Twelve years ago, when I first attended the ESRI/UC, I was surprised to see Jack Dangermond greeting each and every entrant to the kick-off party at the Marriott Hotel, welcoming them to the evening’s festivities with a warm smile and greeting, standing solo in the doorway. The event has grown far to large for this to happen, but the desire to connect with each individual attendee is apparent in how the man addresses users, and interacts with them throughout the event.
His energy, and desire to connect and help solve user’s issues, is unflagging despite an astoundingly heavy schedule at the event. I’ve felt privileged to speak to him briefly at every event in his glassed space where meetings revolve every 15 minutes. With such high demand, it’s inevitable that he runs a bit late, but yet he maintains a high one-on-one focus during each encounter, seemingly unpressed by the time constraints upon his day.
In today’s meeting our conversation was interrupted by someone he just had to say hello to. When Jack lit up and went to the door to greet someone, I expected to see a dignitary or someone that I would recognize. Instead, it was one of the uniformed white gloved door greeters with whom he’d bonded. He greeted the older gentleman warmly and thanked him for his service, with absolutely no agenda other than maintaining a connection from years ago.
This desire for a deep and meaningful connection has served the company well. The user-focused approach is strong within the company, with relationships between both users and partners of high priority. There are no user problems too small, and no hard problems that GIS can help solve that Jack doesn’t want to support.
If there happens not to be a budget, or no immediate hope of software licenses for a problem that is close at hand, there is often the offer for free software and support. There is a faith that if the problem is eased through the application of GIS, then the relationship will bear revenue in the future. The first priority is to support the issue, and the work of those that wish to use GIS to address it.
It’s refreshing to think that a strong business can be built upon this unflagging desire to support users in their pursuit of problem solving. Certainly there are other competitive aspects of the organization that have set this company apart, but the foundation is built upon the company’s unflagging desire to see GIS make a difference in the world, and its desire to build a community of passionate users.
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Jack is indeed a gentle man as well as a gentleman. I remember a minute-long meeting squeezed between calls to Kofi Annan and Benazir Bhuto. His office is a museum of trophies and honours, tho I wager staff put it there not him. While Laura drove a BMW 5 series, he drove a Taurus stationwagon (mind you Scott drove a ’63 Falcon, I think).