their customers.
He also thanks my dad in the Acknowledgements, for “teaching me to think creatively and constructively about business.”
Dad had a long career in marketing, culminating in the position of president of Northern Telecom Japan, where he negotiated a contract to sell digital switching systems to the Japanese phone company, NTT. Not only was the deal worth billions to Nortel, but it was the first time a US company had sold a major piece of technology to a Japanese government agency. His customer focus certainly helped in what was a long and convoluted process of negotiation and fulfillment.
Dad and I spent a few hours this afternoon working on his blog, which should be ready for its debut soon. It’ll be worth reading.
