INTENTIONAL LEADERSHIP ~ The Glen's Market Culture

Glen A. Catt

• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781636305745
• eBook ISBN: 9781636305752
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business Biographies
• Index: Business

Book

Glen's Markets started in the small, thriving town of Gaylord, Michigan, on June 7, 1951, and was a dream of C. Glen Catt. Little did he know that through his efforts, that little 2, 500-square-foot store would result in a regional supermarket chain of twenty-six stores with upwards of 2, 500 associates. Through three generations of Glen's, C. Glen Catt, Glen A. Catt, and Glen B. Catt (and numerous committed associates), Glen's Markets would become highly admired within the retail food industry for its unique, self-perpetuating culture of relationships, customer service, and attention to detail.

Intentional Leadership: The Glen's Market Culture shares the story from the early sculpturing of C. Glen Catt growing up in a financially struggling family during and after the Great Depression in the 1930s through the intentional relationships with associates and customers to the psychological deliberations that resulted in selling the retail arm of the company in 1999.

Glen's Markets was built on the basis of people working with people serving people. Any individual who has the opportunity to work with another human being will find eye-opening examples in the Glen's story that will help them to make a difference in the lives of the people they work with. Rather you are already in a leadership position or desire one day to have that responsibility, the uniqueness of how the Glen's Markets family operated will spark new thoughts to help stretch your mind.

Chapter 1

The Glen’s History

The integrity of the upright will guide them, but the crookedness of the treacherous will destroy them.

—Proverbs 11:3

C. Glen Catt, December 18, 1025–March 30, 1996

C. Glen Catt 1925–1996

Orrie Glen and Rula Fay Catt had two sons, Robert Keith Catt and Charles Glen Catt. Upon having visitors for their first child and people commenting how cute that was to have a son, Bob Catt, Orrie and Rula immediately started calling Robert by his middle name, Keith. Two years later, when Charles came along, visitors started calling him Charlie. Rula had sour feelings about Orrie’s father (also named Charlie) so they started calling him by his middle name, Glen.

Orrie’s father, Charlie Catt, had come to America from Sussex, England, when he was three years old, arriving in New York, New York, March 19, 1858. A year later, his parents moved to Barry, Michigan. Orrie was born August 22, 1899. Rula came from a broken home and thus grew up living with different families most of her adolescent years. Her paternal father was the Reverend Claude Sylvester Houk; however, we could never get Grandma to talk about him. There was a bad history there too, in fact so much that she assumed the maiden name for the woman whose home she last lived in. And that was of Estelle Ferguson Catt, Orrie’s mother. Her last residence was with Charlie and Estelle Catt, hence how she met Orrie, but still she didn’t think much of my great-grandfather, Charlie.

The Catts were a poor but a humble family. Grandpa (always referred to as Pop) said the depression didn’t bother them much because they didn’t have much to lose, compounding that with the limited job market, they struggled but persevered. After years of not having full-time employment, Orrie was eventually hired by a firm that had a contract to build US 131, the state road that would eventually connect Ohio to Mackinaw City, Michigan, the point where Lake Huron and Lake Michigan connect. The company, however, eventually went bankrupt during construction of the road near Kalkaska, so Pop was able get a job driving a road grader for Kalkaska County, Rula got a job as a cashier at the local Kroger, while Keith and Glen, still in school, got part-time jobs delivering advertising house-to-house for the Kroger store.

Orrie G. Catt 1900–1978 (circled) Kalkaska County Maintenance Crew about 1945

C. Glen Catt left high school early and joined the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War. He was a tail gunner in a B-26. When he returned to Kalkaska, he obtained his High School Diploma

Growing up in this atmosphere, Dad shared that he was determined to find work that would hold security for his family, hoping they would never want for where their next meal would come from. He figured that people had to eat; thus, he decided that the grocery business was a good bet. So when he was old enough, he worked at the little Kroger. During that time, he met a gal working in the S.S. Kresge 5&10 Store next door (for those not familiar with Kresge’s 5&10s, they were the beginning of the later-to-come K-marts, etc.). It wasn’t long after that C. Glen Catt and Doris J. McDonald were married. After serving his country in the Korean War, Glen returned to the Kroger in Kalkaska. Shortly after, he was transferred to Paw Paw, Michigan, in the s...

Table of contents

• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4
• Chapter 5
• Chapter 6
• Chapter 7