Page 84 - Peterson 85 Years and Going Strong

CORE VALUE: FUN
ROUTINE FUN ON THE JOB
When it comes to enthusiasm, drive, and having fun on the job, few can match Cresco’s President, Chris Smith. “My fondest memories at work are when Cresco accomplishes something together for a customer, and in the process, it becomes really fun because we’re doing it together.” One of Smith’s favorite recollections happened not long after the launch of Cresco’s Production Express business in 2000. One day, he got a call from Bill Graham Presents, the famous concert-production company based in San Francisco.
“For months, we had been begging these people for their business. One day they call up and say, ‘You want our business? Here it is.The Rolling Stones are coming to town in August and you guys got the deal.’”
It would ultimately help put Cresco’s Production Express on the map. Smith was elated.
As the date drew near, the team assembled the vast amount of equipment needed—boom lifts, scissor lifts, generators, wheelchair lifts, golf carts—and got it all prepped for delivery. “The production crew was going to show up that morning ready to go, so we had to have everything delivered by Sunday night. When our staff started delivering equipment to their laydown yard at PacBell stadium [now Oracle], they realized it was going to be a push to get it all there on time. We had thirty-some-odd golf carts to deliver, and you can only load four or five on a truck at a time. And by then we didn’t even have time for trucks.”
Since the Cresco store was only two miles from PacBell Park, they decided to drive the carts over themselves. They just needed a lot of people to do it. “I knew some college kids that were looking for work and I grabbed my wife and kids and we all met over at Cresco in San Francisco,” recalls Smith. “We had about twenty em- ployees there on a Sunday afternoon ready to deliver golf carts. So we all took off—mechanics, sales guys, the store manager—everybody in their golf cart driving down Indiana Street, then Third, caravanning in a row all the way to the stadium.
“People were waving at us and honking because it was a pretty unusual sight. We had guys racing and pulling up next to each other and laughing. Everybody was smiling and laughing because we were part of something new and exciting. And it was freezing cold. We had no jackets because it was hot in Alamo when we left for the city. But it was classic foggy, wet, cold San Francisco weather downtown. So we’re driving down the street and my wife is in the cart next to mine and she looks over and yells: ‘You know, I must love you to do this on a Sunday,’ and then she just took off down the street. I’ll never forget it.
82 | PETERSON: 85 YEARS AND GOING STRONG