Millennium Marketing Research®

Tom Schori DBA Millennium Marketing Research®, 808 Ironwood, Normal IL 61761, 309-532-8466

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Sometimes, it's the messenger who is the message.

By Thomas R. Schori, Ph.D., and Michael L. Garee, Principals,  Millennium Marketing Research, 808 E. Ironwood, Normal, IL 61761-5239. Tel. 309-532-8466 -

Communications guru Marshall McLuhan in the 1960s coined the phrase "the medium is the message." At the risk of oversimplification, what McLuhan meant was that the communications medium (in this particular case, television) tends to have a greater influence on message recipients than the actual information contained in the message itself.

McLuhan may well have also concluded that, sometimes, it’s equally true that "the messenger is the message." That is, oftentimes, people can be unduly influenced more by the person conveying the message than with the actual content or potential value of his or her message. This can be particularly true in a business setting.

What kind of person are we talking about? The "outrageous" person who can be found in virtually any business organization, the one who seems to have the uncanny ability to make lots of people very uncomfortable. The lowly underling or "outsider" who may be viewed as habitually "speaking out of turn." The person who’s oftentimes thought to be the resident cynic because he or she has the temerity to "call a spade a spade," or to suggest that "the emperor has no clothes." Chances are, you have one of each of these types of people in your own company.

Despite the fact that we Americans pride ourselves on our self-professed egalitarianism, our purported tolerance of diversity, our alleged innate sense of fair play, in actual practice¾ particularly within a business setting¾rarely is anyone who is even slightly "different" from the majority of us looked upon with anything other than disdain and general disapproval. Those who are different in any remarkable way from the mainstream may be tacitly tolerated in some organizations, but rarely are they (or their ideas or opinions) enthusiastically embraced.

Now, we’re not suggesting that the opinions and ideas of everyone who is "weird" should automatically be accepted at face value. But, before such people are dismissed out of hand, it can be instructive to revisit the life stories of a few people who were once thought to be "different," were initially rejected and/or scorned, but who nonetheless went on to attain significant accomplishments.

A classic example of this type of person was right from our own back yard: George J. Mecherle. (Not exactly a household name, we admit, but bear with us, the company he founded is a household name!) He was a farmer in Merna, IL (a small town near our company headquarters in Bloomington, IL) around 1920. In his 50s at the time, Mercherle approached a local farmer organization with an idea he had¾ to start an insurance company to insure farmers’ automobiles. Since unpaved country roads were virtually impassable about six months out of the year, Mecherle reasoned, the risk exposure would be limited in comparison to city drivers because farmers only drove their vehicles half the year. That meant a "farm" insurance company would be able to offer farmers exceptional rates in comparison to the rates charged city drivers. Farmers would quickly gravitate to such an insurance company, Mecherle said.

The reaction he got from the farmer organization was decidedly cool, to say the least. Essentially, the organization viewed Mecherle as some old, "foolish" farmer who would do well to stick to his area of expertise¾farming¾and leave matters that he obviously knew nothing about (such as insurance) to the "experts."

Still, he persisted, until (legend has it) someone at the farmer organization, in exasperation, finally told Mercherle, "If you’re so darned smart, why don’t you start your own ‘farm’ insurance company?" Mecherle thought this over and decided that’s precisely what he would do.

It’s safe to say that Mercherle’s "farm" insurance company has done rather well over nearly eight decades. The company he founded is today the largest insurer of vehicles (including those owned by farmers), State Farm Insurance Companies.

Then there is billionaire and one-time presidential candidate Ross Perot, whose "boat-rocking," "hard-charging" attitude didn’t quite fit into the "genteel" culture at one time prevalent at IBM. Ultimately, of course, Perot left IBM and started his own company, EDS. Not long thereafter, he and his company were enjoying tremendous success.

Or, consider this: what if Microsoft’s Bill Gates had had the misfortune to find it necessary to work for some other company when he was a young man? How likely would it have been that he would have prospered, or even have been accepted in any meaningful way by peers and superiors? Driven beyond reason to accomplish what he himself felt to be important, it is reasonable to assume that he certainly wouldn’t have prospered in most organizations. He simply would have made far too many people far too uncomfortable. Certainly, he would not have been viewed as a good "team player"!

Obviously, these are extraordinary examples. Not everyone who is significantly different from the majority will¾or even could¾eventually aspire to the lofty heights of a Mecherle, Perot or Gates. But that’s not the point, either. The point is, to the extent that a company (or its leaders) automatically rejects input or ideas from those who are different simply because they are different, that company could be risking sloughing off someone who could ultimately prove to be a very valuable asset.

A former colleague of ours was quite fond of saying, "Remember, good ideas can come from anywhere or anyone at anytime." He might well have added: "Even from those who are a little, or maybe even a lot, different from the rest of us." That was good advice then, and it’s still good advice.