Who Is Mark Crockett?

You’ve probably heard that Mark Crockett is a Holladay businessman, and on his website he describes himself as a “venture backed CEO.” The business currently associated with his name is Vici Capital Partners, which promises to work, “...closely with strategic investors and their companies to dramatically improve cash earnings, infuse needed capital and generate exceptional returns.”

The web site is filled with this kind of glib jargon, the sort of verbiage designed to impress without offering specifics. The firm calls itself “partners,” but who are these partners? The only person specifically mentioned is Mark himself, though a second nameless person is pictured and a Los Angeles address is mentioned. But not a single client is listed, and all inquiries are directed to guess who... Mark Crockett.

So what is it that Mark really does? A hint at that answer can be found on the Vici Capital Partners website under the tab labeled “M&A Advisory.” M&A is one more piece of jargon that means “mergers and acquisitions.”

Read through it and you’ll find what he’s about. He works with the owners of struggling companies who want to put lipstick on a pig. They are eager to create the short term impression of profitability and growth so they can sell their businesses at the highest price.

This kind of business consulting is long on cutting budgets for R&D, hiring, manufacturing, new venture activity and employee training. It’s long on goosing profits and putting a shine on every metric that adds to the purchase price.

That works for a guy like Mark.

He’s a consultant who gets paid for generating an effect. He is the exact opposite of an investor like Warren Buffet, who invests in strong but undervalued businesses for the long term. Mark is in and out in a hurry. His huge fees are in the bank before the chickens come home to roost.

Speaking of being in and out quickly, that’s the theme of Mark’s career. You’ll find a compilation of all the places he’s worked since 1993 at the Business Week research website. They are, Vici Capital Partners, NightWatch Capital, Harvest Earnings, EHS Partners, Tax One, McKinsey & Company, Latham & Watkins and Compumed. There are so many, that Business Week gives up and just labels some as “predecessor organizations.”

All but one of these jobs he’s held just since 2000. If Mark is at one place for more than a year it must seem like an eternity.

All of this emphasis on quick engagement with little regard for leadership, tenure or community shows up vividly in his political career. Mark is famous for the canned articulation that plays well as sound bite or sales pitch, but most find his personality abrasive, his temper short, his manner condescending and his nature narcissistic.

He is all about Mark, and Mark lives in a very small world.

Have you ever seen his campaign headquarters, or his army of volunteers? No you haven’t, because there aren’t any. He farms out retail politics to Randy O’Hara whose firm is designed to create exactly what Mark has spent his career creating - an effect. Only O’Hara creates the effect of having a community of volunteers to lead and care about, and a groundswell of contributors who believe in him and who invest in that belief.

The effect needs to be created, because none of this exists in reality.

No, Mark has privatized all that. He’s distanced himself from hands to shake, babies to kiss and calls to answer. On election night he stands in his living room, alone, with a statement for the press.

And there is your glimpse of Mark Crockett, the would be mayor of Salt Lake County.