Another defining moment for the Market Authority: Who the quasi-public agency chooses as president will define the decision makers as much as the direction and future success of the mercantile emblem of High Point.
What that person knows and how much, real or perceived, will determine if High Point will sustain its preeminence.
Speculation abounds, as the choice is narrowing and could be announced next week. The word is the job is down to just a couple of people, most likely men.
Whoever the new president is, this person needs to have more than a cursory understanding of the vicissitudes of an unusual, peculiar and astounding mercantile phenomenon.
Of course, the best person — a furniture man — would be a visionary leader who can hit the ground running. That's a charismatic person possessing the necessary street level view of the Market.
A dynamic Market authority who has had to personally navigate — many times peripatetically (zigging and zagging) — between buildings, had close in and decent lodging, waited for elevators, parked in distant lots — many unpaved and muddy, raced between buildings in the rain and had to find a good place to eat after a typically grueling day.
Without that real knowledge, combined with searing insights into furniture retailing-manufacturing and merchandising, a new Market Authority president would be learning on the job. And there's no time for that when the threat from Las Vegas is real.
The hope is the Market Authority will hire its own independent-minded boss, a person who can build a team of professionals in marketing, logistics, lodging, transportation and compelling innovation.
Smart as they are, directors of the Market Authority may not possess the necessary street level understanding the Market, although they probably think they do.
Remember, that prevailing wisdom has been in place for five years and, still, High Point has not achieved world class standing in many critical areas, especially infrastructure, logistics, access and functional efficiency.
What's more (or less) is that the fear of a growing Las Vegas prompted leaders of the area's chambers of commerece — not the Market Authority — to write a plan only after the inagural Nevada Market.
The concern, even fear, is the Market Authority will hire a businessman well known to state politicians and agencies, where he can lobby for greater funding, which is, of course, necessary. But that's a job for a lobbyist, not a day-to-day leader of the Market.
Getting back to knowing about the Market. The new Market Authority president needs to possess real experience to comprehend nuance to form and ask the right questions from the perspectives of a buyer, sales representative and manufacturer.
Knowing how to stage trade show is the job of a qualified lieutenant. Knowing the Market and how it really operates is the job of the Market's authority.
The question of superficial knowledge and real knowledge reminds me of an important scene from the award-winning motion picture Goodwill Hunting, outlined below:
Good Will Hunting written by Matt Damon & Ben Affleck
(Sean (Robin Williams) and Will (Matt Damon) are sitting together on a park bench. Will doesn't
look at him throughout the speech; he looks away. The scene ends with
Sean's walking away, leaving Will there, contemplating Sean's words.)
Will: So what's this? A Taster's Choice moment between guys? This is really nice. You got a thing for swans? Is this like a fetish? It's something, like, maybe we need to devote some time to?
Sean: I thought about what you said to me the other day, about my painting. Stayed up half the night thinking about it. Something occurred to me and I fell into a deep, peaceful sleep and haven't thought about you since. You know what occurred to me?
Will: No.
Sean: You're just a kid. You don't have the faintest idea what you're talking about.
Will: Why, thank you.
Sean: It's all right. You've never been out of Boston.
Will: Nope.
Sean: So if I asked you about art you’d probably give me the skinny on every art book ever written...Michelangelo?
You know a lot about him. Life's work, political aspirations, him and the pope, sexual orientation, the whole works, right? But I bet you can't tell me what it smells like in the Sistine Chapel.
You've never actually stood there and looked up at that beautiful ceiling. Seen that.....
If I asked you about women you'd probably give me a syllabus of your personal favorites. You may have even been laid a few times. But you can't tell me what it feels like to wake up next to a woman and feel truly happy.
You're a tough kid. I ask you about war, and you'd probably--uh--throw Shakespeare at me, right? "Once more into the breach, dear friends." But you've never been near one. You've never held your best friend's head in your lap and watched him gasp his last breath, looking to you for help.
And if I asked you about love y'probably quote me a sonnet. But you've never looked at a woman and been totally vulnerable. Known someone could level you with her eyes. Feeling like! God put an angel on earth just for you...who could rescue you from the depths of hell.
And you wouldn't know what it’s like to be her angel and to have that love for her to be there forever. Through anything. Through cancer. You wouldn't know about sleeping sittin’ up in a hospital room for two months holding her hand because the doctors could see in your eyes that the term visiting hours don't apply to you.
You don't know about real loss, because that only occurs when you love something more than you love yourself. I doubt you've ever dared to love anybody that much.
I look at you; I don't see an intelligent, confident man; I see a cocky, scared sh#*less kid. But you're a genius, Will. No one denies that. No one could possibly understand the depths of you.
But you presume to know everything about me because you saw a painting of mine and you ripped my f**ckin' life apart. You're an orphan right? (Will nods)
Do you think I'd know the first thing about how hard your life has been, how you feel, who you are because I read Oliver Twist? Does that encapsulate you?
Personally, I don't give a s%#t about all that, because you know what? I can't learn anything from you I can't read in some f@*kin' book.
Unless you wanna talk about you, who you are. And I'm fascinated. I'm in.
But you don't wanna do that, do you, sport? You're terrified of what you might say. Your move, chief. (Sean stands and walks away.)
Comments