Reflecting on some of the characteristics of Darius M. Forbes (DMF to us) mentioned in "Energizing the enterprise” (In Memoriam, Parsiana, September 7-20, 2023), I was reminded of my experiences while working under him at J. N. Marshall and Company (JNM) from 1963 to 1978.
The obituary states: "He had time for everyone.” In the mid-1960s, inter office communication between the head office and branch offices was in the form of memos which were responded to expeditiously with a handwritten remark. I once cited the reason for delaying my report as "I had no time,” to which DMF’s prompt response was "Lazy people have no time.”
That "he would visit five customers a day” referred to the time when the 20-year-old Forbes was at the beginning of his sales career. He set this as the benchmark for all sales staff. During my tenure at the company the weekly plan for customer visits had to be posted by Friday evening of the previous week. This practice proved beneficial to us all in many ways.
Forbes’s efforts at "building strong businesses and institutions, and later teaching others how to do the same” assisted many who graduated from JNM under his leadership and mentoring to succeed in their own successful business enterprises on leaving the company.
HOMI R. MULLAN
homi-mullan@hotmail.com