“My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments; For length of days and years of life and abundant welfare will they give you. Let not loyalty and faithfulness forsake you; bind them about your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart, so you will find favor and good repute in the sight of God and man.” Proverbs 3:1-4 1985–1988 Historians call a major event that changes the course of history a “watershed”. In most respects 1985 was an ordinary year with no major wars, political stability in the western world and no life-changing inventions introduced. U.S. President Ronald Reagan moved to gain the upper hand in arms control and reached agreement with Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachov on arms reduction. A unique musical collaboration of big name artists produced a song called “We Are The World” that helped to sweep the world into social consciousness. And the U.S. was finally recovering from a recession that had affected our economy for several years. At NOW Foods, however, 1985 easily goes down in infamy as our year of decision. No, the decision wasn’t about what new labels we should consider. It wasn’t about new employees, though the year did mark my initial full-time employment at NOW. It wasn’t about what new products should be introduced or FDA enforcement or industry news. The big decision came to be, “Should we stay in business, or should we close ‘the factory?’” By mid-year NOW’s books were so full of red ink that it looked like our ship was ready to sink. Recent years of low sales, low margins, slow moving inventory and high bad debts created a situation where our future looked very bleak. Our year-end inventory had come back with shocking results and our company ended up in the red by about $100,000. With under $1 million in NOW sales for the year, this loss was overwhelming. I came aboard the company after graduating from Illinois State in May and joined the dozen or so employees. I never knew that my years in college were preparing me to join NOW, or in what capacity. As with most students, I never even interviewed until my final semester and that was limited to a single campus interview with Osco Drug. I was so nervous that I’m sure I made a horrible impression and never did hear anything, good or bad, from Osco. Having followed my older brother, David, to ISU as well as the business field, I assumed my future would follow his to outside work, without seriously considering the family business. That changed quickly when I came home for Spring Break and Dad offered me a position, without even needing to interview! I had already worked at NOW and our local health food store for about 10 years part time, so my rough edges were already well known to my father. What I didn’t know is what aspect of the business I would take to, but I assumed I would continue working in the warehouse, picking orders, packing UPS shipments, taking inventory, cleaning up and reorganizing the mess that our warehouse had become. That all changed when my father came to talk soon after receiving the bad inventory news. His brief statement was something like, “We need to increase sales quickly or NOW Foods will be out of business.” 1985-1988 49
