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The Original Cook
As the Cook Group has pioneered ingenious, simple solutions to
complex medical problems, they've brought the same innovative
attitude to the business in general. A clear characteristic of
the company is their tendency to do things their own way, beginning
with the founding of its flagship company, Cook Incorporated.
Its first "factory," almost 40 years ago, was the spare bedroom
of Bill and Gayle Cook's apartment in Bloomington, Indiana, where
they built wire guides, needles and catheters for his pharmaceutical
customer.
A Rare Combination Of Imagination And Practicality
The business grew quickly, their initial success soon fueling
expansion into other fields of medicine, and a range of other
businesses both practical and imaginative. It quickly becomes
evident that the founder, Bill Cook, has been the driving force
of all his enterprises. "Bill is still the owner of the company
and still quite involved," Rick Snapp explains. "He has a strong
commitment to promoting people from within, so for instance he's
taken people out of some unrelated department and made them programmers,
since he says that anybody can learn to program in three or four
days." The fact that Mr. Cook programmed most of the company's
original applications does seem to qualify him to make that call.
"So, this still kind of has that family, hometown, small company
kind of feel, even though it's now quite a big company," Snapp
says. "It's an important part of the whole Cook organization,
without a doubt." Cook Group has a philosophy of giving back to
the communities that support it, and has reinvested in Bloomington
and Southern Indiana. which they feel has contributed to their
growth. For example, CFC, Inc., originally founded to finance
loans to Cook Group company employees, has evolved into a real
estate development company focused on preserving historic and
architecturally significant buildings in Bloomington and the vicinity.
The Star of Indiana
But perhaps nothing else demonstrates Bill Cook's rare combination
of imagination and practicality than his decision to form a competitive,
128 member drum and bugle corps, "Star of Indiana," which would
evolve over the next years into an award-winning Broadway
show, "Blast." Cook became a fan of drum and bugle corps through
his son Carl's interest, when Carl insisted on watching a competition
on television. "I was hooked," Bill Cook writes, dazzled by their
precision marching and showmanship. One day soon after, he thought,
why not start a band?
This may sound like fun, but according to Bill Cook's written
history of the "Star of Indiana," it cost between $750,000-900,000
a year to put the show on the road, what with four school busloads
of uniformed band members and two more trucks of equipment. "Bill
had bought busses for the drum and bugle corps, and the busses
sat idle for most of the year," Rick Snapp relates, "so he started
a bus company." Two other businesses were started to help support
Star, Star Travel Services and Cook Aviation, "which are profitable
and still contributing to Star of Indiana today," Bill Cook writes.
Naturally, he and Rick Snapp wrote all the software for both Star
and the national drum corps association.
The corps won the World Championship title in 1991, only its
7th year, and its swing towards Broadway began when they were
invited to perform with the noted classical ensemble the Canadian
Brass, appearing with them at Tanglewood, Ravinia, Wolf Trap,
Lincoln Center, and a long list of other prestigious venues.
"We began to contemplate doing something other than drum corps
with the Star of Indiana," Cook writes, and eventually blended
elements of marching band, opera, Broadway musical, circus, and
symphony into the present Tony and Emmy award winning production
of Blast!, currently featured at Disney's California Adventure
Park.
Bill Cook writes, ""I believe that Star and other corps teach
pride in personal accomplishment, which is achieved by honesty
and work. If there must be an epitaph for Star, for me, and for
Cook Group, it should be -- we tried!
"I try never to fear change, I enjoy risking the unknown, and
I try to seek guidance through previous experience instead of
'Ready, aim, fire!,' it may be better to 'Ready, fire, aim!' I
believe that a human should be prepared (ready) to act, then act
(fire), and finally analyze what was done (aim.) Instinct exists
in all of us, but so often we fear the unknown to the extent that
we are incapable of action.
"I ask readers: 'do we always need to analyze and discuss before
acting, or should we learn how to react based upon circumstances
and cumulative history of the past?' (Invention is based upon
instinct and then trial, but status-quo is based upon copying.)
I believe that if one goal is reached, there should be another
goal waiting. If failure results, try again and again. You have
all heard this before, but do you believe it?"
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