INSPIRING PERSPECTIVES
Each Sunday, the AJC brings you insights from metro Atlanta’s leaders and entrepreneurs. Henry Unger’s “5 Questions for the Boss” reveals the lessons learned by CEOs of the area’s major companies and organizations. The column alternates with Matt Kempner’s “Secrets of Success,” which shares the vision and realities of entrepreneurs who started their dreams from scratch.
Find previous columns from Unger and Kempner at our premium website for subscribers at www.myajc.com/business.
Upset franchisees. A hostile takeover bid that failed. Declining sales in the core business. Leadership in flux.
That's what John Robinson inherited at Aaron's six months ago when he took over as CEO of the Atlanta-based rent-to-own chain.
Robinson, 43, will have to employ everything he’s learned from some highly successful entrepreneurs to stabilize and then grow Aaron’s. At $3 billion in annual revenue, it’s too early to say if he can reverse falling sales at Aaron’s retail stores while managing the growth of its Progressive Leasing operation. Robinson ran Progressive, which partners with retailers to offer lease-purchase options, before Aaron’s acquired it last year for $700 million.
Q: Where did you grow up?
A: I was born in Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta and grew up in the small town of Winder, which is about 50 miles northeast of downtown.
My family was in the apparel manufacturing business. My grandfather bought the business and my dad took it over when his dad died. My dad was in college at the time and it bothered him that he didn’t finish.
He and my mom drilled into my sister and me that education was really important. They were disciplinarians and kept us on a tight track.
Q: What else had an impact on you when you were young?
A: My dad's hobby was farming. That's a funny hobby to have because it's all about work. He'd come home from the factory and then farm, mostly soybeans and corn.
I wanted to be with my dad so I would help him fix equipment.
He really enjoyed it so I learned that it wasn’t misery to work. You see the fruits on your labor on the farm.
Q: What important experiences did you have in school?
A: I did three sports in high school — cross country, basketball and soccer.
I learned as much from sports as any academics that I took. It helped me develop self-confidence.
In college at Washington and Lee in Virginia, I ran track and played soccer.
During my freshman year, I was terrible in track. But the coach saw my desire to succeed and worked with me. I trained and trained. By my junior year, I won the 100 meters in our conference.
Q: Did you have any other important college experience?
A: Washington and Lee has a very serious honor code. It's the kind of school where you can leave $20 on a table in a public place and it will still be there at the end of the day.
There is zero tolerance for any lying, stealing or cheating. You take exams wherever you want.
It really drills ethics into you.
Q: How did you get your first job after majoring in economics there?
A: I got lucky coming out. It's a small school, so alumni are very loyal from a recruiting standpoint.
I got a job at a regional investment bank based in Richmond. It was a great way to get broad exposure to stock offerings, mergers and the business world in general, because it was much smaller than a Wall Street firm. You couldn’t hide.
I worked directly with entrepreneurs. In fact, Aaron’s founder Charlie Loudermilk was one of our customers. We were doing equity offerings for the company in the early 1990s.
Bonus questions
Q: What did you learn from the entrepreneurs?
A: Work hard, dream big.
You learn that regular guys can do great things.
I had a chance to meet Jack Taylor, who started Enterprise Rent-A-Car. He’s a gazillionaire, but he’s a down-to-earth person.
The lesson was — don’t sell yourself short.
Entrepreneurs have a vision of where they are going and that they’re on to something big. They see obstacles as opportunities.
Don’t let naysayers slow you down. For example, if people tell you “no” about getting financing, just keep working on it.
Q: Why did you leave there after two years?
A: I saw a polish that I didn't have. I eventually went to Dartmouth for an MBA and then got a job in investment banking at a large Wall Street firm.
My learning curve was steep for the first few years.
Q: What leadership lessons did you learn there?
A: After the tech bubble blew up in 2000, the market was turning down and they were cutting costs.
One day, they took the copying machines off every other floor. But then we went to a meeting just outside New York City and the senior banker took a helicopter from the office.
That was not good for morale.
Also, I never saw the CEO, except for the day of 9/11. It made an impression on me that he was so invisible.
Today, I know it’s important for me to be out in the stores, to be visible.
Q: Why did you leave?
A: I saw brutal lives there.
I looked at the guys who were 10 years ahead of me. They were my bosses. They lived outside the city. They got up at 4 in the morning and took the train in. You’re working until 10 p.m. and you’re away from your family.
I didn’t see that as the life I wanted. I’d rather not be a cog in the wheel at a big place. I had an entrepreneurial side.
Q: What did you do?
A: My wife and I wanted to get back to Georgia. A friend of mine had a brokerage firm in Savannah that I went to work for.
He had a good business, but at the end of the day I couldn’t get the whole entrepreneurial thing out of my blood that I saw from Charlie Loudermilk, Jack Taylor, my dad and others. I wanted to be one of those guys.
Q: What happened?
A: In Savannah, I met Tracy Young, the founder and CEO of TitleMax. I immediately clicked with him. He was trying to raise money because he was growing so fast and he needed talent to grow the business.
Even though I had no experience, I got lucky. He took a flier on me.
He wanted someone with high potential who could learn the business the way he wanted me to learn it. I did not have any preconceived notions.
Q: What did you do?
A: Tracy put me in stores in the Savannah area. I started as a customer service representative, then assistant store manager and store manager.
He kept a close eye on me. He would show up in the stores and take me to lunch to discuss the business.
Eventually, I would shadow him more and more as I got promoted to district manager, chief operating officer and president.
We were growing like crazy, from about 100 stores when I started in 2004 to more than 800 stores when I left at the end of 2011.
Q: What contributed to the growth?
A: We charged less than our competitors to get repeat business.
We clustered stores in different markets and created a brand.
We hired people who could deliver consistent execution.
Q: What do you look for when hiring managers?
A: I look for a corporate athlete, somebody who has a lot of desire and will do what it takes to succeed.
They could be from a sports background or some other background showing they worked well on a team.
During an interview, if someone talks about what he or she did, I would be less impressed than if the person talks about what “we” did. How did other people help this person be successful and how did this person help others be successful?
Q: What is your management style?
A: Give people room to make mistakes and then address the issue.
Don’t be afraid to talk to someone about a mistake or about underperformance. I think the biggest mistake managers make is not doing that.
I made mistakes and learned the hard way that ignoring a problem will not make it better. It will only get worse.
Q: After TitleMax, you became CEO of Progressive Leasing and now you’re leading Aaron’s. Consumer advocates say all three companies take advantage of low-income customers by charging very high interest rates and engaging in other questionable practices. How do you respond?
A: There's a lot of criticism of businesses that work with a cash-constrained customer.
My response is for them to go to work in a store. The success of the business comes from customers who come back and use you again or refer someone else to you. If you don’t have that, you won’t have a sustainable business.
Ultimately, the lease-purchase businesses are serving a need.
For example, prime retailers would not even consider an Aaron’s customer, who generally would have a credit score below 600. A traditional retailer focuses on credit scores of roughly 680 to 850.
Q: You joined Aaron’s at a chaotic time. How do you get beyond that?
A: I've got to ask a lot of questions and listen.
Even though CEOs have a high sense of urgency when it comes to dealing with problems, I’ve tried to resist the urge to fix things right away.
You have to establish open communication with the franchisees, the board, employees and Charlie.
Charlie ran the business for 60 years. He’s one of a kind. (Former CEO) Ron Allen took a lot of kicks in the press, but you just don’t replace a one-of-a-kind person like Charlie.
Q: How are you going to try?
A: I have to get into the stores and meet with people.
If I’m in this office a lot, I’m not doing my job.
