NEWSWEEK.COM 23
MODERN BUSINESSNEVER AGAIN
Top: Mourners at a
candlelight vigil for the
victims of the Marjory
Stoneman Douglas High
School shooting. Below: A
bump stock device, which
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quickly, dramatically
increasing the potential
for casualties in an attack..“We do,” I said. “We hope that they’ll act and pull something
together. We don’t want to see the partisan politics, where one
side espouses their position, the other side espouses their posi-
tion, and they actually never do anything.”
At the end, Stephanopoulos nodded. “It’s a big move,” he said. I
walked out of the studio, relieved that it was over. Except it wasn’t.
We were receiving thousands of letters. Many people were
writing to thank us. Some said they’d never shopped at a Dick’s
store before but would now. There were so many warm, emo-
tional comments from parents thanking us for making the
world safer for their kids that I got choked up. I told my exec-
utive assistant to instead read me the nasty ones, so that I could
get ahold of my emotions.
And oh, there were so many to choose from.
Soon after, about 65 of our own employees quit right away in
protest, and more followed in later weeks, people up and down
the organization. We have a cross-section of the country working
with us, so it didn’t surprise me that some were upset with us.
But the negative backlash, hot as it was, was overwhelmed by the
positive response to our decision. People
came into our stores with donuts, pizzas
and flowers for the staff. We got thou-
sands of emails and letters. The manager
of our store closest to Parkland emailed us
the day after my TV appearances. “Before
yesterday, my community continued to
struggle with healing,” he wrote. “That be-
gan to change at 7:15 a.m. yesterday. Thus
far I have received 42 phone calls of sup-
port and 17 walk-ins that wanted to speak
directly with the store manager.”
We seemed to have started a shift. And
momentum seemed to be building to-
ward something good.Excerpt adapted from it’s how we play
the game: build a business. take a stand.
make a difference. by Ed Stack, pub-
lished by Scribner.About 65 of our own employees
quit right away in protest,
and more followedin later weeks.FRO
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