. IN-DEPTH PROFILE: The Strengths that Matter Most by Tom Terez In two side-by-side photos, Aaron Smith and great-grandson David Branch look like identical twins. Both men have narrow faces, high foreheads, long cheekbones, and retreating hairlines. Both wear conservative suits, solid dress shirts, tightly knotted neckties, and serious expressions. It's easy to picture them wrinkling their brows at a high-level planning session as they come up with the answer that no one has yet pieced together. They also have a business in common. Aaron Smith launched Smith Printing in 1910. The company grew to become Branch-Smith, Inc., in 1954. Today, David Branch is the president of Branch-Smith Printing. In a tough industry with low margins and countless competitors, he has turned the 90-employee company into a $13.5 million success story. Under his leadership, Branch-Smith Printing received the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award -- the nation's highest award for organizational excellence. So what's the key to all this success? A clue from long ago can be seen in that photo of Aaron Smith. Actually, it's what you don't see that's so important: his arms. From the day of his birth in 1868, when he arrived otherwise healthy, Aaron made his way through life without the arms, hands, and fingers that so many of us take for granted. ADAPTING AND IMPROVISING Back in those days just after the Civil War, people with serious physical disabilities faced a world of struggle. The lucky ones had family members who would take care of them. Others were put in institutions or left to fend for themselves. In Aaron's case, a carnival boss came calling one day to see if he could sign the boy up -- he could star in his own sideshow. Aaron's parents listened for two seconds and slammed the door of their Arkansas farmhouse. They knew their son would succeed in life as long as he used the many strengths he did have instead of dwelling on his deficits. From an early age, the boy seemed extra smart -- as if the absence of arms was compensated by additional brainpower. Determined to make the most of it, the family picked up and moved three miles to Bright Star, Texas, so seven-year-old Aaron could attend a good school. Then they moved to Queen City to get closer to a better school. The family grew to six, and they moved yet again, this time to find a better market for the father's farm equipment repair business. The latest move put Aaron close to a couple of small law firms, where he made friends with the attorneys. They happily loaned him books, and Aaron seemed to find his calling. As he recalled in his brief autobiography: "I began on my three volumes of Blackstone's Commentaries with all the enthusiasm of a modern youth reading his first story of romance." Aaron became a licensed attorney at age 20. He ran for county judge and lost, bought and improved two Texas newspapers and a magazine, sold all three, launched a telephone trade journal, sold it, and purchased Southern Florist and Nurseryman. He then established a printing plant in Forth Worth, purchased two additional publications, sold one of them, and purchased another. At every turn, Aaron adapted and improvised while displaying a remarkable work ethic. He earned respect from neighborhood kids by shooting marbles with his toes -- and winning. He ate with a spoon gripped between his toes. He typed with a wooden stick clenched in his teeth. In later years, he rigged the phone so he could answer with a foot pedal. But most importantly, he always brought in people who could do what he couldn't. He focused on his abundant strengths while letting other folks take care of the rest. In the 1930s, when Smith Printing moved to its present location on the south side of downtown Fort Worth, most companies were gone or going under because of the Great Depression. Aaron Smith kept on printing, publishing, and making money. In fact, he employed a fair number of relatives and friends -- an interesting twist on who ended up taking care of whom. THREE GENERATIONS LATER Today, Branch-Smith Printing is still located on St. Louis Avenue. Part of the current pressroom, covering 45,000 square feet, even dates to 1910. But what a difference a decade makes. If Aaron Smith could take a tour, he'd marvel at the eight-color presses, the glowing computers, and the smooth-running binding machines. But he'd be even more impressed with the results. Sales climbed from $8.7 million in 2000 to $13.5 million in 2005 -- in an unforgiving industry that typically sees 1% growth from year to year. Employee turnover ranges from 6% to 8% -- in a business where mass turnover is the rule. And perhaps most significant of all, Branch-Smith Printing is one of a handful of organizations to receive the coveted Baldrige Award. Company president David Branch was born with arms, but just like his great-grandfather, he's brutally honest when it comes to acknowledging what he does lack. He admits that he's not mechanically inclined -- even though printing is a technology-intensive business. He confesses that he's not much of a salesperson -- even though sales are the lifeblood of every printing operation. And he reports that he doesn't have a hard-charging style -- a statement of the obvious as he sits serenely behind an uncluttered desk. Just like Aaron, David has leveraged his strengths while surrounding himself with people who bring complementary traits, skills, and perspectives. When the company hit a slump in 1997, he felt the need to get outside advice. He could have stayed in his comfort zone by seeking a David Branch clone with the same style and like-minded ideas. But instead, he chose Daniel Hanson -- a tough-minded, straight-talking industry veteran whose Chicago roots are a sharp contrast to David's southern smoothness. ("He's an opposite personality to me," David says with gentle understatement.) They worked together in a consulting relationship for six months, then David hired him as vice president and general manager. At one meeting early in their relationship, Hanson brought facts to show how Branch-Smith's printing technology had slipped 15 years behind the competition. The bad news hurt, but David listened carefully, applying his analytical brain, asking questions, discussing options. In more meetings to follow, they talked about every facet of the business. Their ideas often diverged, but David kept listening. Then they began planning, investing, and making changes -- radical changes affecting the entire company. That's when the company began its steady rise in sales, profits, and industry stature. PREPARING TO LEAD David began working at the company back in the 1960s, early in his teen years. He mowed the lawn around the printing plant, picked up garbage left by transients in an adjacent alley, and swept up scraps of paper that had fallen from the trimming machines. He eventually moved on to odd jobs inside -- mostly helping to bind and collate, but sometimes working the machines on easy print runs. The early years also brought some important lessons in leadership and values. Many of these came from his mother's uncle, known to the family as Pop. When a toy broke, the kids would happily skip to his house, confident that Pop could work his magic and make it new. He almost always did -- and when he couldn't, he'd sneak to the store and buy a replacement. He kept track of progress at school, and at report-card time, he gave a dime for every A. To build the kids' financial know-how, he would borrow money from them, agreeing to an interest rate and six-month term, and drawing up a promissory duly signed by Pop and the young lender. Pop met every due date, even when the kids forgot. He would retrieve the signed notes, pay back the principal with interest, and thrill the kids with their newfound wealth. When David joined the Boy Scouts, he wanted to get a genuine military mess kit complete with nesting plate and pan. They were available at a nearby military base, so he went to Pop, who had served as a lieutenant colonel in the Quartermasters. David explained his request and promised to pay back the full amount. Pop listened respectfully, then he explained that items at the base could be purchased only by active or retired service members -- and that reselling in all cases went against regulations. David's face fell, but Pop suddenly thought of a way to follow the regulations and deliver the goods: He would buy the mess kit and give it to David without return payment. The regulations prohibited reselling but didn't say anything about gift-giving. David learned plenty from his scouting days, but two weekends remain unforgettable. The first one unfolded when he was 13. He was trucked with another boy to a lightly wooded area about 10 miles from the scout camp -- and left there with a ground cloth, sleeping bags, map, compass, pocket knife, two matches, and a live chicken. They were to find their way back to camp by Sunday morning. And yes, all they had to eat was that clucking, pecking, scratching chicken. He figured that his fellow scout, two or three years his senior, would know what to do. But these were city kids with no clue how to prep a chicken with a pocketknife and two matches. Then it started to rain, they lost their way, and the real struggle began. The two scouts stumbled into camp Sunday morning, soaked through and clutching their stomachs. A year later, showing the resolve that was likely a genetic gift from great-grandfather Aaron, David signed up for another weekend of "chicken survival." He and his new teammate handled the bird well enough, but they wandered beyond the map and got hopelessly lost. A farmhouse appeared. They knocked on the door, explained their plight, and asked the farmer to call the scout leader. Before long a truck came by to pick up the boys and return them to their starting place. By Sunday morning they had reached base camp, stomachs intact, thankful for the help along the way. Much to the relief of chickens in the Fort Worth area, those weekends became a thing of the past. David went to college, pursuing a business degree. Money was tight, so he worked 20 to 30 hours a week at Branch-Smith Printing. By this time he knew that technology, mechanics, and sales weren't his strengths. But he could manipulate and calculate numbers with remarkable ease -- and he loved it. So he became the company's one and only estimator, responsible for calculating the resources, costs, and prices for the various print jobs. His role became the perfect crash course in the printing business. Every time David worked up a new round of numbers, he had to account for paper, ink, binding materials, labor time, packing, shipping, rework, profit, and so on. He saw how the work flowed from start to finish. After a couple years as estimator, his knowledge of work processes became second nature. He couldn't think about a part of the printing operation without seeing the whole operation and how it fit together. At most organizations, entry-level jobs keep people in silos, where they learn only one part of the system. David's job did just the opposite. It forced him to see all the connections. THE JOURNEY BEGINS David and his siblings became owners of the company in the 1980s. At the time, Branch-Smith was sputtering along on one small loan after another. They were using letterpress technology while competitors were moving into superior offset printing, and long-time customers were taking their business elsewhere. Just when all seemed lost, two lenders came to the rescue, allowing the company to purchase an adjacent three-story building, remodel the plant and administrative area, secure the company's first four-color press, and install a machine to produce softbound publications. With stability temporarily restored by the early 1990s, the company began what David calls "the journey." He knew that this trek would be far longer and more difficult than those weekend ordeals with frightened fowl. He also knew that the journey would have to succeed or the company would fail. At the time, a family business culture prevailed throughout the workplace. Decisions were made informally by family members, often at a golf course. The people doing the work rarely felt like part of a team, and hardly a day went by without frantic reaction to some new problem. But David knew that for everything it lacked, the company had an abundant supply of inherently decent people with untapped smarts and skills. So he launched a quality improvement effort to involve them in problem-solving teams. With the company crying out for improvement, it would have been tempting for David to force the issue and require people to join teams immediately. But he'll say it himself: "I don't have a dominating personality. I'm not comfortable telling people what to do. I prefer to lead people to a mutual solution. People want to do well, and they will as long as they see the big picture and have opportunities to learn and put their learning to work." When it came time to roll out the improvement effort, David and his siblings skipped the boring bullet-point presentation. Instead, they gathered everyone at an all-hands meeting, suited up in Wizard of Oz garb, and rolled with a skit about moving the company down the yellow-brick road. It was the perfect metaphor: As the journey unfolded, they would encounter challenges along the way. But they'd learn plenty about themselves and create a better future for everyone. David played the cowardly lion -- the ultimate irony given the courage required to pursue such major change. The skit prompted some eye-rolling, but overall, people appreciated the light touch and self-deprecation. "They made it fun," recalls Suzie Long, now the client services manager, who began working with David back when he was an estimator. Suzie confesses that she and her colleagues wondered whether teams and problem-solving would ever work at Branch-Smith Printing, but before long, she was learning about improvement tools like control charts and cause-and-effect diagrams -- and using them in teams. "He wanted us to buy in by improving our own processes, and we did," she says. "I HAVE SOME GOOD NEWS FOR YOU" Like great-grandfather Aaron Smith, who was always striving to do a little better, David nudged the company toward another milestone. Branch-Smith Printing began working to get its quality system certified under the international certification known as ISO 9001. Comparable to a Good Housekeeping seal of approval, ISO requires companies to develop an overall quality manual, system-level procedures, and work instructions or process maps for all its major processes. It's a time-consuming undertaking, and at the beginning, it can frustrate people who are accustomed to thinking in terms of individual tasks rather than processes or systems. But the benefits are clear: People find ways to make processes better, the documentation becomes a great tool for training, and it serves as an excellent starting point for analysis when processes break down. Suzie Long remembers this part of the journey as well. David stopped by her office, explained the purpose of ISO certification, sketched out the basic approach for getting certified, and asked whether she'd like to join an employee team to make it happen. Her jaw hit the table. She told him that she had never written anything technical in her life. He listened, nodded, and assured her that she and others would get all the training they needed. Would they have enough time? she asked, holding her breath. As much as you need to be successful, he said. How much training would they get? As much as you need. And he delivered, arranging for the team to attend one to two training sessions every week for nine months. The team got busy, and in 1996 Branch-Smith Printing became ISO-certified. But the journey was just beginning as far as David Branch was concerned. Thrilled with progress but eager to avoid resting on any laurels, he guided the company in applying for the Texas Award for Performance Excellence, given annually to one or two Texas organizations that excel in performance, quality, customer satisfaction, and bottom-line results. Most of all, David liked how the award's criteria pulled together all the disparate elements of a business. Branch-Smith Printing went through the application process two times, failing to win the award but learning a lot along the way. They received the award on their third try, in 1999. Then it was on to the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award -- the organizational equivalent of the Academy Award for Best Picture. With David facilitating the process and involving teams of employees, the company developed a Baldrige application that described the company's practices in seven areas: leadership, strategic planning, customer and marketing focus, information and analysis, human resource focus, process management, and business results. With Branch-Smith Printing's third application, in 2002, a Baldrige site-visit team spent five days in Fort Worth interviewing employees and exploring every area of the company. A few months later, David received an early-morning call from U.S. Secretary of Commerce. "I have some good news for you," he said. Good news indeed. Branch-Smith Printing had joined an elite group of only 51 organizations nationwide to win the Baldridge Award since its inception in 1988. Ten years had passed since the start of the so-called journey, and Branch-Smith Printing had arrived at a vastly different and infinitely better place. After hanging up the phone, David responded in his usual calm way. "I wandered down to Daniel Hanson's office and told them we had done it," he recalls. "They were all pumped." He looks out his office window, collecting his thoughts. "It's validating." Pause. "It was really a great feeling." Pause. "I'm kind of understated about things like that." Then he goes on to talk about all the work that still needs to be done. OUR GREATEST STRENGTHS Way back in 1868, when great-grandfather Aaron Smith arrived on the scene, people surely talked about him behind closed doors. How in the world could a person prosper -- or even survive -- without arms? When first meeting David Branch, it's easy to have a similar reaction. He seems to lack certain qualities often linked to leadership. Where's the cheerleader? Where's the extrovert who can lean forward and rouse the troops? Where's the backslapping salesperson who can schmooze with big-ticket customers? But get to know him and you find a person with the strengths that matter most. His low-key approach puts people at ease. His reflective tendencies keep him grounded in facts and away from rash judgments. His preference to ask questions, rather than issue directives, engages employees in a respectful way while making the most of their brainpower. David Branch reminds us that loudness does not equal leadership. And he leaves us with an important question: Like him, are we being true to ourselves and fully leveraging our greatest strengths? ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Tom Terez (TomTerez.com) is an international consultant and frequent speaker on organizational performance (BetterWorkplaceNow.com) and personal excellence (InnerBest.com) Copyright 2007 Tom Terez. All rights reserved. Copyright © 2008 Tom Terez Workplace Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved. P.O. Box 21444, Columbus, Ohio USA 43221-0444. Tel. 614-488-9721. 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