Russ Darrow’s drive to suceed fostered a multi-million dollar business – and an ability to help others
Admit it. When you read the title of this piece one or two commercial jingles zipped through your head: The Darrow Difference, Dar-row Dodge; or simply, Russ Dar-row! It’s OK. Writing a story about Russ Darrow Jr. and his wife Susan leads one (willingly or not) to play those jingles over and over as if recorded on a loop somewhere in the dark recesses of the mind.
The Darrow Group’s face is now Russ Darrow III, the eldest Darrow son and president and chief operating officer of the Russ Darrow Group. But make no mistake, Russ Jr. is still guiding the Darrow franchise as the chairman of the board, CEO and chief sounding board for his sons.
"He’s not afraid to give us feedback," vice president Mike Darrow said of his father.
"And we get advice that we really just don’t care to hear," Russ Darrow III said while laughing.
Darrow is a success in many ways. He began as the youngest owner of a Chrysler-Plymouth dealership at age 25 after working as a salesman at Heiser Ford in Milwaukee. Prior to his entrepreneurial turn, he had worked unloading freight cars and lumber trucks as an hourly worker. It was then that he decided that using his brain had to be easier than using his brawn, so he turned to sales.
"It’s easier physically, but there’s a switch," Darrow said of his choice to go into sales. "You have to use your mind, your skills on the phone and your personality. And you have to have a good work ethic because you have to be a self-starter, a spark plug, as opposed to somebody pushing [you]. That was a better alternative for me than an eight-hour-a-day job with an hour lunch. I just preferred to work my brains out because it was easier."
Of course, "easier" is a relative term. At the time of the dealership purchase in West Bend, the Darrows already had two of their four children.
According to www.wardsdealer .com, the Darrow Group ranked 81st nationally in the MegaDealer 100 listing based on 2000 sales figures. At the time, the Darrow Group had 13 dealerships (it now has 17) and $324.1 million in both new and used car sales.
The accompanying article about the megadealers predicted that the days of single-point dealerships are numbered. Darrow began bucking the single-point dealership trend in 1967 when he purchased his second Chrysler-Plymouth dealership in Appleton, and added two more Chrysler-Plymouth dealerships over the next five years.
Through all the years of success, Darrow learned that the most important leadership qualities were to lead by example and to have impeccable character.
"You really multiply yourself through others," he says. "And the second thing is that a company’s only as good as the people. It’s got to be the people that I surround myself with … and you have to retain people that you really care for and have a passion and commitment for the company. Their success is what we stand for."
Marketing man
It is that philosophy that came with Darrow when he became the chairman of Junior Achievement of Wisconsin in June 2000.
He was a breath of fresh air to JA of Wisconsin, bringing with him a completely different approach from prior chairmen, most of whom had financial industry backgrounds, according to Carrie Arrouet, director of North Metro Operations for JA.
"[Prior chairmen] were really ‘tucked-in,’" Arrouet said. "They were just really straight. Marketing wasn’t their thing and it never has been and it doesn’t need to be; and here’s Russ coming in with this whole different perspective of what makes a business run; and I think that really shook things up for the first year of his term.
"People were like, ‘Oh my Lord, what’s up with this?’" Arrouet said. "He had such a different personality."
While fellow board members initially questioned Darrow’s marketing approach, the numbers began to back him up. Darrow donated ad time for a month on statewide TV – 30-second spots that were produced by the Darrow Group, Arrouet said. Volunteer support from the board increased significantly due to Darrow’s volunteer challenge that puts businessmen and women into classrooms as volunteer teachers. The challenge resulted in an increase from 218 classroom volunteers during the 1999-2000 school year to 472 during the 2000-2001 school year. There were 495 volunteers during the 2001-2002 school year.
Darrow said he wants more volunteers, but a stumbling block is employers that won’t let their employees off during the workday to go to the training session and to teach.
"There are so many people that are out there today that would like to volunteer to do something and to teach kids in school is rewarding and so mutually beneficial," Darrow said.
Community leaders
Generosity of time and money prevails in the entire Darrow family, but they gravitate to organizations that help children. Russ III is the vice-chairman of the Children’s Hospital Foundation and sits on the Children’s Hospital President’s Council. Mike Darrow is the chairman-elect of Automobile Dealers Association of Mega Milwaukee (ADAMM), which holds a charity ball for the United Way, and is also involved with Special Olympics.
Susan Darrow is a tireless volunteer who is active in numerous charitable, civic and community organizations including the Junior Achievement Women’s Association, Marquette Woman’s Council, the Historic Third Ward Association and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society-Wisconsin Chapter. For the second year, she is the chair for the Women Against MS luncheon. This year’s luncheon features Phil Donohue. It’s an event that sold out before the invitations were mailed and typical of the draw that events run by Susan Darrow create.
In 1996, Russ and Susan were presented with the "Service to Children Award" by the Children’s Service Society of Wisconsin. This year, Junior Achievement awarded the Golden Leadership Award to Russ for his efforts as chairman of the board. He was selected from more than 100,000 volunteers nationwide.
In fact, Darrow’s involvement with JA resulted from his wife’s work with the JA Women’s Association, a group dedicated to raising funds for scholarships for JA participants and in support of JA’s Wisconsin programs. The group awarded $20,000 scholarships to seven students this year and gave $250,000 on average over the past five years to Junior Achievement of Wisconsin. The big fundraiser, held in December, is an exclusive dinner-auction, drawing 250 of the area’s elite each year.
"We bond all year and then we start the next day on next year’s event," Susan said of auction.
Darrow’s term as chairman would normally be up in June, but because his successor, Tom Spero of Deloitte & Touche, had a conflict this year, Darrow agreed to stay on for one more year.
He refused to speculate on what his legacy at JA will be because he’s "working on a couple of things" like establishing consortiums between educators, business people, school officials, politicians and other organizations that serve children, like the Boys and Girls Clubs, to help with literacy in the community.
"We’re more economic education," Darrow says of JA, "having to do with the economics of real life, what they talk about at home or don’t talk to their parents about, but what their parents are doing every day about balancing a checkbook or living within a budget or getting an allowance. …
We call that economic literacy."
Family affair
His son Russ joked that his dad spends so much time devoted to Junior Achievement that he doesn’t have time to run the family business, which truly incorporates the entire family. Not only do his sons help run the company, the Darrow daughters have been involved both indirectly and directly in it, as well. Wendy ran the company’s in-house advertising agency before moving with her husband Brian Rubach to Illinois, although she still produces the Darrow Kia TV commercials. Heidi once worked in sales and marketing and her husband Harry Mains is the company’s director of business leasing.
The elder Darrow says the transition of the business over to the next generation has been a work in progress.
"The successful part means that we have family members that really know the business," he says. "It’s a combination of knowing the business and empathy, leadership, motivation skills and at the same time being intellectually qualified in our family business. It’s chemistry putting them all together so that you retain your family values and work ethic."
Darrow says the company is actively seeking several franchises to add to the Russ Darrow brand, but doubts that the business will expand in other states, at least for the time being. (The company at one time owned a Dodge dealership in Glenview, Ill., but sold it to get back to its geographical comfort zone, according to Darrow.)
There is a sense of love and respect when meeting with Russ Jr., Susan, Russ III and Mike at the company’s headquarters in Menomonee Falls. Bursts of laughter amid family stories were frequent, especially when the elder Darrow was reminiscing about how he broke his kids into the family business perhaps easier than some of his fellow dealers, who would make their children wash cars and clean the shop.
"Stop right there," Russ III interrupted. "Maybe you better ask me this question. … I did work on the wash rack. I worked for minimum wage for three years. I walked from high school for three years over to that dealership. … I used to clean the oil pit everyday."
Mike nods knowingly as everyone laughs.
"There’s love," Susan said. "There’s a lot of love."
June 7, 2002 Small Business Times, Milwaukee
