About A Man & His Idea

25 years ago I met Phil Crowley when his struggling public company, Southern Kitchens, was introduced to me by two of the initial investors (they thought I might be able to help save the company).

Phil started out as a man with a vision of making money and doing good, and he pushed harder and harder until it became reality.  He wanted to employ people that had strikes against them and found it difficult to find good jobs.  He knew that men without meaningful work had a hard time showing their families what a good life would look like.

The Company manufactured packaged food products for the vending industry and went from just an idea and zero sales to about five million in sales, about fifty ex-offenders working at the plant, and a few hundred investor/shareholders over ten years because of Phil’s persistence and passion.

Most of Phil’s workers never had a good job before.  Those men taught me lessons in respect and how good work is valued.

Phil was not a dreamer, he handled theft and the problems common to the people he worked with.  For six months I watched Phil run a difficult business and observed the pride and dedication of a work force of men (mostly) that had never had a good job before.

Phil did not get a chance to see his vision become the new national model of capitalism and not because his vision was flawed or that it could not have worked.

He paid a good wage, the work was clean, and the hope of workers owning publicly traded stock would build wealth beyond just the weekly paycheck.

The essence of his vision could revolutionize jobs in the inner city and make life better for so many people, workers and their families and revitalize hundreds of American communities.

What happened to Southern Kitchens we read about today all too often; events outside of Phil’s control put the company into a stressful situation that demanded a partnership or buyout.

The Southern Kitchens French Accent partnership was very poorly chosen (think Bernie Madoff) and the company was soon run into the ground by the French Accent management (who went to jail) and all the people that so needed their jobs lost their jobs and the company collapsed.  Phil’s right hand man killed himself – he had built his life around this company as had Phil.  Phil died a few years ago, I think of a broken heart.

It would not hurt us to revisit Phil Crowley’s new model of capitalism.