The Traditional Script: Just Flip It

Maria Shriver interviews philanthropist Wallis Annenberg and wows on the cover of the special October “L.A. Woman” issue of Los Angeles magazine.

When everybody expects you to do one thing, do something else.

Hosting Howard Schultz with Peet’s Coffee

I had a chance to attend the Los Angeles leg of Howard Schultz’s national book tour this morning for “Onward: How Starbucks Fought for Its Life without Losing Its Soul” (thanks, Larry Benet).

As I’ve mentioned here before, I’m a big admirer of Schultz’s leadership style and corporate vision. No executive is better at communicating core values and articulating the importance of balancing profit motive and purpose motive.  Whenever I hear him speak — and today was no exception — I’m struck by his authenticity and conviction. You can tell that he leads with his truth and believes in the values his company stands for.

That said, nobody that incisive can escape a touch of perfectionism. I suspect he is a perfectionist (we can sniff out our own) and I know he is a brand control freak so it must have just killed him that the event producers served Peet’s Coffee during the pre-event reception. Yes, that’s right. They hosted Howard Schultz with Peet’s Coffee.

Everyone was whispering about it. Not sure who should have caught that minor detail, except for everyone working on the event in any capacity. I even overheard a member of the security team joking about it with an usher while people were filing into the auditorium.

Someone asked Schultz about the oversight during the Q&A session, and he said exactly what I was expecting, “When I saw that they were serving Peet’s Coffee, I almost turned around and left.”

Schultz spoke about the word “love” today and what it means for someone to love what they do, to love the company they work for, to love a brand and what it stands for.

When it comes to brand management, love is in the details. You just can’t miss those kind of details.
-Matthew DiGirolamo, Cause Catalysts
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- Matthew DiGirolamo

A Tribute to R. Sargent Shriver (1915-2011)

I was in Washington, DC last week helping the Shriver Family memorialize and celebrate the monumental life of their father and grandfather, R. Sargent Shriver. It was one of the most meaningful experiences of my personal and professional life. I’ve always been idealistic, but I learned from the life of this great man how to more fully live those ideals.

Sargent Shriver’s legacy stands as a towering example of the power of public service.

He was a man who believed with all of his heart that government (now a dirty word) could be bold and innovative, could promote human dignity, and could be a positive and transformative force in people’s lives.

He was America’s social conscience who focused his purpose, passion and power on championing our country’s highest ideals and caring for the poor, the disabled, the disadvantaged and the downtrodden.

He has left an indelible mark on our country through the countless social programs and organizations that he inspired, directed or founded, including Head Start, VISTA, Job Corps, Community Action, Upward Bound, Foster Grandparents, Special Olympics, the National Center on Poverty Law, Legal Services, and the Peace Corps, for which he served as the program’s first director under President Kennedy.

I spoke to a Peace Corps alumnus at the funeral mass in Potomac, Maryland who said that his service decades earlier was the high-water mark of his life, the thing he was most proud of. And to think that more than 200,000 Americans have served oversees through the program. And that is just one of the social innovations for which Sarge could take credit.

I came home from the wake and funeral mass inspired to be a better man — to work harder, live larger, dream bigger, love better and leave my own legacy.

And now, I’m reading his extraordinary biography.

If you would like to leave your own tribute to Sargent Shriver, you can do so at his memorial website.
-Matthew DiGirolamo, Cause Catalysts
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UPDATE: In 1967, Sargent Shriver returned to his alma mater, Yale University, to deliver a speech at the Yale Daily News Banquet. In it, he said this:

If those are problems that are bothering you, they are the same ones that bother me, also. The question is, what can we do about it?
Down through history, men have been asking that question. One of the clearest answers was given by Plato 2300 years ago: “you cannot make people good; the most you can do is create the conditions in which the good life can be lived.”
But how will these conditions be created? How can we create a world where every man can obtain what he needs — and be free to pursue the happiness he wants.
One way is, to concentrate as much time, money and talent on social inventions as we now spend on social diversions.

Decades later, I say, amen.