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VOLUME 20
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Well the holidaze are again upon us. And the first and most important issue of business is to say THANK YOU! to all of the friends and clients who have supported us through another amazing year of growth and activity. 2006 took us across North America presenting to audience of all kinds and sizes. Most of our amazing growth came from referrals. Thank you all for that! 
The big news for us now is that The Mark of a Leader book will be arriving from the printer on December 20 - just in time for Christmas. The book features selected stories from our event program, as well as lots of new stories, commentary from me, questions, and exercises. It will be a great last-minute gift for yourself, your kids, your partner or spouse - anyone who needs inspiration and some good role models. You can order the book now (click here to order) and, delivery method permitting, the books should be to you by Christmas. Please remember that they don't even land at our warehouse until the 20th, so we will do our best to get them to you in time to go under the tree! In addition to our new book, there will be a downloadable PDF version available soon. We are producing an Audiobook version for those who like to drive and listen. It will be available as a download in early January and on CD shortly thereafter. In our new online store we are also selling products from writers and speakers who we think are important in the world of leadership today. These are people who have influenced me and our companies over the years. You can see all of this at our store. Check out our Blog, where you can actively participate in the evolution of The Mark of a Leader. The address is blog.themarkofaleader.com So there is lots of activity to end the year. Sleep is apparently for wimps! OK. Let's get on to this month's story. I owe this story to Amanda Hall of our team, who suggested doing Rudolph. Once I started looking into the origins of the famous reindeer, the story that I discovered was fabulous. Have a wonderful, safe and healthy holiday and a fantastic 2007! All the best from all of us at The Mark of a Leader!
Please visit our website at www.themarkofaleader.com |
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FEATURE
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RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER
I often wonder where the stories that define our culture come from. Last year at this time we looked at the origins of Santa Claus. This year we wondered where the story of Rudolph came from. It is closely linked with Santa, and every kid in the Western world seemingly knows who Rudolph was and what he did, and can sing at least part of his song. Rudolph was, of course, a leader. Born with a glowing nose, and teased by the other reindeer because of his unusual attribute, his life was typical for someone who is "different". But when Santa needed him, one foggy Christmas Eve, Rudolph stepped up to the plate to lead the reindeer through the fog. And where did this magical reindeer's story originate? From a copywriter at the Montgomery Ward department store chain!!! 
In 1939, Robert May, a staff writer at Montgomery, was asked to develop a Christmas story that the chain could use as a promotional booklet. May was a shy, small man who was often taunted by other kids when he was young, so he decided to write a story about an underdog reindeer who succeeded. 
The finished story was illustrated, and Montgomery Ward distributed 2.4 million copies of the booklet in 1939, and millions more over the next several years. The little reindeer became a small hit, but certainly nothing like the scale it is known today. It took an act of kindness and leadership in the background to catapult Rudolph into the broader popular culture. Because May was a Montgomery Ward employee, the company owned the copyright to Rudolph. There was some demand for licensing after the success of the booklet, but the store did little to meet or stoke the demand, and May was paid nothing in royalties. Tragically he was also deeply in debt from paying medical bills for his wife who died at around the time of Rudolph's creation. 
In a moment of compassionate leadership, Montgomery Ward's president Sewell Avery turned the copyright over to its creator, Robert May, so he could pay his medical bills. That act would probably get him sacked today. But it was the springboard for Rudolph to enter the broader popular culture. In 1947, May released a commercial book of the story, as well as a nine minute cartoon. Rudolph's audience grew. But the real breakthrough for the brand came in 1949, when May's brother-in-law, Johnny Marks, penned the famous song that we all know, recorded by Gene Autry. 
"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" sold 2 million copies that year and went on to become one of the best selling songs of all time in any genre. A TV special narrated by the late Burl Ives was made in 1964 and remains a holiday broadcast favorite. And Rudolph appears now in several Christmas videos. 
Robert May quit his copywriting job to focus on Rudolph in 1951, but, amazingly, returned to Montgomery Ward a few years later and worked there until his retirement. He could not have needed the money because the royalties must have been generous, so one can only guess that he returned out of the loyalty inspired by the generosity of Sewell Avery. 
It gets better. Avery was well known as a tough SOB of a CEO. The photo here is of him being carried out of his offices after refusing to comply with a government request regarding unions in the workplace. Unfortunately, he believed that after WW2 there would be another recession instead of a boom, so he ran Montgomery Ward very conservatively, refusing to expand when competitors like Sears and JC Penney did. 
He gambled wrong and was removed from his CEO job. Montgomery Ward did not keep up with the times through the back half of the 20th century, and in 2001 they filed for bankruptcy, at the time the largest retail bankruptcy in history. Today the company is a shadow of its former self, selling goods online and through mail order. So how do will our cast of characters from this story go down in historeeee, as the song says. What are their Marks? 
Obviously the message or Mark of Rudolph for kids is not to pick on others who are different, and to show that we should never take our talents or "gifts" for granted. Robert May's Mark is creating a wonderful character and story that lives on in our popular culture and encourages self-confidence in kids of all ages. 
But the Mark of Sewell Avery is the most interesting to me. As a CEO, Sewell Avery will go down as a failure, having completely misjudged the post-war market and allowing competitors to surge ahead of him. But by giving the copyright over to Rudolph's creator, Sewell Avery first helped Robert May recover from the financial burden of his wife's tragic death. It was the "right" thing to do. Had Montgomery Ward retained the rights, Rudolph would most likely have ended in a filing cabinet in a trustee's office somewhere. Certainly Johnny Marks would not have written the song if his brother-in-law May had not held the rights. There probably would never have been a hit record with Gene Autry. And had there not been, the film and TV specials would probably never have happened. Sewell Avery's compassion for May's plight gave us one of the great treasures of Christmas that generations of kids continue to enjoy and sing. 
From one act of giving, generations of kids and parents have been blessed. And though you will probably not see it in a business book anywhere, that, surely, will be the mark of Sewell Avery. |
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Please visit us at www.themarkofaleader.com. Copyright 2006 Mark of a Leader |
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