At a time when Stuart and I have been reflecting on the life of a wonderful man who played a pivotal role in shaping our business, I've also had the great fortune of spending the past week in Paris and then in Rome, where Dior and Fendi offered a timely reminder of why it matters to keep those threads woven into your story.
This isn't another post about my dad, significant as his influence was, it's the story of a man who played a foundational role in ours.
When we were first starting our pharmacy business, we bought pharmacies in three states simultaneously, with the goal of securing contracts to provide pharmacy services to aged care facilities and private hospitals in each locale. The private hospital element came to fruition first in Queensland, where we secured a contract to provide pharmacy services to three existing hospitals on the Sunshine Coast, with an additional location soon to be constructed.
This was a huge win for what was essentially a start up business, and the contract was awarded to us rather than the expected highly regarded, established provider at the eleventh hour.
Now, a dummy spit, or a full scale professional undermining campaign, could have been the expected reaction in these circumstances, but that's where this story starts. The established provider was a partnership of four pharmacists, and the managing partner got in touch with us, not to rail and complain, but to ask us out to dinner.
We were a little nervous and unsure what to expect, but we had some mutual acquaintances, and he had a reputation as a man of great character, so we accepted the invitation and joined him.
That was the first time we met Tom Ryan, and it was a dinner that changed the course of our lives. He explained that he and his partners, who were all in their fifties, were starting to think about their succession strategy, and would be interested in getting to know us as part of that.
At that time we were winning an increasing number of contracts to provide pharmacy services to aged care facilities, and it's fair to say that wasn't the universal reaction we were getting from those who had lost business to us.
Not being awarded the hospital contract must have been extremely disappointing for Tom and his partners, but Tom's response was to turn challenge into opportunity, and to choose grace and dignity as his reaction, characteristics we would soon discover were fundamental to his character.
We obviously didn't walk out of that dinner as partners, but it was the start of a series of interactions that ultimately ended with our business merging with Tom and his partners' business. We delivered on the succession strategy they were looking for, and by 2010 the other partners had retired, and Stuart, Tom and I were the owners of the pharmacy business and the medication compliance manufacturing business, which was still in its infancy, with big plans ahead.
Sadly, personal circumstances meant Tom had to retire shortly afterwards, much earlier than he'd planned. He left the business, but not without teaching us so much, in both business and life, over the decade we were fortunate enough to work with him.
I came across this photo recently, of us at the unveiling of the Tom Ryan Boardroom at our old offices in Mansfield, a room named after the man who had such a huge influence on us both, and where it was our honour and privilege to make so many of the decisions that shaped the business.
Tom passed away recently, and I wanted to take the time to honour a great man and his legacy. We'll always be grateful for that initial reach out and everything it led to, and for the friendship, loyalty and guidance that defined everything he did, over the course of his life and career.
Walking through Dior's galleries in Paris and Fendi's in Rome, you're reminded that no single person builds a house like that. Dior has had seven creative directors since Christian Dior himself, and every one of them has left elements that are still visible today. Karl Lagerfeld led Fendi for 54 years, and even after Silvia Venturini Fendi, then Kim Jones, then Maria Grazia Chiuri took their turns, you can still see his hand in what the house makes now.
Tom's the same for us. He left the business more than a decade before we exited but his legacy remained in the way we continued to treat competitors as potential future partners, and in choosing grace over grievance when things don't go our way. That's what a thread woven in early looks like. It doesn't disappear when the person who wove it moves on, or when they're no longer there to see what it became.
If there's someone who wove a thread into your story like that, this might be a good week to make sure they know the impact they have had while you still can.
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