High-Hanging Fruit

by Mark Rampolla

  Indeed, if honesty and adherence to ethical behavior is central to your corporate culture, women should be at the top of your list. After the Enron scandal, researchers from Penn State using the federal government’s Corporate Fraud Task Force found that only 9 percent of the 436 defendants in federal corporate fraud cases between 2002 and 2009 were women and only three of those were women identified as “ringleaders.” Of those three, only one was not married to another ringleader. And in the top ten worst accounting scandals in history, all leading players were men. I’m not going to attempt to explain this other than to say it doesn’t surprise me in the least.

  Your business is unlikely to experience corporate fraud but I believe these statistics speak to a larger truth. Ethical behavior is not just about the big moments that break laws but hundreds of small decisions that occur every day. In my experience, women are more likely than men to prioritize those small displays of integrity: coming through on promises, not cutting corners, and showing respect for all parties. That behavior tends to set the tone for everyone around her.

  I’m not the only one to realize the value of this untapped potential, and the climate for women is changing quickly. I’ve been blown away by the millennial female entrepreneurs I’ve met in the last few years across all industries. They are wicked smart, incredibly competent, driven, and competitive. But most also appear to have their egos under control, have a bigger sense of the world and their companies’ role in it. They not only are out to make a buck but also lead with caring and compassion. Many of them have been an inspiration to me and helped me understand and become excited about what the future holds.

  WHEN IT ALL COMES TOGETHER

  Organizational culture gets established quickly. Shortly after joining in January of 2008, Andy had built a small but passionate and effective sales team that included Chris, Rory, Drew, Carolina, and Carol. Shortly after, we added Ryan in sales and James to focus on marketing. Ross and Sherif handled operations and managed the direct sales to yoga studios out of my garage. They all lived and breathed the Zico brand. The field team started their days at six a.m. at Big Geyser, sucking on diesel fumes. Their way of breaking through with route owners was straightforward. Bring a dozen bagels, a box of donuts, and some coffee. Their goal was to get the attention of every route owner and learn what made each of them tick. Then after you have their attention, the work begins to gain their trust.

  Earning trust with the route guys was not easy. These route owners spent years building relationships with some of the toughest store owners and managers in New York City, and they weren’t about to allow anyone to walk in and screw it all up. When the Friday whistle blew, Andy’s team woke up the next morning to pass out cartons of Zico at weekend running or triathlon events across the New York metro area. In order to gain the distributors’ trust, they would need to do whatever it took to get and keep Zico on retailers’ shelves, as well as make sure it sold off.

  For example, they knew that they had to make sure Zico was perfectly merchandized. All the other beverage brands were fighting for the same precious space in the cooler; that perfect, eye-to-thigh spot near the front of the store. To get it, the Zico team had to want it more. If that meant helping distributors build displays at three a.m. at a Whole Foods Market, then that is what they did. They performed their own demos, staffed their own events, put up point-of-sale displays, and talked to everyone and anyone about Zico.

  I was awed by what they accomplished. I had read for years about the concept of high-performing teams and had helped mold some during my corporate days, but here I had the good fortune to see what could happen when a team formed and developed right before my eyes. There would be a constant chatter of texts and e-mails with photos and updates: “Just opened a hip coffee shop in Brooklyn, check out this display” or “Another 100-case order for Fairway,” always with pictures attached. Or when they needed help, “Ross, please take the van to Westside Market on 45th. Need to drop 20 cases and a rack. I’ll be there at 3:30. Can anyone help me build an 80-case display?”

  You also had to stay on your toes with this team, as they were pranksters. They told me that the owner of a new yoga account was excited to meet me and that I should get there at precisely three thirty p.m. on any weekday. I did and discovered I’d just walked into the middle of the all-male class at Hot Naked Yoga NYC. This level of constant communication (and practical jokes) would be the mode of operation for our sales and marketing field teams as they grew from this small New York group to cover a dozen major cities across the country. And they coined a term for that communication: “cowbell,” referring to the Saturday Night Live skit where Christopher Walken’s character demands that band member Will Ferrell give “more cowbell.” I liked to think I was Walken but maybe they thought of me as a backup singer. I never asked.

  I got a clear picture of how strong and effective our company culture had become one day in the summer of 2008, when I went to Big Geyser to drop in on my team’s daily sales meeting. Before I went into the main offices, I walked around the warehouse to get a look at the first ever delivery truck we’d wrapped with the Zico brand. Most of the one-hundred-plus vehicles in Big Geyser’s fleet were decorated (or “wrapped” as they say in the business) with the design of one of the beverage brands the company carried. It cost three or four thousand dollars (plus a few hundred thrown in to cover small repairs the driver wanted done while the truck was off the road) to make these driving billboards. Vitaminwater or Smartwater covered probably 40 percent of the Big Geyser fleet. Negotiating to get one on J Bev’s route on the West Side of Manhattan was a small coup by Andy and the team, and I was excited to see the truck roll out the doors in the early morning light. I wondered how many thousands of people that day might glance at the truck’s panels as it made its way around Manhattan, especially the big Zico package on the truck’s roof.

  The truck wasn’t the only sign that Zico had moved up in status from an interesting little brand to a company that was getting real attention. While I once felt like an outsider in the Big Geyser warehouse, it now felt like a second home, and I was treated like family by everyone from the executives to the administrative staff. The drivers, who were now making some meaningful money with Zico, would at least say hello and wanted to shake my hand.

  That morning I found my team in the conference room usually reserved for only Big Geyser staff meetings, with six of our salespeople and one from marketing at the table. Andy, who was in charge, started the meeting with little preamble. “I hope everyone saw the new truck,” he said. “We’ve been called up to the big leagues. Time to show ’em we deserve to be here.”

  What followed was a rapid-fire status check from everyone in the room.

  “Ryan,” he started, “what’s the status of Fairway?”

  “They ordered a pallet load per store, which arrived on Monday. I went to both stores yesterday and they’re blowing through it, so I don’t think it’s going to get them through the weekend.”

  “Can you get Antonio to put in another order today?” Andy asked.

  “Did it last night,” Ryan said with a smile. “It’s on that big blue truck that just went out the door.”

  “Son of a bitch, you stole my thunder,” Andy said. “Enough with you. Chris, tell me some good news about Whole Foods in Chelsea?”

  When the sales team was done, James ran down a list of the ten upcoming events from a triathlon in the Hamptons to a yoga competition in Manhattan.

  “Wait,” interrupted one of the sales reps. “Did you say yoga competition? Do you win by sitting still the longest?”

  “Of course not,” James said deadpan and without missing a beat. “It’s Bikram. It’s the guy who sweats the most. Actually, it’s going to be a great event for Zico, and Mark, I may have told the organizers that you were coming.”

  “Already planning on it. I’m bringing Maura and the girls,” I said. “But I’m not competing. I’m too goo
d, it wouldn’t be fair.”

  James then handed out packets of the recent online and mainstream media hits from the previous month. It was a thick stack, and James was clearly pleased with the thump each packet made as it hit the table. Zico had been mentioned or pictured in Men’s Fitness, Luxury Hotelier, Curve, In Touch Weekly, Star Magazine, and more. He also reported that Gwyneth Paltrow, Liv Tyler, and Robert De Niro had all either mentioned drinking Zico or had been photographed with a carton in their hands.

  “Nice!” Andy jumped in. “Make sure to tell De Niro that Gwyneth and I will take a complimentary table at his new restaurant next week but please make it a good one. Gwyn hates when we’re stuck near the kitchen.”

  James said, “I almost forgot, I just got pinged this morning that Rachael Ray does this segment called ‘What’s in Your Fridge.’ They featured this model Jacqueline and when she opened her fridge she had celery sticks and like six Zicos!”

  As we were about to finish up, Carl Gaglio, Big Geyser operations manager, poked his head in the room.

  “Hey, look at this, you even invited Mark to the party! Hey guys, sorry to interrupt, but Mark, I’m glad you’re here. I just got another two-hundred-case order from FreshDirect and another big order just went out to Fairway. I’m not sure what the hell you guys are doing but I don’t think I have enough product to get through the week and just want to see if we can get a rush order of a couple pallets by tomorrow morning.”

  “We’ve got you covered,” I said. “How much are you thinking?”

  “Full truck load, Carl!” Andy jumped in. “Look at this team. We’re just getting warmed up and you’ve got to be ready.”

  It was a great bit of public arm-twisting by Andy. Big Geyser liked to order pallet loads at a time, even multiple times per week to keep their inventory as low as possible. The fact that they might be up to a full truck of five thousand cases for next-day delivery was a big deal. Everyone looked to Carl in anticipation.

  “Full truck load it is,” he said, smiling at the hoots and hollers from the group.

  What pumped me up wasn’t just that Zico was selling well but that this team was working like a well-oiled machine. And they were having fun, too. There was barely a beat between Andy’s rapid-fire questions and clear, concise, knowledgeable answers. When problems or issues came up, no time was wasted pointing fingers or avoiding blame. Everyone’s focus was on the solution. I jumped in once or twice, making a few suggestions, but for the most part, I stood on the sidelines, a proud coach watching his team execute play after play and thinking, “If we can replicate this in every major market in the country, someday Zico will be huge.”

  As the summer of 2008 came to a close, we decided to run an incentive with the route owners for September and October. The overall goal was to show them and the Big Geyser team that Zico could scale, and we were willing to pay a price to prove that point. With Big Geyser’s help, we structured the so-called Battle of the Boroughs to make it enticing but fair by handicapping boroughs against each other. For each territory we were offering five-hundred-dollar cash prizes for each route owner that could sell the most volume and another five hundred dollars to the person who increased his percentage the most over the prior year’s sales.

  We had their attention and focus, and to make sure the distributors were successful, we executed a weeklong blitz at the beginning and the end of the contest. During those weeks our entire team of eleven, including recently hired Michael “Buck” Williams and Rory Mulcahy in New York, Carlos and Juliet, who had recently been hired in Los Angeles, a few interns, and me, worked with distributors in each territory to help them sell more cases. Every day our team would meet at Big Geyser at five a.m. Rory had masterminded a detailed schedule of who worked with which distributor in which territory, matching personalities, considering every detail. We had a list of target accounts, goals for the day for new accounts and cases sold, and two vans circling the city with cases, racks, point of sale, T-shirts, hats, and coolers. When not dropping off product or racks to support the sales effort, this team hit select spots for guerrilla street demos like Union Square or the Columbus Circle entrance of Central Park or in front of Vita Coco’s offices (just for the hell of it), always avoiding (or sampling) the police as we had none of the required permits to do these street demos.

  At the end of October we were scheduled to present the awards at the monthly Big Geyser sales meeting. Just the year before, we were rarely if ever on the monthly schedule; this time we were the main event. Our whole team was waiting outside as the Vitaminwater team funneled out. Since the Coke purchase they had lost some of their mojo. Many on their team had been recruited away to other brands and Coke wasn’t hiring replacements, so our team began to rival theirs in size, energy, and passion. Someone opened the door and called, “Zico!” and we all plowed into the room—the energy was palpable.

  Though I was there, Andy took the lead. This was his show. He knew how hard the route owners had worked, and that you don’t take credit for what just happened; you give them all the credit. “Guys, we really appreciate the phenomenal work these past two months. Big Geyser broke twelve thousand cases this month, three times last year’s volume.” Our team started cheering and the room followed along. Andy continued. “That’s incredible and I hope you can now all see the power of the Zico brand. I also want to personally thank you because Mark made me a promise that if I tripled the New York business, built the right team, and found my replacement, he’d move me to L.A. to do the same out there. So I’m out of here soon. Thanks to you we tripled the business! You can see, and I think all know now, we have a great team, and while no one could ever replace me, I found this guy, Buck Williams, out on the street looking for work. Let us get to the fun stuff now and tell you what you really want to hear: who won the incentives for the month. Buck, take it away. Buck Williams, everybody.”

  Everyone cheered and some yelled profanities. They knew and loved Buck. He had been at Vitaminwater for several years and recently took over as Zico manager for all of New York. With two of Vitaminwater’s best people on Zico’s team, they knew we were serious.

  Buck went to the front. “Thank you, Andy, I think. I’ve only been working with Zico officially for a week and I could go on but enough about me and certainly enough about Andy, let’s give away some cash money!” Everyone screamed at this.

  “So here are the results! Andy, drumroll, please!” Keeping a showman’s pace, Andy gave out the prizes. The five hundred dollars cash was no huge deal to these guys but Andy’s presentation, which was equal parts praise and not-so-gentle ribbing, made it feel like a real event. One by one, route owners from various New York areas came up to get their reward.

  Andy saved Joey Bev, who covered Harlem, for last. In a month, Joey had quintupled his sales of Zico from 72 to 360 cases. Joey, all 225 pounds of solid muscle, barreled his way to the front of the room to get his cash, but Andy pulled away the envelope at the last moment and handed it to Buck.

  “Not so fast, remember,” Buck said. “Some of you may have heard that we had a little side bet going on, right, Joey? Although fifteen years past his prime, Joey still considers himself somewhat of an athlete having played tailback in a semipro football league in Finland or somewhere and thinks he can take me in a fifty-yard dash.”

  Only Buck, who knew Joey well, could get away with this next comment. “What he calls muscle, I’m calling flab! So guess what we’re going to do? Joey, I’m gonna race ya! Right here, right now, out on the mean streets of Maspeth. Trucks, exhaust, and potholes be damned! Double or nothing.”

  The distributors and Big Geyser team loved it. All the route owners were cheering and hollering and placing side bets with each other. In that moment I could tell, mostly thanks to Andy and Buck, Zico had become accepted into the rough-and-tumble Big Geyser family. The incentives we could offer as a small brand were also small, but our energy and ability to make it fun for thes
e hardworking route owners made a big difference.

  Everyone poured out onto the street and someone marked off a start and finish to fifty yards. Another person offered to get their Glock for an official start but was talked out of it by others. Buck and Joey lined up; Andy stood in front and set them off. Joey was unbelievably quick for a big guy and took off like a cheetah and to everyone’s surprise Buck, who still is a great athlete himself, never caught up, or he never tried. Everyone cheered.

  After Joey cooled down, I walked up to him with the original envelope with five hundred dollars and peeled off five more hundreds to go on top and said congratulations. He took the envelope but wouldn’t take the other five hundred dollars. “I earned that, this race, this was for fun. I don’t want your money. I told you before not to count out Harlem. They’re ready for Zico. Get your team to spend more time with me in my market and you won’t regret it, Mark. That’s what I want!”

  The chaos cleared, traffic resumed, and we gathered the Zico team around and Rory assigned tasks for one last day of blitz. Like everyone, I had my assignment, to visit a few key accounts and present a new program we wanted to run with the Bikram Yoga NYC owners. That night we all met at a little Cuban restaurant in Harlem to celebrate. Andy and Buck gave away awards to the team for the weekly blitz: most accounts opened, most cases sold, best point-of-sale display built. The team ate, drank, and celebrated and a few hours later wound up in Koreatown doing karaoke. After my turn on the stage, which seriously underwhelmed everyone, I headed on a train home to let the team party on. They deserved it. It had been an intense but incredibly productive week, and year for that matter.

  We were on track to finish 2008 strong, at $4 million in revenue versus $1 million the year before, but the fight was just beginning. While we were winning battles in New York, the coconut water wars were erupting on multiple fronts across the country and would soon spill into Europe. Although we were perhaps leading Vita Coco in New York, they had a leg up on us in other parts of the country and had recently raised a formidable $10 million to drive growth in Boston, Los Angeles, and other markets we’d soon learn about. It was time to raise more money and start thinking about an aggressive expansion plan. No better time exists to raise another round of investment than when the final checks of the previous raise have barely cleared your bank account.