Hoover, Gary
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About Gary Hoover
After educational and professional training, Gary Hoover dedicated his life to becoming the sales leader in his industry. He has used this knowledge to educate salespeople in organizations all over the world.
He earned a degree in economics from the University of Chicago, studying under Nobel Prize winners George Stigler and Milton Friedman. He then became a retail stocks analyst for Citibank on Wall Street, a buyer for Federated Department Stores, and eventually manager of strategic planning for May Department Stores. His last corporate job was as vice president of marketing, planning, and research for May’s shopping center development subsidiary.
In 1982 he finally fulfilled his boyhood dream and founded BOOKSTOP, Inc., in Austin, Texas, with $350,000 in capital raised from 35 private investors. He and his management team built BOOKSTOP, the nation’s first book superstore chain (large selection, low prices), into the fourth-largest book retailer. In 1989 Barnes & Noble purchased the company for $41.5 million cash, and it became a cornerstone of Barnes & Noble Superstores. The superstores division of Barnes & Noble exceeded $2.5 billion in sales in 1999, 17 years after the founding of BOOKSTOP.
In 1990 Gary founded The Reference Press, Inc., to make business information more widely available and affordable. The firm, renamed Hoover’s, Inc., in 1996, publishes annual reference guides, Hoover’s Handbooks, which profile US and world companies, not-for-profits, and other major enterprises. Eventually becoming known for its online business resources, today hoovers.com is accessed more than 14 million times a month and is among the world’s leading electronic distributors of company information. No publisher distributes its products in more printed and electronic formats. In July of 1999 Hoover’s went public, trading on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol HOOV. Major investor partners include Time Warner, Media General, CNBC, and Knowledge Universe.
Hoover serves as a member of the board of directors of Hoover’s, having turned management of the company over to fellow University of Chicago alum Patrick J. Spain in 1992.
Today, Gary Hoover travels the world speaking to Fortune 500 executives, trade associations, entrepreneurs, and college students about how enterprises are built and how they survive. From his own successes and failures, and from the lessons of the thousands of companies studied by Hoover’s, he draws real-life examples that help audiences navigate into the 21st Century. He presents this information in a highly customized, fast-paced, inspiring, and entertaining way that audiences never forget
Today, Gary Hoover travels the world speaking to Fortune 500 executives, trade associations, entrepreneurs, and college students about how enterprises are built and how they stand the test of time. From his own successes and failures, and from the lessons of the thousands of companies studied by Hoover’s, he draws real-life examples of the things that really matter. His lessons are not about how to do this or that, which accounting technique works best, or how to compensate your staff. Gary speaks from long experience and long study about the big picture, about the critical components of the successful business mission. His eight key points for success are:
1. Curiosity — nothing is ever discovered by looking in the same place as everyone else, or looking in the same way as everyone else; all discovery starts with exploration.
2. History — you can’t know where you are going if you don’t know where you are coming from; watching key long-term trends is a critical part of successful leadership; what are some of the trends to watch today?
3. Geography — we all come from somewhere, we all grew up somewhere; in a shrinking world, it is more important than ever to understand people and places.
4 Clarity of Vision — can any third grader understand your vision or are you trapped in double-speak and jargon?
5.Consistency of Vision — do you stick to what you are good at and what you believe in, through thick and thin?
6.Unique Vision — do you sound and look like all your competitors or do you stand out, following a unique path that is true to your enterprise and yourself?
7. Service — the only valid reason for the existence of an enterprise is to deliver products and services to people, to somehow make the world a better place; the minute you think that power resides in the Board room or in Washington, rather than in the hands of customers, you are most likely at the beginning of the end.
8. Passion — if you aren’t doing something you love, you will never be the best at it!
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