chutz•pah (hut’-spä) n.: supreme self-confidence.
Synonyms: audacity, presumption, sauciness.
—Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary
One publisher I worked for pioneered a whole new magazine genre. Another took on the city’s daily newspaper monopoly and thrived. A third succeeded by turning green, “general assignment” newspaper reporters into financial journalists.
These leaders all accomplished great things thanks to guts and foresight—chutzpah, if you will. They had a unique ability to see what others didn’t, then to act on the vision to their companies’ benefit.
You might think of the concept as “thinking outside the box”—is there a more tiresome cliché these days, though?—but it’s really more than that. Plenty of people can come up with new ideas; far fewer can execute them with such skill that names are made and markets are changed.
Two of the people we write about in this issue—Trisha Wilson and Ed Bailey—know a thing or three about chutzpah as well. That’s why I believed their fascinating stories were so worth telling in D CEO.
Consider Wilson, a Dallas native who’s built one of the most respected and successful architectural-design firms in the world. As Mary Candace Evans explains beginning on page 26, Wilson comes from a relatively humble background—indeed, from a “dysfunctional family.” Yet her rise to the top of her profession began very un-humbly, with a bold, unapologetic combination of confidence and bluster.
Early on, Wilson wrote out of the blue to one of Dallas’ leading developers, bragging about her (then-unproven) design abilities. When the developer rolled the dice and took a chance on her, she was able to back up her bluff. Later, in a scene worthy of a TV sitcom, Wilson lured another big client by pretending to own a large, busy office, complete with a brace of friends acting like her employees.
Sometimes, Wilson knew instinctively, it takes a little “creativity” to get your foot in the door. After that, of course, you’ve got to come through with the goods—something she’s done for decades in spades.
Like Wilson, local restaurateur Ed Bailey has succeeded by following his own instincts—by spurning the safe route. As Trey Garrison writes starting on page 34, the Midwestern-born Bailey served in the U.S. Marine Corps and owned a clothing store before moving to North Texas, where he became one of the largest McDonald’s franchisees in the country.
While most McDonald’s stores hew to the company formula—good, inexpensive food in a pleasant if barebones atmosphere—Bailey decided to “upscale” his outlets with crystal chandeliers, Ralph Lauren artwork, and cobblestone drive-through lanes. “It was a radical concept, I guess,” Bailey says. “People like to eat and come back to a place that’s nice.”
In addition to that innovation, Bailey was one of the first McDonald’s franchisees to recognize the increasingly important role played by the company’s Hispanic work force. He persuaded McDonald’s to create Spanish-language training materials for his Hispanic employees, then paid hundreds of those workers (so far) to learn English as a second language.
Bailey and Wilson, it seems to me, exemplify the sort of accomplished, farsighted CEOs who’ve long made North Texas such a dynamic, innovative place to do business. May they never lose their chutzpah.
