Let”™s get something straight from the start ”“ Rick Taggart does not strike one as a perfume kind of guy.
He has heard blood-curdling screams during an “agony of defeat” moment from a mangled skier at the bottom of the jump in Lake Placid, N.Y., just prior to his own run. He hangs with the son of a World War II fighter ace. His dog seemingly never leaves his side.
Now he is about to sell fragrances.
Of course it helps that he is bottling cologne under the iconic, cross-emblazoned shield of Victorinox Swiss Army Inc., whose century-old brand was reinvigorated in the 1980s on the television show “MacGyver,” whose title character relied on the company”™s trademark knife to facilitate myriad escapes from desperate situations. Presciently on one occasion, MacGyver used perfume to mislead a pack of dogs on his trail.
Last year Victorinox Swiss Army hunted Taggart down in his semiretirement home in Grand Junction, Colo., to return as CEO of VSA”™s U.S. headquarters in Monroe, which employs 160 people.
It is his second stint leading VSA ”“ he was president and CEO from 1995 to 2001, before resigning for family reasons to be in Colorado. Sue Rechner, who led the office in the interregnum, is now CEO of Confluence Watersports, the Easley, S.C.-based maker of MadRiver canoes.
Whereas Rechner is now concerned with all things whitewater, to Taggart falls the task of selling VSA”™s newly announced Mountain Water brand of cologne, in addition to Swiss Army for Her; Classic; and Altitude.
Taggart knows a thing or two about the former and latter concepts, anyway. After bouncing around upstate New York growing up, the middle of five children of an AT&T manager, he attended Syracuse University, making the ski team and running a local ski shop in his free time.
That would grease the skids for his first job out of college, helping the ski company Salomon schuss into the U.S. market. Salomon in turn would prove to be the launch point for his eventual landing at VSA.
He would clear a few professional gates first, leaving Salomon to join Hexcel Corp. At the time based in California (the company”™s headquarters today is in Stamford), Hexcel”™s lone consumer division at the time was Hexcel Ski, which used the company”™s honeycomb composites to produce skis with consistent rigidity. That is important for racers, who can lose their edges if a ski wobbles along its length.
At Hexcel, Taggart struck up a friendship with “Hub” Zemke, whose namesake father led the Zemke “Wolf Pack” fighter group against the German Luftwaffe in World War II. After downing 17 enemy aircraft, Col. Zemke was shot down and became a prisoner of war, eventually leading a camp of 9,000 POWs through the close of the war.
In a sense, the junior Zemke was Hexcel Ski”™s resident MacGyver, and Taggart was not averse to strapping on Hub”™s inventions for a test. He recalls one occasion in particular, when while bombing down a downhill run it felt like gravity was pulling the skis downhill with extra force on each turn. As it turns out, Hub had experimented by inserting a few pounds of miniature ball bearings inside the skis; as Taggart negotiated each turn, the BBs rolled downhill, creating the sensation.
“Hub was literally rolling in the snow, laughing,” Taggart recalled.
Getting Hexcel Ski to breakeven in three years, it was no laughing matter for Taggart after the company sold off the division. His professional trek led him to the New Hampshire-based footwear and apparel maker Timberland Co., whose Chief Operating Officer Peter Gilson happened to chair the board of VSA”™s subsidiary in the United States.
He still recalls both the moment Gilson told him the Victorinox Swiss Army job was his if he wanted it ”“ with the attendant responsibility for leading a historic brand ”“ and when he was told the job was his again for the taking several years later.
“I left it with them, when I left, that if they ever needed me just to pick up the phone,” Taggart said. “Every time you step into a situation like that, you don”™t know if you are excited, nervous, scared.”
