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(upbeat music)

- Good afternoon!

- [Audience] Good afternoon.

- I'm Stan Eakins.

I'm the Dean of the College of Business

and it is my pleasure to welcome you

to the Cunanan Leadership Speaker Series

this afternoon featuring Jim Morgan,

Chairman, President and CEO of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts.

This event has been a collaborative effort

of many people and groups across the University.

Two such people are ECU Alums Steve and Ellen Cunanan

who have provided financial support for the speaker series.

They understand the importance of hearing

from the great leaders of our time,

of opening our minds to new ideas and thoughts

and of supporting education in the true

broadest sense of the word.

We are grateful for their support.

As many of you know, the College of Business

has put leadership development front and center

in its curriculum.

In this competitive job market,

it simply isn't enough to know business fundamentals

and subjects.

Graduates from schools from all over the country

can compute net present values and prepare balance sheets.

You need to bring something different and special

to the table to capture those top job opportunities.

The college listened to employers and developed

a leadership program that covers topics they felt

would most enhance our business graduates.

To my knowledge, we have the most robust leadership program

in the country.

This lecture series supports our leadership program.

Now to introduce our speaker today, is Amanda Tilley.

Amanda is the owner/operator of the Krispy Kreme Doughnuts

in Greenville, Goldsboro and Rocky Mount, North Carolina.

She has been with the company full time for 21 years

serving in a variety of roles

including Fundraising Coordinator, Shop Manager

and Route Salesman.

She currently serves on Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Corporation's

Franchise Advisory Council and Marketing Advisory Committee.

She earned her undergraduate degrees

from the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill in 1990

and her Master's degree from East Carolina University

in 2003.

Please welcome Amanda Tilley.

- Good afternoon.

It is my privilege, and I use that word intentionally,

to have worked with Jim Morgan

and to watch the transformation of Krispy Kreme

since his tenure as President and CEO.

I am glad he is hear today to share his thoughts

on leadership, specifically pursuing a passion.

Jim draws from a wealth of experience.

He has served as a member of the Board of Directors

for Krispy Kreme since 2000,

as Chairman of the Board since 2005,

and as President and CEO since 2008.

Prior to his time with Krispy Kreme,

Mr. Morgan served as Chairman and CEO of Wachovia Securities

and Chairman and CEO

of Interstate Johnson Lane Incorporated,

an investment banking and brokerage firm.

He is currently a director

for Coca Cola Bottling Company Consolidated.

In addition, he has held leadership positions

in various civic organizations including Trustee of YMCA

of Greater Charlotte,

Director of Youth Commission International,

past President of the Vanderbilt University

Alumni Association and past member

of the Vanderbilt University Board of Trust and,

as you may have guessed,

he is a graduate of Vanderbilt University.

Under Jim's leadership,

Krispy Kreme successfully navigated one of the most

challenging periods in the company's 75 year history.

He has inspired, developed, and recruited

a talented team of people that understand

if an organization focuses on the right things,

then success will follow.

Some of the recent successes include:

in operations, 16 consecutive quarters

of positive same store company sales;

in marketing, the development of the hot light app

which celebrated its one year anniversary in December

and we have over 4.6 million fans on Facebook.

In governance, Krispy Kreme was recognized as the 2012

Government Team of the Year for small to mid cap businesses

by Corporate Secretary,

the leading governance and compliance publication.

Krispy Kreme currently operates over 700 stores

in 21 countries.

Please join me in welcoming Jim Morgan.

(audience applause)

- Good afternoon.

It is great to be here with y'all.

I am, talking about privileged, Amanda,

I am privileged to be here.

I've been a big fan of this university for a long time.

I've had great friends that graduated here.

Some of the, quite frankly some of the superstars

of my Interstate Johnson Lane background

were East Carolina graduates.

I work with Amanda now who got her business degree here.

I've got, y'all have had distinguished alumni

that are all over the country now as you know.

I got to see just a little while ago a younger friend

of mine who I claim as a friend,

I'm a good friend of his father's, grandfather's,

so, Cody, it was good seeing you.

So I've just got lots of ties here

that make me feel very special.

Speaking of ties, I did find a tie that I thought

would be appropriate for the campus too.

So I enjoy being a member of your group today

and I'm delighted to be here.

I do wanna share one thing and I'll say this

in the best way that I can,

when I make talks regardless of what the subject is,

it's very difficult for me to separate my thoughts

from my faith.

It just happens to, in my life,

faith is the center of my life and I'm centered in my faith.

My faith happens to be Christian so what I'd like to say

in the beginning is I may allude to that once or twice.

If I do, those of you who are Christian will understand it,

I think, and identify with it.

Those of you who are of another faith,

what I hope is that you'll be able to take what I say

and identify it and apply it to your own faith

and those of you who were faith is not a central part

of your life I still hope there'll be applicable thoughts

within that part of my comments

that will be valuable to you.

So I just wanna kind of share that with you in advance.

I wanna start off, I chose a title Pursuing a Passion,

and I'm gonna read a story to you that'll sort of be

the opening part of why I chose that title

and why I think pursuing a passion is so critical

in your life toward success and toward leadership.

So here's a little story that I'll read to start off.

There was an American investment banker

and he was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village

with a small boat with one fisherman in it

docked at the pier where he was standing.

Inside the small boat were several large yellow fin tuna.

The American complimented the Mexican on the quality

of his fish and asked him

how long had it taken to catch 'em.

The Mexican replied, "Well, only a little while."

The American then asked well then

why didn't he stay out longer and catch more fish?

The Mexican said that this was all he needed to support

his family's immediate needs.

The American then asked,

"But what do you do with the rest of your time?"

The Mexican fisherman then said,

"Well, I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children,

"take a siesta with my wife, Maria.

"I stroll into the village each evening

"where I play the guitar with my amigos.

"I actually have a very full and busy life."

Well, the American sort of scoffed at him and said,

"You don't understand.

"I'm a Harvard MBA and I believe I can help you.

"You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds,

"buy a bigger boat.

"With the proceeds from the bigger boat,

"you could buy several boats.

"Eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats.

"Instead of selling your catch to a middle man,

"you would sell directly to the processor,

"eventually opening your own cannery.

"You would control the product, processing,

"and distribution.

"You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village

"eventually and move probably to Mexico City,

"maybe then to LA and, finally, to New York City,

"and from there you could run this expanding enterprise

"that you developed."

The Mexican fisherman looked at him and said,

"Well, how long will all that take?"

The American replied, "Maybe 15 to 20 years."

The Mexican fisherman said, "Well, then what after that?

"What's next?"

And the American just laughed and said,

"Hey, that's the best part of all.

"When the time is right,

"you would announce an initial public offering, an IPO,

"sell your company's stock to the public

"and become very rich.

"You would make many millions."

The Mexican looked at him and said, "Millions?

"Well, then what?"

The American then said, "Well, you could retire.

"You could move to a small coastal fishing village

"where you could sleep late, fish a little,

"play with your kids, take a siesta with your wife,

"stroll to the village in the evenings where you could

"play your guitar with your amigos."

Now, I want you to think about that story.

That's what I worry about some of us do

when we're going through college to get out of college

and that we're gonna go chase somebody else's idea

of what we should do with our life

and what the Mexican fisherman's saying is,

"I'm living out my passion right here.

"I'm doing what I wanna do.

"I'm sleeping late, I'm fishing a little,

"I've got time with friends, I've got time with family,

"and I've got time with my guitar."

So the circuitous route through which he was being advised

to end up right where he had begun is not necessary.

Now most of us have different passions

than what he may have had but I promise you,

now's the time for you to think about

what those passions are and think about

how you can pursue 'em and through pursuing 'em,

how you can make a living and have a livelihood.

It is my feeling that if you don't pursue a passion

in your life with the career part of your life,

if you don't, you won't be pursuing your dreams,

and if you're not pursuing your dreams,

you're either pursuing somebody else's dreams

or you're pursuing somebody else's dreams for you.

You might ask,

"Well, how do I know what I have a passion for?"

The answer is you might not know yet but you will know.

You will know when you get out into the work world.

You'll know whether you're passionate

about what you're doing.

I sort of have three guides that I think about

when I'm trying to figure it out, three elements of my day,

and I have had these in some of my career

and I've not had 'em in others but the three things

that I try to concentrate on,

'cause once you've been out in the world

and you're working and you're employed,

when you wake up in the morning,

ask yourself three questions -

Am I excited about what I'm gonna do today?

Question one.

Question two,

do I enjoy the people with whom I'm going to be doing it?

And question three,

am I proud of the platform of which I'm a part?

Now everyday, you can't be excited 'cause some days

just aren't as much fun as others but by and large,

you should be able to say yes

to all three of those questions

and if you're not excited about what you're doing

and you're not enjoying the people you're doing it with who,

by the way, you will spend more of your waking hours with

than you do your immediate family and if you're not proud

of what you're a part of,

then I'm not real sure why you're spending your time

and energy the way you are and I will strongly urge you

to back off and think because that would tell me

that you're not pursuing a true passion in your life.

Why do I think pursuing a passion's important?

Because I think the happier you are

and the more passionate you are about what you're doing,

the greater chance there is in your life

to provide leadership to others.

I think that when you put yourself into it

with love and passion,

you're gonna be more effective,

you're gonna become more real

and you're gonna be admired more

and you're gonna be followed more easily.

I have my own definition of leadership

and it's an easy one to remember.

I heard it many years ago so it's not original with me

but it's one that has stuck with me and it's this,

very simply this -

a leader is someone who takes you places

that you could not possibly have reached on your own.

A leader is someone who takes you places

you could not have possibly reached on your own.

So how do you evolve into that leader

that's taking people places that they could not get

without you and one is to take yourself there first.

Find a way to get yourself there first.

So in thinking about that,

in thinking about living out a passion,

I thought what I would do today

is share some of my own mistakes,

see what, hopefully,

you could learn from those and share some thoughts

that I have learned the hard way about how to live a life

that's truly fulfilled and how to end up

in a position of leadership under the right definition and,

quite frankly,

how to be successful under the right definition.

So I'm gonna give you 10, what I call,

my personal keys to living and hopefully

some of them will be applicable to you.

The first one is very simply what I just talked about,

the first one is, whatever you do,

don't pursue fame or fortune as your reason for living.

Pursue a passion in your life, a passion in your life,

and hopefully that passion will end up making a difference

in the lives of others.

If you don't pursue fame or fortune,

instead you pursue a passion and love what you're doing,

one of two things is gonna happen -

you're either going to, because you love it so much,

you're gonna be so much better at it,

you're gonna be so effective and so successful,

you gonna have all the fame and fortune and titles

that you ever dreamed of or you're not and it won't matter.

It will not matter because you're happy in what you're doing

and there's joy in your life.

So that's number one.

Number two.

Don't ever get confused about how success

should be measured.

Success is measured by who you are,

not what you do or accomplish.

The best example I can give you that's outta my own life -

when I was at Vanderbilt,

it was Vietnam time so I enrolled in Naval ROTC.

I knew I was gonna be drafted at the end of college

and I decided I'd rather go into the Navy

as an officer than be drafted.

So I enrolled in Naval ROTC.

I was assigned to the oldest ship in the Atlantic fleet

in the US Navy.

Looking back on it, it was probably a ship of fools

but it was a bunch of fun fools so that was nice.

I had two captains during my three years on that ship.

My first captain was an Annapolis graduate.

Tall, erect, he had presence when he walked in a room,

nothing was more important to him than making Admiral,

ending up in the Pentagon

and really making a name for himself.

The sad thing is, is he was willing to strive for that goal

at the expense of anyone and everyone.

When he was unhappy with someone,

he chewed 'em out in front of everyone else.

He undermined their authority,

he undermined what we thought of him

and he destroyed the morale on that ship.

He treated the enlisted people like they were

a relegated group.

He never appreciated what was done around the ship.

He never appreciated how hard people worked for him

and he really literally only thought about himself

and his career.

Fortunately, after a year and a half,

it was time for him to move on.

A new captain came on board.

Now you'd have to have been in the military

to appreciate this but when you have

a change of command on a ship,

it is a big deal.

It was summertime so we all put on our dress white uniforms,

we go out on the deck of the ship.

I was on a big ship, about 500 feet long.

You had the change of command ceremony with lots of regalia,

flags, et cetera,

and then all the officers would go to the ward room

where we would meet and the new captain would come in

and he would kind of lay down the law about what life

on the ship was gonna be like under him.

So we all dismissed to the ward room, we'd wait on him,

15 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes, he didn't show up.

We were wondering what in the world is going on.

All of a sudden the door to the ward room opens

and here's this, anybody familiar with Columbo?

Am I dating myself?

Do you remember the television series Columbo?

Okay, a few of you do.

He looked like Columbo in a Naval uniform coming in.

Now this disheveled guy,

his cover was on about half crooked,

he's in his undressed khakis and he walks in,

he looks around and he says,

"Oh my gosh, I meant to tell you all

"to get comfortable before we met."

So we're all at attention.

He says, at ease and he shared with us

why he was in the Navy.

He was a Commander just like, excuse me,

a full board Captain just like my previous Captain had been

but he said, you know what?

I've already been passed over.

I've been turned down for Admiral.

I'm not gonna make Admiral.

He said, I'm here 'cause I love the Navy.

I love what I do and I love being here and he said,

this ship's in good shape.

Y'all doing a great job.

All I'm gonna ask is that you keep doing a great job.

Those were his orders.

Those were his instructions.

So we all dismissed and went around, of course,

we all ended up talking about him all day;

Hopefully, not gossiping but talking about him

and saying this is gonna be really different.

I was what they called the Senior Watch Officer

which meant that I was the Senior Watch Officer

on the bridge of a ship.

I don't wanna tell you more than you need to know

but what you need to understand

is when you go out from a harbor,

it's tough maneuvering and you have what you call

sea and anchor detail.

So if you've seen pictures of ships,

you've got what are called two wings.

So the Captain would be on one wing and I was on the other

as the Senior Watch Officer.

So we take our first exit on a voyage,

we were going over to the Mediterranean.

We'd had a training cruise where we had been out

but this was the first full voyage

where we'd be gone for seven months.

We get out in open water.

We're on the way.

The Captain comes into the, inside,

asked me to meet him there.

He says,

"Mr. Morgan, are you ready to take the (inaudible)?"

Yes, sir.

He said, "Do you have your O.D.'s ready for the watches?"

Yes, sir.

He said, "I'm going down to my sea cabin.

"You call me if you need me."

So it was time to change the watch about an hour later.

The junior officer comes up that's gonna relieve me.

I go to what we call the standing night orders.

They're the bible of underway sea so it's a big book

right by the red phone that goes straight to the Captain.

I open 'em up and they are empty.

There wasn't a word written in them.

He'd left no instructions and normally

just to give you a sense,

your Captain tells you,

let me know if another ship passes within five miles.

Let me know if the wind gets over 15 knots.

All these instructions are in there.

There was nothing so I pick up the red phone and I say,

and he picks it up in his cabin, I say,

"Captain, Lieutenant Morgan here.

"I was turning over the watch to Lieutenant Hobby

"but there are no instructions

"in the standing night orders."

Typical Columbo, "Oh, did I forget to do that?"

He said, "I'll do that and if you'll bring it down,

"I'll do it now."

He said, "Are you okay with Lieutenant Hobby,

"taking the watch without him?"

I said, "Yes, sir."

He said, "Well, if you'll bring 'em down."

So I take 'em down and I'll never forget this moment.

So I walk in his cabin.

He puts me at ease,

I hand him the night order book for him to fill out

and he says, "Mr. Morgan, let me tell you something."

He says, "I watched you during our training cruise

"and I watched you coming out sea and anchor,"

and he said, "I trust you."

He said, "You're my Senior Watch officer and I trust you."

He said, "So here are my instructions to you

"regardless of what I write in this book."

He said, "If you're not worried, if you're comfortable,

"don't call me."

And he said, "If something were to go wrong

"in spite of that,

"I'll have your back, I'll defend you.

"It'll be my responsibility."

He said, "But if you're the least bit worried,

"the least bit worried, you call me and I'll come running,

"I'll be at your side."

And he said, "We'll do it together."

He said, "Those are your instructions no matter

"what I write."

That was leadership.

The confidence he instilled in me,

I'll never forget to this day.

I was 22 years old,

a ship with 500 people on it in open waters

and he was saying, and he had the ultimate responsibility,

and he said, "I trust you.

"Go do it but I'm there if you need me."

Well, I'm gonna ask you a question.

The first Captain ended up making Admiral.

He made it to the Pentagon and he was a pretty big wheel.

The second Captain retired as a Captain

to unknown parts in the mountains, believe it or not,

of North Carolina, north of Asheville, North Carolina,

never to be seen again except by me.

Which one was a success?

The one that made Admiral, made it to the Pentagon,

or the one that retired unknown to everyone

other than those that worked for him?

Which one was a true leader?

In my opinion, there's no question

that my second Captain, whose name was John Mallard,

was not only the success of the two

but he was the leader of the two.

So don't be confused about how to measure success.

Three, learn the difference between an inner joy

that is permanent and outward happiness that is fleeting.

And the only brief thing I say about that is,

I used to think that the happiness that came from success

and being able to buy the right car for my wife

and live in the right house was how I measured my success

and it took me a long time to realize

that if I separated myself from people,

I was not really happy

no matter what tangible things came my way,

that where my life was most joyful

was when I was with people and so just remember

there's gonna be something in your life that makes you,

gives you inner joy and that's what you need to see,

not the external happiness.

There's an old saying that say you make a living

by what you get.

You make a life by what you give.

I think it's worth remembering that.

You make a living by what you get but you make a life

by what you give.

Fourth, seek out a mission that is greater

than whatever surface goals you may think are there

and that includes whatever corporate entity

you may go into or whatever career you may go into.

When Amanda and I first got together,

I came in five years ago to the corporate side,

she's one of our premier franchisees, as a matter of fact,

I've told many people I think she's the best operator

in the country.

She was doing great, corporate was doing terribly

and I spent a lot of time with the people at corporate

and we've got 4,000 employees and I asked them,

I said, "What do you think our mission is all about?"

Of course they looked at me like I was crazy.

They said, "You've come in to help the company

"and you don't even know what we're supposed to be doing?"

He said, "Our mission is to sell more doughnuts.

"We got to start making some money and get ourselves

"out of this jam."

At the time, by the way, Krispy Kreme was coming out

of a pretty tough period.

We had no money.

We had 100 million plus of debt, no positive cash flow,

we were in violation of our loan covenants,

we had been sued, Amanda, you can help me,

we were being sued by shareholders,

we had a derivative lawsuit,

we had some franchisees that had sued us,

we were being investigated by the SEC,

that's the Security Exchange Commission,

not the South Eastern Conference

and on criminal and civil charges,

we were being investigated by the justice department

of New York State on the same basis,

we've been sued by (inaudible).

It wasn't a great time and we had no mission

and so I surveyed it and found that out

and when I had my first all team member,

which is a group sort of like this,

we got together and I told 'em,

I said, I've gone around,

I've ask y'all what our mission is and almost every one

of you told me it's just to sell more doughnuts

and make more money so that we can survive.

Our stock had dropped from 50 to $1 a share

and I told 'em that, the first time

that they've all seen me,

and I said well let me tell you something,

if that's our mission, this is my last day here.

I said life is too short for that to be our mission.

Our mission's got to be greater than that.

It's got to be more significant than that.

So let's go, think about it, and let's come up with one.

It took us 12 to 18 months

to come up with a mission statement.

Krispy Kreme's mission statement is very simple.

It is to touch and enhance lives through the joy

that is Krispy Kreme and that's it.

There's nothing about return on investments,

nothing about shareholders' value.

It's nothing about capital.

It is literally to touch and enhance lives

through the joy that is Krispy Kreme.

I believe with all my heart that if there's one thing

that lead to the turn around that Amanda and others

have forged in the corporate side of it,

it's the commonality that that mission statement

created for us.

It was realizing that we had a bigger opportunity

than just selling doughnuts,

that we had a chance to affect the guests

coming in our stores like almost no other brand does

and to have them walk out of our store not only saying wow,

that was a great doughnut but saying,

wow, that was a great experience and we know

that everyone who walks in one of our stores has a story

and probably everyone that walks in has something sad

going on in their lives and it's up to us

to make that day better and brighter for them.

If you're wondering whether it works,

I'll give you an example of something that I think

validates it tremendously.

One of our GM's in Brentwood, Tennessee

was at an All General Manager Meeting

when we were going over this new mission statement.

She got me in the back of the room afterwards,

back of the auditorium (coughs), excuse me,

and she said, "I buy that.

"I believe that.

"I know what you're trying to say and I'm all for it."

So not much later I got sent this little update.

Do y'all know, are y'all familiar with CarePages.com?

Do you know what it is?

It's a blog for people who are ill.

Family members might set it up or the person that's sick

might set it up.

It's just a way of keeping up with how they're doing.

A lot of times if it's a young person,

it's a parent who's blogging

and just keeping all of her friends aware

of how the child's doing.

I got sent this page from CarePages and let me just read

part of it to give you a sense

for how our mission statement affected this family.

It's written by a lady that I found out later

was Jennifer Dillard and her son is Benjamin

and she says on here,

"I have to share with y'all a wonderful testament

"of the kindness of strangers."

What she goes on to say is that Benjamin,

it was his heart birthday coming up and you'll understand

the heart birthday in a minute.

So he decided he wanted to take Krispy Kremes to his class.

This was about two weeks after Valentine's.

So they called the store in Brentwood nearest them

and they said we'd like to get some heart shaped doughnuts

for my son to take to his class for his birthday.

The manager said we don't do those after Valentine's

and believe me, it's a complicated process to change cutters

and get those shapes but the manager said,

"Listen, if you need a lot of 'em, we'll shut down things,

"change the cutters and do then for you,"

and the mother said,

"No, Benjamin's only got eight people in his class

"so that won't be necessary,"

and she said, "I just wanted to do it,"

and she explained it was his heart birthday

and that's why the heart shape was so important to her.

He had had a transplant when he was two years old

and they celebrate the heart birthday

as well as his birth birthday.

So the manager said,

"Well, listen, we'll do something for you.

"Just come by at 10 o'clock,

"we'll have something ready for you,"

and the mother said,

"Okay, if you could,

"I'd like to come to the drive thru window

"'cause it's kind of difficult getting Benjamin

"in and out of the car sometimes,"

and the manager said, "Great."

In the blog she tells you that later on that night,

the phone rang.

It was the manager again saying,

"Could you please come inside to pick up the doughnuts?"

And the mother, Jennifer, said,

"Well, I thought that was strange

"but I was certainly willing to do that."

So she gets there the next morning,

she walks in and this lady comes up and says,

"You must be Jennifer."

Her words now, "I just smiled and said, 'Yes',

"a little caught off guard.

"She then said she'd been expecting us

"and have something special for Benjamin

"and there on the counter was a huge balloon bouquet,

"a card she had picked up from Hallmark

"and had signed by all the staff at Krispy Kreme

"that had a puppy on it that said, 'So happy for you',

"a Krispy Kreme hat which Benjamin wore all day in school

"and 2 1/2 dozen heart shaped doughnuts with red icing.

"Benjamin was so excited to see the balloons and doughnuts

"and I was so touched that I was speechless."

She says then,

"I've never been so moved by a random act of kindness.

"This lady knew nothing about us only that I was celebrating

"his heart birthday and yet went to so much trouble

"to make his day so special and, on top of everything else,

"she wouldn't let me pay for them.

"She said she just wanted him to have a special day.

"Wow."

So she goes on to say and she closes it like this,

"I cannot help but think God has his angels down here

"and Virginia who's the General Manager at Krispy Kreme

"sure is one to us.

"She made Benjamin's day much more special

"simply by taking the time

"to do something nice for a stranger.

"I'm going to do my best to pay it forward also.

"God bless, Jennifer."

If I ever had any doubt that our mission statement

was worth living for,

that story erased it.

Now let me tell you something you can learn from me.

I told myself when I got that blog,

I said I'm going to meet this family,

wasn't that far away from Winston Salem

and I go to Nashville a couple times a year.

I said I'm gonna meet 'em.

Well, probably like some of you have done in your life,

one thing after another came up and I never quite got to it,

always had it in my mind, always thought I would,

stayed up with his health, his health was going well.

About a year later,

I'm getting ready to go to the Middle East

on a business trip.

We have a bunch of shops over there

and it's my first trip to the Middle East.

I was pretty preoccupied thinking about the travel

and I got a message that Benjamin had taken a turn

for the worse and it looked like his days were numbered.

I did what maybe some of you have done.

Hopefully, you haven't so I want you to learn this

on my dime.

I thought, I've done it again.

I've had a year to go meet that young man

and his parents and now waiting for tomorrow,

may have waited for one too many tomorrows.

So I told my right arm, Jane, I said, Jane,

you let me know if anything happens to Benjamin

while I'm over there and then I'm going to see him

as soon as I get back.

We routed the troops, we got marketing together,

we had a plaque made quickly that said

World's Greatest Krispy Kreme Fan.

I wrote him a letter.

We did a bunch of things.

I said, "Jane, get this in the mail today, if you can."

I get back about 12 days later,

had not heard from Jane about Benjamin so I assumed

he was okay.

Turned out she had just decided not to let me know

and he was gone and all I could think

was my missed opportunity to touch that young man's life.

I go through my mail, 12 days worth of mail,

and there's a note from Brentwood, Tennessee

that I didn't recognize.

So I opened it up, I tore it open,

and it was from Jennifer, his mother,

and she said that his last days, they got the plaque.

So he didn't die before the plaque came.

So they put it on the wall beside his bed.

He couldn't turn himself over so he could only look

in one direction.

She said he looked at that plaque and they read

the letters to him and said those are the only smiles

that he was able to give the last two or three days

of his life.

So better late than never,

I went to Nashville and I met Jennifer

and Brad, her husband.

We sat and talked and she said in no uncertain terms

that nothing affected his life more positive

in the last year outside of just loved ones and family,

nothing affected him more than those people

at that Krispy Kreme shop and what they had done for him.

So find a mission wherever you go and make sure

the mission's bigger than anyone thinks it can be

and make sure it's not just about the bottom line

or the top line.

Seek out a mission that's greater.

Number five, establish a culture of making a difference

through your own servant leadership.

That speaks for itself.

The best kind of leadership, the purest kind of leadership,

is servant leadership.

Doing for others is how you go to the forefront.

People think you can only lead from the front of the line?

Some of the greatest leaders I've ever seen

did it from the rear of the line.

So keep that in mind.

Be a servant leader.

Just to let you know how important,

there was a Krispy Kreme when I got there,

again, there was tough times and I went to the head of HR,

Human Resources, I said,

what can we do to make life better for the people here?

We didn't have any money so we couldn't pay 'em more.

They said, well, they don't get many days off.

Retail's tough.

And I said, okay, let's come up with something.

So what we came up with was that we set up four days

between Memorial Day and Labor Day, free holiday,

and here was the catch.

Every employee was gonna get four days off, extra days.

They could only take it on a Friday or a Monday

to extend the weekend and they had to use it

for one of three reasons.

They had to use it to extend their faith,

to spend time with their family

they could not have otherwise spent or to make a difference

in their community and we call 'em FF&C Days,

Faith, Family and Community Days and what's happened

within our corporate culture is we're all learning

to serve and now every department in our company takes

at least one or two of those days as a group

to go work at a soup kitchen or go do a Habitat for Humanity

or paint buildings in need or help a shut-in

that needs help, whatever it is and it spread,

and it has truly been a major part of our corporate success.

That's fifth, servant leadership.

Six, focus on relationships.

Do not allow technology to interfere with relationships.

I beg you on that.

I'm a big believer in technology, it's changing our life.

Amanda told you what social networking,

social media's doing for our marketing,

it's unbelievable but please, please,

don't ever let it replace in your life the touch,

the personal touch of relationships.

We're talking about leadership so now I'm gonna read you,

this is the last thing I'm gonna read you

but I'm gonna read you something.

Think about the source of this.

This came out of Forbes Magazine, April 23, 2007.

Forbes Magazine and here's what it says.

It's from a nurse and she said she witnessed something

in the Emergency Room that she wanted to share

so Forbes published it.

She was an Emergency Room nurse and one night,

she said she witnessed

what was an astonishing leadership act.

Her words now.

"It was about 10:30 P.M., the room was a mess.

"I was finishing up some work on the chart

"before going home.

"The doctor with whom I loved working

"was debriefing a new doctor who had done a very respectable

"and commendable job,

"telling the young doctor what he had done well

"and what he might/could have done differently.

"Then he put his hand on the young doctor's shoulder

"and said, 'When you finished, did you notice the young man

'from housekeeping who came in to clean the room?'

"There was a completely blank look

"on the young doctor's face.

"The older doctor said, 'His name is Carlos.

'He's been here for three years and he does a fabulous job.

'When he comes in, he gets the room turned around so fast

'that you and I can get our next patients in quickly.

'By the way, his wife's name is Mary.

'They have four children,'

"and then he named each of the four children

"and gave each child's age.

"The older doctor went on to say,

'He lives in a rental house about three blocks from here

'in Santa Anna.

'They've been up from Mexico for about five years.

'Now remember, his name is Carlos.'

"Then he said, 'Next week,'"

this is to the young doctor,

"'Next week I would like you to tell me something

'about Carlos that I don't already know, okay?

'Now let's go check out the rest of the patients.'

The nurse recalls, again her words,

"I remember standing there writing my nursing notes stunned

"and thinking I had just witnessed breathtaking leadership."

Breathtaking leadership.

Don't abandon relationships.

Seven, always approach a less desirable ending

as a new and exciting beginning.

I can tell you stories of my failures.

I won't but I'll tell you what,

the plans I had for myself when I hit dead ends

and brick walls and barbed wire fence et cetera.

When I finally got around all that,

I ended up in places that were so much more exciting

and so much more fun then where I thought I was going.

So don't call failure failure and don't look at failure

as a dead end.

Look at it as an opportunity of a brand new beginning.

Another saying I loved is a bend in the road is only

the end of the road if you fail to make the turn.

So, don't fail to make the turn.

Attitude in tough times is important.

There's a story about the two, I wanna say elderly gentlemen

but they were probably about my age so I'd rather

find another phrase for them (laughs),

two older gentlemen but they were in a nursing home

and one of them was sitting down,

the other man's buddy came and sat by him and he said,

"You know what?

"I am just flat sick and tired of feeling the way I do

"and being here.

"This is just no fun."

And his friends said, "Well, I don't know.

"I feel pretty good."

The one that was grumpy said,

"You feel pretty good?

"That's ridiculous.

"How do you feel pretty good?"

He said, "Well, I feel like a brand new baby."

He said, "Friend, that makes no sense whatsoever."

He said, "Well, think about it,"

he said, "I got no hair, I got no teeth,

"and I'm pretty doggone sure I just wet my pants."

Attitude.

One of the gentlemen saw that as the end of his life,

the other one said, "You know what?

"I'm like a brand new baby.

"I've still got some things in front of me."

So remember that.

Eight, I got no illustration on this other than the words.

Always use the wisdom of hindsight as a tool

from which you can learn.

It's very valuable but never use the wisdom of hindsight

as a tool from which to judge.

There's a big difference.

Use hindsight to learn, not to judge,

and particularly on yourself.

When you know you've made a mistake

and you're just kicking yourself because of it, it's done.

Learn from it and you won't make that mistake again.

One of the things that pairs with this is we've all got

to learn to treat ourselves the way we treat

our own best friends.

Have you ever noticed the difference

in the way we treat ourselves and we treat our best friends?

If our best friend messes up royally, whatever it may be,

we go to 'em, we run to 'em, we write 'em,

we put our arm around 'em, we hug 'em,

whatever it takes and we say,

"Don't be ridiculous, that's nothing.

"You'll get over that.

"That's not a big deal,"

and we do everything we can to make 'em feel better.

When we mess up royally, we just punish ourselves.

We punish ourselves endlessly.

Treat yourself as if you're your own best friend.

Number nine, very important to remember this

'cause it's something I really look for

in our young executives -

share your successes, share your successes,

and celebrate the successes of others.

Be humble.

Don't hold your successes to yourself.

If you use the first person singular preposition,

it's not a good sign.

I and me are not good ones.

We and us, they're the right ones to use.

Share your successes and when someone else succeeds,

don't see 'em as a rival,

don't see 'em as someone's getting ahead of you,

celebrate with 'em.

Congratulate 'em.

Be the first to tell the rest of the world

what a great job they did.

Tenth, (clears throat) never move forward at the expense

of your faith or your family.

This was the hardest one for me.

I was so bent in my career to succeed

under all the definitions that I thought were important,

that I didn't have it figured out

how to keep those priorities straight.

The best example I can give you of that is,

I had been with Interstate Johnson Lane

(inaudible) investment bank,

I had left to go home and help my father in Greenville,

South Carolina but was still living in Charlotte.

My two younger children are twins,

were about eight years old,

they did not wanna move to Greenville.

We were staying there to let my high school senior

finish high school there and then we were gonna move.

Interstate Johnson Lane came back to me

and asked if I'd step back in as President and CEO

and I told 'em yes.

So this was the day we were gonna tell

our two eight year olds they didn't have to move

to Greenville which we knew was gonna be a great day

in their life 'cause they wanted to stay in Charlotte.

So they come home from school and we're all excited

and I can't wait to make 'em happy,

Dad's gonna finally do something that makes 'em happy,

you know, rather than commuting like I'd been doing

for about a year or so.

We told 'em together.

Anna, the little girl, she was so excited she couldn't,

I mean, excuse me, Jamie, the little boy,

was so excited he couldn't wait to run down the street

to his best friend Phillip's house and tell Phillip,

"Hey, we're gonna be neighbors forever."

Anna had a best friend down the street

but she didn't wanna celebrate and she didn't say a thing

and I saw her out of the corner of my eye going up the steps

to her bedroom and I looked at Peggy, my wife,

and said, "What was that about?"

She said, "I don't know."

I said, "Well, let me go see,"

'cause I figured she just had misunderstood me.

So I go up there and she's sitting with her feet

hanging off the bed,

crocodile tears coming down.

So I got on my knees beside the bed and I took her hand

in mine and I said, "Anna, sweetheart,

"I don't think you understood Daddy.

"We're not going to have to move to Greenville.

"I'm going back with Interstate Johnson Lane,"

and just like only a child can do,

she said, "Daddy," she said,

"I think maybe you're the one that didn't understand.

"Last time you were with Interstate Johnson Lane,

"I never saw you."

Don't ever do that to a loved one.

Don't ever, ever put yourself in a position

where you have to hear those words.

I spent years at Interstate Johnson Lane

thinking that I was doing things for my family,

providing for them.

Instead, I was doing things to my family.

A little preposition when you change for to to,

but not one that feels good.

I will tell you from that point forward,

if I was in town,

I never went a day without seeing my children,

never went a day.

If I had nighttime meetings, I would leave the office,

I'd leave in the middle of the meeting and say,

"I gotta go tuck my kids in, I'll be back,"

but I didn't do it, but, boy,

did I mess up for many, many years prior to that lesson.

So those are the 10 keys that I give you of things

that I've learned over the years.

One other reminder I'll give you

as sort of the final thought is,

and you may not think about this,

particularly those at a young age but as you live your life,

you're actually writing your epitaph and I know that sounds

like a little bit of a gloomy thought but it's not,

it's an (inaudible) thought.

Your epitaph does not end up being something

written in stone after you've left this earth.

Your epitaph is your life and you live it out

and you'll be remembered by who you are and how you live it

and it's a great opportunity.

So as you go through your life, think about that.

How do you wanna be remembered?

What memories do you wanna have other people have of you?

Because that's what it'll be.

It is in your control,

it's your destiny to write your own epitaph.

There's some great ones

and this is where my faith'll come in

'cause the one I picked happens to be out of a book

called the Bible but it's just one that I think

is so great.

It happens to be St Paul who's writing to Timothy

and it's known to be his last letters towards

the end of his life.

He's had a rough time and listen to these words

'cause this is an epitaph that I strive for.

I'd love to be able to end my life with these words.

"I have fought the good fight.

"I have finished the race.

"I have kept the faith."

Think about the words.

I have fought the good fight, not I have won the fight,

but I've fought the good fight.

I had been there pitching and fighting the whole way, okay.

I have finished the race, not I have won the race,

but I completed the task that I was put on this earth to do.

I have finished and I've kept the faith.

In his case, it was faith in his, in a religious sense,

but for any of us it could be anything.

Have you kept the faith?

Have you believed in yourself?

Have you believed in others?

Have you stayed positive?

Have you had something critical in your life,

something more important than monetary

and tangible rewards there?

Have you kept that sort of faith?

Have you kept faith with yourself and with others?

So you're writing your own epitaph.

Find one that you'd love to strive for.

Don't try to become that person but think about it

'cause I think it can make a difference and remember this,

that you are the only person that can be you

and one of the dangers that I see,

one of the things that I see people do is they envy

and admire other people so much they start trying

to become them and if you do that,

you'll lose the greatest asset you've got

because you are a unique individual and no one else

can be you so why do you want to give that up

to try to be somebody else?

Be who you are.

Be who you are.

Seize it, enjoy it, love it and treasure it.

So here's my summary -

simply this.

I urge you to determine your passion and then pursue

that passion with all you have.

I urge you to go out in this world (clears throat)

committed to making a difference.

Make the world a better place because you were here.

Continually build a life, not a resume.

My first Navy Captain built a resume.

My second Navy Captain built a life.

Lead people to destinations

they could not have attained without you.

Wherever you go, look for opportunities

to display breathtaking leadership (clears throat).

Find a Benjamin in your life and change his or her life.

Day by day, recognizing you're writing an epitaph,

and make it one that provides both memories and a legacy

where other people who know you are really, really pleased

that they knew you.

Do all of this without ever allowing your career

to get in the way of your faith and your family

and what I leave you with this, is this,

I cannot tell you how excited I am for what y'all

have in store for you.

I mean, I really mean it.

You can go out there

and you can literally change this world.

My generation, in my opinion, has messed up a lot.

We've walked away,

we've not only made mistakes but we've allowed, I think,

our country to drift away from some of the values

that made it great.

So here's how I feel as I look out at you

and see the wonderful future you have in front of you,

my generation needs your generation.

We need your generation of leadership.

We are excited about your coming along and providing

that leadership to our generation.

We will support your generation of leadership

and we will pray unceasingly

for your generation of leadership.

You have more to be excited about

and more to look forward to than you could possibly imagine.

So go out there and seize what your opportunity is,

pursue your passion, provide genuine leadership,

and the world is yours.

So I thank you for letting me be here.

God bless you and go Pirates!

(audience applause)

Just raise your hand if you've got any questions.

By the way, I will say this while we're waiting on that,

if things had went appropriately, thanks to Amanda,

we have doughnuts in the rear for you as you go,

Krispy Kremes, and so my hope is that,

my plan A was that you'd take something with you

from my comments that had some meaning

but if you didn't take anything with you

from my comments had some meaning,

my plan B was you'd simply remember me

as the guy that brought the Krispy Kreme Doughnuts.

(audience laughs)

So they'll be there for you when you leave.

(audience applause)

No questions?

We've got one, I believe.

- [Male] Thank you for coming, Director Morgan.

Stephen Jer-ris, I'm in financial management.

How have the skills that you learned

with a financial services company translated similarly

or differently for working for something

in retail like Krispy Kreme?

- And that's a great question.

My friends, I told the Dean earlier, I said,

my friends say I've gone from dollars to doughnuts

and I'm not sure how that relates.

I think the good news is it's amazing the similarities

and the challenges of the two companies.

I approach my work as a people job as opposed

to a management job, if that makes sense,

and when I went to IJL, it was very similar.

It was a stock that had been a high flyer.

It was down to about a dollar a share and the press

was saying it was going out of business

and I knew the people and I knew the people

could pull it together and make it work

and all they needed from me was someone who believed in them

and believed in the future,

believed in the product, believed in the service,

and that's really what I assumed at Krispy Kreme.

So in a way I treated them identically.

I think my financial background though certainly lent itself

to my being more valuable to Krispy Kreme

because we did have a lot of financial challenges

and as good as my Chief Financial Officer is,

it helped him to have a partner that understood

what our challenges were.

Does that answer it?

- [Male] Yeah, yes, thank you.

- [Female] I've got one for you.

This university, ECU, and the College of Business

are both very leadership driven places.

What are three qualities you see in a great leader?

- Well, humility is one that comes to my mind first.

I think that people confuse leadership with arrogance

'cause arrogant people sort of self-appoint themselves

leaders and I think that a leader,

when you've been in a company of a leader,

you walk out of there with both confidence

and I think excitement.

So I think that someone who can engender that

is a quality and I think humility is a starting point.

I also think, believe it or not,

that it's very important for a leader

to be a great listener.

I have a ratio that I try to live by,

it's not easy but if I'm, with two people,

just me and one other,

I try to talk 1/3 of the time.

I take the fraction down by one number.

If I'm with five people,

I wanna make sure I don't speak more than 1/6

of the time et cetera, et cetera.

I think leaders are ones that learn from what others

are saying as opposed to actively, proactively,

consciously teach from what they're saying.

Those would be the first couple that would come to mind.

- [Male] How do you guys,

how does your company evolve its product?

I mean, obviously, it's doughnuts, coffee,

but how do you evolve over time without staying stagnant?

- That's one of our challenges, to be honest with you.

Right now all of our research work tells us that,

for the next few years,

we have all the opportunity in our primary product

which is doughnuts and beverages to keep us growing

pretty significantly for years to come

but you're exactly right.

We've got to diversify at some point in time

and I think being Krispy Kreme is a two edged sword.

Everybody thinks of us, I think everybody does,

as having great doughnuts but they don't think of us

for much else and, so right now,

our move is to have them think about us

for beverage, in particular coffee,

'cause coffee and doughnuts go so well together

but I would tell you in a matter of years

there are two things that we'll be working on.

One is we've got to have products for people

who are more health conscious.

We don't, we tried by the way,

we tried a whole wheat doughnut years ago.

I think nationwide we sold two of 'em.

(audience laughs)

I bought one of 'em to see what it was like

and I have no idea who bought the other one

but we found out people come to us

for an affordable indulgence, not for something that,

but here's what is important,

we're a family place and I've got a granddaughter,

eight year old granddaughter who is gluten intolerant

and so I want my daughter and son-in-law

and their two daughters to be able to come to Krispy Kreme

and all four of 'em have a treat and so we're gonna

have to have some health conscious treats in there

to be able to broaden the family and what I call

eliminate the veto.

Secondly, somewhere down the road,

we'll also have something savory in there,

protein or something that's savory but that's probably

years down the road not quarters down the road.

We only have 240 stores nationwide so we're way

under populated right now.

Thank you, that's a good question.

- [Male] I just wanna let you know that I think

it's the coolest thing in the world when you walk

into Krispy Kreme you can see how they're being made

through the glass.

I think that's the coolest marketing scheme

I've ever heard in my life.

(audience laughs)

- Thank you.

It is, we call that doughnut theater internally

and we call that glaze the glaze waterfall

and I'll be honest, I'm so blessed by the way,

I hope you can tell I love what I do.

I mean, I can't get up early enough

and can't stay up late enough to do it and

but nothing makes me happier than walking into our shops

and seeing some of these little ones staring at that glass

and watching that waterfall doing it

so thanks for commenting on that.

I will relay that to our marketing department.

We will not brick over those glass, I promise you.

- [Male] I just have a quick question.

I find it, your story's amazing,

compared to some of these stories that you hear

from like the College of Business

like some other presentations that you hear from people

on CNBC Money and stuff like that so,

on behalf of everybody,

I really wanna thank you for coming here but my question is,

how did you overcome,

how did you have the confidence to go up to corporate

who can be so serious and so stuck up sometimes,

you know what I mean?

How did you overcome that, like get that confidence?

- You know, I will tell you this,

I didn't get tested before they gave me my first job

at IJL (inaudible), they tested me afterwards,

and the psychologist said I had no business

being the CEO (laughs).

So clearly I'm unqualified based on the typecast

they have there.

I gain my confidence from the people around me.

My philosophy is there's no one person on the team

more important than anyone else

and so I present other people,

they are the most important person at Krispy Kreme

doing what they do and I also will tell you this,

I was on my own once.

I was somewhat successful as a stockbroker

which is what we were called way back then.

I went on my own to manage money,

took myself away from people,

and I failed miserably and I learned at an early age

that I wasn't all that great by myself

but if I surrounded myself with the right people

and was part of a team, then it worked well.

So I'm not sure that answers you but --

- [Male] No, it does.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

- I can't see well so don't let me...

Y'all ready for doughnuts and to put your card

in the slot and all that sort of stuff, right?

Get credit for the attendance and run?

(audience laughs)

I know about the system, I was told.

- [Female] We have one more.

- I think we've got one more in the back.

We'll let this be the last one so y'all can break.

- [Male] Yes, do you guys,

going back to your story about Benjamin,

do you guys as Krispy Kreme do a lot more, I guess,

charity work and donating to hospitals

and different things like that?

- Yeah, everywhere we can.

Thanks for asking that.

Our fundraising was responsible for over $32 million

of charitable fundraising during the year.

If you're familiar with Victory Junction,

we raise millions of dollars for Victory Junction.

We have a hot doughnut wagon now and we take it

to disaster areas for the workers and the first responders.

I can't imagine the number of man hours or doughnuts

that we give to places that are in need

and it's a big part of our life.

It really is.

We thrive on that.

We've got a deal with the Salvation Army.

When there's a disaster in the country,

they let us know when it's time for us to come

and we bring a wagon of hot doughnuts and people

to help the,

usually it's the first responders and the victims,

and I hope wherever you go to work, wherever you go to work,

I hope they'll recognize their responsibility

of the world around them too.

We've got to reach out, you know, it's so many of us,

I'm just being honest with you,

so many of us go through life and we end up in a good place

and we begin to believe that we hit a home run

and the truth is,

everybody in this room,

almost literally everybody in this room

compared to the average person in this world,

we were born on third base.

We were born on third base.

The head start we have is phenomenal in this country

and with the education you're getting

and so we try to remember that and we try to help the ones

that are still stranded at home and haven't even made it

to first yet and I hope y'all will too.

We need you to do that.

Well, that's it.

Listen, I can't thank you enough.

Thanks for letting me be here.

Thanks for making me a part of it.

(audience applause)

Have a great day.

(audience applause)

(upbeat music)