Tag Archives: business

Mar 8 2009

Networking…

For some reason, I vividly remember this one particular moment when I was walking out of the business college my freshman year.  I was a few steps behind a group of guys who had just gotten out of a business fraternity meeting.  They were all wearing suits and talking about how there were “some great networking opportunities coming up.”  They kept emphasizing the networking aspect of what they were doing, as though they’d be earning career points simply through the act of meeting other business people.

That was the first time I’d really noticed the word, and it has retained its negative connotations ever since.  Sometimes it’ll slip into a conversation, and I’ll immediately regret saying it.

Networking is typically short-sighted and often sleazy.  It’s meeting a person with the intention of using them towards accomplishing your goals.  You come to the table with an agenda and are already thinking of how you can use that person to your advantage, without ever considering what they want and how you might be able to help them.  They tell you their story, and you begin to mentally categorize them as “useless” or “useful.”

The people who are legitimate “networkers,” or whatever you want to call them, place a high value on relationships.  They genuinely enjoy meeting others and helping them.  They don’t slide you their business card within a minute of meeting you, because they know swapping business cards is worthless if you have no genuine interest in the person it belongs to.  They treat others as people, instead of as means to an end.  And if they happen to need assistance on a project, they don’t think, “I can use this guy to help me.”  They think, “I can really offer this guy a great opportunity here, and we’ll both get some value out of it.”  A real networker’s needs don’t come first; they’re more concerned with the people they’re talking to.  

I’ve also noticed that real networkers don’t keep a mental list of favors they are owed.  If you can’t help them out after they’ve helped you, they will not hold it against you.  They hope for the best, but are understanding if you can’t bring something to the table right away.

This all goes back to what you were taught when you were young about how to be a good friend.  So why do so many people take on this transactional networking mentality in business situations?  Treating others like human beings isn’t particularly difficult, but not enough people actually do it.

Feb 28 2009

Ask yourself…

ace

Now replace “Ace Hardware” with your company name.  Would anyone honestly care if you ceased to exist?  If no one would, how can you change that?  What are the few things you could start doing that would be a dream come true for your customers?  It’s something to think about.

The companies that are truly loved are the ones that will stay afloat.

Thanks to John Moore for the idea.

Jan 29 2009

Adaptation

I was talking with a guy the other day who has been running a successful video editing business for many years now.  His company specializes in corporate shoots, which can be anything from commercials to internal office videos used for training.

He was telling me about their methods and why they’d been able to do so well, when he said something that really surprised me:

“We’re stuck in our ways.  The video editing business has taken a pretty hard hit this year, and we’re not doing very well.  But our methods are tried and true, and we stick to them year-after-year.”

Those weren’t his exact words, but they’re pretty close.  The thing that surprised me was that his voice swelled with pride when he said that.

Why on earth would someone be proud that they’re stuck in their methods? A company that doesn’t test, experiment, or take any risks is a company that will never be the industry leader.  He might think that the recession is the cause of his business’ downturn, but there are still opportunities out there that he’s missing.  So why not try something new?  Why not venture more into online video?  Or better yet: he could market his business as the best online video company in the state.

Why don’t more companies have an evolutionary mindset?  Force a mutation into your business’ DNA to differentiate your company from all the others, instead of just playing it safe.  Because if there’s one thing that’s become very clear to me over the past few years, it’s this: playing it safe will always yield mediocre results.

If you don’t adapt to the changing environment, your business will die.

Sep 26 2008

How to change the world

Google has revealed their newest project – 10^100 (a.k.a. a googol).  The project is as follows:

“A call for ideas to change the world by helping as many people as possible… Send us your idea… We’ll post a selection of one hundred ideas and ask you, the public, to choose twenty semi-finalists. Then an advisory board will select up to five final ideas… We’re committing $10 million to implement these projects, and our goal is to help as many people as possible.”

Truly inspiring.

I’ve thought a lot lately about how the structure of businesses is flawed.  Umair Haque has been thinking about it, too.  With the fall of these enormous institutions, screwing thousands of people’s lives over while CEOs walk away with millions, it’s become extremely clear that something is wrong with the traditional way of running a business.

The old way of doing things = caring only about stockholder value and the bottom line, whatever the cost.

It doesn’t work.  It allows too much room for self-interest to ruin things for everyone else.  We’ve been going down the wrong road for too long, and now it’s time to turn back.

Google, whose motto is “do no evil,” is one of the companies that knows about the old way.  And they’re choosing to avoid it.  They know that a company founded on shady principles will fail in the long run.  But so many companies are still playing by the old rules.  And the reality they’re living in is dying out.

The easy buck is very tempting, but it doesn’t last.  A paycheck is just a paycheck – it doesn’t reveal anything about the ethics of your company.

You can react to this recession in a few ways.  You can do what everyone else is doing and complain about the economy, wish for the best in the future, and work hard at your job in hopes that you won’t be laid off.

Or you can look at this recession and see potential. ENORMOUS, unfathomable potential. Now is the time when we can change things.  We can change how businesses are run.  We can create lasting value that has the power to enrich lives long after we’re gone.  We can genuinely care about the people we’ll never meet.

We can change the world for the better.

But first, you have to dismiss the old rules and adopt the new ones.  You also have to be a genuinely good person that’s not adjusted to a sick society.  That’s the hard part.

Jul 13 2008

5 rules for starting up a company

Over the years, I have had many ideas that I thought could be turned into a business.  From creating a special type of chewing gum and selling it at my school when I was 16, to trying to license an idea I had to various alcohol companies, I’ve always had the simple mentality of “would people like this idea?”

But I’ve learned that is simply not the right way of approaching a business idea.  So I’ve come up with a set of personal guidelines that I follow for deciding whether an idea should be pursued or not.  The first two rules are required, and the rest are ideal.  Here they are:

  1. Must change a world for the better – It doesn’t have to change the world, but the idea has to change someone’s world.
  2. Must be able to illustrate the idea with a crayon - I got this from a VC that I met a few months ago.  The benefits of the idea have to be easy to understand.
  3. Should be a highly replaced item – High volume and easy to manufacture are key.  One thing I always keep in mind when coming up with an idea is: the people who got rich during the gold rush were the ones selling the tools, not the ones digging for gold.  Give a niche market a tool they can use.
  4. Only target emerging markets and/or desperate buyers – Best way for guaranteed growth is to ride a trend.  Best way to guarantee the market will support your business is to target desperate buyers (e.g. hospitals will never go out of business because the customers are desperate to have their problems fixed).  If you are entering a static market, then disrupt the hell out of them.  Like the Bubble Calendar is doing for the calendar market.
  5. Should be able to automate the process - This is a personal goal of mine.  I want my business to create a passive income so I can travel.