When it opens next year, Los Angeles' new state-of-the-art sports complex will bear the name of a $7-billion international retail giant, a newcomer that will join heavyweights such as United Airlines, Anheuser-Busch, and MCI in seeing its identity adorn the marquee of a big-city stadium.

The company's leader is justifiably proud: twelve years ago, he was minding one store - located just down Soldiers Field Road from HBS. Today, he oversees an empire of almost one thousand stores - not bad for someone who was unemployed only thirteen years ago. As Tom Stemberg, the no-nonsense chairman and CEO of Staples, Inc., will be the first to tell you, thank goodness he got canned.

On July 4, 1985, Stemberg - who had been let go by First National Supermarkets earlier that year as the firm prepared to sell his division - ran out of typewriter ribbon. Finding the local stationer closed, he headed for a "warehouse club" store. Although it didn't have the item he wanted, Stemberg was struck by the store's low prices on office products. "I began thinking," he recalls, "why not start up a kind of Toys 'R' Us for office supplies?"

Thanks in part to the financial backing of former supermarket rival Leo Kahn, that thought became a bigger reality than Stemberg ever imagined. Today, throughout the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Germany, Staples boasts stores that are filled with every conceivable office supply at the guaranteed lowest possible price. Revenues for 1997 totaled a whopping $5.2 billion.

In creating Staples, Stemberg drew on the knowledge of modern distribution techniques he had acquired during his twelve years in the grocery business. As a vice president with the Jewel Companies' Star Market chain in the early 1980s, Stemberg had developed and launched the first line of generic foods to be sold in the United States - and had spawned his first nationwide trend in the process. His brandless foods concept helped propel Star from fourth place in Greater Boston sales into a tie for first in 1982. Stemberg then moved on to Connecticut-based First National, becoming president of its Edwards-Finast division.

Stemberg's habitual casual dress and modest office at Staples' Westborough, Massachusetts, headquarters bear testament to a man fully in touch with his entrepreneurial spirit. In fact, he regularly makes in-person visits to his outlets around the country, he says, "to see the stores as the customer sees them."

Along with legions of price-conscious customers, Stemberg's office superstore concept has also attracted its share of imitators. Within two years of opening its doors, Staples saw competition from the likes of Kmart and Montgomery Ward. Of all comers to date, however, only the three industry founders have survived: Staples, Office Depot, and Office Club (with the latter two eventually merging). "The entrepreneurs won," says Stemberg. "I'm proud of that. "

Which is not to say that all battles have been waged. "Other retailers are continuing to focus on our category," Stemberg reports. His strategic response? "More of the same," he says, noting that he plans on opening one thousand more stores worldwide in the next five years.

Yet inside the company, Stemberg's role as Staples' leader has clearly evolved. Once the "middle linebacker calling all the signals and plugging the holes," he says he has now learned to "let go of the nitty-gritty and let people do their jobs. " He adds, "The most rewarding thing in business is stepping back and watching other people do what you would have done - and sometimes doing it better - without any prompting. "

Post a Comment