Friday, May 26, 2000
Retiree spreads his success to others
By John Johnston
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Everyone has a story worth telling. At least, that's the theory. To test it, Tempo is throwing darts at the phone book. When a dart hits a name, a reporter dials the phone number and asks if someone in the home will be interviewed. Stories appear on Fridays.
Ernie Nordquist retired 13 years ago, a classic American success story.
It's the story of a boy who grew up poor in Illinois, a son of Swedish immigrants. Neither his father, a carpenter, nor his mother, a maid, had a high school diploma.
His family eked out a living during the Great Depression. Ernie's father tried to build a home, but ran out of money. So the family lived for a time in a garage.
No sooner had Ernie graduated from high school than he was drafted by the Army. During World War II, he served as a mortar gunner in France and helped liberate a concentration camp in Austria.
He returned home and went to college on the GI Bill. He earned a civil engineering degree from the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, then got a job at a Procter & Gamble plant in Chicago. His starting pay in 1950: $300 a month.
He worked for P&G for the next 37 years, tackling a number of assignments in manufacturing and planning. In the meantime, he married, moved to Finneytown, and he and his wife, Helen, raised three sons and a daughter.
He retired in 1987. But his story, and his success, don't stop there.
As his days at P&G wound down, he had a plan for what to do next: help others achieve success.
He became a volunteer for a nonprofit association called SCORE, the Service Corps of Retired Executives. SCORE counselors provide free advice on how to start, operate, buy or sell a business. Some 12,400 volunteer counselors assist aspiring entrepreneurs in 389 chapters throughout the United States and its territories.
Ernie, who turns 75 Saturday, volunteers at SCORE's downtown office two to three times a week. He figures he's had at least 700 clients the past 13 years.
“I do enjoy helping people,” Ernie says.
Peter D'Ambrosio is one.
Mr. D'Ambrosio was not the typical SCORE client, because his business was already up and running. He had just opened his third hair salon when he first sat down with Ernie in the late 1980s.
His business was OK, but Mr. D'Ambrosio knew he needed a way to get to the next level. His idea of a business plan was to jot some thoughts on a legal pad at the beginning of each year.
“Ernie showed me how to do a strategic business plan, something I had heard about, but hadn't done. He told me how to do it from concept all the way through execution.
“Of course, he'd had good luck doing this with Procter & Gamble. I said, "I'm hardly Procter & Gamble.' But he assured me it would work.”
It did.
“I never told (Ernie) this,” Mr. D'Ambrosio says, “but it was basically life-changing, as far as my business life goes.”
Over the years, the men have kept in touch. Mr. D'Ambrosio knew where he could turn if he had questions. Ernie was “always willing to do whatever I needed him to do.”
So, how's the hair salon business?
“It's really good. We've grown a number of times to larger locations.
“I bet not a week goes by, and almost not a day, that I don't get out my business plan and make sure things are going (well). It's that simple, basic model Ernie gave me years ago. He convinced me that even Peter's Place Hair Design and Cutrage could act a little bit like Procter & Gamble.”
Not every client enjoys that kind of success, Ernie notes. And not every client takes his advice. But he admires those who come to SCORE. In some, he sees tremendous initiative.
Ernie Nordquist knows all about that.
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