What About Bob?
Listen to a 5 minute summary of my story
Managing Partner · Link.the.Dots · 2019 - Present
Co-Founder · St. Charles Consulting Group · 2002 - 2019
Partner · Arthur Andersen ·1969 - 2002
Learn more about me at at LinkedIn
Listen to my full 27 minute backstory.
Bob’s Story: 5 minute transcript
Well, Gary, I thought I'd give you some background about my life and my backstory, if you will. First of all, my dad was with J.C. Penney's for 50 years; he started when he was 18, right out of High School.
I worked continuously at J.C. Penney's since I was about eight or nine years old, until I graduated from college. In fact, that's where I met my future wife of 50 years; she worked in the Girls Department; I worked in Men's and Boys.
I went off to college in 1965…. I went to the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, and I studied, business and accounting.
After I went to St. Thomas, I started with Arthur Andersen in 1969. I was an Auditor for many, many businesses for a number of years. I did all kinds of strange things, from counting buffalo at a resort in North Dakota, to roaming construction sites in very frigid conditions, to auditing grocery chains, to auditing professional sports teams.
But I learned a ton during those years, from, from 69 to, to about 86; we had a big move to Chicago, and then I traveled the world for Andersen for the next 15 years, and learned so much about the world.
And then, unfortunately, Arthur Andersen collapsed in 2002. So, that whole chapter of my Andersen years was abruptly ended.
And that's when I go to Chapter Two of my career, which is with St. Charles Consulting Group; it was really starting over from scratch at the age of 55. The company is a learning and development consulting firm. I really did that for about 20 years after the collapse of Andersen.
What happened then in Chapter Three, is the Link.the.Dots chapter. I wanted to do something quite different; because I’ve always had my feet firmly planted in the future.
I'm always thinking about future trends; I saw so many digital transformation and other technology changes happening, the likes of which I have not seen in my entire 50-year career in business. It was an explosion that I have never seen.
I wanted to try to help businesses adapt and adapt to these technology changes. And more specifically I wanted to help companies execute a future view of their business.
The second thing I wanted to do with this business is to help students. I really enjoyed teaching during the many years that worked at Andersen.
I really wanted to focus on a “myth” that I see happening today. There's a lot being written about opportunities going away for young people because of AI and robotics. I have the view that it's exactly the opposite of that. I think that opportunities are just beginning, and young people really need to know this, and that they're at the threshold of an explosion of opportunities.
Also, it’s not a restriction of opportunities because of these new technologies. And the pandemic has accelerated the technology advances by 10 to 15 years, whether it's AI, Remote Learning, Internet of Things (IoT), Virtual Reality, Ordering Online; All of these things have been accelerated because of the “transportability of ideas”.
And another thing I've learned, at my age, is that I want to keep living the life of the Service Values that my Dad taught me.
My Dad got those values directly from his 50 years at JC Penney's. Penney's original purpose, as an organization, was to “serve people” and help them maximize their God-given talents, so they could, in turn, better serve other people.
It was that simple, that “help principle” is based on multiple dimensions. And it's not just Customers, it's Employees, it also applies to Suppliers, and it's Owners as well. And then finally, the Community is a hugely important stakeholder for dimensions of social and environmental activities.
That's what's behind that Simplicity of Business concept. The other thing that I have this dream about achieving clarity from complexity. There is a process for you to break down complex things into simple structures so that you can have a collaborative conversation that fix things in a stable manner.
I hope you've enjoyed this discussion. Check out LinktheDots.net for more Bobcasts, where Bob attempts to think about business challenges in a different way, and then links the dots to inspire new insights. Thanks for listening.
