Please stop saying Hartford‘s a great place to re-locate ‘cause it’s halfway between Boston and New York
Here are two stories to help one think twice how Hartford thinks.
For a decade, Mohegan Sun hosted one of the biggest celebrity golf tournaments in the country—Ahmad Rashad Celebrity Classic. It was a noted stop on the Celebrity Players Tour. Michael Jordan, Bill Murray were among is A-list regulars. Our firm, Elkinson + Sloves, helped produce it.
So, when the U.S. Marine Corps at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina planned to host their own CPT tour stop, the Tour sent our agency. Camp Lejeune’s commandant—a man who commanded both respect and wonder—hosted a reception to introduce us to base and community leadership. The reception was complete with the Marines Drill Team (straight out of the opening sequence of “A Few Good Men”).
When the commandant introduced me, he commandeered the room:
“Attention please. I would like to introduce our big shot from back East!”
I politely pulled the commandant aside and said, “Sir, thank you for the kind words, but we’re just a small ad agency from Hartford.”
The commandant looked me straight in the eye. “Son,” he said quickly.
“Yes, sir,” I said even more quickly.
“Do you know what a definition of an expert is?”
“No, sir,” I said.
“Somebody from out of town,” the United States Marine Corps commandant said with full authority of his rank and position.
The commandant was right. Your zip code shouldn’t define you. Too often we short charge ourselves based on who our parents are, where we live or what college we attended.
Yet the town that gave the world Huckleberry Finn, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Samuel Colt, the airplane engine which helped save America in WWII, the nation’s first public art museum and all those NCAA Basketball Championships—and more—too often shortchanges itself.
Recently I participated in leadership discussions how to help create a unifying voice for Hartford. It was suggested that one of Hartford’s benefits is that we are strategically located half-way between Boston and New York. Remembering the commandant’s clear order, I cringed.
This is not the first time Hartford has shortchanged itself because it didn’t think our city had enough skin in the game. In 2012, the leadership charged in driving economic development for the city hired a marketing firm from Toronto, Canada to market Hartford. The irony was not lost on business leaders, who quickly slammed the brakes.
I recognize that there are times when outside “experts” are needed. But consider this: one of the most famous logos in all of sports was designed by a Bulkeley High School graduate.
The second story probably explains why the first happens.
When we founded Elkinson + Sloves in the early 1980s, the digital world was on the cusp of exploding. As young entrepreneurs, we welcomed insights no matter who offered them. We opened our doors with two clients—the state’s largest private land developer and the Hartford Whalers. The men who ran both laid out powerful career advice, “Don’t be afraid to dare greatly.”
They told us a story of the young purchasing person at a medium sized company who was charged with getting two quotes for computers. Upon selecting one of the bids, the company’s president called the young purchasing person into his office.
“Although you selected the IBM bid, clearly the other bid was superior. I am curious why?” The President asked.
The young purchasing person explained. “Yes, IBM is the biggest computer company in the world. So, if they screwed up, you wouldn’t second guess me. The other computer company was a small start-up. If I picked them and they screwed up, I would be out of a job!”
Yes, too often decisions are made based on making the safe choice rather the right choice.
So, here lies the lesson as Hartford moves forward into this new year: when you dream greatly, you must also dare greatly—regardless of one’s ZIP code or size.
This city was founded and prospered on daring greatly. Just ask Samuel Colt, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mark Twain and Frederick B. Rentschler, who dared to re-tool the Pratt & Whitney Tool Company in 1925 to become one of the world’s largest aircraft engine manufacturers. To dream greatly, each dared greatly.
Even the man who dared greatly bringing the Hartford Whalers to Hartford dared greatly hiring two young marketers even before the ink on our business cards were dry. We weren’t a brand name agency—but Whalers leadership recognized qualities that could help build their brand.
Oh, that small start-up computer company? Apple.
Jay Sloves, is founding partner of the marketing firm Elkinson + Sloves Inc.