Stafford Harder

Photo by Kris Kathmann

The man wearing a leather Harley-Davidson jacket and responsible for 2,100 paychecks scoots into his parking spot off Tower Boulevard riding a steely gray BMW K1200 LT touring motorcycle. His photogenic smile brightens up the receptionist while he waves at her on his way up the spiral staircase at Carlson Craft headquarters in North Mankato. Another day begins for Stafford Harder, 48, Glen Taylor’s flagship field general, as he then strides towards an office embellished with miniature toy Harleys and classic Chevys, a wall-hung photo of a laguna blue convertible, and Bible verses engraved on wall plaques. A quick call later, and at his desk, he has confirmed next year’s reservation at Sturgis.

He’s a Glen Taylor clone in many ways: transparent, empathic, warm, passionate about the business and employees. Harder has been directly responsible for all these paychecks since 1988, when Taylor tapped him to be his own replacement as Carlson Craft president.

More than any other business executive this writer has met, Harder seems head-to-toe integrated with a single world view that makes him appear the same on the outside as the inside. Actions usually flow with meaning from solid core values. Psychologists call this “congruency,” but business people usually say things like “what you see is what you get,” or “he tells it like he sees it.” He’s a refreshing respite to say the least in a world where many business people fear losing a sale should they state publicly their own opinions on work and life.

So step on up the spiral staircase and right into his busy office that overlooks a parking lot teeming with cars. Have a window seat. Business has been booming on Tower Boulevard and “Staff” really wants to tell you how and why he steers the Good Ship Carlson Craft. Along with Harder’s interview, read another slant on the printing industry in this region on p. 18 with Dave McClellan, general manager at House of Print in Madelia.

CONNECT: Did you rise through the ranks or were you brought in from the outside?

HARDER: I started at the bottom. I had to put in a couple of applications before Glen Taylor interviewed me when I was 19 and an MSU student. Glen then was vice president of Carlson Wedding Service, and the company had 185 employees. I needed the work because I had to pay for college. I’d come from a lower middle-class family and we just didn’t have the money.

CONNECT: Is it policy within Taylor Corporation to promote from within?

HARDER: Our mission is to provide opportunity and security for our employees. In order for that to become real, and to motivate employees, some cause-and-effect must be present. Promoting within gives us a great opportunity to see people and sort out their gifts, abilities and passions before we consider them for promotion. It’s a good chance for them to look at us and for us to look at them.

Glen told me very early on that 90 percent of the gifts a person has were given to him or her early in life. In Taylor Corporation we try to bring people into our organization who already have the cultural values we’ve established as a company. These values are: being able to relate to people, having a passion for work, and being turned on by this business and what we do.

We don’t try to change people as far as who they are, and what they are about. We basically try to find people that fit. And when they do fit, and they have the abilities, and the passion, then we give them opportunities.

CONNECT: Why do you think Glen promoted you to president?

HARDER: I’d started with him in 1970, and had the opportunity to climb all the different rungs of the ladder. In this corporation you are always very close to the people in decision making spots. They know who you are, what you think, how you react to situations, how you treat people, what your gifts are, whether you’re a good fit or not, and they know your weaknesses.

Glen hired me as president in 1988 to get results. I’d proven to him that I could do just that in the eighteen years prior. He and Brad Schreier had come to the conclusion that I would be a good fit.

CONNECT: How many employees are you directly responsible for? and what does Carlson Craft make?

HARDER: Carlson Craft has five divisions: Social, which is wedding invitations, social and graduation announcements; Commercial, which is letterheads, post-it notes, envelopes, business cards; Specialty Products works with large accounts with signs, forms, banners and stamps; Catalog, which is mostly in-house manufacturing for our own catalogs or for our sister companies; and Label Works, which is at the old 100 Garfield Building, where I started and where we produce short-run personalized labels. Label Works has outgrown its building, and we’ll be building another next year.

We have about 2,100 employees. Because of efficiency and technological changes, we’ve been able to keep the number of employees about the same since 1990 even though sales have increased significantly. Since I’ve been president we’ve almost doubled sales. We are over $100 million in wholesale sales.

CONNECT: Do you run your own show or does Glen micromanage at times?

HARDER: Glen’s management style fits well with my style. If you get results, and grow the company and remain profitable, he gives a lot of latitude. And as long as I stay within the culture a lot of latitude exists to define this company under my own distinctions. One thing Glen said to me a long time ago was this: “I know you’re not going to do things exactly the way I did them. I know there’s more than one way to get results and provide opportunity for the employees.”

CONNECT: What about influences in your life? Any mentors?

HARDER: I was born at Immanuel Hospital, raised in Mankato, and been here my entire life. My father was a night-shift bartender. I didn’t see him very much, but he was a very hard worker. My mother had more influence on me than Dad.

I used to go down to Schulte’s Bar with him on Sunday mornings and sort bottles. They had a chute behind the bar where the bottles would drop to the basement. My dad worked there for ten years with two other people until one day in 1960 when he came home and said all three had been laid-off. I know the hardship people can go through. I know what it’s like to have bill collectors call and have the electric company threaten to shut off lights. We were in financial trouble. Through this situation I learned how to understand the problems people go through. As president of Carlson Craft, for me to relate to people, I have to relate to the human conditions people experience every day. My dad found another job right away, but it wasn’t as well paying. They never owned their own house or a new car.

I was a paper boy for the Free Press during the week, and the Tribune on Sundays. I had over 120 papers on James Avenue. It was a tough job for a 12-year-old. If you know James Avenue you know all the side roads go up the hillside. One winter I had frostbite from my paper route. The Free Press eventually fired me from my job because I was getting my collections in late because my mom had been borrowing the money in order to pay bills. Being fired really affected me because I felt like I had to prove myself from that moment on. I had this attitude of succeeding no matter what, and never getting fired again.

At 16, I worked as a cook at Country Kitchen, where Stoney’s is now, and then for Bell’s Hamburgers where Zans Tacos sits today. Arnie and Al Bell paid me ninety cents an hour the first week, and $1 an hour from then on. I was working hard to prove myself. A fellow employee came up to me a few weeks after being hired and said: “You know you don’t get raises here, so what are you trying to prove by working so hard?” I said to him, “I don’t know what the future holds, but if there is ever an opportunity for advancement I’d like to be considered for it.”

A few months after that an opportunity arose. Even though I hadn’t been there long I was promoted to night shift leader and worked school nights until midnight. The Bells impressed me with how conservatively they ran the business. We would even use a spatula on the near-empty gallon catsup cans in order to get every drop.

After Robby’s bought out Bell’s, I began working for Bud Lawrence, who was district manager for Robby’s. He liked my work ethic, and told me one day he wanted me to train at headquarters and run a unit after finishing high school. Being only 17 at the time, his words really helped build my confidence. He’d recognized leadership abilities in me. Remember, my dad had been a bartender, and it affected the way I saw myself. Up until then I’d always felt inferior, and not as valuable as other kids.

I left Robby’s because I couldn’t handle working so many school nights. So I found work at a Deep Rock gas station. Bernie Larson, who ran the station, kept telling me that I had a future with him after high school. His comments built my confidence even further.

Soon after that Bernie left Deep Rock, and its district manager asked me, still 17, to be the interim manager. I ended up hiring all my friends and giving them raises. (Laughter.) We had a great time at that gas station. But I kept the books, and made sure people worked. I had to order gas and pay the bills. It was great experience for a 17-year-old.

So after all the confidence building from the Bells, Robby’s and Bernie Larson, I was pretty cocky when I came into my interview with Glen Taylor. (I’d applied there because that’s where my girlfriend, now my wife, worked.) Glen has a gift at being able to perceive a person’s abilities and their heart. He hired me in 1970, and I started on a printing press.

CONNECT: I’ve heard a few people call you a “holy roller.” Are you one?

HARDER: (Laughter.) I had a time of spiritual searching in my life. That searching has brought me to today where I feel very secure about my spiritual life. My dad was a Catholic, and my mother, Baptist. I married a Lutheran, and I ended up a cross between a Baptist and a charismatic.

One day in the early ’80s, as a Carlson Craft production manager, Glen came into my office and said: “Glenda [Glen’s wife at the time] was noticing that your name was on a list down at the Multi-Church Center. Why haven’t we seen you at church?”

I thought, Why is Glen talking with me about religion? This isn’t his business. Glen said: “I’m going to arrange a meeting between you and my pastor.” I thought, He’s bold. But here was a man taking interest not only in my work, but also in me as a person ­ even into the “don’t ask and don’t tell” spiritual realm.

I did get back to church and immediately became involved in the church hierarchy. I became a deacon, and then congregation president. In 1982 I joined a Bible study headed by our new pastor, Rev. Robert Reider. After six months, it was evident to me that I didn’t have the correct understanding, based on the Bible, about God, salvation, grace, and what He requires of us. One night, February 1983, after my wife had gone to bed, I was reading the tenth chapter of Mark, which said, If you leave everything for Me and the gospel, you will have it returned a hundred times more in this life besides eternal life.

At that moment I said, Lord, I’m a sinner and need saving. I want to have this abundant life you’re talking about. Since I made Him Lord of my life everything in my life has been changed for the positive. I am more patient now, less arrogant, I listen better, and I don’t feel like I have to win at everything. I look at myself differently as a husband, father, friend and company president. It doesn’t mean I haven’t made mistakes or arrived. I have a long way to go. But Christ has always helped me.

CONNECT: Has being a committed Christian helped or hindered your work at Carlson Craft?

HARDER: I believe people live out their beliefs. Whatever we are as a person is because of the belief system we use in all the decisions we make. I believe the closer a person gets to Truth, the closer you are to the abundant life Jesus promised. My faith has definitely helped me ­ not because it’s a religious thing ­ it’s about whether or not you’re living out a greater truth in your life.

One thing I ask a lot of new managers ­ and right now we have 59 supervisors with less than three years experience ­ is, “Why are you valuable?” It’s interesting what they give as answers. We’ve been conditioned as human beings to say, I’m valuable because I can contribute this or because I have a degree. Many times their answers relate to what they can do or what they have done. Then I tell them this: “You are valuable because God has declared you valuable, even more valuable than the whole world. He has created you in His image and He has died for you.”

To me the person who cleans the bathroom is as valuable as I am. Now I have an office and am responsible for 2,100 paychecks, but when you come down to respect, which is the foundational issue with all relationships, in your belief system you have to believe that a person is just as valuable as you are. The best business advice I can give anyone who wants to succeed is this: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Jesus said, “The greatest of these is the servant of all.” If you want to be a servant, you first have to treat people well because of their inherent value, and not just because of the good things they do for you.

CONNECT: Carlson Craft has a history of not competing against its independent retailers. Do you feel hamstrung because you can’t or won’t sell direct to the public via the Internet?

HARDER: Obviously as a company, to make decisions that will take care of our people and fulfill our mission, we have to do what makes good business sense. The unfortunate thing about the Internet, and I don’t know if it’s good for society or not, is there are so many people going direct and cutting out the middleman. People are buying cars to carpets to vacations off the Internet. Even buying stock in the stock market. We will do whatever we need to do to take care of our people.

Our dealer base is Priority One. We have competitors who are selling direct right now, and we must compete with that. Our dealers don’t want us going direct against them. But then I’ll say to them, “You know, that other company you’re using now is selling direct,” and it doesn’t seem to make much difference ­ they won’t stop ordering from them.

We want to make the dealer successful. Right now we’re developing Internet re-branding sites for dealers where they can sell our products over the Internet on their web site for a nominal charge. A dealer in Florida could sell wedding products to someone in Spokane. The biggest problem on the Internet is being able to find what you’re looking for. If you have 5,000 or 10,000 dealers with web sites and our products on them, you’re going to have a whole lot more marketing impact than a single Carlson Craft web site.

CONNECT: What about the labor shortage? How is Carlson Craft coping with it?

HARDER: We hire up to 700 new employees a year. Most of them come from referrals from other employees. As an incentive we give employees free company jackets if they refer someone. It’s a neat thing and they appreciate it.

CONNECT: Do you feel pressure being responsible for the futures of thousands of employees?

HARDER: One thing about Jesus being Lord of my life, is that I don’t have to be fearful. If I can believe Him for eternal life, I surely can believe Him for this life. There is no doubt in my mind that being president of Carlson Craft is what He has called me to do. At a recent Taylor Corporation meeting a speaker quoted Aristotle: “Wherever the world’s needs are and where your talents intersect is your calling.” That’s what has happened to me at Carlson Craft.

I have to be very careful. I don’t proselytize at work, and I don’t push my faith on people. If someone wants to talk about faith I save that for after work and on my own time. In fact, if anyone reading this interview wants to know more about my experience they can call me after hours at home. Jesus said in Matthew 7:14: “Narrow is the road and small is the gate that leads to life and few find it.” Two-thirds of my life is over and I want to make a difference in people’s lives, not only at Carlson Craft, but for eternity. That’s my calling and I believe it with all my heart.

©1999 Connect Business Magazine