At C-Level

Lessons from Sam Walton

While in Bentonville, Arkansas last week I visited Sam Walton's first store--The 5 and 10--on Bentonville's town square, which has been turned into a museum of Walmart and its heralded founder.  It was remarkably interesting, especially the exhibits revealing Walton the man, like the detailed recreation of his unpretentious personal office at the time of his death in 1992. 

A careful reading of the articles and exhibits is like getting an MBA, with extraordinary insights into strategy, marketing, human resources, innovation and entrepreneurship.  Many of these are outlined in "Sam's Rules," which I'll summarize here:

1. COMMIT to your business.  Believe in it more than anybody else.

2. SHARE your profits with all your associates, and treat them as partners.

3. MOTIVATE your partners.  Money and ownership alone aren't enough.

4. COMMUNICATE everything you possibly can to your partners.

5. APPRECIATE everything your associates do for the business.

6. CELEBRATE your success.

7. LISTEN to everyone in your company.

8. EXCEED your customers' expectations.

9. CONTROL your expenses better than your competition.

10. SWIM upstream.  Go the other way.  Ignore conventional wisdom.

Sure, every company has a mission, declared values, principles to believe in, etc.  But you get the sense that Sam Walton really believed in his; that he actually lived them, and that these principles were the foundation of his success.  That's inspiring.

Here's an Idea

Here's an innovative idea I've been thinking about for a long time.  In fact, ten years ago my company filed a patent on it, but then, due to budget constraints, never followed up.  It falls under the category of cool business ideas that I've decided I'll never do.

The concept is simple--make emails effective advertising vehicles.  Yes I know that sometimes advertising is now being embedded at the end of emails, but it's really pretty worthless.  What would make it better?  If the advertising was effectively an endorsement from the sender.  Here's how it would work:

1. You subscribe to the service because it's cool, and because a portion of the revenue goes to a charity you select.

2. You select a product or brand from a large group of participating advertisers.  Naturally, you're likely to select one that you personally endorse--maybe Harley Davidson, Patagonia, American Eagle, MTV, Dancing with the Stars, the latest movie, Tater Tots, Gold's Gym, etc.  The possibilities are endless.  And you can change whenever you want.

4. The ads would be simple.  A logo and a tagline.  However, you can customize your "ad" with a specific endorsement, such as: "Toyota Prius: This is my car (hyperlink).  I'm getting 52 MPG!"    It would also include a brief acknowledgement of the chosen charity.

5. Companies could pay by click, or possibly for every email sent (if that could be tracked or verified, at some point). 

Email users would like this because, like Facebook, it's personal and revealing.  Email recipients wouldn't be offended for the same reason, and because they know a charity benefits.  And advertisers would love it because it is not just a paid ad, but an endorsement from someone the recipient actually knows (and presumably shares at least some common interests).  And the ads would be clicked at a higher rate than anything out there. 

That's the idea.  Would it work? 

Recharge the Batteries

I spent the day at an Entrepreneur's Conference at Utah Valley University.  To be honest, I attended out of a sense of duty.  I'm on an advisory board for the program, and chair a committee on Executive Education.  So I figured I should be supportive.  I didn't expect a tremendous amount of value from the speakers.  After all, I read a lot of business books, scholarly articles and major magazines.  I'm up on the literature.  I subscribe to a dozen business blogs and scan another 50 or so.  Plus, I've run two tech start-ups.  What could I expect to learn from a local conference aimed mainly at budding entrepreneurs?

It turns out that the value was tremendous.  And while some speakers were more valuable than others, they all knew a lot more in their fields than I do, and I got some great ideas from each one.  Further, I met some interesting people along the way, during breaks, etc.  I don't go to many conferences and I was surprised that I felt so exhilarated. I was humbled, and reminded how much I will always have to learn.  And a favorite quote came to mind: "The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge."  (From historian, scholar and author Daniel J. Boorstin.)

I'm really glad I went and it was well worth my time.  Part of the benefit was just stepping back from my businesses and thinking very broadly about their potential, and about some basic assumptions that were just waiting to be challenged.  There were a half-dozen Eureka! moments.

Every business leader should spend some time recharging the batteries--exposing herself to fresh thinking from new sources.  Covey calls this sharpening the saw.  I call it good business.

It's Opportunity Time

For some reason, I have had a million new business ideas lately.  In fact, I was thinking of doing a blog series--100 new business opportunities in 100 days.  Sure, some of the ideas will fade under the light of day.  But I'm pretty sure there are others that would be very successful, and a small number absolute home runs.

Yes, our economic situation makes it difficult to run many businesses.  But the reason for this should signal opportunities for budding entrepreneurs.  Existing businesses are struggling because they are tied to legacy products, systems, strategies and philosophies.  The new business is not.  This principle applies equally to those intrepid companies which are willing to invest in new products, ideas and processes.  The time is right.

I'm not suggesting I would jump into a consumer retail business, although I'm certain there are a lot of good opportunities.  But there should be some that are very obvious.

If gas is high (which it isn't now) find a way to trade off previously unattractive trade-offs.  Like a car pool club.   If companies are cutting back on training, develop an almost-as-effective but significantly cheaper version (see www.trainingmirror.com, launching by early February).  If foreclosures are skyrocketing, find the capital (hey, I never said it would be easy) to buy the houses and rent them back to the current owner to avoid moving (maybe even with a buy-back provision).

I was just reading that Henry Luce founded Fortune Magazine as a high-ticket business magazine in 1930, right after the crash.  Maybe that sounds crazy, but the strategy made sense, as history proved. 

This is not the time to be timid.  The opportunities are out there.  Now, more than ever, Virgil's words ring true: "Fortune favors the bold."