Gary Garner of GLS Companies is 2010 Printing Industry Hall of Fame inductee

By Erik Cagle

What do you like least about your job?

The intended question was "What do you like most about your job?," but Gary Garner heard "least about," so the GLS Companies' president and CEO talked about the unpleasant, but all too common, issue of dealing with employees who get their noses out of joint.

"Someone will say something," Garner relates, "and I'll think about it for a while. Then I'll lay in bed, thinking about what we're going to say tomorrow. He'll say something, then I'll say something, then I'll say this and he'll say that."

Garner will lose sleep as he plays out the conversation in his mind, careful to say the right, but necessary, words. Then the next day rolls around, and a mea culpa with apology from the employee usually awaits Garner.

"Damn it!" Garner exclaims. "After I'd gone and thought it all out."

But it's all in a day's work.

"I try to spend as much time as possible keeping people talking to each other, and knocking down silos," he adds.

While the printing industry may not boast a bevy of P.T. Barnum types, there are those chief executives who don't have any trouble talking about themselves and their accomplishments. Not to say these execs are braggarts; they're just comfortable with promoting their abilities.

Gary Garner is not altogether at ease on the subject of Gary Garner. It is not a criticism; perhaps it is really just a product of Midwestern modesty. But, Garner would have plenty of accomplishments to talk about—the man started his own company, GLS Companies (along with two partners) in 1984, and it has grown to a mid-$50 million performer with two Minnesota locations and more than 300 workers.

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2010 Hall of Fame: Gary Garner - More Work, Less Talk