Bill Cronin heads up a marketing agency now, but his younger self pondered a higher calling.
A teenage Cronin studied to be a Catholic priest throughout high school and into his first year of college, but it was more of a “try before you buy” situation — if young students decide they aren’t called to be priests, they can step out of the seminary and pursue other work.
As Cronin jokingly puts it, he “went the completely opposite direction” and got into advertising and marketing.
He started his career in his mid-20s at his father’s company, Cronin and Co., but he was no coddled daddy’s boy at his first real job. Sure, he got to work on advertising accounts, but he also had to do the mindless task of tracking the agency’s customers’ advertisements. When an ad appeared in the paper, someone at the agency had to tear off a copy for their files and make notes about when and where it appeared.
“It was brainless work,” Cronin said. “My dad had no compunction about making me do it.”
But in the pre-digital age, it was the only way for the company to keep track of its advertisements. Cronin may not have liked it, but he recognized its value.
And Cronin didn’t spend his entire young career at his father’s enterprise. Before taking a desk job, he’d spent a few summers making deliveries for a lumberyard, hauling wood and materials out to sites and back again.
He tried to be efficient and quick at his work, wrapping up his deliveries earlier than the boss expected. To his surprise, some of his coworkers disapproved.
“One guy came up to me and said, ‘You’re going to kill this job … Mark my words, someone’s going to get laid off around here if you keep doing this.’”
Cronin shrugged the advice off. But sure enough, the next guy to quit wasn’t replaced.
The lumberyard imparted lessons on workplace efficiency – and heavy lifting – but his next job immediately after college taught a bit more about leadership.
Cronin had been in ROTC throughout his undergraduate days, and after graduation he shipped out to an army base in Germany. He spent 19 months as an officer in the artillery group, working among missiles, radars and the computers that operated them. His position put him in charge of soldiers with special technical training, and Cronin openly admits those people knew more about their field than he did.
But as their leader, he had to listen to the individuals’ expertise but manage them as a group – something he said came in handy after he returned to the states.
In the early days, Cronin and Co. worked almost exclusively with the banking industry. It made them experts on how to work with banks and savings and loan operations, but as the company expanded, its employees had to delve into less-familiar territory.
Now with clients across a variety of industries, Cronin said marketing agencies need teams of people with different specialties to do the job well, and they also need leaders to bring the group together –— reminiscent of the group of experts in the army who needed to function cooperatively.
Cronin eventually became president of the company, taking the helm during these heady days of the digital revolution.
Cronin said he’d enjoyed his work in the army and learned a lot there, but the call of the family business was too strong to resist.
“My heart was set on getting back here.”
