Jerry Kramer strides into the room, still looking fit and trim enough to make the key block to clear the path for Bart Starr to score on a quarterback sneak in the Ice Bowl.
The former Packer guard flashes his Super Bowl ring on his left hand and looks you squarely in the eye when he speaks.
His sentences often begin with phrases such as "Then Fuzzy says," "So Nitschke gets up," "Then Max and Paul walk in" and "You should have seen Jimmy when …."
The kind of stuff that makes Green Bay Packer fans’ hearts go pitter-patter.
Indeed, Kramer and many others have made careers out of being former Packer players during the glory years of coach Vince Lombardi.
Along the way, Kramer has engaged in his share of business ventures. Many of them, by his own admission, were "sophomorish," intended to capitalize on his fame as a former Packer.
He has co-written books, and he’s invested in ditch-digging companies, real estate, restaurants, a film company and an insulation company.
Most recently, he’s the chairman of Nutrition for Life International, a Houston-based network marketing company that sells various health-care products and has annual revenues of $50 million.
"Money was important, but money wasn’t why I was in business. It was about doing something exciting. … Vavoom!" he says.
Despite his entrepreneurial triumphs and tribulations, he remains – in the eyes of participants at the recent Packers Training Camp for Business – a Packer. One of Lombardi’s Packers.
On this day, Kramer has some wisdom he’d like to share with the campers. And of course, that wisdom is framed in his experiences at 1265 Lombardi Ave.
Kramer begins his presentation by recalling how he was thrilled just to be a member of the Green Bay Packers in his first year, when the team won only one of its 12 games.
"Then ‘The Man’ came along and started to explain some things to us. With coach Lombardi, it was always fundamentals. Block and tackle," Kramer says.
The same approach of mastering the fundamentals, Kramer says, can be applied to succeeding in business:
to execute."
Of course, all of those components won’t matter, Kramer says with another football metaphor, without teamwork.
Companies too often focus on what they want to accomplish, and how much they want to profit, without "selling" that mission to the employees who are needed to make it happen, he says.
"People need to have a feeling of worth," Kramer says. "People need a feeling of belonging and a feeling of value. You need to nurture that. You need to applaud that. I think everyone wants the ring. If you can show them how to win, they’ll follow you anywhere. It’s critical that everyone in your organization has a voice."
Kramer closes his message with a story about Lombardi taking him aside shortly after "The Man" came to Green Bay.
"He said, ‘Son, one of these days, you’re going to be the best guard in football.’ Vavoom! From that moment, I wanted to be the best guard in football," Kramer says. "That five seconds changed my life."
Nov. 8, 2002 Small Business Times, Milwaukee
