YouSaid · the spoken record

Cal Turner Jr.

lines on the record: 82
first: 2018-06-07
most recent: 2018-06-07
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“I can't give you a good answer because I'm glad I didn't know much about retailing when I went into it because I knew I needed to get others to help me learn. And we could learn together. So retailing is a dynamic that you have to be figuring out together all the time.”
2018-06-07 · Masters in Business · Cal Turner Jr. on the Promise of Family Business · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Let me tell you what's hard about this job you're applying for. You have to work long hours. You get the merchandise straight and the customer messes. However, if you want to be a part of this company, Where we give a better life to struggling people. You can feel good about the hard work you do. And then some people would be honest enough to say to themselves, I don't want to work that hard. Well, they're not a candidate for Dollar General, if that be the case”
2018-06-07 · Masters in Business · Cal Turner Jr. on the Promise of Family Business · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I don't have any pat advice to give anybody. I like to get inside the person and figure out what turns that person on, what turns that person off. And let's talk about that. And how much of a turn on might retailing be for you? How much of a turnoff might it be? Are you a people person? Do you mind hard work? How about long hours? What do you think about that? Can you have enough fun in retailing that you'll enjoy the long hours and the hard work? Because that's what it is. We found in recruiting employees to our store, we could often find the best employees by talking people out of coming to work for us.”
2018-06-07 · Masters in Business · Cal Turner Jr. on the Promise of Family Business · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, studying people. Is a delight for me. Everybody is one of a kind and I get a kick out of getting acquainted with somebody on a 10 second elevator rod. Their people are fascinating. And if there's a way for me to make a connection with them that says you're special. I am blessed if I make that connection. Now I enjoy physical activity, so I work out regularly. I enjoy being outside. The turners came from the farm. I like getting out on the land. I like just seeing whatever's going on out there in God's creation. I've played tennis. I've played golf. I've done skiing, water, and snow. All of these things I enjoy, but it is the activity that connects me with others. That is fulfilling, and life gives a lot of opportunity to be in partnership with other people.”
2018-06-07 · Masters in Business · Cal Turner Jr. on the Promise of Family Business · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, to grow and to develop and to reach out to other people and say, I really need your help here. Again, I'm a boss's son who's over his head and I need your help.”
2018-06-07 · Masters in Business · Cal Turner Jr. on the Promise of Family Business · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh, well, I wish I could tell you about a time that I failed. There were many times that I failed. Every failure Was an opportunity for me to apply what my mother said for a good boy, you get into a lot of trouble. We have good people who mess up. And the key to getting it right is to acknowledge that we have messed up in a way that helps us all to fix it. And from every failure was my best opportunity, it seems, as I look back on life.”
2018-06-07 · Masters in Business · Cal Turner Jr. on the Promise of Family Business · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I've seen a lot of change in retailing in my 37 and a half years in the saddle. And there will always be challenge. There will always be retailers making it and others not making it. The ones that stay closer connected with the customer are going to survive. And, for example, when Dollar General changed its mindset by saying we're not a retailer Customer driven distributor That really got the company going. So you need to redefine yourself in almost any organization based on what your people can help you figure out would work. They can help you figure out the next iteration of your company that you will all pursue together. When they give you the answer, they'll implement it for you very well.”
2018-06-07 · Masters in Business · Cal Turner Jr. on the Promise of Family Business · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But I had some real irreverent prayer life. And I've always called myself a backsliding Methodist. That means I own my backslide in a way that helps me to bond with other backsliders.”
2018-06-07 · Masters in Business · Cal Turner Jr. on the Promise of Family Business · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well then I realized God was saying back to me you know you were converted based on the cross and I told you you were going to have a cross to carry. I'll help you carry it Get with it get over being. And I'll help you get on with it in a deeper way. So yeah, I've sensed that God was saying, thank you for being honest with me. I already know you're upset with me, but thank you for being honest about it. So you eventually.”
2018-06-07 · Masters in Business · Cal Turner Jr. on the Promise of Family Business · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I don't mean as a teenager, I mean Well, I guess I may have exuded more confidence than I really should have had. Certainly, when we went public, and I didn't know what in the heck I was doing. I had to project confidence. While I was quaking in my boots”
2018-06-07 · Masters in Business · Cal Turner Jr. on the Promise of Family Business · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And he surmises that the person who works on that second half dynamic early. Is more blessed in life. Try to get the meaning in the container as you're building it. And he talks about dualistic thinking and non-dualistic thinking in a way that was a real aha to me. So much of life is compare and contrast. Put a label on this. Put a label on that. And God who made all of us says there's more to life than a label. There's more to life than a comparison When I pray to God about something, should I do this or that? God would say yes and it would tick me off.”
2018-06-07 · Masters in Business · Cal Turner Jr. on the Promise of Family Business · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well The book that I need the most of any books the Bible. Now, I tend to read Books that are from Real good thinkers that are based on the Bible. Earlier I shared with you that Timothy Keller's one of my favorite theologians when he wrote that book The Prodigal God helped me to figure out the problem I had as an older brother. And it helped me to bond with younger brother and to understand life better. I like what he writes. I read a lot of Richard Rohr of Henry Nowin. I like Richard Rohr's book Falling Upward. It talks about life having two basic dynamics. You start off building your container. You try to accomplish, achieve, succeed, you build the container, and the last half of your life, you try to fill it with meaning.”
2018-06-07 · Masters in Business · Cal Turner Jr. on the Promise of Family Business · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh, yes. But what you need to do is to learn how to apply in your company what that competition seems to do well in his or her company. You've got to learn it through the eyes of your own employees and customers and apply it in your business model, in your business opportunity.”
2018-06-07 · Masters in Business · Cal Turner Jr. on the Promise of Family Business · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“There were many of them who had Throughout the history of our company, we observed successes among the competition. And there were some more successful now, and others might be more successful later. And a good retail leader observes the competition, and yet does not copy that competition.”
2018-06-07 · Masters in Business · Cal Turner Jr. on the Promise of Family Business · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And the best mentoring, I think, is two way. You get confused about who is helping whom. Because you're helping each other. And I love to be in those two way mentoring relationships.”
2018-06-07 · Masters in Business · Cal Turner Jr. on the Promise of Family Business · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I wear it on my sleeve more in the book Than I ever have. That's one of the nice things about retirement. You don't have to be so constrained about political correctness. You can share from your heart with the hope that you're doing that will help somebody else. And my book is an attempt to mentor the reader. I've had great mentors throughout my life.”
2018-06-07 · Masters in Business · Cal Turner Jr. on the Promise of Family Business · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Free enterprise needs to be free, and there are inequities that occur from time to time in And yet, if the market can have its influence on human activity, it can be self correcting. We found that building a business required our offering opportunity to develop to our customer base that could become our associates. And build the company, and they could grow and develop and their financial wellbeing would be enhanced in a major way the more productive they became. So if the money rewards productivity. Then it's good to have more wealthy people based on their being productive. It works. It does work. It gets, yes, it gets out of balance. Life is always out of balance. A real leader tries to figure out the balance that he needs or she needs to work on.”
2018-06-07 · Masters in Business · Cal Turner Jr. on the Promise of Family Business · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Because something needs to be in it for them to show up. And so I went back and they came up with a plan that I said, I don't think the board would ever approve this, but it was taken to the board. The board approved it, and somehow the turnaround of that company that wasn't yet working. Started to work when all of senior management got that motivated to make it work.”
2018-06-07 · Masters in Business · Cal Turner Jr. on the Promise of Family Business · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He called my bluff and I said, Well, all right, Daddy. What I have to do now is to share that with the management team. So I'm going to go back to them and suggest that they come up with a compensation plan to make it worth their while if we successfully sell the company.”
2018-06-07 · Masters in Business · Cal Turner Jr. on the Promise of Family Business · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, he was just royally ticked off. And I decided now I can't keep going through father and son fights. I know how I can control the old man. So I'll go to Scottsville and I'd say, look, Daddy. My brothers and sisters don't want to sell their stock until I sell mine. I'm willing for us to get family to come back together. You and I keep fighting. It's like a dagger to my heart every time we have a fight. Let's agree that all of the Turners will sell this company. And I knew my dad would say, oh no. And then I'd say, Well, then you behave.”
2018-06-07 · Masters in Business · Cal Turner Jr. on the Promise of Family Business · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It felt like an eternity. Our company had gotten bigger. You can't turn a bigger company around as fast as you can a smaller company. And it's interesting how that happened. My dad and I had another fight because the son of his pet flunked a drug test. He was the only district manager in the company to flunk a drug test. And my dad said, You're not going to fire him because his father's done more for this company than your whole management team put together, but I did. I did fire.”
2018-06-07 · Masters in Business · Cal Turner Jr. on the Promise of Family Business · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“At the end of his life, he woke up to the blessing of philanthropy because he saw his kids doing it. And he once conducted a census of all of the churches in his hometown of Allen County, Kentucky, found that there were 91 of them, and he gave a thousand dollars to each church. And they were overwhelmed because more than half of those churches had received the largest contribution in their history. And he said, for me. Son, it's amazing. Look how cheap philanthropy is in Scottsville. You can't buy that kind of goodwill in Nashville, Tennessee for $91,000, son.”
2018-06-07 · Masters in Business · Cal Turner Jr. on the Promise of Family Business · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I don't remember that he did that. My dad would give some of his stock to all the cousins. Year after year after year, philanthropy for him was more of a family thing.”
2018-06-07 · Masters in Business · Cal Turner Jr. on the Promise of Family Business · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He did indeed. He did indeed. And he also blossomed in philanthropy. He and his wonderful wife, Judy, have done amazing things for the not-for-profit community, for downtown development, and they are deservedly very loved in the community of Nashville, Tennessee.”
2018-06-07 · Masters in Business · Cal Turner Jr. on the Promise of Family Business · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“My brother developed the Gulch in Nashville, Tennessee, which is an amazing development of the downtown. Nashville that we all know today and that has Steve Turner and his son Jay. All over it. They did wonderful things for Nashville.”
2018-06-07 · Masters in Business · Cal Turner Jr. on the Promise of Family Business · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And we couldn't coordinate the implementation. So after The younger brother left the company we could get on with what we had said we wanted to do with the company but we had to move fast. It's a good thing that the whole management team had been doing planning because I understood our agenda and we could implement it faster.”
2018-06-07 · Masters in Business · Cal Turner Jr. on the Promise of Family Business · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, we had been doing strategic planning for years, but we weren't able to implement it very well because we had two camps in the company. One for each brother.”
2018-06-07 · Masters in Business · Cal Turner Jr. on the Promise of Family Business · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, sometimes you have to be sensitive to the time that's needed to invest. In a situation or syndrome. Need time. Time can help.”
2018-06-07 · Masters in Business · Cal Turner Jr. on the Promise of Family Business · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I did reach out to him. It wasn't immediately done, though, because more healing in our rapport needed to occur before I could even do that.”
2018-06-07 · Masters in Business · Cal Turner Jr. on the Promise of Family Business · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well to me the healing began when my father called me about twenty four hours after learning that I had fired my brother. And he said, I have him slept since that call, son. But I realized now that just as an animal cannot live with two heads, neither can a company. And you did what you have to do, had to do, and I'm with you. You have my support. That helped the healing to begin.”
2018-06-07 · Masters in Business · Cal Turner Jr. on the Promise of Family Business · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But my brother understood how hard it was on his older brother. That's why I said you're going to have to fire me and live with that the rest of your life. And I do I still feel the scar. Sometimes you learn more from your scars. Sure.”
2018-06-07 · Masters in Business · Cal Turner Jr. on the Promise of Family Business · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Not the older brother Who is self righteous and who's a people pleaser? And that's who I was. I was a terrible older brot And that helped me to put it all together better in a way that gave my younger brother the credit he deserved.”
2018-06-07 · Masters in Business · Cal Turner Jr. on the Promise of Family Business · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And how I described the dilemma that we all faced, he had a role in life to live and I had one to live. And when I read Timothy Keller's book, The Prodigal God, I learned about the sin of the older brother in that parable about the prodigal son, the prodigal son gets forgiven.”
2018-06-07 · Masters in Business · Cal Turner Jr. on the Promise of Family Business · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Writing this book, my father's business has been additional healing to the relationship between brothers. My brother loves the”
2018-06-07 · Masters in Business · Cal Turner Jr. on the Promise of Family Business · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, my cross was splitting the family and the company by firing my brother. The best example of a cross. But now that I look back on those rough times in life, I find myself more blessed by them. Then the times of success.”
2018-06-07 · Masters in Business · Cal Turner Jr. on the Promise of Family Business · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“From that time on, my life would be different. Now that I'm seventy eight and looking back on it, I think it meant that I was always supposed to be asking the right question of life and And I was forewarned that if I followed my Lord, I would have a cross to carry.”
2018-06-07 · Masters in Business · Cal Turner Jr. on the Promise of Family Business · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's interesting how Luther Turner's life changed at eleven and how Cal Turner how the life of Cal Turner Jr. changed at eleven. It was a summer Sunday evening and I was sitting in the beautiful twilight on my uncle's front porch across the street from our church. I was waiting for my parents to pick me up and in that still wonderful twilight time something came over me that I cannot explain. It's nothing that I came up with, but it happened to me and it was based on the words of the old rugged cross and the conviction that while it was wonderful Christ had died for everyone he had specifically done it for Cal Turner Jr. And it was a big wow that changed my life. I didn't know what that meant, but I”
2018-06-07 · Masters in Business · Cal Turner Jr. on the Promise of Family Business · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh, yes. And the landscape of retailing provided all kinds of competition. And there's a lot of carnage among retailers. There always has been. If you don't stay connected to the customer as a retailer, and if you aren't meeting a customer need with your store, your days are numbered.”
2018-06-07 · Masters in Business · Cal Turner Jr. on the Promise of Family Business · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, we wanted to open the stores where we understood the customers. So they were primarily in Kentucky and Tennessee at the time. And yet, opportunity to expand elsewhere. Was compelling. And we would go where we could get the cheap rents.”
2018-06-07 · Masters in Business · Cal Turner Jr. on the Promise of Family Business · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, it's supply and demand. There's no supply of opportunity to open store at a dollar a square foot anymore, Cal Senior.”
2018-06-07 · Masters in Business · Cal Turner Jr. on the Promise of Family Business · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, that evolved. My dad used to think our prices and merchandise are so compelling that we can open a store anywhere. And some of the buildings he leased, you'd say that about them, they were just in places most retailers wouldn't pick. And as the company evolved, we got a little more particular about where we would put our stores. But he still only wanted us to pay a dollar a square foot per year.”
2018-06-07 · Masters in Business · Cal Turner Jr. on the Promise of Family Business · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, it was always based on the marketing opportunity afforded by an acquisition prospect. Could we get stores where the leases would work for us? Quest was a big factor. Yes. And that was our entire basis for doing actually location.”
2018-06-07 · Masters in Business · Cal Turner Jr. on the Promise of Family Business · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, and we would do the occasional acquisition if we could get good store leases in the process, more places to open our store. And my dad would always be the great buyer. He'd buy all the opportunity buys and we'd be overstocked with whatever he'd bought. So we had to open more. Yeah, yeah. And he used to laugh about how bankers, how retailers could pull the wool over the eyes of bankers by saying, look, if I can open more stores, I'll have more places to sell my merchandise. If it doesn't sell here, I'll sell it there. Well, if it doesn't sell here, chances are not going to sell. You're not going to sell it there.”
2018-06-07 · Masters in Business · Cal Turner Jr. on the Promise of Family Business · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, we could open a store in less than a week. And if a store didn't work, we could close it in a day and move on. So you will short-term leases.”
2018-06-07 · Masters in Business · Cal Turner Jr. on the Promise of Family Business · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I had had most of the jobs in that retail company myself, and I was not good at a single thing I did except sweeping the floor. Developed a respect for the people who do those jobs well, and I said, look, we all know how I got this job, I'm the boss's son. I'm over my head, and I need your help. I respect what you do. I like how you get the work done in this company. Let's learn together, and you have my commitment that we will share the success with you if you help us build this company.”
2018-06-07 · Masters in Business · Cal Turner Jr. on the Promise of Family Business · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, we didn't have to get them. My dad thought I could do whatever needed to be done. That shows his overconfidence in his son. So we evolved. And those. Persons were added in time. But not right away.”
2018-06-07 · Masters in Business · Cal Turner Jr. on the Promise of Family Business · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, why wouldn't you have to? We had it in Scottsville, Kentucky. We had to grow up as a public company, we had to grow up as a family business That could learn the best way it could be professionally managed. There was a lot of trial and error, a lot of hard work, but we had wonderful people to help us figure that company out.”
2018-06-07 · Masters in Business · Cal Turner Jr. on the Promise of Family Business · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, in the early days Had them in Scottsville, Kentucky, and we invite everybody to come to Scottsville, Kentucky. Not many showed up.”
2018-06-07 · Masters in Business · Cal Turner Jr. on the Promise of Family Business · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“They explained what it was. I said, okay, well, I'm the only one who can write it, so I went in my office and closed the door and sat down and wrote the first annual report.”
2018-06-07 · Masters in Business · Cal Turner Jr. on the Promise of Family Business · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“December of 1968 because my dad just decided it was time to take jail Turner and Son Public. Oh and by the way son, we're going to change the name to Dollar General Corporation. Oh, dad here, we're taking Turner off of the name. I kind of hate that. Yes, our company needs to be identified with our stores. So Dollar General it was. And he said, you take it. You run with it. So we went public. We had no chief financial officer. We had no consolidated financials in the company. We had no budget. But Cal Jr., you've had accounting courses and you can handle Wall Street, so you take it and go public. Well, I'm glad I was naive enough to think I could do it because I had to do it. We went public. And in January, somebody said something about an annual report. And I said, what is an annual report?”
2018-06-07 · Masters in Business · Cal Turner Jr. on the Promise of Family Business · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source