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Short quote: Big Message:
 
Frank Maguire is one of those folks who seems to have had a knack for being at the right place as history is made:  in the Kennedy White House; alongside the Fred Smith  when FedEx’s first plane landed, and with the Colonel when Kentucky Fried sold.
 
In fact, it was at one of the first meetings the new owner/CEO had with his staff that produced one of the shortest, but impactful, quotes I’ve heard.    The new head honcho was  talking about pending changes when Colonel Sanders took his seat at the boardroom table. “What’s he talking about, Frank,” asked the Colonel.  Maguire tried to avoid answering, but pressed, he quietly explained the new owners thought they could put close to a penny more per customer to the bottom line reformulating the gravy by substituting water for milk.
 
Col. Sanders bristled, and when the CEO finally asked, he answered as directly as a  80  year old with a bloated bankroll would.   The response from the head of the table was something along the line that the conglomerate now owned the company and changes benefiting profitability would be made.
 
At that point, Maguire says Colonel Sanders gathered up his papers, stuffed them unceremoniously in his briefcase, pushed away from the table, and with a laser glare told the new CEO, “Don’t f**k with the gravy.”
 
The temptation to mess with the gravy, regardless your business, is omnipresent, good times and bad.  As The Colonel said …

Bud Carter
Senior Chairman Vistage Atlanta
Publisher of the Business Quotes book entitled: Chairman Carter’s Collection of Pithy Quotes (Quotes designed to improve your bottom line, or, at the least, your disposition).