Harvey Speaks

He is one of Minnesota’s best-known businessmen, but in recent years, Harvey Mackay has most often made news in the business of motivation.

After nearly 40 years as the head of Minneapolis-based Mackay Envelope Company, which he bought in 1959 and turned around, Mackay turned his attention full time to a second career as a nationally known speaker and author in 2000. His syndicated column appears weekly in 55 newspapers across the country with a combined circulation of around 10 million. He’s written six business books with can-do titles like Swim With The Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive. And he’s on the speaker circuit continuously. “I’ve given a speech a week for each of the last 18 years,” Mackay says.

Among the products for sale at www.harveymackay.com is one that seems to sum up the spirit of his writing and public appearances, a Harvey Mackay Live DVD on how to “outsell, outmanage, outmotivate, and outnegotiate your competition!”

"People go around all of their lives asking, 'What should I buy, what should I sell?' Wrong question. Rather, it should be, 'When should I buy, when should I sell?' Timing is everything."

Mackay made news in a different way in April. Seven years after selling all of his majority stake in Mackay Envelope Company, he bought back in as an equal partner with Scott Mitchell, who has been the company’s CEO since the sale. Mackay remains chairman of the rechristened MackayMitchell Envelope Company, whose main business is direct-mail accounts, including Port Washington, New York–based Publishers’ Clearinghouse.

The financial partner in the 2000 transaction was Private Capital Management, an Eagan-based private-equity firm. According to Mitchell, Private Capital Management’s investment time horizon was like that of most private-equity firms: “It was understood that they wanted to get out after six-plus years.”

MackayMitchell has not disclosed terms of the 2000 and 2007 transactions, though Mitchell says the capital structure resulting from the recent transaction includes both senior debt from U.S. Bank and M&I Bank, and subordinated debt from Prudential Capital.

With so much written by and about Mackay, his “brand” is well known. So, in a recent interview at his office near the University of Minnesota’s East Bank campus, the questions and answers focused more on Mackay the individual and less on Mackay the public person.