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Life’s Problems Solved with “Simple Solutions”
By Robert Lee Long
DeSoto Times Today
More than 200 people turned out Friday, May 18 to hear Tom Schmitt and Arnold Perl, authors of “Simple Solutions” offer their insight into management maxims that keep companies and their employees focused and productive in the 21st Century workplace. Both were keynote speakers at the DeSoto County Economic Development Council’s Second Quarterly Membership Luncheon.
Schmitt is president and chief executive officer of FedEx Global Supply Chain Services, and Perl is a principal partner with Ford & Harrison LLP of Memphis, chairman of the Memphis Airport Authority and lead liaison for the construction of the FedEx Forum.
“We are two greenhorns – neither of us had ever written a book before,” Perl said. Writing a book was as much a challenge as constructing the FedEx Forum. Perl said at first he turned down his role in the FedEx Forum enterprise.
“Memphis has a sordid history of building projects,” Perl said. “They were wildly over budget and their buildings were late.”
Perl said he finally relented and agreed to head the FedEx Forum effort on his terms.
“If we were going to do it, we were going to do it right,” he said.
Perl developed a red card that laid out simple goals such as “assemble the best team” and to “be on time within budget.”
It was also important to “maximize minority participation” and to “design it right” and to “gain the public’s trust,” according to Perl.
Largely with Perl’s leadership, the FedEx Forum was finished on time, with minority participation and mostly within budget.
Schmitt said Perl’s success was a major reason he wanted to co-author the book with him.
“People who work smart typically are ambitious,” Schmitt, a naturalized American citizen and German expatriate told the crowd. “If you have clear thinking, it leads to clear and simple communication.”
Schmitt said as a young man growing up in southern Germany he listed to U. S. Armed Forces Radio. “I liked the can-do attitude of Americans,” he said. “It was always very awe-inspiring to me. I always liked the notion of reaching for the stars.”
Perl, echoing his co-writer said that same kind of “can-do” attitude was alive and well in Mississippi.
“Mississippi is such a vital part of America,” Perl said. “The proof of that is Toyota, one of the most admired organizations I have known, is coming here. The State of Mississippi is a great venue to have both Toyota and FedEx Ground.”