Well, there was a lot of it coming in the door and it was also going
out! We were making as many expenditures. We dramatically—we attempted
to increase staff salary levels, which I think we did. We put a lot
money into a bunch of research things. I think the Center—you know, it's
very difficult to compute. But the Center spends a few million dollars a
year on leadership research. I don't think there's ten places in the
country to tell you the truth, that together spends that much on a
focused behavioral science research and stuff. But in any case, so
anyway, we put some stuff there. I tell you, each of these years, the
question wasn't how can we spend the money. The question was, how can we
balance the budget? So remember that the staff at the Center takes about
65% I guess of the Center's revenue. So as you expand, you know, you're
always holding your breath as to whether or not the up-front investment
is going to turn into revenue at the end of the year. What we expanded
for in my perspective had nothing to do with revenue. We expanded in
order to increase our outreach and to give people greater opportunities
to come to the Center and enjoy its product. And that requires increase
in this whole business but revenue per se was never on my mind as a
major criterion of our success. You know, different people in different
parts of the Center had different concerns and perspectives regarding
the financial business. Some worried about it all the time who were in
the finance department or group. I guess they may be calling themselves
department, but I was an anti-department. We called ourselves groups.
The finance group or whatever, because I thought group was a more
inclusive and malleable term than department. So, different people in
different parts
Page 20of the Center. Now if you are
managing a branch and you have to do certain revenue in order to meet
your target, they will say gee, my life is driven by revenue. If you're
in the middle of the research group, you're worried whether or not you
have enough money to go to your meetings and get your computers upgraded
and all that other kind of stuff, that's a different perspective. So the
Center has a number of foci of perceptions about this whole deal. But
from mine, again, I thought we could grow. Two or three times we said
we're not going to grow any further than this and the classic example is
the building in Greensboro. Now when I got there, they were in the midst
of adding a little wing. Well, we had to grow so we decided we were
going to make one more expansion. And I said, "Guys, this is it." Well,
obviously it wasn't it because just before I left, I had planned a
building. Those plans were stopped when my successor came in and they
analyzed whether or not they needed a building and then decided they
needed one bigger than the one that we had planned. So growth at the
Center is a real tough issue. People don't want to grow but they kind of
want the results that only growth can give you. It's an interesting
thing and there's a legitimate concern about still whether one can hold
the kind of familial, collegial, really neat culture that the Center
has. And I think most people still feel it's a warm and fuzzy place to
work. Whether you can still do that with a staff of 100 to a staff of
500. We had the same interesting discussion at West Point. West Point
used to be 2400 cadets and then the President Kennedy when he was at an
Army Navy game—it's interesting how strategic decisions are made—he
looked down the field and said, "Where are the rest of the cadets?" And
they said, "Well, Mr. President, they're all there." He said, "They
can't be. There's twice as many midshipmen." And they said, "Well,
that's the way the law is. There are 3800 midshipmen and there are 2400
cadets authorized by law." He said, "They ought to be all the same
around 4400 or so." And then all of a sudden all the Service Academies
became 4400.