Case Study – Bellwether

Being Comfortable In Your Own Skin—Leadership’s Unspoken Prerequisite

Agribusinessman Chris Rufer is dominating an industry and, in the process, is turning management norms on their head.  Rufer, founder of Woodland, CA-based Morning Star, is the world’s largest tomato processor with annual revenues of $700 million. Their customers include major companies like Kraft and Frito-Lay.

It has been estimated that Morning Star, a private company owned by the Rufer family, controls approximately 40 % of the world-wide market for two essential intermediate products: tomato paste and diced tomatoes.

When it comes to tomato processing, Morning Star is the 800 pound gorilla.  Not bad for someone like Rufer who was raised in a blue-collar family in Merced, California and later earned an MBA at UCLA.  Rufer founded Morning Star in 1970 and it has been through his contrarian approach that the company has flourished.

What has enabled this eye-popping success? Morning Star is operated by ‘self-managed professionals’.   It’s Rufer’s brain-child. He considers this ‘platform’ —which, in effect, is Morning Star’s central operating system—to be Morning Star’s competitive advantage.  That belief is hard to argue with as Morning Star’s employees are off-the-charts when it comes to engagement metrics and delivering bottom-line     results.   As a result, Morning Star is able to pay 15 % above market in salary and provide a benefit package that is unsurpassed in the industry.

At Morning Star employees make all the decisions.  There are no bosses, no titles, no promotions.  If an employee needs something, they buy it—they don’t need to ask anyone.  For management junkies studying this curiously unique, world-class phenomenon, it’s nirvana. The Harvard Business Review, Forbes and other national publications have all written about Morning Star’s approach to ‘self-management’.   The company’s approach is truly fascinating having seen it first-hand when they were a client of our firm.  A quick search on Google will enable you to learn more about Morning Star or ‘self management’ should you desire.

This issue of Bellwether has as its theme ‘Leadership 2.0’.  Breaking new ground, establishing a new status-quo, shaking up an entire industry are just a few outcomes consistent with someone exhibiting ‘Leadership 2.0’.  That’s precisely what Chris has done at Morning Star.  That’s real leadership! And it’s a marvelous opportunity to learn from one extraordinary professional.

From a leadership point of view, what is it that enables someone to accomplish the types of things that Chris Rufer has?  What can we learn from Chris—and others like him? What characteristics are especially important? If you’ve read many of my previous Bellwether articles you know the importance I put on leading oneself first before leading others.  That’s what trusted professionals do.  That’s what Chris does.

After years of working with tens of thousands of professionals, I believe that the defining characteristic of the trusted professional is being comfortable in your own skin. 

What does it mean to be comfortable in your own skin? Simply said, it means that the person isn’t conflicted about the most basic tenants of their nature—their identity, if you will.  They’re not trying to be someone or something they aren’t.  Typically they hold a core set of beliefs along with specific values supporting those beliefs. They’re not phony; they’re real. Invariably they are confident, typically in an unassuming way.  If there was ever anyone who was comfortable in their own skin it is Chris Rufer.

Self-assured, unpretentious, natural, inspiring, transparent, authentic, and humble are just a few of the adjectives people use to describe those who are comfortable in their own skin. These are people who don’t obsess about what others think of them, don’t talk trash about others, aren’t trying to win popularity contests, aren’t trying to be better than anyone else, don’t measure their success against others success, aren’t swayed by whimsical social fads, and aren’t torn by the fickle winds of public opinion.

In a recent post a frustrated Alan Weiss, CEO of the Summit Consulting Group, asked why so few people are comfortable in their own skin these days.  Does it stem from the desire to fit in (i.e. conformity)?  Or perhaps it originates from a desire to be liked. These are two big drivers in my view.  Weiss continued, “The people I’ve seen become most successful are those who aren’t afraid to stand out in a crowd.”

Weiss isn’t suggesting one adopt a fashionista mind-set in the hope of developing a cadre of sycophant followers.  Rather, he’s suggesting people stand up for (and make actionable) their best ideas and heart-felt beliefs—even if it cuts against the grain of conventional wisdom, even if it isn’t popular.  That’s a professional’s way of standing out–driven from higher-order thinking.

That’s precisely what Chris has done.  Early-on Chris was “laughed out of rooms constantly” when he first sought financing for his fledgling company.  Later he was scoffed at for the seemingly high-stakes gamble he took on the grand experiment he called ‘self-management’.  Neither experience fazed Rufer in the least. He doggedly pursued what he believed in.  In the end, Rufer revolutionized his industry and turned traditional management thinking on its head.  That’s ‘Leadership 2.0’. That’s the right way for a professional to stand out.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that it has never been Rufer’s aspiration to ‘stand out’.  It’s never been about him.  Shy is a word Chris uses in describing himself.  He appears to be quite fit.  He’s a neat (but not a snappy) dresser. He’s a regular guy—until it comes to his ideas.  When expounding his point of view Chris unknowingly sucks all the air out of the room.  And when you combine that passion with his matchless personality, he’s one of the most unique people you’ll ever meet.  Whether he likes it or not, Chris—the professional– stands out.

From where I sit, Alan Weiss is right—today fewer and fewer people seem willing to take a stand on the things that they claim matter to them.  Said another way, Leadership 2.0 is alluding them.

Ask yourself, as a professional what do I stand for? My ideals with purpose, what are they? What are the value-driven things (ones bigger than myself) that mean something to me? Professional: to what degree do I feel that word describes me?  What about my colleagues, to what degree would they say that ‘professional’ describes me?

Getting answers to these questions gets you a whole lot closer to Leadership 2.0.