Always Think Big

257 Pages·2002·0.67 MB·English

by  Thomas Duening John Ivancevich Jim McIngvale

Always Think Big
Dearborn Trade Publishing

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2002 by Dearborn Financial Publishing, Inc.
Published by Dearborn Trade Publishing, a Kaplan Professional Company
All rights reserved. The text of this publication, or any part thereof, may not
be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from
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Printed in the United States of America
02 03 04 05 06 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
McIngvale, Jim.
Always think big : how Mattress Mack’s uncompromising attitude built
the biggest single retail store in America / Jim McIngvale, Thomas N.
Duening, John M. Ivancevich.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-7931-5375-1
1. Success in business. 2. Gallery Furniture (Houston, Tex.) I.
Title: How Mattress Mack’s uncompromising attitude built the biggest
single retail store in America. II. Duening, Thomas N. III. Ivancevich,
John M. IV. Title.
HF5386 .M193 2002
658—dc21
2002000371
Dearborn Trade books are available at special quantity discounts to use for
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C O N T E N T S
I N T R O D U C T I O N V
1. Mattress Mack: An Introduction 1
2. Gallery Furniture: The World’s Furniture Store 27
3. PRINCIPLE 1 Establish a Values-Based Culture 53
4. PRINCIPLE 2 FAST—Focus, Action, Search, and
Tenacity 79
5. PRINCIPLE 3 Action before Energy 99
6. PRINCIPLE 4 Sell with Pride 123
7. PRINCIPLE 5 Build Relationships 145
8. PRINCIPLE 6 Always Think Big 169
9. PRINCIPLE 7 Managing and Marketing Philanthropy 191
10. Personalizing Mack’s Lessons 211
I N D E X 2 3 9
iii

I N T R O D U C T I O N
For many years we have observed from a distance
the ever-present, fast-talking, noisy, Gallery Furniture
business owner, affectionately known as “Mattress
Mack.” Jim McIngvale is a raspy-voiced marketing
genius and charismatic leader who has amazed us
again and again with his style, energy, passion to help
others, and big ideas to entertain and delight custom-
ers. Mack is a doer—a ready, fire, aim business icon.
To give readers an idea of the scope of Mack’s abil-
ity to think big, consider that his retail store, Gallery
Furniture, sells more furniture per square foot of retail
space than any store in the world! Mack has driven his
vision to world class status. His single-site store in
Houston, Texas, sells more than $200 million worth of
furniture annually. Gallery stands alone, as the most
productive furniture store in the world. That’s BIG!
Mack’s influence extends far beyond Gallery Fur-
niture. He is one of Houston’s most well-known phi-
lanthropists and community leaders. You won’t read
about Mack in the society pages attending this or that
ball or gala. He doesn’t go in for those things. Mack’s
philanthropy, like everything else, is done in a straight-
forward, no-nonsense manner. If a cause catches his
attention, he’s going to act in a BIG way to make a dif-
ference. Whether he’s feeding tens of thousands of
people at the Convention Center for Thanksgiving, v
vi Introduction
purchasing the Grand Champion Steer at the charity
auction of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, or
organizing a welcome-home party for Houston’s NBA
Championship team, Mack ALWAYS THINKS BIG!
Over the years in various business classes we have
taught, we have taken informal surveys to determine
the person students perceive as the most-recognized
business leader in Texas. Since the mid-1980s to the
present, Mack is the person most often identified.
There is no contest. The second-place person usually
receives about 5 percent to 10 percent of the mentions,
and Mack gets about 80 percent. Students, like Mack’s
employees and Gallery Furniture customers, are in
awe of him. He is a whirling bundle of energy, a rapid-
fire talker who has become a celebrity.
Think of a mix of P.T. Barnum, Walt Disney, Steven
Spielberg, and George Steinbrenner all rolled up into
a single, dynamic personality. This mixture would be
someone resembling Mack. He is a store owner with a
flair for entertainment, a reputation for keeping prom-
ises, a commitment to doing the right thing and help-
ing others, and insisting with a steel fist on selling
high-quality furniture at a fair price. Mack conducts
no-nonsense business.
An experience that illustrates Mack’s unique and
entertaining style involved a sparring match with
heavyweight boxer Muhammad Ali. The world champ
was conducting an exhibition in Dallas in the late
1970s. At the time Mack was owner of several strug-
gling health clubs. Mack went to the event to see Ali
Introduction vii
and to promote his health club business. Ali asked if
anyone in the audience would like to box a few rounds
with him. Mack raised his hand, and Ali told him to
come on up into the ring. Mack actually had some am-
ateur boxing training and thought it would be a lot of
fun.
When Mack got into the ring with Ali, he immedi-
ately knew that if the champ wanted to he could flat-
ten him in seconds. As their sparring began, Mack and
Ali moved around the ring feeling each other out.
When they got into a clinch, Ali whispered to Mack to
knock him down. Ali told him that when Mack threw
a punch, Ali would drop like a sack. Then he asked
Mack to holler an insulting remark as he stood looking
over the knocked-down champ.
Mack thought, if I do what Ali is instructing me to
do, these fans are going to riot. But Ali kept urging
him to knock him down. Finally, after building up a
brief moment of courage, Mack threw a roundhouse
punch. Ali pretended like he was hit with a ton of
bricks. He dropped to the floor and sprawled on the
canvas. Ali, looking up at Mack and grinning, whis-
pered for him to shout an insulting remark. Mack
finally looked down and shouted, “I knocked the bum
out!” The crowd recoiled, booed, and started to get
rowdy. Mack feared that he wasn’t going to be able to
get out of the building.
Before things got out of hand, Ali jumped to his
feet, put his arm around Mack, and roared with laugh-
ter. The champ explained to the crowd that every-
viii Introduction
thing was fixed. Mack’s boxing skills couldn’t hurt a
fly. The people in the audience roared, and Ali joked
andentertained, turning them quickly into a laugh-
ing, happy, wildly applauding mob. Mack was in the
center of the ring, having the time of his life.
Mack considers Ali the greatest heavyweight
boxer in history and a great entertainer. Ali combined
his great talent with showmanship to rise above all
other boxers. Above all, Ali entertained his custom-
ers, the audience. They couldn’t get enough of his
style, antics, and gimmicks. Mack left this exhibition
and hisAli match believing that entertainment had to
be apart of any business. Ali was a role model who
showed Mack firsthand how to win over an audience
by being a showman.
Although Mack couldn’t save his troubled health
clubs, he has applied the Ali-style, delight-and-enter-
tain approach to his Gallery Furniture customers. The
unique and productive retail environment Mack has
created provides stunning testimony to the power of a
single-minded focus on customer delight. Ali knew
his audience loved his audacity and ability to re-create
himself again and again. Mack has the same laser
focus on his customers, who delight in his ability to
make each trip to Gallery Furniture exciting and new.
We have conducted large and small behavioral
science studies of executives and managers from
around the world. Over 200 companies have permit-
ted us to conduct detailed scientific studies of mana-
gerial styles, characteristics, needs and motivations,
Introduction ix
emotions, and stress levels. Never have we found or
been up close to anyone like Mack. He is a force of one,
a single, unique character who happens to be one of
the most successful businessmen in the world.
We agreed to help Mack write this book to tell his
business story and to illustrate his formula and princi-
ples for success. We find in the Mack story, style and
experience, principles that are applicable in nearly any
business. Mack’s story is unique, inspirational, and in-
structional all at the same time. Readers can benefit in
many ways, professionally and personally, by examin-
ing up close how, why, when, and where Mack thinks
and operates.
Some of Mack’s behavior is not easy to imitate. At
51 years old, he still works backbreaking 16-hour days
too frequently to be admired. He is by his own admis-
sion a workaholic. He works hard and with such a
passion that it is contagious at Gallery Furniture.
Employees and ex-employees respect and love him for
being who he is, just Mack. Meet him at Gallery Furni-
ture, and he is the same as when you meet him at a
sporting event, charity dinner, or at a speech he is giv-
ing in a grade school. Mack’s expressed and executed
goal in business life is to delight customers. His simple
philosophy is:
The customer is always right. This is the enter-
tainment business. We’re here to make sure people
have fun. We don’t want them walking around like