KING HARRIS: THE SECRET OF HIS SUCCESS

King Harris credits his father for some of the best advice he ever got, advice that helped him find his passion for community and economic development and got him where he is today.

“My father said, ‘if you want to be president of Gillette, you have to know how to sell a drug store.’” Harris—whose many titles now include Chairman of Harris Holdings, Inc. and Chairman of the Harris School’s Visiting Committee—took the advice to heart. “What he meant was, if you want to be a leader of an organization, you’ve got to know what goes on at the grassroots level, or you’re not going to be able to lead.”

This perspective has proved to be the basis of much of what Harris has accomplished to date—whether working with an impoverished coal-mining community in Chile or running a Fortune 500 company. “I’ve had an interesting career,” he said. Over the past 40 years he’s worked in the public sector, the nonprofit world, and private business but has always had an interest in public policy.

The nephew of Harris School namesake Irving Harris, a leading Chicago businessman and philanthropist, King Harris followed an interest in international issues into the Peace Corps. In Chile, he learned how to think about integrated solutions to address several problems simultaneously, a skill he’s relied on since.

After the Peace Corps Harris received a MBA at the Harvard Business School, spent two years working as a neighborhood center director of the Office of Economic Opportunity in two Bostonarea communities, and then went to work at Pittway, a public company controlled by his family. Starting in the burglar alarm division, Ademco, in 1971 as a salesman, he moved up to Vice President of Sales until he transferred to Pittway’s smoke detector manufacturing division, BRK Electronics, in 1975 where he served as Executive Vice President then Chairman. In 1984 he became President of Pittway and added the title of CEO in 1987.

During his thirteen years at Pittway’s Ademco and BRK Electronics divisions—a period when their combined sales jumped from $11 million a year to well over $200 million—he heeded his father’s advice, developing an in-depth knowledge of manufacturing operations at all levels. He worked in the company’s factories and declares that experience pivotal. “You learn to deal with a wide variety of problems and solve those problems with people whose skill sets vary greatly. It’s a different world from the downtown world.”

It is this grounding that he draws upon now in his public policy work—both with the Harris School Visiting Committee and as a Senior Executive at Chicago Metropolis 2020, where he focuses on expanding affordable workforce housing in the Chicago metropolitan region. Harris enjoys having an active role in making a difference.

“It’s fun working with mayors, city officials, state officials to really get an idea of how policy is made, locally, regionally and by the state,” he said of his work with Chicago Metropolis 2020.

In addition to his behind-the-scenes role as an advisor, Harris says, “it’s been a great opportunity to meet and

work with Harris School students.” Calling them “highly prized” professionals, he looks forward to the day “when a group of state and regional housing experts get together, and they are all graduates of the Harris School.”

His unique blend of experiences—grassroots, factory floor, and corporate boardroom—makes him a unique and effective problem-solver. He knows that a business background gives him added credibility in meetings with mayors and community leaders, but Harris embraces his public policy side, too. “I like to say I’m a policy wonk with a private sector background.”

Jenn Q. Goddu and Eleanor Cartelli