Richard Lyle Currier Jr.

Richard L. Currier. Richard. A man whose name matched well. I met Richard at a conference around 2001. It was a marketing and strategic messaging class for emerging IT companies. Having been in the industry for over 20 years, I felt that I knew a lot about marketing and sales. I did but I soon figured out that I didn't know the right "a lot" of marketing and strategic messaging in my industry. Richard's use of the English language was in the "top 1%" and his precision was unequaled. His course used analogies, metaphors, CAT STORIES galore, and was highly calibrated to the entrepreneur. Marketing is "hot, new, exciting, and different." Sales are the "ER" words: better, cheaper, faster. Everyone gets it backwards…except Richard. In the IT industry and I suppose other industries, there's "know it all's" and there's "know it all" people. Richard was the latter. A true master of complex thought and strategy. I worked with Richard for over 8 years. I was a bad student. I went to his class 5-6 times. I couldn't get enough of his mind. In addition, I couldn't execute at the level that Richard demanded. Finally, Richard helped get my company, dbaDIRECT, out of the doldrums of 2009's financial crisis and back into a high growth company. Richard created the "3-C's" capacity, coverage, and cost. Most IT managed services companies have 1 or 2 of these attributes but not all 3….no one except dbaDIRECT. Simple messages derived from many effort hours and years of analyzing, thinking, and crafting words and word combinations. To be sure, Richard was a master craftsman. The dbaDIRECT selling cycle increased speed like an old-fashioned fly-wheel. Sales took off, revenue followed, and our firm was a "cool vendor" by Gartner's standards and a darling by our customers' viewpoint. My story was just "one of many." There was Walker Information Systems, Peoplesoft, Sybase, Ariba, InterSystems, and many others too numerous to mention. All I know is that his strategic market leadership mentorship worked; others didn't. Richard was a renaissance man. We exchanged books and titles and articles. I collaborated with Richard back in March on new titles for my reading stack…hanging up, I ordered 3 Erik Larson novels from the EBay used book store. Not only did Richard have good taste in literature, Richard was a food gourmand using the old and traditional definition. He knew French culinary dishes, good wines from California, Burgundy, Bordeaux, and Italy, caviar …where to buy it, how to eat it, and what to accompany it with. Amarone della Valpolicella wines were most likely his favorite and matched his personality with character, deep flavors of coffee and honey with structure. We talked marketing strategies for 3 hours for my new venture back in September at Carlucci's in Chicago. Amarone and Bolognaise pasta fired up his creative engines and we went back and forth for hours. What fun. What amazing productivity. I had Richard teach a new set of 20 or so Cincinnati entrepreneurs back in early 2018. I knew the drill. A case of Coke Zero, good white boards and flip charts, and finish with a nice dinner at my house. Osso Buco Milanese with risotto served him well. I'm happy for Richard's accomplishments and for his life. I know he was loved by his family. He knew how to live. He maximized his days and nights more than most people even dream about. I'm sad that a good friend and mentor has left this earth. "Pay it forward" is a contemporary popular saying. For me to pay it forward? I am. I'm going to. I must. I just don't know where to start and how to bring forth the magic that his wonderful man brought to me and the rest of the universe. God bless and God speed. Richard, I know you are up there somewhere telling people "when to flush" and "how to flesh" out the wonderful words in the English language and be a market leader. John Bostick, June 1, 2019.