By Pat Pape
“Knowledge is power,” said British author Sir Francis Bacon more than 400 years ago. That philosophy is still important among today’s movers and shakers. According to an article in The New York Times, top company executives, such as Nike founder Phil Knight and venture capitalist Michael Moritz, are enthusiastic readers, regularly consuming information from a wide range of sources.
Successful people in convenience retailing are no different. NACS asked some of the industry’s leaders to recommend their most valuable reading materials. Most review industry news sources on a daily basis and are big fans of business books, often praising the same tomes, and when they have some free time, many like to lighten up, kick back and read just for fun.
is executive vice president of international for 7-Eleven Inc., responsible for international licensing and global expansion, and serves on the NACS Board of Directors. He is advisor to 7-Eleven’s CEO and has served on its board of directors. He reads the Daily Nikkei Economic Journal, a Tokyo publication similar to The Wall Street Journal, and recommends the Richard C. Koo book, Balance Sheet Recession: Japan’s Struggle with Uncharted Economics and its Global Implications.
“Koo was born in Tokyo and educated in the United States, receiving his PhD at Johns Hopkins,” said Asakura. “He is chief analyst for NRI in Tokyo, and President Obama is beginning to implement some of the points outlined in his book. I also read mystery novels.”
, vice president of member services for NACS, checks several Web sites every day for news and information that could affect the convenience industry. These include NACS Online, LinkedIn, Energy Information Administration, PCATS, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and The New York Times. In addition to trade publications, he reads these magazines every month:
- Wired
- Popular Science
- Fast Company
- The Futurist
- Entertainment Weekly
- BusinessWeek
“The best book I’ve read lately is Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man: What Men Really Think About Love, Relationships, Intimacy, and Commitment by Steve Harvey,” he said. Although he receives one or two complimentary books each week from authors who would like NACS to hire them, he admits that most of them are a disappointment.
is president and CEO of Quick Chek, based in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, which operates more than 120 stores throughout New Jersey and southern New York. He also served as NACS chairman from 1999 to 2000.
Durling’s must-read list includes BusinessWeek, Fortune, Forbes and Harvard Business Review, and he regularly visits The Wall Street Journal Web site. His top book recommendations are Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…and Others Don’t by Jim Collins and Play to Win!: Choosing Growth Over Fear in Work and Life by Larry Wilson.
“I subscribe to Sound View Executive Summaries, which allows me to review summaries and then select the books I am most interested in reading,” he said. In the past 60 days, he has finished Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell, Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy by Martin Lindstrom and Paco Underhill, and Enough: True Measures of Money, Business, and Life by John C. Bogle.
Bill Douglass, the CEO of Douglass Distributing Company (Sherman, Texas) and NACS chairman from 2004 to 2005, has been in the convenience industry for three decades. His favorite business books include Return on Customer: Creating Maximum Value from Your Scarcest Resource by Don Peppers and Martha Rogers, and The Power of Who: You Already Know Everyone You Need to Know by Bob Beaudine.
In addition, he never misses an issue of The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, the local newspaper or National Speed Sport News. “I use the business-related sources daily to keep plugged in on changes in the industry and the general business environment,” said Douglass. “Speed Sport News is for fun.”
is senior vice president of marketing for Murphy Oil USA in El Dorado, Arkansas, which operates 1,025 units in 21 states. “I read all of the industry publications,” he said. “And my most recent book is Who: The A Method for Hiring by Geoff Smart and Randy Street. It’s a fantastic book about recruiting, and I encourage everyone to read it.”
, CEO of Texarkana, Texas-based E-Z Mart Stores Inc. with 300 locations, has worked in the convenience business since she was a teen. She is the 2008-2009 NACS chairman — and the first female chair. Hubbard suggests that her colleagues read The Ten Commandments for Business Failure by Donald R. Keough, and Re-Imagine by Tom Peters. “Re-Imagine is broken up in such a way that you can read small sections and get something from it without having to take a vacation to read it all,” Hubbard said. “Time is the real problem.”
, vice president of research for NACS, recommends Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets by Nassim Taleb. “Taleb is a trader and mathematics professor. In Fooled, he examines what randomness means in business and in life and why human beings are so prone to mistake dumb luck for consummate skill,” said Kim.
Another valuable book is The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power by Daniel Yergin. “It chronicles the struggle for wealth and power that surrounds oil,” said Kim. “It’s a fascinating historical perspective of big oil companies and how oil continues to fuel global rivalries, shake the world economy and influence international politics. PBS made a multi-part documentary out of it a few years ago, so be sure to TiVo it if plowing through 928 pages is a bit much.” Kim also praises The Halo Effect… And the Eight Other Business Delusions that Deceive Managers by Phil Rosenzweig.
When it comes to Web sites, the NACS Research team relies heavily on data posted on the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank Kim said. “And to help me learn about what influences a class of consumers that I often struggle to understand — women — I find Perezhilton.com fascinating.”
is partner of Oasis Stop ’N Go convenience stores and CEO of KickBack Rewards Systems in Twin Falls, Idaho, as well as a board member of NACS. He has a busy schedule and works hard to carve out time for his eclectic reading. “It is the only way to stay on top of new ideas and key concepts from outside my immediate world,” Lewis said. “I find time to read on my lunch break or when I am on planes. I cannot read business books or periodicals before I go to bed at night, as my mind will race with ideas and I won’t sleep at all. So at night I stick to less exciting fiction, like spy novels and horror.”
Lewis subscribes to Fast Company, Inc. and Money magazines and is currently re-reading Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-By-Numbers Is the New Way to Be Smart by Ian Ayres. “I am drawing a lot of inspiration out of this book,” he said.
, a 19-year veteran of Kwik Trip, is currently vice president of operations support at the La Crosse, Wisconsin-based chain. He also held numerous positions, including president, at Gateway Foods in Pennsylvania. Loehr’s recommended reading list includes several well-known titles and a couple you might not have heard of:
- The Bible
- Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras
- Built to Serve: How to Drive the Bottom Line with People-First Practices by Dan Sanders, Stephen Covey and Ken Blanchard
- The Daily Drucker: 366 Days of Insight and Motivation for Getting the Right Things Done by Peter Ferdinand Drucker and Joseph A. MacIariello
- The Power of Fastenal People by Robert Kierlin
He also reads The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review and several regional newspapers and regularly visits WisPolitics.com and MSN.com.
, CEO of Denver-based Balmar Petroleum, has been in the convenience store business since 1994 and served as NACS chairman from 2007 to 2008. He regularly peruses BusinessWeek, Forbes, Fortune, MIT Technology Review and Metropolis, an architectural and design publication.
Oneslager is not a big fan of management books. “I prefer books on economics, society and social trends, and history and historical fiction,” he said. “One can learn a lot more about management and people by reading history than anything else.
“A measure of my day is what time I get to read the newspaper,” he said. “If it’s dinner time and I am just getting around to the paper, it has been a bad day. My one indispensable read is The Wall Street Journal, especially the editorial page.”
During the past year, Oneslager has read 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Marquez, The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway and I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell by Tucker Max. “It is important to rest and stretch your mind rather than always reading business stuff,” he said.
is president of Anderson, Indiana-based Ricker Oil Co. and is the NACS vice chairman, treasurer. He regularly reads industry publications and Web sites. “I want to know what’s going on in my state of Indiana, and we’ve got the Indiana Business Journal, one of the best state business journals around, which comes out once a week,” Ricker said. “For an unbiased world view of the news, no one beats The Economist out of the U.K. It has few ads and goes in depth like no other publication out there.”
was raised in a family with roots in the petroleum industry. He opened the first Parker’s convenience store in July 1976 and now has more than two dozen stores in Georgia and South Carolina, in addition to a petroleum jobbership. Parker is the president and CEO of The Parker Companies (Savannah, Georgia) and is the NACS vice chairman of research.
Parker never misses an issue of Time, The Economist and his local newspaper. Additionally, “Walter Zimmermann’s weekly newsletter, United Energy, is a bible for my organization,” he said. Zimmermann has been a general session speaker at the past two State of the Industry Summits and is the chief technical analyst at United Energy.
Parker points to a couple books that have made an impact on his life. “Good to Great by Jim Collins made me understand the importance of getting the right people on the bus, and it is a must read for any business owner,” he said. “Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money — That the Poor and the Middle Class Do Not! by Robert T. Kiyosaki is a business book that had a profound influence on how I raise my kids and make them understand the fundamentals of business.”
is president of Mt. Countries Supply Co., which has 13 convenience stores in Northern California, and is vice chairman of the member services committee for NACS. She is a fan of a couple influential books that she re-reads from time to time. “The first one is The Art of War by Sun Tzu, which was given to me by my father when I was in high school, and it has stuck with me to this day,” she said.
The second book is Secret Service: Hidden Systems That Deliver Unforgettable Customer Service by John R. DiJulius. “After reading this book, I immediately altered my definition of customer service from hoping a customer had a good experience at our locations to trying to predict and ensure they do,” Torsey said.
Torsey’s business philosophy is to know and understand her company’s current information, to identify sales trends and to recognize what is behind monthly profit and loss figures. “Our business is extremely localized in one territory; therefore, I like to stick to current local and state-level news,” she said. “We belong to many state associations, both industry and non-industry specific. I find that our participation in NACS and the information I receive from NACS to be a tremendous help.”
, president and CEO of Altoona, Pennsylvania-based Sheetz Inc. and NACS chairman from 2003 to 2004, began his career by sweeping floors and emptying trash cans in his family’s convenience stores. He is now responsible for more than 350 retail locations across Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio and North Carolina.
In addition to his local newspaper, he regularly reviews USA Today, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. He is also a fan of Jim Collins’ Good to Great, and he recently sent copies of From Lucky to Smart: Leadership Lessons from QuikTrip by Chester Cadieux — founder of the Tulsa, Oklahoma-based convenience store chain of more than 500 stores and the 1970 NACS chairman — to each member of the Sheetz senior management team.
Sheetz also enjoys biographies and in the past year has read about the lives of J. P. Morgan, Henry Ford and Alexander Hamilton. “Reading is learning, and life is a learning experience,” he said. “There is no monopoly on good ideas.”
is president of The Spinx Company, based in Greenville, South Carolina, which operates more than 75 convenience stores and supplies gasoline to another 60-plus locations in North and South Carolina. He is responsible for directing the executive team, operations, finance, marketing, human resources and real estate activities.
Spinks highly recommends the following books:
- Built to Last by Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras
- The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell
- The Discipline of Market Leaders: Choose Your Customers, Narrow Your Focus, Dominate Your Market by Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema
- Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ by Daniel Goleman
Reading is to the mind is what exercise is to the body. What a person gets from reading —whether business books or comic strips — is personal and can be valued only by that individual. Obviously, one of the best ways to sustain a viable edge in business is to possess greater knowledge and information than your competitors.
Each of the industry leaders featured here has a full Outlook calendar and well-used e-mail box, but each one also makes time to read almost daily. Not only do they stay up to date on current thinking and business trends, but it exposes them to new ways of looking at challenges and assessing situations while increasing their knowledge.
As Stan Sheetz summed it up, “Reading is learning, and life is a learning experience.”
Pat Pape worked in the convenience store industry for more than 20 years before becoming a full-time writer.