Bruce Walker serves as an outside director for Walsworth. He served as dean of the Trulaske College of Business at the University of Missouri for 20 years. He made the transition to faculty member in 2010, serving as a professor of marketing and as co-director of the Cornell Leadership Program for high-ability undergraduates for five years.
It was 2009. The invitation came from Don Sr. I knew Don from his involvement with the business school at Mizzou, which I joined in 1990 as dean. I knew I would need the advice, wisdom and support from alumni, so I formed an advisory board. One of the people I invited that first year was Don Sr. After 20 years as Dean, I’m not longer in that role, but Don carries on; he is still on the advisory board.
When I got the invitation from Don, Sr., I also called Don in Overland Park and had a very good conversation with him about outside directors and whether he thought I might be suited. He gave me positive feedback, so I wound up on the board.
Bruce and his wife Pam at Mizzou
I thought of Walsworth mostly as a yearbook company at the time. I didn’t know as much about the commercial printing side. Jeff Vogel gave me a very good briefing and introduced me to many facets of the company.
When I came into my role as dean at Mizzou, and started to meet business leaders around the state, I came up with the phrase, “Missouri’s hidden gems,” referring to successful companies that were not well known. These companies “flew under the radar” but employed a relatively large number of people and were pillars in their community. I think Walsworth certainly is one of “Missouri hidden gems.”
I think they have what I would call smart, experienced, ethical leadership. I think the leadership team is also very practical and realistic. For example, no major financial outlays are made without a strong business case. And there’s good debate about those business cases, and Don Sr., is always interested in, “When will this pay off for us? How quickly will there be a return so we can justify this substantial outlay of funds?”
I’ve always been very impressed with the leadership team. During my time on the board, there have been executive changes, but the people who have stepped in have also been very good.
In the case of Walsworth, Mick (Aslin) and I are the two outside directors. We should bring an outside perspective, raise questions and offer comments based on our experience. For example, there was a discussion of whether or not to implement a formal customer relationship management (CRM) system, and there was discussion about Salesforce in particular. What’s the business case for it? What’s the payback going to be? What’s the nature of the payback? How can we (that is, the Walsworth company) see it?
I had interacted with a number of companies that had had implemented CRMs. So my input was, “I think Walsworth can do it now and be on the offensive, trying to get ahead of competing firms. Or it’s likely that Walsworth will have to do it at some point but would then be on the defensive and maybe lagging behind.” That’s one example of how an outside board member, myself in this case, can bring a different perspective to the discussion.
Most of my youth was spent in Pocatello, Idaho. My family moved there from New York City, of all things. I went to school at Seattle University, and I met my wife there. I knew I wanted to earn an MBA, fortunately I was accepted by the University of Colorado in Boulder. Halfway through the MBA, I got to the fork in the road, as the saying goes. What was I going to do? Was I going to go into the business world or continue the academic route?
I had a strong interest in retailing as a business career but decided instead to go on and earn my PhD, which I did at Colorado. My first position out of school was at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. That turned out to be a really good opportunity for me, because many of the faculty members in the business school were first timers. There was a very healthy peer pressure to perform well, not unlike there would be in a salesforce at a company like Walsworth.
To “perform well” as a faculty member at a major university means, first, and foremost, being an excellent teacher. You also need to develop your research portfolio and get published articles. Without that healthy peer pressure (and at that time, we had two children and a third on the way), I might not have been in my office on campus most Saturdays working on my research.
After four years, we moved to Arizona State University in Tempe, and we were there 16 years. I was a faculty member and then an administrator in the business school. Then as our third child was getting ready to go off to college, I thought maybe it was time to switch from faculty member to administrator. So I started interviewing for dean’s positions, and really feel fortunate that I wound up at the University of Missouri in 1990. As mentioned, I was dean for 20 years.
Yes, that was definitely a key part of it. I’d had some experience teaching. When you’re a graduate student and you need to feed the family, they give you a role. Sometimes it’s as a research assistant; sometimes you’re teaching. When I got to Colorado, they gave me a textbook and said, “Here, you’re starting next Tuesday and will be teaching an intro to marketing course.”
I really liked working with students. I liked helping prepare them for their futures and for their professional careers. I think that’s the main reason I went the academic route. A second reason is that
I’ve always been inquisitive. I had questions. Why this? Why that? Well, that’s what research is about. You can examine some of those questions; in my case, those questions were in the realm of marketing.
On the yearbook side, I would say it’s continued innovation, especially capitalizing on and implementing technological advances. What you can do with a yearbook now is just amazing.
On the commercial printing side, I think it’s a little different. It’s tough to innovate a great deal on technology in a way that the customer can see. Instead, I think it’s really important to continue to find ways to boost productivity and efficiency. And I’ve certainly seen that happen. It’s remarkable how productive and efficient the manufacturing side of Walsworth’s operation is.
Something else that’s key to both yearbook and commercial printing is to secure and sustain those strong customer relationships, which Walsworth has done well. It’s just my outside observation, but it seems like that’s a little easier to do on the yearbook side, whereas on the commercial side, it often comes down to price. However, when prices being quoted by competitors are close, the customer is going to go with the company with which they have a relationship.
That’s the strength of Walsworth. I think customers know they’re dealing with a solid company, a company that’s going to treat them well, that’s going to be there tomorrow and will do everything it can to turn out the product as specified and on time.
Bruce and his wife Pam
My wife Pam and I have been married for more than 50 years. We’re blessed with three children, Therese, Steve and Scott. They each have two children, so we have six grandchildren.
They’re spread out. The oldest, Therese, lives in Las Vegas. The second one, Steve, lives in Pasadena, California. The youngest, Scott, lives in Tempe, Arizona.
They all went out-of-state for college (two to Notre Dame and one to Boston College), but all three are now back living in the West.
Therese works for a gastroenterology quality registry. Please don’t ask me more about what that entails. Steve is the CFO for Taboola, a NASDAQ-listed company. Scott is a partner in and manager of our real estate partnership in Arizona.
Anytime we can get together with family members, that’s enjoyable and gratifying for Pam and me. That’s enjoyable. Earlier this summer, the entire family came together for vacation in Colorado. We also like to travel, most recently taking a cruise around the British Isles. Then if I’m too relaxed and I need to get agitated, I golf.
Bruce and his wife Pam with their grandchildren
For the past 30 years, except for last year, we’ve done a family vacation. This year we were in Aspen. We really like Park City. We’ve also gone Sun Valley and Flagstaff, Arizona. Wherever we can get the family together, that’s a good destination.
Rather than books, I consume lots of different business periodicals. My reading list ranges from The Wall Street Journal to the Kansas City Business Journal. I also enjoy reading and learn from non- business periodicals such as COMO (all about Columbia), the Catholic Missourian, and of course Walpaper.
I think the latest TV show Pam and I have really enjoyed is “Tokyo Vice,” partly because it’s based on a book written by a graduate of Rock Bridge High School in Columbia. Other recent favorites were “Endeavor” and “Night Agent.”
My favorite healthy meal would be baked salmon. An all-time favorite meal would be prime rib. But who can afford that now?
I am a coffee drinker. The mug I’m using right now “Proud Mizzou Tiger, Robert J. Trulaske, Sr. College of Business.”
Another one would probably be “Say Hey.” That was a favorite saying by Willie Mays, my favorite baseball player. He passed away recently.
I’m a left-handed golfer, but at the urging of son Scott, I switched to right-handed putting because I had trouble left-handed.
Yes, I’m all lefty.
I think so. Now, maybe I should switch to right-handed all the way around, going one club at a time.
Yes, I am. My primary engagement with the CLP is twofold. First, every fall I do a case study with the 20 or so freshmen coming into the program. For the past several years, we’ve focused on Tesla and its leader, Elon Musk. The Tesla case is contemporaneous, that is “right now.” With Tesla, something always happens between the Tuesday and Thursday class sessions. It could be that Mr. Musk says something that is reported widely or that Tesla has backed off a pronouncement to introduce a lower- priced electric vehicle out or that Tesla’s sales in China increased. I really enjoy doing interacting with these eager, high-ability students in this way.
Second, I always participate in the CLP students’ graduation banquet. I have the privilege of introducing these students and reading their bios as they come up to receive congratulations and a special medallion. It’s also pleasurable to talk with the students’ parents.
Third, in a much different vein, I try to assist Mizzou as a member of the board of directors for the University of Missouri Flagship Council. The Council is the external advocacy organization for Mizzou.
I think it even begins before starting a first post-college position. That is, what are you looking for in a company? And often it would be the same as or similar to what’s captured in the Walsworth FIRST values (fun, integrity, respect, safety and teamwork).
Once you begin, what’s your starting time at work? Say your starting time is 8:30, 8:45 a.m. You should be there at 8 a.m., and you should be close to the last one out. That’s a good way to not only get more work done but also to create a good impression.
How do you capture what happens in a meeting? One approach is to take notes. Or, if you want to be very attentive (and you have a very good memory), you can wait until the meeting is over, then go back to your computer and summarize the meeting’s key points. Those are the kinds of things I talk to young people about before they begin their careers.
And one more point comes to mind: Do you express appreciation as warranted and how do you do that? I know a text message is very simple, but I think a handwritten thank-you note, especially if it’s personalized, is more meaningful.
Well, one of the things I’ve been impressed by is how Walsworth stays on top of the latest printing technology and capabilities, and how, assuming there’s a strong business case, they invest in new equipment that can turn out a better product faster and more efficiently. Having had a number of plant tours for someone who’s not directly in the printing industry, it’s mind-boggling and spectacular at the same time.
Related to yearbooks, I’ve learned about efforts to better serve both the yearbook advisor and the students who are overseeing that project, especially to make it easier for them and to make the yearbook more appealing. Of course, during Covid, a yearbook became even more important to young people. It gave them a permanent memory of this distinctive, stressful time period. That’s what yearbooks do.
