Tanger Modeled Innovation, Philanthropy By Christopher Gergen and Stephen Martin

Son Christopher and his co-author Stephen Martin are steadily getting better as they draw upon inspiring stories in North Carolina and beyond to explore ways that innovation and entrepreneurship can advance our country.  This column about StanleyTanger is one of their best. 


Tanger modeled innovation, philanthropyARTICLE [image error]BUY PHOTOPHOTOS BY HARRY LYNCH - HLYNCH@NEWSOBSERVER.COMShoppers stroll the open-air sidewalks of the new Tanger Outlets during the grand opening Nov. 5 in Mebane. Stanley Tanger opened his first strip outlet center just down the road in Burlington.BY CHRISTOPHER GERGEN AND STEPHEN MARTINThe opening weekend of Tanger Outlets in Mebane this month created plenty of buzz, drawing more than 150,000 visitors to a crossroads between the Triad and the Triangle.
It's the newest venture for Greensboro-based Tanger Factory Outlet Centers, which operates 33 outlets around the country, including Blowing Rock and Nags Head. Tanger Outlets' reputation for gathering major brand names, from Brooks Brothers and Chico's to Reebok and Polo Ralph Lauren, is well-known to shoppers.Its founder's history as an industry pioneer and major philanthropist, however, is less familiar - and offers a model for leadership and innovation that can sustain economic growth and better our communities.Stanley Tanger, who founded his namesake company in 1981 and served as its chairman until last year, died in October at age 87. In the business world, he's recalled as a legend - the man who invented the outlet mall, creating hundreds of jobs in his own company and thousands more, indirectly, through the stores in his outlets. Launched with a skeleton staff, Tanger Outlets now employs 445 people and earned $271.7 million last year.Among advocates of health care, recreation and youth development throughout the state, Tanger is a hero for a different reason: the millions of dollars he quietly contributed on their behalf.With his wife a longtime cancer survivor, Tanger made the disease a special focus. He was a major backer of Duke's Comprehensive Cancer Center and the expansion of a cancer treatment center in Greensboro, making better, higher-tech care and patient support more accessible to thousands of state residents. He also invested heavily in breast cancer research and awareness, as well as nursing education. The Boy Scouts and the preservation of public parks also ranked high on his list of funding priorities.In an uncertain economy, North Carolina needs more entrepreneurs capable of pioneering large, new markets, reaping the rewards and reinvesting in their local communities. Tanger's legacy provides at least three crucial and often overlooked lessons on how to spark and nurture innovation.First, know how to reframe a challenge. As a businessman, he relied on market research, valued deep analysis and knew how to manage risk.Still, as innovation experts Dan Buchner and David Horth remind us, traditional business thinking also has its limits. It's more about advancing existing ideas than dreaming up new, game-changing ones.New results require what Buchner and Horth call "innovative thinking," the ability to reframe a situation entirely by imagining a desired future state and figuring out how to get there.After retiring in 1979 after a successful career running shirt-maker Tanger/Creighton, Tanger looked long and hard for a new project. He knew the apparel industry well. He'd also observed the power of the cluster concept, through which competing fast food restaurants or car dealerships open in the same vicinity to attract a larger customer base.Tanger got a fresh view on his own future with a simple question: Why not apply the same principle to outlet stores?Second, there exists a popular misconception that management is the enemy of creativity and innovation. In fact, you can't have one without the other.Growth requires new ideas. Transforming those ideas into useful products and services requires smart strategies, the right systems and the assembly of talent and partnerships.Armed with a singularly innovative idea, Tanger put his own seasoned management skills to work. With a business partner providing the land, he opened his first outlet strip shopping center in Burlington. Gradually, his modest venture blossomed into an empire of outlets stretching from Barstow, Calif., to Myrtle Beach, S.C., and 20 states in between.His staff of professionals grew along the way, as did a leadership culture designed to develop and retain them - and therein lies Tanger's third lesson.Harvard Business School professor Teresa Amabile has found that employees are most innovative when they are inspired by the challenge and satisfactions of the work itself. Tanger set about creating the kind of work environment that fueled intrinsic motivation through collaboration, communication and respect - and carried that approach over to his philanthropy.He promised Moses Cone Health System in Greensboro $1 million if it could raise another $5 million toward a larger cancer treatment center desperately needed to meet rising demand.Ground was broken on the new building just a week before Tanger died. He was at the opening ceremony, ready, as usual, to see another big idea come to fruition.Christopher Gergen is the founding executive director of Bull City Forward and director of the Entrepreneurial Leadership Initiative at Duke University. Stephen Martin, a former business and education journalist, is a speechwriter at the nonprofit Center for Creative Leadership. They can be reached at authors@bullcityforward.org.

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