Tough Guys and Their Dogs

Funeral Industry News December 9, 2010
CDFuneralNews

We believe that every funeral director should have the tools to succeed. With the help of our field-leading partners, we publish daily funeral industry news and provide free tools to help our readers advance their careers and grow their businesses. Our editorial focus on the future, covering impact-conscious funeral care, trends, tech, marketing, and exploring how today's funeral news affects your future.


Tough Guys and Their Dogs

imageJust finished re-reading the November 15, 2010, issue of Fortune magazine. As always, filled with great information.

First thing I noticed was just how many ads have animals in them. Amazing. So many people in the funeral biz are still trying to determine what the fall out will be by ?serving the pet death care market.? How many families will they make mad? How many families will they lose because their business has now ?gone to the dogs?? I can whole-heartedly assure you, these companies that are advertising with animals in their marketing campaign have oodles more to lose than any of the funeral firm operations in the United States! It?s certainly time to realize that.

The next story that I took notice of was the one titled ?Tough-Guy CEO Al Dunlap is Getting In Touch With His Cuddly Side.? Al Dunlap! Chainsaw Al ? the turn-around artist! The guy pulled in to clean up such large operations as Scott Paper, Crown Zellerback and Sunbeam. Yes, nice small article about what he had done to get these companies back into the black. While the article led off with this information, the true tone of the article was more about depicting his love for his animals. He?s pictured feeding a carrot to his horse, Sweetie Pie, as well as with the German shepherd he had when he took over Sunbeam.

But the best lines of the story are the last few: ?A lifelong dog lover, Dunlap recently got a new German shepherd after mourning the loss of his last one. ?I lay down with her on the floor when they gave her the shot to put her to sleep,? he says. ?It was embarrassing. I?m a tough guy, and I?m crying like a baby.?

Not too tough to admit it to the world that he cried for his dog. Yes, there are ferocious lions like Al in every community,? however, when it comes to this topic of the loss of an animal?s unconditional love, these lions quickly become pussycats.