John Burgess

You joined Walsworth in 2009. Can you tell us the story of how that came about?

Coming out of school, I was recruited to work for Sprint to support their wireless startup called Sprint PCS. I knew if I got a job with a big company, that would be the quickest opportunity to get a lot of experience in different areas.

I worked my way to becoming a Senior Manager in the Business Development area; and ultimately, in the Strategic Ventures area. I have a lot of entrepreneurial blood in my family, and I didn’t want to wake up one day regretting not trying to start something on my own, so I left Sprint for that adventure.

That led to going out and investing in a company, which just happened to be yearbooks on DVDs. Shortly after I got into that, Facebook and YouTube and some other photo sharing sites came alive. We put together a concept around how we could help yearbook staffs enable some form of social media capability that was operated and managed by the school. We put together a concept and presented it to Walsworth. We spent two years going at it, then market conditions changed. So Walsworth decided to tuck in that endeavor, created the strategy and innovation department and kept some of our key people.

Could you ever have envisioned at that time that you would still be here 15 years later?

Even though I had friends who were progressing up the ladder by moving from company to company, I’ve always felt my opportunity at Walsworth has been a level of progression that has been very satisfying through the encouragement to pursue opportunities where value could be created for the company. The list is long in regard to the number of initiatives that I’ve been a part of leading and/or supporting.  Currently I’m engaged with our Employee Engagement, Talent Development, Experience Management and Inkjet initiatives. These are all areas that I’m really enjoying helping the company think through and build.

What is it that you love about the printing business?

Many people don’t realize the print industry is an $80 billion annual industry… it’s a really big industry.  Our company has been very smart with respect to the areas we choose to compete. In the last 20 years, print has weathered some unbelievable change with the introduction of the internet, mobile devices and apps. There have been so many different attempts to displace print with digital. We owe a lot of credit to ownership for investing in the resources to stay in front of potential threats that could disrupt our business, along with identifying opportunities where we could adapt.  Despite industry stagnation and disruptive market forces, there is so much opportunity to go after for the printers who play the smart and long game.

You mentioned an entrepreneurial background in your blood. Do you feel like your position and what you get to do here at Walsworth in Strategy and Innovation allows you to scratch that itch?

That’s another major reason why I love being here – I’m given a tremendous amount of autonomy and support to put my nose in a lot of different areas to see what we can do to grow and protect the business. I’m a key part in helping build business cases and help define them, implement them and get them operationalized. So there’s an entrepreneurial spirit and aspect of what I get to do every day.

I was reading an article from McKinsey recently and it described the ever-evolving role of the Chief Strategy Officer. That’s not my title, but I play a similar role. And based on the latest thinking, the greatest areas to drive value consists of insights generation, actual formation of strategy, business development, M&A, innovation; and last, helping the organization build strategic capabilities. The last one is really about helping the organization think through best ways to implement and operationalize strategic initiatives. From my perspective, all of this checks many of the “what an entrepreneur does” boxes.

During your time here, what do you feel has allowed this company to be as successful as it has been over the past 15 years?

There’s so many things our organization has done to be successful, but there a few areas that stand out to me – direction, alignment and commitment. How a company operates at the $100 million level is different than it is at the $250 million level; the roles have to evolve to support the organization growth. Communication and collaboration becomes a more important part of the leadership role and requires more and more of the leaders. We’ve made those changes.

It’s challenging to keep people from slipping back into their silos, and Jim Mead was the catalyst for helping the organization achieve better direction, better alignment and better commitment. We’re not perfect, but we continue to make huge strides with ensuring the entire company knows where we want to go as an organization, that the vision is motivating, and everyone understands what they can do each day to help us move towards achieving our vision and goals.

What are the biggest challenges the company faces going forward?

It’s really more what are our greatest opportunities? And with the addition of inkjet, and some poor decisions by our competitors, we are in a very enviable position in terms of what is out there for us to grab and grow by.

So it’s going to require that next level of focus on those things. Our own culture is going to become more and more important. The communication, directional alignment and commitment are going to become more and more important. And at the end of the day, we have to ask ourselves if we have the right initiatives underway to help support that. I think we do.

As you’ve talked about, the company has grown. Walsworth has added locations, added people. How has that evolution taken place? And now, how important is the “One Walsworth” initiative?

Being in a big, fragmented, and to a certain degree, stagnant growth industry, it becomes more and more challenging to grow our commercial side organically at the growth rate that we need.  As we get bigger, it will require a smart combination of organic and acquisition growth to ensure our target overall growth rate. So we’re going to have more locations and people in the future. Becoming more efficient and effective, getting everyone speaking the same language, and having everyone bought into the same culture – it’s important.

It’s evolved from when we did our first acquisition with IPC (now Walsworth – Saint Joseph). We’ve learned what went well, what could have gone better. That’s kind of the next chapter we have to focus on: how do we take what we’ve learned and translate that into going through the growing pains, becoming efficient and systematic about how we acquire and talk and integrate?

You grew up in the Kansas City area, right?

Yeah, went to high school right down the road (points out window) at Shawnee Mission South. I still have family here, my dad and my brother and his family.

I grew up in Leawood, Kansas, went to the University of Kansas. Spent most of my life in Kansas City, with the exception of studying abroad in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, and working for Bank of America in London.

I’ve been married to my wife Amber for 17 years and we have an 11-year old daughter, Isabel (Izzy).

What about hobbies?

My wife and I look forward each day to our walks with our two chocolate labs. They get walks in the mornings, lunch and evenings. We look forward to the sports and activities Izzy participates in. She’s playing competitive soccer, so we all enjoy watching and attending Sporting KC and now KC Current games.

When we’re able to, we also love to spend time at Lake Lotawana. I grew up vacationing down at the Lake of the Ozarks. Some of my best memories growing up with my family were at the Lake of the Ozarks. When we’re at the lake, I’m able to leave everything happening in K.C. at the front door and appreciate being in the moment with family and friends down at the dock or on the boat.

When it comes to favorite meal, you’re famously a big Chipotle guy, right?

Yeah, for sure. It’s almost comical how often I go to Chipotle. But I love showing off my Loyalty Rewards email to friends that states I’m in their top 1%.

Do you still walk there for lunch when you’re in the office?

Yeah. Two years ago, I started working with a trainer to help me with my fitness and diet. Since I don’t eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, it was a challenge to build the diet part of the plan. I shared with the trainer that I really like Chipotle.  We were able to strike a deal that if I walked to Chipotle to get my steps in and ordered a diet friendly Chipotle meal then we had a deal.

When you’re on your walks, is there anything specific you listen to? Or is it just time to think and let your brain go?

I listen to a lot of different music genres, but have always been a fan of U2. First concert I ever attended was Joshua Tree. I’m still upset with myself for missing U2 while they were at the Sphere in Las Vegas.  Also, I will dial into some podcasts or audiobooks.  I’m really into geopolitics. So anything George Friedman with Geopolitical Futures puts out there. Also, I really like Ray Dalio’s Changing of the Great World Orders on audiobook. (laughs) Also anything on the American Thinker reading list. It is kind of my meditative opportunity to disconnect a little.

What’s one thing about you that most people might not know?

I guess the easiest would be that I speak Spanish.

Another would be that I’m passionate about giving back to the community. I’ve played a pretty significant role for a period of time at (non-profit organization) Cornerstones of Care. And I think we delivered a pretty big impact across the time I was there.

Why was Cornerstones of Care so important to you?

My wife and I adopted our daughter. And when you see some of the families we saw, and some of the hardships they were dealing with, it’s impactful. Also at the time, I was in a program called the Centurions, a group really involved in working with the city’s future business and philanthropic leaders. Their expectation is, “How are you going to give back?” And I took that to heart.

I’ve been fortunate as it relates to my success because of all the help I’ve received along the way. I want to see children have the best chance at being a productive citizen as possible. How do you help them overcome some of these challenges that are, quite frankly, huge challenges to overcome?

Cornerstones of Care was a back-office function at the time when I joined, and it was driven by four agencies. Gillis was one of them. Gillis was the oldest agency in Kansas City serving children and families at risk. Back in 2012, I was asked to become a member on the Gillis Governing Board of Directors. I progressed to become Vice Chairman in 2016, and we led the process for why it made sense to merge Gillis with Cornerstones of Care.

We laid out the playbook for the other three agencies to go down the same path. We thought it would take two or three years, but it ended up only taking three months. We all merged on January 1, 2017, making us able to more effectively compete as one organization for 18,000 families across Missouri and Kansas with 800 team members. And we grew our contracts from $30 million to $55 million in that 2017/2018 timeframe. I served as vice chair for two years and chairman of the board for two years, and then I rolled off in 2022.

That’s awesome to hear. Another random fact people might not know is that your birthday is on Christmas.

Yeah, that’s true. (laughs)

So how was the holiday growing up?

Oh, it was good. My family always took care of me. It was challenging when I turned 21. It’s hard to find a bar open on Christmas Day. (laughs) Other than that, we celebrated Christmas in the morning and my birthday in the afternoon/evening.  This has evolved over the years and my wife and I host a big dinner with family and some very close friends on Christmas every year. I cook an infamous beef tenderloin.  A great, not good, bottle of wine is required to get the invite.

But there’s an interesting deal with your family and holidays, beyond just you, right?

Yeah, my parents got married on Valentine’s Day. My mom was born on Halloween. My brother was born on Thanksgiving.

We know you’re a lake guy, but are there other vacation spots your family enjoys?

We love going down to Cabo San Lucas. My wife and I were married there. Some of the best sport fishing, golf, dining and sun anywhere.

We also love heading out to Steamboat Springs, Colorado, both in the winter and summer. Izzy now has a couple years of skiing under her belt. I cherish every moment with her out on the slopes.

Do you have a favorite movie?

Oh man, there’s so many. I don’t want to say just one and get stuck with it.

For the longest time I would have said Fletch. I loved that one.

If you had a personalized coffee mug, what would it say?

It’s the same coffee mug that’s always in the cabinet since I started here. It says “People don’t plan to fail. They fail to plan.” That’s pretty appropriate.

Do you have a favorite memory of your time at Walsworth?

I’ve been fortunate to have been on teams or leading teams that have seen both success and disappointments. And many of my favorite memories stand out from each of those journeys. That said, there is one moment in particular that stands above anything else.

In March 2022, I met with Don Walsworth and Jim Mead to kick off our regular horizon aspiration planning meeting. It’s the meeting that sets the stage for the next kickoff meeting with the leadership team for the upcoming plan cycle. This meeting ended up going in a different direction as we delved into the agenda. Don asked if we thought if it was the right time to expand the annual plan into a multi-year plan. More importantly, should we get our next level of key people engaged in the planning process from the very beginning.

The result of that conversation was the formation of the strategic five-year plan with focus area teams. I’ve had a lot of fun working with and being involved with a much broader, deeper swath of the organization. Having the rest of the organization play a part in creating that plan is so much more meaningful. So that was a big moment.