Giezeman was born and raised in the Netherlands. (His odd accent is part Dutch, part Dixie.) He landed at the University of Georgia in 1978 on a foreign-study program, stayed to get his M.B.A., and afterward joined Rental Uniform Service -- one of the 10 largest companies in the $3-billion uniform-rental industry. In 1985, with $15,000 of his own savings, a bank loan, and help from relatives in the Netherlands (who became silent partners), Giezeman acquired Searcy Industrial Laundry from its owner, who was ready to retire. It was exactly what Giezeman was after: a tired little company in the business he knew best, just begging for his undivided attention. The fact that it was located in charmless, out-of-the-way Searcy, Ark. -- with its fast-food strip, its dusty denominational college (Harding University), and its 24-hour Wal-Mart -- was irrelevant. Giezeman was looking to make a life, not settle into one.
Under Giezeman and his wife, Kathy, a business-school classmate, Searcy Industrial Laundry has prospered. Annual sales have risen sevenfold, to more than $5 million, with pretax profits approaching 10%. The silent partners were bought out years ago. Today the company is the largest independent industrial laundry in Arkansas. But that doesn't mean Giezeman's been able to relax. All along, he's been watching with a growing sense of dread as other independent operators fall (sometimes willingly) before a powerful wave of consolidation. That's not the future Giezeman wants for his company or for himself. He comes from a line of launderers five generations long; if he were to sell his company now, he wouldn't know what else to do. But his determination doesn't stem entirely from his need to uphold the Giezeman family legacy. It's also fueled by his need to break that legacy -- at the point where, traditionally, the founder has hit the wall.
Like his father, Giezeman went into business for himself when he was in his twenties and pushed hard and ran fast all the way through his thirties; he stands now, on the brink of 40, at a crossroads. As he sees it, either he succeeds in creating a lasting enterprise, a company with a future beyond the fast-growth years, or he fails and ultimately has to sell out. Giezeman's father sold out, reluctantly, when he was in his mid-forties. He "couldn't manage the jump from hands-on owner-operator to professional manager," Giezeman says. That example, Giezeman observes, has made him "very sensitive to making that transition."
Giezeman is a builder, not a speculator. He wants to be able to keep on building. But he's finding that it gets harder as he goes along. The fear that visits him from time to time is "Man, I just cannot sustain this." One way he fights the fear is by never relenting, with himself or others. ("He doesn't let grass grow under your feet" is how Max Elliott, Searcy Industrial Laundry's production manager, describes his boss.) Another way is by reading all the business books he can.
Giezeman came upon a copy of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People two years ago in an airport bookstore. "I immediately sensed that this was it," he says. He also knew enough about himself not to trust his first impression. A self-described "sucker for the latest thing," Giezeman had been rummaging through business books for years, searching for the silver bullet, invariably ending up disappointed. The search had led him years earlier to implement a total quality management initiative at Searcy Industrial Laundry. In the end, however, the results fell short of his expectations.
"We never could quite achieve the level that we were capable of," says Giezeman. "When we monitored the plan and put all our attention on it, it did OK. But it never took off on its own, never really changed the culture. I think it was because people in the company didn't trust us enough. That's why I was so intrigued by The Seven Habits and Covey. I began to see how small things you do that are inconsistent with being trustworthy have really large implications. If they can be eliminated, then the trust goes up."
Back home, Giezeman shared The Seven Habits with Kathy; she liked it, too. In October 1994 Giezeman paid $1,500 to take a three-day Seven Habits course in Little Rock. He came back energized but still cautious. "Let's live it and not say anything to anybody and see how we think about it in six months," he suggested to Kathy. Meanwhile, he got busy, drafting a "personal mission statement" (Habit Two: Begin with the end in mind); waking up at 5 every morning to read business books and exercise (Habit Seven: Sharpen the saw); and making play dates with his young children (Habit Three: Put first things first). At the end of the testing period, he says, "I felt even stronger about it." That's when he decided, "Let's really do this thing."
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Already, Giezeman's employees had begun noticing small changes in his behavior. He seemed to listen better (Habit Five: Seek first to understand, then to be understood) and was less dictatorial (Habit Six: Synergize). Looking back, Annette Bowman is convinced she was "a guinea pig" for Giezeman while he was considering whether to involve the rest of the company in Covey's teachings. Giezeman visited Bowman often at her station on the line, engaging her in conversation, prodding her, supplying her with fresh challenges. Hired as a seam ripper, she had been quickly promoted to the position of floater in the order department, handling whatever tasks needed doing and training others. Three years after coming to work at Searcy Industrial Laundry, she moved up to production supervisor; and this past summer Giezeman named her operations manager of Searcy's mat plant in Cabot, Ark., at three times her original salary. Bowman is thrilled with her progress at the company, of course, but then so is Giezeman (Habit Four: Think win/win).
Bowman was one of 20 employees at Searcy Industrial Laundry who got copies of The Seven Habits from Giezeman in the summer of 1995. By then the CEO had taken a second-level course in Dallas and paid nearly $10,000 for a site license and teaching materials, qualifying him as a Seven Habits instructor. In the fall he began offering the Seven Habits course to his employees. Since then, two study groups have formed at the company -- one for the members of its internal board, another for the rest of the management team and some other employees.
