Robert Blyth Goergen

Robert "Bob" Goergen was born in Buffalo, New York, in 1938. His parents divorced a short time later, and he and his mother, Alice, went to live with Alice's mother. "My mother was only 18 when she married my father," says Goergen. "She earned her GED high school equivalency after I was born, and she went to work. I didn't have a relationship with my father. I saw him once, when I was five, and then not again until my early 20s."

After four years, Goergen's mother remarried and had another son, Dennis, but it was a difficult marriage. At one point, the two boys were put into foster care for several months. They then all lived with an aunt in Virginia for one year, eventually returning to Buffalo with their mother, who, after several more difficult years, divorced again.

Goergen moved with his mother and brother to Kenmore, near Buffalo, where they lived in a very modest house. His mother worked as a secretary and raised her boys to be independent and self-sufficient. "My mother was a strong woman," says Goergen. "She was firm with us boys. I remember when I was earning my Boy Scout badges, and she held me to a very high standard to obtain them. She was very firm about my doing what she expected of me. It was important to her that my brother and I did well in school and behaved ourselves."

Goergen loved school and sports. As a crossing guard in elementary school, he soon discovered that he enjoyed being a leader. He was an avid reader and especially devoured every Horatio Alger story he could find. "I found those books very motivational," he says. Goergen earned his own spending money by working at a bowling alley, and he had a morning paper route.

When he was 13, his mother married a third time. When he asked her why, she told him that she wanted to be sure he would be able to go to college. Happily, her third marriage was successful and lasted for the rest of her life.

Goergen received a full scholarship to the University of Rochester through a combination of his high SAT scores and his skills on the basketball court. He played basketball for his freshman year, but then he was drawn to student politics. He was elected to the student council and served as chairman of the finance board, which funded all student groups on campus. He was also president of the Intrafraternity Council. "I was very active on my college campus," he says. "I had some great experiences and vastly improved my public speaking skills."

Besides his studies, athletics, and student activities, Goergen worked each summer. One job was cleaning and loading and unloading trucks at the company where his stepfather worked as a driver. He also worked for the Rochester Telephone Company.

Goergen majored in physics, with the goal of becoming a nuclear physicist. He focused on his studies and graduated cum laude in 1960. After his graduation, his mother fulfilled a lifelong dream of her own. She went to college and graduated the same year as her younger son, Dennis, and she achieved her goal of becoming an elementary school teacher, a job she held until her retirement.

The summer after his junior year in college, Goergen was a research intern at Eastman Kodak's R&D facility. That experience caused him to rethink his ambitions of being a nuclear physicist. "I enjoyed my job at Kodak but I soon realized it was the wrong road for me as a career," he says. "After considerable deliberations and discussions with colleagues, I applied to graduate business schools at the University of Chicago, Harvard, Stanford, and Wharton. I was accepted by each, but Wharton offered me a significant fellowship. That financial help made my decision for me." In 1962, Goergen earned his MBA from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School.

Goergen's last summer job was in 1961 with Proctor & Gamble. That position led to a permanent job after he earned his MBA. Goergen began in manufacturing management at Port Ivory on Staten Island. But he soon discovered that working for a large company structure was not for him. In 1962, he enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserve, serving for six months at Fort Dix and Camp Kilmer, New Jersey, where he played basketball for the Kilmer team.

Upon his release from the Army, Goergen joined McCann Erickson, a New York ad agency. Following a short training program, he became executive assistant to the vice chairman, a position that gave him an overview of a large international company. Soon thereafter, Goergen was promoted to account executive at one of the agency's largest accounts, Coca-Cola. Working with copywriters and musicians, Goergen convinced the top management to drastically change the soft drink giant's radio campaign. The new jingle, Things Go Better with Coke, sung by stars such as The Supremes and The Four Seasons, led to a resurgence in U.S. sales of Coke in the early 1960s. That success led to Goergen's next promotion: to account supervisor.

In 1967, McKinsey & Co. offered Goergen a job; within four years, he was made a partner. But he decided it was time for a career change, and he accepted a lower-paying job with The Sprout Group, a venture capital partnership. In 1976, Goergen became managing partner of Sprout Capital. Despite the company's success, the investment banking firm that owned Sprout had financial problems in the mid-1970s, and Goergen decided to pursue other options.

In 1979, Goergen and a few other investors bought Brooklyn-based Valley Candle Manufacturing Company, which at the time had $3 million in sales. As CEO, he led a management team that added new product lines. In 1994, he renamed the company Blyth, Inc., in honor of his mother, whose maiden name was Blyth, and took it public in 1994. The home accessories company saw sales jump from $50 million to $1.2 billion by 2012. Based in Greenwich, Connecticut, Blyth, Inc. has operations in 21 countries.

Goergen says three words shape his approach to business, one Latin, one Japanese, and one Greek. "The words are meliora, kaizen, and omphaloskepsis," he says. "Meliora means never being satisfied, always try to improve. Kaizen means to make progress and improvement in small steps, rather than giant leaps. Omphaloskepsis means review your direction periodically, say every five years. If a mid-course correction is needed, make it. Anyone who works for Blyth knows those three words."

Goergen advises young people, especially those who want to be entrepreneurs, to work for the best organization possible. "First, you can learn a tremendous amount in a good environment from your peers as well as those who have already become successful," he says. "Second, you should save money from every paycheck. Money gives you freedom to do what you want. I bought my first company with only $25,000, but that opportunity would have been lost if I hadn't had the cash to finance it. Third, you need a terrific spouse who is supportive and understanding. My wife, Pamela, and I have been married for 45 years. She stood by me even when I took pay cuts to pursue a new direction. She also made many moves with our two sons and me, and she always made it possible for us to have a good family life. Fourth, you have to work hard. If you ever need to go back to someone you worked for previously for help, that person will remember all the good things you did, and help will be forthcoming."

For Goergen to call himself successful, he must define it by all parts of his life. "I think having a sound family is the first measure of success," he says. "I have a wonderful wife, and we are very proud of our sons, who have become hardworking, responsible adults. We have two terrific daughters-in-law and four grandchildren. Those relationships are very important to me. I also measure success by my ability to help others and give back. If you make a lot of money and aren't happy or aren't doing something constructive with the money, I don't count that as success. You just have to do the best you can with what you have, and always move forward."

Since earning his MBA, Goergen has been involved in volunteer and nonprofit organizations. His longest and continuous activity has been with the University of Rochester as a trustee since 1982 and as chairman of the board from 1990 to 2007. Goergen and Pamela have given the university more than $20 million to support undergraduate programs, fund annual awards for excellence in teaching, build a new athletic center, and fund interdisciplinary research in biomedical engineering and optics. In 2008, the university bestowed upon Goergen its highest alumni award.

In 1998, Goergen's $10 million gift to Wharton funded the Goergen Entrepreneurial Program, which became one of the largest and most diverse academic programs of its kind, with more than 1,000 students and entrepreneurs participating annually. For more than 10 years, Goergen has served on the Wharton Board of Overseers. In 2012, he received its highest award for service.

In 1976, Pamela and Robert Goergen formed The Goergen Foundation to fund education for disadvantaged children. "I came from a dysfunctional family situation," he says. "But I was fortunate to have a strong-willed mother who knew the value of a good education. Through my education and goal-setting personality, I achieved familial and financial success. Now I want to educate and encourage less fortunate young people so that they too can grow and reach their full potential."