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Chicago, Illinois.
Donald Bruce was a major manufacturer of fine jewelry serving most major department stores across the United States including Target, J.C. Penney’s, Sears, Walmart, Kmart, Mervyns and many others. The general offices, sales offices, light manufacturing and distribution center was located in Chicago while the main manufacturing plants were in Johnston, Rhode Island and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
In my tenure at Donald Bruce I created and executed a strategic plan to unite the locations under a single platform. I consolidated the operating systems, pushed responsibilities out to the user community and stabilized the midrange and networks environments while building a staff of excellent teammates.
When my former employer (Sportmart) was leaving town for Denver in an acquisition by Gart Sports, I was looking for a new opportunity when I interviewed with several venture capital companies who search through cities like Chicago, Cleveland or Memphis looking for underachieving companies that have great and hidden potential. That is how I looked at Donald Bruce when I interviewed for the position. When I took the job I received the challenges of a lifetime. There was nothing to build on but the incredible potential of the people in the company and a belief in our product.
Three-year recovery in a minute:
- · Hired a staff, standardized the desktop operating systems and software, installed Lotus Notes, built a new data center and lab, upgraded network to 10/100, replaced midrange servers and updated the UNIX operating systems, built a UPS room to back up all servers and essential systems, installed RAID protection on midrange and servers, updated backup systems, standardized on NT/2000 network operating systems, repaired the physical layer (wiring), pushed user responsibilities to the user community, killed the HP3000, upgraded the EDI software and fully integrated it into the ERP system, designed and built a field sales collection system using Palm Pilots with scanners, became Y2K compliant, built internet connection and protected the community with a Cisco PIX firewall and monitoring system, built documentation, standards and procedures, designed and built a vendor managed inventory system, eliminated Powerhouse, Perle, C++, Reflections, streamlined and automated end-of-day and end-of-month procedures, installed RF scanners for picking and physical inventory, created standards to inventory hardware and software, installed frame relay to remote plant for email, applications access and IP phone transmission, researched and replaced PBX in both locations replacing bottleneck of operator and allowing full control and reporting on phone usage, installed new shipping system, installed virus protection, ensured backup systems, monitored invoices, created a steering committee, researched ERP systems and installed Oracle Applications across all locations in 15 months and provided user access to I.T. projects.
Every day was a new adventure. Donald Bruce was set for the future and with the updated systems and with the Oracle Applications it had the potential to jump light years ahead of the competition. However, the economic crash of 2001 came at the wrong time for the company. We were heavily loaded with expensive inventory as we headed toward the Christmas season and then 9/11 hit the country and customers never came and never bought. Our suppliers needed thier money but we had already converted the raw silver, gold and jewels into high fashion that never left our plant because the orders never came.
In an attempt to survive, all of the employees in the company took a 20% cut in pay. For the executives and the higher-paid employees the 20% cut took away some discrecionary income but for the people in the lower pay scale thier families suffered and could not pay thier bills. Several waves of layoffs came and so did the depression among the survivors.
The remains of Donald Bruce was sold to Colibri and the 65-year old company, founded by a toothbrush salesman, ceased to exist.
I am very proud of my accomplishments at DBC and I’m saddend by the closing of another Chicago institution.
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