Ross and Me
It is good to have Ross Perot as my business partner-most days.
(Page 2 of 4)
Tuesday, March 8
Perot’s response to the request that he sign a confidentiality agreement was swift and gruff: “I don’t sign those agreements!” People have him sign those agreements, he said, and then they sue him. No, I would just have to take his word. Chastened by the intimation that I had breached some sacred trust between prospective business partners, I agreed to accept his promise of confidentiality in place of a written agreement.
When I called Cook to relay my agreement with Perot, he told me that Perot’s financial investment adviser, Steve Blasnik, had already called, saying they would sign the agreement after all. Another test.
Monday, March 21
Blasnik called today to tell me that Perot’s patent attorneys had reviewed the patent applications and didn’t believe that a strong patent would be granted. Since a lesser patent would be worthless—virtually no protection for the venture—he had advised Perot not to participate. The deal was off.
Monday, May 23
It took me a while to decide what to do. Over the next few months, I wrote Perot a series of letters, culminating with one that said, “I apologize for my persistence. If you don’t admire persistence, I suppose you won’t admire me. … You would not have built your business on the basis of a patent. You would have built it on the basis of being the best.”
I copied the letter to Nancy.
Thursday, May 26
Nancy called today. She said that she and her father were impressed with my determination and would like to be partners with me after all. This roller coaster business deal was beginning to upset my equilibrium. Oh, she added almost apologetically, we will need to run a background check on you. She asked for a list of former employers.
Thursday, November 10
After months of negotiations between the lawyers, Perot and I finally signed an agreement to be fifty-fifty partners in Total Top, Inc. The company would sublet space from my brother in a building about a mile from Perot’s offices. Perot asked me to fire my patent lawyers and use his, the firm of Hughes and Luce. I did. I was not asked to take a drug test, for which Perot is well-known as stickler, but the background check was done. We were now ready to get Total Top to market.
PARTNERS
Monday, December 12
Perot is taking an active role in Total Top’s development. Although I deal most often with Blasnik, Perot and I talk on the phone regularly. Consultants tell us that it will take at least five years to move the product from development to market, but it is our goal to do it in two years or less and to take the company public at some point in the future.
Much to my delight, we have been approached by the largest paper cup companies in the world. Apparently their fast-food customers have learned of the lid and are inquiring about it. The cup companies are pressing us for exclusive development and distribution deals.
To my dismay, Perot said that he rarely enters into exclusive arrangements with anyone, much less a cup company; their interests are never the same as ours. With the exclusive rights that they were clamoring for, he explained, they could easily shelve Total Top to protect the market for their own plastic lids. I could see his point, but I was more than a little alarmed when Perot’s intransigent bargaining position—he would have required them to sell as many of our lids as they were then selling of their plastic ones—made it impossible to complete a deal. “If they want to be a champion of Total Top, they have to be the champion of Total Top,” he would tell me.
Although risking the loss of these companies’ business made me, as a neophyte businessman, nervous, I reminded myself whom I was working with. If Ross Perot said we should deal directly with the customers, maximize the price, and make more money, who was I to argue?
Friday, May 24, 1989
We unveiled the Total Top lid and automatic dispensing machine to the fast-food industry at the National Restaurant Association Trade Show in Chicago. Perot did not go with us to the show because we wanted people to come to our booth to see Total Top, not H. Ross Perot. It was a watershed event for the product—an overwhelming success. We were rushed by all the major players of the soft-drink and fast-food empires. The lid’s improved design promised to be a boon to beverage sales at fast-food establishments, where soft drinks command the largest profit margin of any item on the menu. Even American Airlines wanted to know if there was a place for Total Top on its in-flight meal trays.
Monday, August 28
We received informal notification that the patent for the lid would be granted, and Perot called from his large, luxurious, if somewhat dated, 1969 Gulfstream jet, the office in the sky he had purchased from Southland Corporation: “Congratulations! I hope we get along as well thirty years from now as we do today.”
Wednesday, November 22
Another important milestone for the company: Along with several associates, I have developed a second function for the lid—a cup with the lid attached, a single, spill-proof unit. The advantage is ease of use for the fast-food operator and a considerable savings of space and handling time. Perot thinks it is the greatest thing since the invention of the bread twisty—the ultimate compliment—and he insists that we file an immediate Thanksgiving Eve patent application.
Friday, November 24
Perot, Blasnik, and I want to transfer the management of the company’s day-to-day operations to his organization, the Perot Group. We have been looking for a CEO to replace me, all according to our original long-range plans. In the past four months, we have interviewed many candidates for the job, from former presidents of Frito-Lay and Burger King to a few vice presidents of General Foods. For one reason or another, Perot found something to disqualify each one of them. He didn’t feel like he could work with any of them.
Of course, Perot was an intimidating interviewer for even the most seasoned applicant. He called me once, after interviewing a former CEO of a Fortune 500 company with whom I had been favorably impressed. “Very sharp guy,” he reported, “but he acts as if he’s got poison ivy when he’s around me. Very jittery. I couldn’t work with him on a daily basis.” I had to wonder whether that poor guy’s case of nerves had anything to do with the fact that Perot had arrived for the interview by private helicopter, alighting right outside the conference room where the applicant waited.
Monday, December 18
Perot called to tell me that he had hired a fellow by the name of T. J. Marquez to work with me on the project. T.J. is the son of one of Perot’s first Electronic Data Systems employees, Tom Marquez. T.J. told me a terrific story about the day he was born: His father and Perot were in a meeting with Frito-Lay, negotiating one of EDS’s first multimillion-dollar deals, when word came in that Tom’s wife had gone into labor. Tom, caught up in the high-level negotiations, said he didn’t want to leave until after the meeting. Perot, the story goes, told Tom that he was fired unless he left immediately to be with his wife. Since T.J. was born on the day EDS consummated this major deal with Frito-Lay, Perot regards him as something of a good luck charm.
Thursday, February 1, 1990
T.J. came to work today after spending a week with Perot, learning the ropes. I was surprised to learn that even he was required to take the obligatory drug test.
Thursday, April 5
It is not unusual now for executed contracts from major soft-drink and packaging companies to arrive by Federal Express, followed in close pursuit by signed papers from their competitors. Things are going unbelievably well for the company, and I am having the time of my life working with Ross Perot.
I am considering calling him Ross, instead of the “Mr. Perot” that seemed so appropriate—even obligatory—at first. Perot and I have an easy working relationship. He has a strong opinion about almost everything and usually introduces an idea or suggestion with a “Don’t you think we ought to do X?” I am no longer intimidated by him. I feel that he is impressed with my job performance so far, and I have no problem disagreeing with him. I think he respects me for it. Perot dislikes people who are cowed by him.
Working with Perot on a regular basis has been an MBA course in how to amass wealth and hold on to it. Perot has a hands-on business style. It is not his style to govern by written memo; when I need to consult with him, we speak in person or by phone. Perot makes his decisions on the spot. Never has he taken anything under advisement.
My Library
