April 24, 2001 John Zawacki '71, speaker President & CEO, Blair Corporation, Warren, PA "Our April 24th Business Honors Seminar speaker was John Zawacki. He came to Thiel in 1967, graduating in 1971 with a degree in political science, hoping to become a lawyer. Having never taken a business course in college, he instead went into the financial management program at General Electric. After a short time there, he moved on to become a buyer of women's clothing for Blair Corporation and throughout the last 30 years has risen to the position of CEO and president of Blair." - Sam Hinerman, junior accounting & business administration major "The company itself changed dramatically over Mr. Zawacki's thirty year rise. It went from a company that only shipped out an envelope with thirty products for people to buy to a company that has seven or eight catalogs. The change from envelopes to catalogs happened in 6 years. So in the course of Blair's 90 years, the last 6 have made tremendous headway in technology. They became a part of the World Wide Web less than a year ago, on www.blair.com where you can buy any of ten thousand products." - Lydia Smith, senior business communication major "During his presentation, Mr. Zawacki handed out catalogs of his company and showed us the focus of Blair. The company had a target market and they stuck with it. I think this is very important in any business." - Jared Pauli, junior business administration major "Blair is the 6th largest catalog sales company in the United States. Their target market is people over the age of 40 with middle to low income. Most of their customers are 65 or older. Blair can compete with companies like Eddie Bauer and Land's End because they provide the same quality at a less expensive price." - Heather Achenbach, senior business communication and communication major "Some of the lessons I learned from listening to Mr. Zawacki were: work hard and play hard, everything you do counts, communication is big in business, and maintain balance." - Aaron Skrbin, senior business administration major