A Hole In the Clouds by Maryles Casto

Author:Maryles Casto
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Silicon Valley Press
Published: 2021-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Loyalty

If Andy’s heart was gold, his loyalty was steel.

At one point, Casto Travel lost a large portion of the Intel account to a bigger agency, based in South Dakota, owned by Hal Rosenbluth, whom I knew from the industry. Soon after, Robert Wise, director of The Sound of Music, was coming to San Jose for an event celebrating the film. I arranged to host a dinner party for him and Millicent, his wife, at my house. I invited two vice presidents of United Airlines to attend, and in the spirit of friendly competition, I called Hal Rosenbluth and said, “Hal, Andy and Eva Grove are coming to dinner at my place. If you want, come on out and join us.” He was so excited that he immediately booked a flight from Rapid City.

We had the dinner party outside, and I purposely sat Andy beside Hal so they could meet in person. Well, just as they were starting the pleasantries, the men from United Airlines showed up, saw Andy chatting with Hal, and pulled me aside, demanding, “What’s going on?”

I explained, “Hal now has the Intel corporate account, but I’m still working with the VIPs.”

They were stunned. One asked, “Why would you invite your replacement to such an important dinner party?”

Before I could answer, I heard Andy ask, “So, what do you do, Hal?”

Hal replied, “Well, I’m the president and owner of Rosenbluth, your new travel agency.”

Andy looked at Hal as if he’d said he was from Mars, then he said firmly, “You’re not my agent.” He pointed at me. “This is my agent, and that’s not going to change.”

That’s the kind of loyalty Andrew Grove had for his friends.

He’d signed on as Casto’s first client because he knew I would take good care of him. But somewhere along the way, his concern shifted from securing a perfectly executed travel plan to the success of Casto Travel. He became one of my strongest advocates and closest advisers.

Back to the question I never answered that night: Why did I invite Hal Rosenbluth to my dinner party? Because he earned it. His firm had won the Intel contract fair and square. The simple facts were that Intel was now a global firm, Casto Travel wasn’t big enough to serve the company properly, and Rosenbluth Travel was.

Besides, we had kept the Intel VIPs, and that’s where the big profits were—not just in business trips but in personal travel. Rosenbluth was left with a huge number of potential employee clients, but given they all would be traveling coach, Hal would have to make his profits in volume. So, why fight? Both of us could do a better job—and learn from each other—by working together. Meanwhile, Intel received from the two of us the best possible service.

Lesson: You can never provide customers with the best possible service by yourself—you can only do so by working with others, including your competitors.

I had another reason for welcoming Rosenbluth to Intel: Casto had become too dependent on their business.

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