Welcome to the Gaco Revolution!
The Gaco Western “Revolution” was the cultural force driving success.
The concept was simple: American colonists should never have won the Revolution. They were fighting the British empire where the “..sun never set..” Why did the colonists win? Because they had everything at stake. To lose meant many of them would be hung. If the British soldiers lost, “so what?” They returned to their farms, their shops, their homes, unfazed except for maybe their pride. The Colonists had everything at stake and, in simple terms, they cared more.
The comparison to Gaco as the colonists is clear. Our competitors were the British or Fortune 100 companies like BASF, Bayer, Honeywell, Huntsman. If Gaco lost an order, it hurt. While competitors went golfing at 2:00 pm on Friday, we were making calls as late as we could on Friday. We worked harder, longer, and, frankly, smarter.
Our relentless drive to WIN was the motivating force at every level of the company, regardless of how difficult it seemed , or how remote the odds were. That was the Gaco Western “Revolution”. That is why and how we created the value we did. I repeated the Gaco Western Revolution mantra every chance I got; speeches, videos, and emails. I was relentless.
The comparison with the “big boys” continued right up to the sale of Gaco. It was fascinating when we began conversations with Firestone, who later purchased GACO. They were used to connecting on or before noon on Friday and belatedly waiting until Monday to call back.
