Nathan Morton (1948-2005)

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Nathan Morton liked to boast that he got his first job in retail because of the suit, the pen and the perseverance he brought to an interview with Two Guys Discount Department Stores. Of course, talent had a lot to do with it, too.

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Slide Show: Nathan Morton

During a career spanning more than 35 years, Morton helped build CompUSA into the nation's first computer superstore after leading regional and national expansions for other retailers including Target and The Home Depot. He also backed several other innovative IT-related ventures before he died of cancer last December at age 57. His success was spurred by an uncanny knack for knowing what would be successful and convincing others of the same, former colleagues say.

"He was a visionary. The only way I can explain it is that he could see [something] and see where it came from and where it was going to go. I could only see whatever was in front of me," says Ahmed Shaikh, a longtime friend of Morton's and executive vice president of Remote Light, the Dallas-based company where Morton was president and COO until his death.

As chairman and CEO of CompUSA, Morton led the company's ascension from two stores and $60 million in sales as SoftWarehouse to its standing as a multibillion-dollar national retailer in less than five years. Before that, he helped Home Depot grow from 21 stores and $400 million in sales to more than 100 stores and $2 billion in sales as senior vice president of operations; and he led Target's entre into the California market.

The fact that Morton headed CompUSA and several technology companies bemuses Shaikh. "This is a guy who didn't even want to touch a computer when we worked at Target," he says.

Morton wasn't highly technical, but nobody knew how to sell technology like he did, Shaikh says. "He knew before anybody that the need was there for a computer superstore. When he started talking about $100 million in revenue, I thought he had lost his marbles. But he knew it could be done and how it could be done."

Morton's rise at CompUSA came at an opportune time, says Jeff Matthews, general partner of Ram Partners, a Greenwich, Conn.-based hedge fund. Microsoft Windows 3.0 was new, opening up the world of personal computing to millions of new customers. His background enabled him to unite the disparate worlds of retail and computing, Matthews says.

"He immediately saw that what worked for Home Depot could work in the computer business. The Home Depot model was, 'We'll help you do it.' He figured out how to apply that to this business."

For example, Matthews says, the first CompUSA stores featured training centers where customers could learn more about these mysterious PCs. "It seems a little silly now, because you open a computer, plug it in and play. But back then they were pretty complicated. Nathan helped uncomplicate them. He really helped turn them into a superstore model business," he says.

"He always seemed to be right in the center of things that were destined to change American industry," says Michael Gorton, founder, chairman and CEO of TelaDoc, a Dallas-based medical services consulting company where Morton was a board member. "From Target to Home Depot to CompUSA—there are three very different entities, and all of them revolutionized their segment of retail."

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Morton hardly rode the coattails of the PC's rise to prominence. Instead, he was instrumental in convincing computer manufacturers their products could sell to the masses on retail shelves, says David Goldstein, CEO of Channel Marketing, a Dallas-based consultancy.

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When Morton began building CompUSA into a national power, most computer stores were independently owned retailers run by hobbyists or engineers or national franchises such as MicroAge, ComputerLand and Entr Computers, Goldstein says. "The national franchises focused almost exclusively on the corporate marketplace and the local independents on the small-business market. CompUSA came into the picture and brought both under one roof," he says.

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Adds Matthews: "A lot of big companies did not really trust retail stores to handle their product well. And in fact it wasn't until, I think 1993, [Morton's] last year there, that he got IBM there to sell ThinkPads at a retail store. He opened up the way. He turned what was a very closed, hard-to-understand business into a modern retailing enterprise. Back then it was a very Byzantine business, and they were terrible places to buy a computer. [Morton] took a business that was not consumer-friendly and turned it into a superstore business. It was revolutionary."

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Morton's success also stemmed from his ability to make both vendors and customers happy, a tricky concept to balance and one that has befuddled countless other executives, says Dave Uhlman, who first worked for Morton at Target and later followed him to

Communications

Expo and Computer City.

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"Vendors came to us because of the relationships and the respect Nathan had for them," adds Uhlman, who also was a former vice president in charge of retail and Internet customers at distributor Merisel. "I've always said if Nathan asked me to run through a brick wall, I wouldn't even think about it. I'd just turn around and try to run through the wall. I completely trusted him in terms of what he wanted to do."

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That loyalty also stems from Morton's inclination to listen to what others had to say. Perhaps the only thing he understood better than building a business was building personal relationships with those around him, his friends say.

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At his funeral last December, a young woman stepped forward to play a voice-mail message Morton had left for her during a difficult pregnancy several months before. On the recording, Morton said in a very soothing voice that she would get through the pregnancy and all would be well.

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"Everybody was in tears," Gorton says. "We all had calls like that from him. It was Nathan saying, 'This too shall pass.' He always found a way to make things positive. And you know what? That's the No. 1 ingredient to success, and he applied it to every

sector

of business that he touched."

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"It was Nathan's personality to have an open mind and listen. He was very approachable as a CEO, not intimidating in any way," Goldstein says. "He was very supportive of innovative ideas. I haven't met another CEO so open to meeting and open to new ideas."

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Matthews once casually mentioned a location along Route 1 in Connecticut that he thought would make an ideal location for a CompUSA store. Two weeks later, he got a call from Morton.

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"He said here's the deal and he laid out the issues of why they could not get a lease in that space, why it wouldn't work," Matthews says. "He subsequently opened a CompUSA down the road in Norwalk. His focus, his persistency was amazing and he wanted to accomplish things that fast."

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Morton's presence is still felt in the large big-box stores today, his former colleagues say.

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"Nathan constantly talked about reinventing the experience of retail. You look today at Fry's, MicroCenter,

Circuit

City, Best Buy—they are constantly reinventing themselves. What they do in offering in-office and in-home service, CompUSA pioneered early on under Nathan," Goldstein says.

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In addition, many solutions labs today hosted by vendors, distributors or solution providers take their cue from Morton, who set that model in motion more than 10 years ago.

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"At Computer City, he saw that a customer wanted to see a solution to their problems, not just specific pieces of equipment. He envisioned a solution environment, not just rows of computers or rows of mice. He wanted everything displayed as a solution, whether it was for a college student, a doctor's office, a real estate office," Uhlman says.

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As an entrepreneur in his later years, Morton got to branch out in several directions, investing in companies focused on the future. He was president and CEO of Open Environment, a

client/server

enterprise software company; CEO of Buildnet, an enterprise

software

company that attempted to build the first national exchange for the residential home-building industry; a two-time chairman of The Computing Technology Industry Association; and chairman of StarPower Home Entertainment, a home theater store chain specializing in custom design and installation of audio/video, communication and home automation products.

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And then there's Remote Light. Through a concept called central lighting, the company aims to leverage technology and intellectual property focused around the use of fiber optics. Morton believed optical technology could be used to enhance the properties of light and revolutionize the way we use energy.

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It's just one more example of his passion for getting people to think differently.

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