Still, there is an aftermath. Stack has become a local hero. The folks at the United Way and the Chamber of Commerce have asked him to join, and he is getting three requests per month to talk, compared with maybe three per year before.
According to Debbi Fields, that goes with the territory. Fields, whose high profile is due to many things -- she's a woman running a $118-million company, her name is on the store, and she's young and pretty -- says the secret to handling all this attention is keeping it in perspective.
"I don't see myself as 'Mrs. Fields.' I'm Debbi Fields, and there is a big difference."
But not to many people. "By being Mrs. Fields, you are totally accountable for everything that happens in the stores. If a cookie is overdone, or someone is unhappy about our service, it's my fault. That's the way it should be. I want to know about it."
But most of the time, the comments are positive and the attention flattering. At the request of Simon & Schuster, last year -- at the age of 30 -- she wrote her autobiography, One Smart Cookie. (The message: if you concentrate on customer service, quality, and can-do spirit, you can accomplish anything. The royalties went to charity.) She finds the requests to do speeches, interviews, and sign autographs "exciting and flattering."
As do all the folks who have been discovered. They point out that this is more fun than bothersome, and they go out of their way to make sure it will continue. All the people in this story responded to an interview request within hours, were willing to rearrange their schedules to answer questions and fit in photo sessions, and if something needed a bit of research before they could provide an answer, it was supplied the next day.
Part of this is just good manners. But it is more than that. Good manners may have called for Stew Leonard to meet a reporter at the door. He didn't have to put the name of the reporter's magazine in 25-foot lights on the electronic billboard that usually displays the prices of eggs and vegetables.
Good manners may have required Stack to keep playing telephone tag with a writer. But he didn't have to leave a message at the writer's home saying he was worried that the writer might be on deadline, leaving his home number with the message "You can call me until 11 p.m."
And good manners may have required that someone send off a copy of Debbi Fields's book, when a reporter told her assistant that he needed it for fact-checking purposes, but it didn't have to be sent via Federal Express and include a personal dedication.
No, this is more than good manners. It is an implicit understanding that fame can be fleeting; maybe not as short as the 15 minutes Andy Warhol promised everyone, but short nonetheless.
Consider Sandra Kurtzig.
Between 1983 and 1985, Kurtzig, founder of ASK Computer Systems Inc., was written up some 53 times in major newspapers and national magazines. Back then computers were hot. Enterpreneurs were hot. Women in business were hot. Kurtzig was a natural.
Then Kurtzig, who intended ASK to be only a part-time job while she raised her two sons, turned over the running of the company to someone else (although she remained chairman), and the stories stopped.
So did the attention.
Here is what happened when a writer telephoned ASK's Mountain View, Calif., headquarters not long ago, trying to find her.
"Hello, ASK Computer Systems."
"Sandra Kurtzig, please."
"Who?
"Sandra Kurtzig. K-U-R-T-Z-I-G."
"Oh." (Long pause.) "She's like the chairman or something, right?"
"Right. Is she there?"
"No."
"Do you know where I can reach her?"
"No, but maybe somebody at the corporate offices does. I can give you that number."
Sic transit gloria mundi.
* * *
Research assistance was provided by Leslie Brokaw.
STATISTICS
CARL SEWELL
Home: Dallas
Age: 45
Occupation: President, Sewell Village Cadillac. Owns three car dealerships in Dallas and one in New Orleans
Discovered: Tom Peters's syndicated newspaper column, in 1985
If there's one thing I've learned in life, it's: Treat the customer like you would like to be treated
My heroes are: My dad and Stanley Marcus
Last book read: The Icarus Agenda, by Robert Ludlum
I never could: Talk Cadillac into Grand Prix racing
Quote: "We like giving tours. It has gotten so that we have to schedule them. But if someone shows up without an appointment, and just has to be shown around, we'll do it."
STEW LEONARD
Home: Westport, Conn.
Age: 58
Occupation: Chairman, Stew Leonard's, a Norwalk, Conn., dairy store that grosses $100 million annually
Discovered: The New York Times, June 1983
If there's one thing I've learned in life, it's: Don't walk away from negative people . . . RUN!
My hero is: Walt Disney
Last book read: Thriving on Chaos, by Tom Peters (he's in it)
I never could: Have done it without the inspiration of my wife, Marianne
Quote: "Rule number one, the customer is always right. Rule number two, if the customer is ever wrong, reread rule number one." While many companies say this, Leonard has it chiseled on a 6,000-pound piece of granite that sits in the front of his store.
DEBBI FIELDS
Home: Park City, Utah
Age: 31
Occupation: "Head cookie-baker," president, and chief executive officer of Mrs. Fields Inc., which runs a chain of more than 400 stores that recorded $118 million in revenues last year
Discovered: INC., July 1984
If there's one thing I've learned in life, it's: Good enough never is
My hero is: Mr. Applebaum, my English teacher, who believed in me and challenged my mind
Last book read: Marketing Warfare, by Al Ries and Jack Trout
I never could: Compromise
Quote: "There is no such thing as an insignificant human being. To treat people that way is a kind of sin and there's no reason for it. None."
JACK STACK
Home: Springfield, Mo.
Age: 39
Occupation: President, Springfield Remanufacturing Center Corp., a $42-million former division of International Harvester
Discovered: The Wall Street Journal, February 1983
If there's one thing I've learned in life, it's: Always be prepared to go backward
My hero is: John Galt (a character in Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand)
Last book read: The Goal: The Process of Ongoing Improvement, by Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox
I never could: Take myself seriously
Quote: "The hard thing is to say no to people who want you to join boards or serve on committees. You'd like to do everything, but you just can't. And no matter how you explain it, some people will take your saying no personally."
