Sandbox Story - Interview of E. Dean Butler

mickey4golf
Jun 9
2 min read

E. Dean Butler was the founder of Lenscrafters. A career optical businessman, his mantra is “create enthusiastically satisfied customers.” His father was in printing, and his mom a school nurse, and from a young age was always interesting in technical things. He received his MBA in International Business at Michigan State University, and thought he’d get into a product development career.

Ultimately, he got into “brand management” at Proctor and Gamble. While there, he helped a coworker’s in-laws optical business in Louisiana, particularly around branding, and out of that work he founded Lenscrafters while his coworker’s family business became Visionworks.

Given his brand work on “real people testimonial” advertising, he increased the throughput of the optical business, because he believed in increasing the value of products that don’t have any inherent customer interest. He ultimately coined the phrase “glasses in about an hour,” which he used as he grew Lenscrafters for five years before selling it to US Shoe, which had other mall-based stores.

He thought he’d stay out of the optical business, but has ultimately spent his entire career in the optical business and has helped create 4,500 optical stores in 45 countries, including Russia. He has a lofty goal of increasing access to all types of technologies and services in eye care and that has carried through his entire career.

The Stories within the Story:

0:53 The Living in England Story

2:55 The Early Years Story

5:22 The Early Career Story

9:10 The Getting into Optical Story

15:35 The Marketing Eyeglasses Story

22:26 The Creation of Lenscrafters Story

25:09 The Starting Vision Express Story

29:16 The Russian Optical Story

36:22 The Russian Wife Story

40:55 The Delivering Service Story

45:26 The Future of Eyecare Story