Breakfast with Herb & Mike

Let us define ingenuity as imagination in action. North Country small businesses are known for taking a kernel of an idea and turning it into a viable business. When the team of Strictly Business decided to “build this edition,” we looked to some small contractors in our region to help us “build an addition.” At Breakfast with Herb and Mike, inspired by ingenuity, the stories continue...

Mike: I drove by the buildings we used to own on Bridge Street recently and that got me to thinking about the time we moved Northeast Printing from that location to a larger building at the corner of McDonough and Macomb Streets. I had just started working with you and you charged me with overseeing the move.

Herb: You had a background in logistics, so I thought you were the best choice.

Mike: That background came from delivering furniture in New York City for a company in New Milford, Connecticut where I was living at the time. Each morning, we would load the truck, navigate traffic into the city and find a place to park. We delivered all kinds of things, from high-end to knock-down furniture, which mean we often delivered to multi story walk ups. One delivery I remember well was a pool table we needed to get to a fifth-floor apartment. When we got there, we discovered there was no elevator and it wouldn’t fit in the stair well. We came up with a solution to take out a window and use ropes to raise it up. It was jobs like that that taught me how to work smart, not hard.

At the time of our move, Northeast had about a dozen employees so I knew I’d have plenty of help. Since the new site was only five blocks away, I decided we would move most of our equipment with forklifts and use skates and a rigging system to move the larger equipment.

Herb: The day of the move, I was in my new office when a forklift, loaded high, drove by the window. To say I was not happy would be an understatement. I was the retired police chief. I knew what the laws were that governed driving unregistered vehicles on city streets.

Mike: I guess I hadn’t mentioned that part of my plan to you. My goal was to get us moved and set up to be operational in short order. I never was much of a rule follower, so it seemed like the best idea at the time. What happened next? I don’t recall.

Herb: I got up, drove to Dunkin’ Donuts, got a cup of coffee, and went to visit an old friend for a few hours. I figured that would give me plausible deniability if there were problems. But there weren’t any. Your plan was a good one, even if it did circumvent the law. The move took less time than I expected and you saved the company a significant amount of money. It was the first time I had seen you in action on a big project and I was impressed.

Now, more than 25 years later, there isn’t anyone I know who can look at a project or a problem and figure out how to deal with it better than you can. Your understanding of people and logistics has been a major asset to the company’s growth and I am so proud of the leader you have become.