Page 74 - How We Lead Matters

A Beer, a Brat, & the KGB

The spirit of entrepreneurship runs deep in my family. My father often was
called the “ultra-entrepreneur.” So when opportunity knocks, we don’t just
answer the door—we fling it open wide.
In retrospect, somebody should have notified the State Department
that Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev had accepted the Governor of
Minnesota’s invitation to visit the state in 1990. After all, the United States
and the Soviet Union had been bitter enemies for decades.
My father saw it as a great privilege to host this visionary leader at our
hotel, the Radisson Plaza, and to talk about investment possibilities in the
emerging Russian market. We later seized that advantage by opening the first
American-managed hotel in Moscow.
When the State Department caught wind of the visit, they immedi-
ately scheduled a large advance team of security agents to scout the route of
Gorbachev’s itinerary. About the same time, a dozen KGB agents arrived to
satisfy their concerns. The U.S. security detail could take care of themselves,
but when I heard from our hotel manager that the KGB agents were getting
“bored,” I arranged for them to come to my home to experience a barbeque—
U.S.-style—in our backyard.
They quickly went through the traditional picnic beverage: beer. I
replenished it with wine. When that was exhausted, they asked through their
interpreter if we had any vodka. They were very enthusiastic well into the
late hours. I think they even toasted the mosquitoes.
When Gorbachev departed, his sunglass-clad KGB officers flanked
him. As they somberly passed by, the last one in the group stopped. In an
instant he turned to me, lowered his sunglasses, and kissed my hand. I was
looking “glasnost” straight in the eye.

Marilyn Carlson Nelson 57