Raising the Clif Bar: Gary Erickson

On a spring day at the start of 2000, Gary Erickson and his former business partner were minutes away from selling their fast-growing nutrition bar company to Quaker Oats for $120 million. At the same time, Balance Bar was selling itself to Kraft. PowerBar was cashing out to Nestle.

Convinced selling the company was the only way CLIF Bar could compete, Erickson prepared employees for the sale by asking them to work harder than ever. He hired an investment banker. He confided in friends and family. He traveled the country, wining and dining with the potential suitors.

But minutes away from signing on the bottom line and becoming a very, very rich man, Erickson started to shake and couldn’t breathe. He took a walk around the block. He wept.

Seconds later, Erickson had a revelation, an epiphany. “I don’t have to do this,” he said to himself. And as Erickson describes in his recently published book, “Raising the Bar,” he instantly felt set free.

Today, the company Erickson started at the age of 33 in a garage packed with skis, climbing gear, a bicycle and two trumpets is still his own. The energy bars he began creating after many hours in his mom’s kitchen are still in his control.

The competitive cyclist, mountain climber, jazz musician and world traveler has proven able to lead a company to the edge of major change and then reel it back in once its identity was shaken. Today, CLIF Bar is dabbling in environmental innovations he says its public-company peers don’t have the freedom to touch. And by establishing brand “mojo” in the process, it’s also turning some handsome profits.