BY STEPHEN ROTH
STAFF WRITER
You notice some unusual things
when
you
step
into
Geoffrey Heathcock’s downtown office
at
Grant Thornton: a miniature model of the Bob’s
Big
Boy
mascot,
a
framed
set of souvenir pins from the 1994 Summer Olympics, a glass executive award
shaped
like a fertilizer bag.
But the
first thing you
notice is a size 22
basketball shoe.
Heathcock
marvels at
the
shoe, not for its gargantuan size
but
for how much he
paid
for it
— $2O at Just For Feet
in
Overland Park, the same price he would have
paid
for a pair of 10s in
the
same
brand.
"This despite the fact that
it’s
twice the material," said the 53-year-old
strategic consultant, eying
the shoe. "I
guess shoes are one of the few things that don’t get priced differently. I could help them
with that.”
No doubt he could. Heathcock joined Grant Thornton's Kansas
City office in November to lead
the
company’s
initiative into strategic
consulting after spending a quarter century formulating financial and strategic plans for companies like Bechtel and Black &
Veatch. In his new job,
Heathcock does for medium-sized companies in Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska and Oklahoma what he used to do for Fortune
500 companies: direct growth plans and link companies with lending organizations to
finance their
growth.
Why does the son of Glenn Miller’s lead trombonist, a guy who has
rubbed
shoulders
with
everyone from George Shultz to Wolfman Jack, opt for a less glamorous job advising
companies
like
Bunting Magnetics of Newton, Kan.? It’s Heathcock’s way of passing on what he has learned to a
new
generation
of businessmen.
"I have been fortunate to have worked with many of the great business leaders in
the past 25
years and
now
it’s
time to exchange this business knowledge
with
the leaders of the next decades."
Jim Williams. senior vice president
of
the Kansas City-based human resource consultant Spencer Reed Group, helped Heathcock
find a job as treasurer for Percy Kent Bag Co. in 1992.
Now Heathcock
is
returning the favor, helping the fast-growing consultant
revamp its accounting system with new
computer software.
Williams
said Heathcock’s business background sets him apart from other
consultants.
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“We’re kind of a small company getting big
real quick,
and he’s seen
those kinds of growth issues we’re going through.” Williams explained.
“He
knows
some
of
the
pitfalls
and
problems you
can run
into."
Bunting Magnetics is
another
company
on the rise.
CEO Bob Bunting
appointed Heathcock
to
the
company’s
advisory board because of Heathcock's skill In formulating growth plans
for up-and-coming companies.
He has a
high
level
of
organization skills; he understands financials; he’s
been
through restructuring companies,” Bunting said. “He understands what
we’re
saying."
Greg Stollsteimer, Grant Thornton’s head of management consulting in
Kansas
City, said he
has never had
a consultant with Heathcock's hands-on experience.
“He’s been
there
before, he’s
done it
before and he's done it with a number of
different businesses,
and that’s the kind of skill
he brings to our clients,” he said.
An idyllic
life
Heathcock’s
family lived a star struck life in
the
San
Fernando Valley, and he
can fill
an
afternoon with childhood stories
about wrestling with the young Ricky
Nelson and palling
around
with Barry Livingston,
who
played Ernie on the TV show
My
Three Sons. Heathcock
even played
Little
League baseball
with a scrappy 11-year-old named Tom Selleck.
“Back then,
we knew him as this little, obnoxious
kid
named Tommy Selleck who had no hair on his chest or gold chains around his neck,”
Heathcock said. ‘He
was
my shortstop."
Heathcock came of age cruising
Van
Nuys Boulevard
and
listening to
Beach
Boys music ala “American Graffiti.” A huge rock
‘n’
roll fan, he
even deejayed a few
fraternity parties with
soon-to-be
radio
legend Wolfman Jack.
I wore glasses at the time so they called me Clark Kent’s Music Podium” Heathcock recalled.
"He
liked
that name. He really dug it.
But Heathcock turned away
from Hollywood
glitz
in choosing a career. He
earned a
math degree at California
State-Northridge and
got a job in
the
early 1970s as an investment manager
(or the San Francisco engineering construction company Bechtel, then
the
world’s largest privately
held
company.)
Even at Bechtel, Heathcock’s brushes
with fame continued. He worked with strategic planner George Shultz and legal
counsel Casper Weinberger before the two entered the public arena as members of
the Reagan Administration.
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| Grant
Thorton consultant Geoffrey Heathcock, who knows some
of the most respected people
in business, teaches a
high
school rock ‘n’
roll history class in Blue Springs. He keeps plenty of reference material
at home.
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Shultz, president of Bechtel for
more than two years,
was a big influence on Heathcock’s
career. Heathcock
remembers the future
secretary
of
state as a commanding figure
and economic whiz
who
listened intently to his lieutenants’ advice.
“By listening. you will learn
a lot
more than you can by talking, and he knew that,” Heathcock said.
Heathcock, too,
is a
good listener.
His wife, Sheryl,
thinks that quality
helped
him mature as a strategic
thinker.
“He goes
the extra
mile to find out
what makes
people and businesses tick. He
has
a curiosity in finding out what’s
making them successful or not successful,” she
said.
Stollsteimer said Heathcock’s
curiosity and
personal charm should
help him deal with his target clients:CEOs of $20 million to $150 million companies who have aggressive
growth
plans
but
aren’t
used
to
working with a consultant.
“Mv first
impression was he may be a little bit of an egghead, but
that
quickly
went
to the wayside,"
Bunting
said. "He’s easy
to talk to
and
really
kind
of a
character. And
I
don’t meet too
many people
whose
fathers were
the lead trombonist
for the Glenn Miller Orchestra."
There’s a soft side to Heathcock's personality
as well,
one
he
shows when teaching a high school rock
‘n’ roll history class
in Blue Springs
or helping homeless men at City Union Mission in
Kansas
City. It’s
that side of him Sheryl
liked when she met her husband
21 years
ago
in San Francisco.
“He’s got a very caring spirit in many
ways about
other
people
and
finding out
about them,’ she said.
“That’s a
trait he has. He enjoys
diverse personalities."
A
new
Van Nuys
The Bob’s Big Boy on Heathcock’s
desk reminds him of the suburban California he knew growing up, a California that
disappeared in
the
smog
and overpopulation of the 1980s.
He
searched
for a different place
where
he and Sheryl could
raise
their three
young children.
“I thought, ‘How do I find Van Nuys Boulevard?’
I went to Kansas
City in 1989 and thought Metcalf
Avenue
looked
a lot like Van Nuys
Boulevard.”
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Heathcock restructured
the financial operations
of the Kansas
City
engineering firm Black & Veatch
before
moving
on to a
five-year stint
as CFO For Percy Kent Bag Co. (That’s where he won his
bag-shaped
executive trophy). Heathcock quit Percy Kent last year and
took
a couple of months
off to decide
what he
wanted
to do next. A
friend from Grant
Thornton suggested he
try
consulting.
"But consultants are obnoxious." Heathcock protested. “I don’t even know
how 'to sell.’"
Not Heathcock, said Williams of
Spencer
Reed.
“He
knows his way around
a board
room, but
he’s
very approachable also."
With
his usual enthusiasm, Heathcock recites a
favorite saying by
Benjamin Franklin that he thinks applies to his new job.
It’s a saying
he once shared with his old mentor George Shultz.
"There’s
no limit to
what
a man can do or where he can go, if he doesn’t mind who gets the credit,” Heathcock said.
“And
that’s consulting.”
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