1

“A” Game

Alex checked his reflection in the full‐size mirror by the front door one more time. He couldn't remember exactly when the navy blue sports coat and white dress shirt became his uniform, but it has become his signature look, and it suited him well. The look always reminded Alex of how far he had come. He headed outside, and his Tesla reacted as he got closer to the car. He settled into the driver's seat and reversed down the long stone driveway, wove through the perfectly manicured streets of his gated community, and waved at Gertie at the guard gate before turning onto the main road. He always says hi to everyone, whether a resident or a worker, rich or poor. Alex believed that you shouldn't just communicate with people; you should connect with everyone. The most important thing in the world to Alex is people.

Years ago, when he was looking for office space, two things were important to him. One was being close to home, which benefited him and his family, and two was that it had a lot of windows that benefited his teammates at work. He wanted his culture to feel open and free so everyone could enjoy working together and enjoy life. Alex devoted his day to taking care of all his people. The office on Gardner Street was the perfect fit. The open‐concept space featured exposed brick walls, trendy lounge furniture in the center, and private offices and conference rooms settled behind floor‐to‐ceiling glass walls. The laptop‐friendly workstations built into the wall and designed to look like classic workbenches were Alex's favorite feature. He wanted his office to feel like a really cool home‐away‐from‐home for all his teammates to enjoy.

It was Saturday morning, so the office was quieter and slower than usual, but there were still a few people buzzing around the space. He didn't ever have to ask anyone to work extra, come in early, or work weekends. Everyone sort of did this on their own. It was part of the culture from day one. Everyone, for the most part, was completely dialed in and connected to the business. Alex built an amazing business from humble beginnings using some simple but non‐negotiable strategies.

Alex walked into the first conference room and checked his watch—8:30 a.m. All his regional managers would arrive in the next hour. Alex was a simple man and found security being where he needed to be long before anyone else. He wanted that to bleed through his culture. He was a stickler for time. On time is late, and early is on time was his favorite mantra. He paced the room, carefully pushing in the chairs, adjusting the table slightly, and checking his reflection again in the large window overlooking the parking lot.

Alex believed in meetings. He didn't believe in long meetings, but he believed in getting the team together as much as he could face‐to‐face. He loved Zoom too if it meant his team could talk and stay connected. But his face‐to‐face meetings were his favorite, and he didn't mind the extra expense; he thought it was well worth it.

All of his meetings were run the same way on purpose and didn't involve a lot of preparation. Everyone knew the basic template. Alex didn't like surprises, so his meetings were run very efficiently, and the rhythm of them was predictable. His regional managers grew to love the predictability of his meetings and knew the flow very well. Everything was mapped out, and every regional manager knew the expectation of how to run their region. These meetings could practically run themselves.

Alex started with one store but now owned 150 stores with 2,000 employees that brought in more than $300 million in revenue. He believed each store needed its own dedicated crew of about 12–15 people. The goal was to build a perfectly constructed team that operated at a championship level. The crew was what made each store tick. This meeting with his 16 regional managers was everything to Alex. Each regional manager had the task of recruiting, developing, and retaining top talent and building each crew at each store they managed. It was the only meeting he ran himself. This one was his pride and joy, and he felt it was his most critical meeting to keep his team and culture strong and positioned for growth.

He looked up when he heard a knock at the conference room door. Two tiny, uniformed women with large rolling carts stood smiling in the doorway. He ushered them in and helped them set up the goodies in the middle of the table. Two boxes of bagels, two dozen donuts, three trays of muffins, three portable cardboard containers filled with black coffee, a few flavored creamers, napkins, plates, and two bowls of assorted fruits. He looked at the table and hoped it would be enough for the 16 attendees; he always struggled with estimating how much he'd need for events like this. Alex had placed the order with the local breakfast cafe the night before with special instructions to have it delivered by 9:15 a.m. and “don't forget the vegan and the gluten‐free people!”

He tipped the women generously and went about setting up the breakfast foods in a precise and organized manner. After a few minutes of rearranging the food on the table, the first wave of regional managers began to arrive. Ben from region 3 and Carla from region 4 walked in and greeted Alex with firm handshakes and a smile.

Alex, known for his simple but powerful ideas, created a way to differentiate their stores from any other brand and each store from another. He created a numbering system where he classified each region based on the sequence of when the store opened. The lower the region number, the longer it's been open.

The others arrived quickly after, and the conference room began buzzing with quiet conversations. Alex loved it. He would join in and chit‐chat often but just loved to observe his work family coming together. Everyone helped themselves to plates loaded with breakfast treats and found their seat around the conference table. Alex looked around at his team of regional managers and felt a sense of pride. The co‐leaders and teammates of his winning team had arrived.

Everyone was happy, smiling, and interacting with each other, just like it was a family reunion. Culture, his people, and team pride were everything to Alex. He let them connect for as long as possible and then brought the meeting to order. Alex believed the time to connect with your peers socially was critical to the brand, and although he never said it publicly, he thought it was the most important part of the meeting.

He kept his meeting short because the real reunion would happen after the regional meeting at the bar located right across the street from the office. The bar loved Alex, and Alex loved the bar. He kept a running tab, and his team could just sign for the drinks or food, and the bar billed Alex once a month. It was just another small detail that made Alex lovable to his teammates. He was the employer of choice, and it was easy to see why once you joined Alex and his team, you were a teammate for life. He was always looking for ways to take care of his people.

Almost 20 years ago, he had taken a chance and invested his life savings, his very last dime, into a hardware store in the quaint downtown area near his home in San Jose. That was store 1. Now, Alex was the owner of 150 stores around the region and took pride in hiring the best of the best to run each location. Alex took it upon himself to recruit and select each regional manager himself. He knew these hires were his most critical hires, they needed to be the right kind of leader with the right kind of heart. His company was known as a dream job and routinely found a place on the “Best Places to Work” list in almost every business publication.

He loved telling the story about how he was writing his business plan and had to come up with a name for this hardware store he never knew he was going to start. He tossed around a ton of ideas, but nothing seemed to fit. And then, when he couldn't possibly think anymore and needed to walk away from it for a bit, he tossed his shirt into the dirty hamper and was getting ready to jump in the shower. He looked quickly at his reflection, and his eyes shot directly to the tattoo of a redwood on his arm. It was a tribute to his mentor, Mr. Hank. There was a meaning and a story behind the redwood tree, and Alex got the tattoo on the first anniversary of Mr. Hank's death. Redwood Hardware, Alex decided. Perfect. Over time, the chain became known as Red's throughout the community, but the story and meaning behind the name were always very special to Alex.

Alex believed in “owners” and that everyone who works for him should own something. Alex always said, “Owners stay longer than renters.” He decided against the franchise model, but every one of his regional managers and store managers share in the profits. It had been a while since he brought all of his regional store managers together, but before he went on vacation, he wanted to get them together to express his gratitude for their hard work over the last year and create a space for authentic conversation, as well as feedback, questions, and concerns. Alex was thrilled with where business was now, but the vision was for a national footprint, so he couldn't afford to become complacent.

Alex believed in slow and steady growth just like a tree. He believed that if you planted it in the perfect place, it would thrive, and if...