September 3/10, 2018: Volume 34, Issue 6
By Ken Ryan
Michael Goldberg, CEO of Rite Rug, was honored Aug. 17 with Floor Covering News’ seventh annual Al Wahnon Lifetime Achievement Award. The award was presented to Goldberg by Steven Feldman, publisher and editorial director, and Dustin Aaronson, associate publisher, at Rite Rug’s headquarters in Columbus, Ohio.
Floor Covering News established the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010 to recognize and celebrate those people who have not only made significant contributions to the floor covering industry but, more importantly, worked toward its betterment and made a difference over a sustained period of time. Simply stated, the award is intended to recognize service and leadership that is of a scope and duration to be considered a lifetime achievement.
Passionate. Relentless. Skilled negotiator. Loving. Those are some of the attributes that Rite Rug customers use to describe Michael Goldberg, who has been running Rite Rug for the past 29 years.
The journey
Goldberg’s father, Duke, and uncle, Stanley, started the company in 1934 selling linoleum pieces, tile and used rugs. By the time Goldberg was 15, he was ready to embark on his flooring career; by 1969, he was working full time running the company. When he was drafted into the U.S. Army that year, his sister, Janet, stepped in to keep the operation going. After Goldberg returned from service in 1971, he picked up where he had left off. In 1981, his father bought out his uncle; and in 1989, Goldberg assumed ownership when his father passed away.
In the subsequent years, the business has undergone unprecedented growth as it seamlessly navigated through the ebb and flow of economic cycles and recessionary pressures. In the mid-1990s, Rite Rug had grown to be an impressive $40-million business operating almost exclusively in Ohio. Ten years later, it was a diversified $80-million business operating out of 11 states and 32 locations. During that time, it expanded from its retail roots into new construction, commercial, property management, floor care/maintenance, on-site hardwood staining and refinishing, window treatments and to-the-trade wholesale divisions.
Much of that growth has come organically rather than through acquisition. Similarly, Rite Rug has hired and groomed its own top employees who have grown into division leaders and presidents in their own right. Mickey Goldberg, who serves as chief operating officer at Rite Rug, has this to say about his dad: “He has the ability to evolve his management style, from being a micro-manager to a macro-manager. He lets people grow. Even if he knows they are going to walk into a wall, he allows them to do it so they can learn from it. If he told every person how to run their business, then they are not going to grow.”
Mickey Goldberg agreed with the general consensus among supplier executives that his father’s zest for the business—even at an age (70) when many others would have retired or at least slowed down significantly—is unparalleled.
“His passion for this business is second to none,” Mickey told FCNews. “I personally don’t want him to retire, I don’t think it would be good for his health. He is in a great place where he can continue to provide effective management for this company. He is very active at 70, and his mind is sharper than ever.”
Industry executives who have supplied products to Rite Rug for decades, and who know the operation intimately, said the retailer is staffed with as deep a bench as any flooring operation. In many cases, these are men and women who began their careers at Rite Rug, were given a chance and seized the opportunity.
People like Kurt Helfant, chief financial officer, and Erin Appleman, president of retail, marketing and merchandising, have spent nearly a generation at the Columbus-based business, steadfastly working their way up the ranks. “Michael allows us to take ownership,” Helfant said. “He wants us to act as entrepreneurs, to run it like it is our business. He is not afraid to change.”
Helfant recalled how proud Michael Goldberg was to take over the business from his father; to Michael, being a good steward of the business, to nurture and grow it into the success it is today was very important as he continues to burnish the family legacy. “Michael has taught so many people in this industry,” Helfant said. “He is a legend in this business.”
Appleman echoed that sentiment, drawing on her own experience: “He allows you to make mistakes because that’s part of the learning curve.”