Do you think this is true: education trains people to do what's been done before. It's essentially a system that reinforces conformity and the way things have always been done.
The new ideas and true innovations are more likely to come from the outcasts, weirdos, and loners than from the good students.
Do you think?
More than a year ago I posted My Worst-Ever Consulting Engagement. The other day somebody asked me about the other side of the coin, my best ever.
They called it "Challenge 95." They hired a graphic artist to create a logo for it. When it was done they produced more than 300 T-shirts, one for each employee. On the day it was launched they held a big party.
Three years later, it hit 150% of the three-year goal.
The "they" in this story was Hector Saldana and Judy David of Apple Japan in 1991. They managed the plan project and me as a consultant.
The plan, however, was not theirs, or mine, but Apple Japan's. It was a joint effort. It started in November of 1990 and finished in July of 1991. It was one of the best examples of collaborative strategic thinking. Hector and Judy facilitated, I facilitated, but the core was the work of an entire management team.
The challenge was to take Apple Japan sales from $180 million to $1 billion, and its market share from too small to measure, in 1990, to 10% or more.
When it was over, Apple Japan sold $1.5 billion in its fiscal 1995, not just $1 billion. And market share was closer to 20% than 10%.
Regarding the plan development, implementation, and the planning process, the project and the ideas and the strategies were always Apple Japan's, not mine. As a consultant, I asked questions, I listened, I calculated the possible impact, I shared drafts, listened some more, and asked more questions. The work was very collaborative.
Regarding strategy, and lessons to be learned, the planning and the implementation focused very hard on just two key points and then the company stuck to those priorities, relentlessly, for three straight years. Nothing in the plan was particularly surprising. The implementation was consistent.
And the plan worked. And like all good consultant-facilitated business plans, it wasn't my plan, my ideas, or my credit. It was collaborative, start to finish. And the owners of the plan were the people who implemented it, not the consultant who wrote it.
If I were to invest $40,000 to help start a trucking business, what type of return should I expect on that $40,000? I've never done this before and want to be fair to everyone involved. As an investor, what kind of return should I anticipate?
Being fair to everyone involved starts by being fair to yourself. You can buy a lot of things for $40K. Before you worry about what's a fair return, ask whether there will be any return at all.
The problems here begin with the obvious fact that you aren't a professional investor. You don't have money set aside for investing in long-term returns; you're looking to participate in a small company that has very little chance of ever generating the kind of return on investment that arms-length investors look for.
Furthermore, it may also be illegal. US stock laws regulate investments in new businesses and one of the more common problems it that you have to be a "qualified" investor. The law on this started back in the great depression. It was intended to protect people from getting suckered. You might be exempted under the "friends and family" provisions, but otherwise you have to have serious money or you're not qualified.
So what's the problem? Well, underneath it all, a trucking business getting a $40,000 investment isn't likely to return money at all unless you're a partner, and an employee, and you have a real voice, documented in writing, on what happens. These businesses normally live until the owner passes them on or gets tired, and they don't get sold for the kind of money that gives an investor a return.
So here are some things to consider:
So I know this is not the kind of answer you'd like, but that's what I think.
What's not to love? It's a great business model, its founder is dedicated and -- more important -- quick to adapt, and she was a student in my 'Start Your Business' class a few years ago.
And things haven't gone exactly according to plan, but things keep going, and the founder keeps adjusting. That, to me, is real planning, as in "planning, not just a plan."
That's the Trunk Club, which is a couple years old now. It was started in Bend (Oregon) and has already opened presences in Dallas and Portland as well, plus a new virtual version that opens it up to any customer anywhere.
I posted about Joanna Van Vleck's intriguing business model late last year in Success Story: The Trunk Club on my Up and Running blog with Entrepreneur.com. What I wrote then was:
It’s a great example of how market, identity, and focus come together to build new businesses that combine new ideas with old-fashioned serving the customer.
That was about nine months ago. Since then, it gets better. And not because things have gone according to plan, but rather -- and much more realisticly -- because Joanna has been able to adapt to changing assumptions without slipping up. For example:
And in the meantime, although the investments have been less than planned, sales are better than planned, so Joanna is moving forward.
This is what bootstrapping and entrepreneurship is all about.
I'm worried. I spoke yesterday at SpeakerLunch in Corvallis, an interested and interesting group of people, looking at starting and running businesses. New businesses, small businesses, and so on. They call it speed mentoring. Bring in a speaker once a month, over lunch, talk about it.
My problem this morning is the overuse of the three Ps of passion, persistence, and perseverance.
The question of the economy came up, towards the end of the session. I don't remember the exact wording, but it was about the wisdom of sticking with it during tough times, or starting a business during an extreme recession, or something like that.
Which reminded me that in the world of entrepreneurship a lot of old guys (like me) give people pep talks about passion, persistence, and perseverance. As if the key to business success were just sticking to it, no matter what. Good times or bad, the entrepreneur, we seem to think, is driven to success. My business above all.
What worries me about this is that it's too damn easy for the people on the podium to preach about sticking to it, and sometimes passion and those other Ps are misplaced.
I love the idea of starting business and entrepreneurship and all, but not at all costs. I am not advocating passion to the point of obsession; and particularly not getting so far down into the business, bad times or not, that you think of nothing else, and lose relationships.
Life is more important than business. Keep your balance. Keep your priorities straight.
These are tough times. Plan well. Be smart. Think it through. Don't bet the farm unnecessarily, and certainly not just because some old guy says you have to have passion and be persistent.
Old saying, heard on the street:
"Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment."
Nuances of language. The fine touch here, the slight rephrasing there ... that interests me.
For example: the use of the "over at" phrase.
The annoying person on the phone, who had weaseled past our receptionist but was just cold calling selling stocks, identified himself as "John Doe over at XYZ." Not "John Doe of XYZ brokerage." Am I crazy, or is that just another subtle spin on reality? That change to "over at XYZ" sounds like he's just across the street, at some close and familiar place, instead of the stiff and formal -- but correct -- "John Doe of XYZ brokerage."
I don't mind "over at" the way it gets used in blogs, mentioning Steve King "over at Biz Labs," or "Pam Slim over at Cubicle Nation."
But with the cold caller selling stocks, I notice the nuance. It's not just random, it's studied and practiced.
As this story starts, I've already been on hold 11 minutes, and switched through three people. What I want to do is cancel a prepaid home theater installation. I'm not mentioning the store.
I get to "please enter your ZIP code." I did: five digits, not hard.
"We're sorry, we've received an invalid entry ZIP code. Please enter a five-digit number."
So I entered it again: the same five digits. I swear, it was really my ZIP code. I could confirm with the LCD on my telephone.
"We're sorry, we've received an invalid entry ZIP code. Please enter a five-digit number."
Really, I promise, I did type my Zip code. But I'd already invested more than 11 minutes, so I did it again. The result? You're thinking "We're sorry, we've received an invalid entry ZIP code. Please enter a five-digit number." So was I. Instead, it was "We're sorry, we are unable to complete this call. Please dial the tollfree number again."
Sigh.
I called back. After another 10 minutes the nice operator managed to cancel my scheduled home theater installation, but she was unable to credit the card I'd used to prepaid for the installation because -- although she found the job number, me, my address, and my phone number, and the appointment (prepaid appointment), the system didn't know that I'd paid, or when, or how. Apparently I have to go back through my credit card records. Wow, that's great service.
But wait! It gets better.
I had to cancel the appointment because the following had happened the previous week. I received an email from the store asking me to call about a bad credit card. The card in question had been used to order the stuff related to the home theater assembly, and the store was right, it was a bad card. That call went something like this:
"We've put that order on hold because the card was declined."
"Yes, I know, and I know why. The card was compromised. Chase is sending me a replacement card. I'll have it in two days."
"The system's going to attempt payment two more times, then cancel the order."
"But no, please don't! The card in question was compromised, I can't give you a good number today because I'm waiting to receive the new card number on Monday. Can you please just hold that order until I call with the new card Monday?
"No, I'm sorry, we have no way to do that. It's all automatic."
"Oh no, I've been waiting two weeks on backorder, and I have assembly at home set up for next weekend. Please, there must be an override. Just put it on pending until I call back on Monday." (Not to brag, but our company, with only 40 employees, could do that easily.)
"I'm sorry, there's no way to do that."
"No offense, I know this isn't your fault" (I really wasn't angry at her, and I didn't sound angry), "but could I talk to a supervisor or somebody who can override the system?"
"I could put you on hold for 10 or 15 minutes to get a supervisor, but I can save you the time. The system is automatic."
"What if I call back Monday, between 9 and 5 pm?"
"The system works the same regardless."
I wanted to spend about two thousand dollars with that store, between the wall furniture and the installation services. I wasn't able to. Part of my hardware order was canceled because of the bad card, part had to be returned, and I canceled the installation services. So I ended up buying the stuff I needed and getting the home theater installation through zipexpress, a national vendor, with great customer service from a guy named John. The installers came on time, did a good job, and were friendly and professional. The big store still has the money I paid though, and now I have to go back into the customer service nightmare world to get it back.
What's the name of the store? I'm sorry, irrelevant, could have been any of the big ones. Naming the store turns a blog post about customer service into a diatribe from an angry customer; that's not my point.
If you're within striking distance of Corvallis, I'll be speaking Thursday at Iovino's Ristorante on the Riverfront, at noon. Here's the info: Speaker Lunch - business in Corvallis, Oregon.
I was on talk radio this morning with Jim Blasingame, about a half an hour, talking about business planning, the new book, starting a business during a recession, and what business to start. Here's the link.
The Plan-As-You-Go Business Plan is out! ...
