Story 6 | The Corporate Entrepreneur

by Barry LaBov The by Barry LaBov The Corporate Corporate Entrepreneur Entrepreneur The small way to get big resulTs at any corporation. Another installment in the Umbrella Series

Forward There is nothing more captivating and rewarding than being an entrepreneur. But that opportunity is not reserved for small companies only. Large corporations will bene昀椀t from individuals who think entrepreneurially — and so will their employees, representatives and customers. The results will include more passion, teamwork, empowerment and innovation, to name just a few. This book is dedicated to anyone at a large corporation who ever has wished they could “act like a small company.” The Corporate Entrepreneur Written by Barry LaBov Illustrated by Becca Watson and Chris Swymeler ©2022 LaBov & Beyond Marketing Communications, Inc. 609 East Cook Road, Fort Wayne, IN 46825 All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in any form, except for personal use or review. The purpose of this book is to educate and entertain. The author has neither liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused, or alleged to be caused, directly or indirectly, by the information contained in this book.

One by one they trudged...

...into the boardroom. a dozen high-level executives found their customary favorite seat and waited for the meeting to begin. Joe, the President, walked in and said, “let’s go.” For the next 90 minutes, Joe looked around the room, daydreamed, listened on and off to the weekly reports from each individual. It’s the same old same old, thought Joe. “Production is light right now, but it’s in line with other manufacturers in our 昀椀eld,” reported sylvia, the VP of Production. Jim, the sales VP chimed in, “sales are up 2 percent from last year but are down 15 percent, according to plan. we have at least one major customer who is currently indicating he is no longer interested in representing our umbrellas, and six other customers have told us that they will be offering competitive umbrellas in addition to our’s.” Joe woke up, asking, “you mean we may lose some major customers? what’s going on here?” 4

Jim replied, “Joe, there’s no reason to worry. we’ve been hearing these kinds of threats for months. if they materialize, they’ll represent 15 to 20 percent of our sales, but there’s no guarantee that will happen.” sylvia piped in, “Plus, if the customers don’t want our umbrellas, that will mean we’ll have an easier production schedule — nobody will be complaining come summertime.” Joe couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He looked around the room. Nobody seemed worried or upset. On the contrary, the mood was light, almost comatose. Joe felt as if his entire nervous system was beginning to overload. “what you’re saying is, we’re going to lose some business, and if we do, it’s no big deal, because it’ll mean less stress, less workload. if that was our goal when this business was started, we never would have met each other — we would have been out of business years ago.” 5

everyone looked at Joe. No words were said, but Joe could read the faces of the executives: What’s wrong with him this morning? Can’t Joe see we’re doing our best? Everyone in the industry is having trouble; we’re in no worse shape than anyone else. The rest of the day, the executives stayed away from Joe. Joe was de昀椀nitely in a bad frame of mind. Am I crazy, or are we too fat and happy? What happened to our 昀椀re? Other unpleasant thoughts raced through his mind: Will we have to let people go? How will it look if we downsize? How will I look as the leader of this company if we lose business? Joe’s umbrellas was not a small concern — it had thousands of dedicated employees at factories and of昀椀ces throughout the world. Joe had worked tirelessly to grow the company, secure the loans, buy millions of dollars of equipment, hire the top executive talent and even acquire other manufacturing operations. Joe had been named “Corporate leader of the year” and had been the topic of numerous business articles. what he saw in that boardroom was troubling. but what troubled him more was that it felt too normal — it wasn’t that different from all the other meetings. it’s just that today the news was bad enough that he felt it. He had been numb — numb for too long. He was starting to see things clearer when he was interrupted by his assistant, “your lunch appointment is here.” Joe snapped out of his daydreaming and realized his banker and accounting 昀椀rm were meeting with him. Maybe after lunch I can get back to this, he thought. but, as usual, there was no time. His schedule was wall-to-wall with meetings until the end of the workday. 6

He looked up at this clock — it was 5:30 p.m. I know I have something to do tonight. What is it — kid’s soccer? Theater? Business club meeting? He went to his computer and accessed his calendar — Oh, that’s right. I have dinner with my old friend. He jumped into his car and raced to the restaurant. He was late — but his friend usually was, too. “bill, over here,” Joe called. bill was on his phone talking animatedly, “i don’t care if that’s the way we’ve been doing it. what do we need to do today? well, you make the call, i’ll back you up. listen, if this doesn’t work, call me here tonight. i’ve gotta go, it’s not a good time for us to talk. good luck.” 7

Joe couldn’t help but listen in. bill was one of his oldest business friends. bill was also a customer — he owned a store that sold outdoor supplies and clothing. Over the years, he had ordered thousands of Joe’s umbrellas and was the best dealer that Joe had. The two of them had been through a lot together and had forged a deep relationship. They both respected each other despite being very different. Joe was the consummate big-business guy — bill was an entrepreneur, a small-business man. both were very successful and enjoyed each other’s friendship. 8

bill hung up the phone. “sorry, i had to make a course correction with my sales department,” he said. Joe was intrigued. “it sounds like you’re going through the same thing i did today. my sales VP told me of some sales issues that were pretty disturbing.” “so, what did you do?” Joe was stunned — it had just occurred to him what he had precisely done — nothing. “To be honest, i didn’t, i mean we didn’t, do anything yet.” bill smiled and privately thought, Sure you didn’t do anything. Getting your group to move or change course is like moving a battleship. By the time you get it to start to change direction, the enemy or the current has already changed. 9

Joe asked, “well, what did you do about your issue?” bill quickly replied, “we’re talking with our supplier to change the product they’ve been supplying. we need to offer a slightly different version or our customers won’t buy. if they won’t comply, then it means we’ll have to turn to a new supplier. either way, we’ll have to change the way we price it and the way we present it to the customer — so that means we’ll have to re-train our sales force.” “wow, that sounds like a huge undertaking — how quickly can you do this?” Joe asked, assuming the answer would be in months. “we have to do it in two weeks, max — no more.” Joe realized he and bill lived in different worlds, “what you just described to me would take our company six months to do, iF we could even stay focused long enough to do it. aren’t you stressed out over trying to get this much done so quickly?” bill smiled and said, “No, i’d be stressed even more if i couldn’t move this fast.” “bill, i need help. i look at my company and i see nice, capable people, but they have no urgency. it’s like they’re numb.” “Joe, you have a successful company. you have more employees, more sales — ” Joe interrupted, “and more debt — ” “yes, and more debt than i’ll ever have. why talk to a small-business guy like me?” “because i miss the intensity and energy i feel from watching you run your company. we need that, and if we don’t change, i’m afraid we’ll lose, big time.” “How can i help?” 10

“well, you could let me observe you and your company from the inside, let me be a 昀氀y on the wall and see how you really get things done.” “stop by tomorrow morning and start hanging with me, old buddy.” “Thanks, i’ll see you then.” Joe was energized. maybe he’d learn enough to turn his company around, to make things fun again. 11

Joe showed up at 8:00 a.m. and walked in on a celebration. bill’s people were talking about a success they had with a new product. They meticulously explained the product, why their customers loved it and how they presented it to the customer. Joe turned to bill and said, “This is neat — why are you doing this?” “a bunch of reasons — 昀椀rst of all, we force ourselves to celebrate something every month so we can build a sense of purpose and camaraderie. i make sure that i’m not the main person running this meeting, because i want others to take as much ownership and responsibility as possible. it sets a good example and it’s infectious. but, most of all, we’re explaining this new product so that everyone is on the same page, any one of us could present it to the customer — that’s extremely important — no lost opportunities because an employee doesn’t know what’s going on.” Joe whispered, “interesting — at our company, a day doesn’t go by without me hearing a chorus of employees saying they don’t know why we’re doing something or that nobody told them of a new policy or whatever.” “right — we try every way possible to not let someone play dumb,” said bill. The tone of the meeting changed when max stood up. max was the sales VP. Joe recognized him from meetings they had been in together. “Next, i’d like to share a disturbing situation that we need to be aware of. as you may or may not know, we have a new competitor down the road. i’d like to discuss how it’s selling against us and how we can make sure that it doesn’t hurt our business.” max discussed in detail the competitor, its strengths and weaknesses, its recent success against bill’s store and how bill’s store could withstand the competition and ultimately win. The employees were somber but immersed. 12

Joe was surprised. “bill, up till now this meeting has been an upper — this talk is kind of depressing,” he said. bill whispered back, “yeah, it’s depressing, but the employees have to hear this from us 昀椀rst. They need to feel the same heat that max and his sales guys are feeling. That’s part of being a team — everyone knows the score. we’re a small company; anybody can make an impact. you never know which one of our employees may be approached by that competitor or which one will 昀椀gure out the best way to beat them.” 13

Next, bill’s accountant stood in front of the employees and ran down the pro昀椀t and loss for the last month. employees listened attentively. a hand was raised and a question was asked: “why did we make less pro昀椀t this quarter when we had more sales than last quarter?” The accountant said, “good question. we made several warehouse errors that cost us dearly. we ordered our rain ponchos too late this year and had to send many of them back. Plus, we did sell more, but we discounted our prices more than the previous quarter.” another employee spoke up, “so you’re saying we need to hold as 昀椀rm as possible with our pricing to make our pro昀椀t, right?” another employee answered for the accountant, “well we have to hold 昀椀rm on our pricing, but we have to realize that we all can play a role in this. we can be proactive and call up our key customers and 昀椀nd out what they’d like this year — this will eliminate them going to the competition and make them start shopping us. we could also make sure that we’re well trained on each of the products we represent so the customer never feels the need to leave without buying from us.” The accountant spoke up, “all of these ideas, in addition to the ones we mentioned last month, can help — we all play a role. Now, for the fun part. i’m going to hand out your pro昀椀t-sharing checks!” as the accountant did this, Joe pulled bill to the side, “This is amazing, you actually share your pro昀椀t numbers?” “sure do.” “aren’t you afraid the employees will know too much — they’ll think the company’s making too much money?” 14

bill tried to contain himself, but couldn’t help a laugh, “No, i’m afraid of the opposite. i wanted to share our pro昀椀t for years but had the same fear, until one day i polled my employees — i asked them privately how much money they thought it cost to keep our doors open on an average month. i thought they’d be pretty accurate, but i was wrong. Not one of them was close to the number — most were at least 50 to 75 percent too low. The 昀椀nal straw was when i asked my most senior employee and he gave me a number that was less than what i paid him a month. i knew i had a major problem.” 15

Joe asked, “what was the major problem — that they didn’t appreciate how much it took to run the company?” “well, that was a problem. but the biggie hit me like a sledgehammer — if they thought it cost so little to keep our doors open, then where did they think the money was going? it dawned on me that they must have thought i was making about 80 percent pro昀椀t. No wonder they weren’t motivated to make us pro昀椀table — i didn’t communicate with them the info they needed to understand. Of course, sharing some of the pro昀椀t with them helped, too.” Joe said, “at our company, we’re afraid to give too much information — that people won’t want to know, or they’ll think we’re making too much” — Joe stopped himself. “Obviously, they must think we’re making far more than we are, and it’s my fault.” bill and two employees quietly left the meeting to go to his of昀椀ce. Joe followed. They closed the door. Hank spoke up, “bill, something has to be done about the situation.” evidently there was a personnel issue that was concerning the two employees. bill nodded, “Okay everyone, what do we do?” Joe watched as bill and his employees tossed ideas back and forth — bill allowed any thought to be considered. after 20 minutes, they had reached a decision. The employees were elated. “i know that this idea is outside the box, but, bill, i know you’ll support us,” Hank said. bill smiled. “sure will. Do it,” he said. after the employees left, Joe quizzed bill. “you really let them make a decision there, didn’t you? at our company, it would have taken months to come to consensus. you did it in an informal meeting in 20 minutes. That’s why i had to see what’s going on here — you guys have no fear!” bill interrupted 昀椀rmly, “No we do have fear; it’s just a different fear than you have. large corporations are afraid to make decisions too quickly, too rashly. They’re afraid of political consequences. 16

i have fear. i’m afraid that if we don’t act immediately, we’ll lose opportunities.” Joe’s eyes teared up, “last night i told you i felt our company was numb. we are. your company feels the good and the bad — the successes and the losses. we feel neither.” “yeah, you guys look at your quarterly numbers, and that’s what they are — numbers. we know the customers; we feel the pain when they leave. we feel the ecstasy when we land a big sale. we know that we have to move quickly to take advantage of opportunities or to 昀椀x a problem. we don’t worry about — ” 17

Joe interrupted, “Formality. we built our company around formality, organization, structure — we’ve just forgotten that those things are there to support us, not lead us.” “yeah, you big guys are great at mass — mass communications, systems, infrastructure and processes. us little guys are all about intimacy — making a difference one customer or one employee or even one decision at a time. everything seems personal, because to us, it is personal. you guys think big, we think small.” Joe smiled for the 昀椀rst time in weeks, “maybe i could make our company a lot better if we thought smaller. we only have a few hundred dealers that sell our umbrellas, so why do we send generic communications to them? why not send personal communications to each of them?” “right. i can tell you i don’t appreciate the ‘Dear Mr. or Ms. Dealer’ e-mails i get from your sales department.” “sorry,” Joe offered. “maybe i could run open-book meetings with our employees and get them involved with the way the company is run. i could even share that information with the dealers and let them play a stronger role in our company; after all, they’re partners with us.” bill smiled. “good idea,” he said. “my people have never liked how secretive your 昀椀nancial people were. we 昀椀gured you were making too much money and didn’t want to share it with us.” “sorry again,” Joe said, gaining momentum. “you know, there’s no reason why i can’t hold informal product planning meetings with customers, dealers and employees. why does only our product department decide what the best product is? in fact, they can be part of those meetings — they’d be fun, too.” “Joe, you’re getting the hang of this. i know we would’ve loved to have a voice in your product design. we’ve suggested 18

numerous design enhancements, but your guys rejected every one of them.” Joe stopped and looked at bill, “bill, if you’ve felt this way, why have you stayed with us?” bill looked embarrassed. “i thought you knew,” he said. “we told your sales VP that we were no longer interested in your umbrellas. we got tired of bringing up our concerns and not seeing any progress. That’s what that call i got last night was all about — it was our last chance to make the relationship work. your sales VP told us he understood our position but that we were asking for things that were not possible within your system — our relationship was terminated.” 19

Joe’s smile was gone. His best dealer and one of his dearest business friends had just told him their relationship was ending. but something came over him — he thought small. “bill, it’s only over if you and i decide it’s over. Forget the way we’ve done business in the past. let’s decide how we can sell more and be more pro昀椀table together.” bill spoke tentatively, “but Joe, what if it means you have to design different products for us, or it means that we have to tackle some sensitive issues like pricing or how your umbrellas should be presented to customers? How 昀氀exible are you?” “look, let’s take each issue one by one — and let’s do it now. i’ll call my sales VP and get him and whoever else we need to drive over here a.s.a.p.” “Do it now? you mean today? usually it takes weeks or months to set up a meeting.” Joe’s face lit up as he said, “well, if i’m moving too fast for you, we can wait if you want — i’m just afraid we’ll miss too many opportunities if we do.” bill smiled, saying, “i couldn’t agree more.” Joe and bill ironed out a new understanding. both were happier, and both realized that this was not the end; it was the beginning of a new way to communicate, to partner and to succeed. it became a smaller world. 20

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Joe took what he learned from bill and began to change his company’s culture. He learned that entrepreneurial companies of all sizes acted small and understood these lessons: • Formality, organization and structure: These things are important to a company, but they should be there to support it, not to lead it or stunt its growth • Keep things simple — motivate everyone with the same goal • Be 昀氀uid — status quo is the enemy • Speed is crucial — time is never on your side • Focus on 昀氀exibility — it’s not how big a company is, it’s how quickly it can respond • Being entrepreneurial is all about making a difference, one customer, one employee or even one decision at a time • There’s no good excuse for letting customers slip away from you • Anyone in a company can make an impact: Treat them that way • Be vulnerable. If you want employees to act like owners, communicate the same information that owners get — the good and the bad • Entrepreneurs are not fearless — they have fear, too: They fear not moving fast enough or decisively enough to take advantage of an opportunity or to solve a problem • Be intimate — avoid mass communications if at all possible — especially with the people who represent your product • Regularly engage all employees by communicating and celebrating together • The less “numb” an organization is to failure or success, the more dynamic it can be. Feeling the pain of a defeat or the elation of a success can drive tremendous learnings and progress. 22

About the Author A two-time Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year and inductee into the Entrepreneur of the Year Hall of Fame, Barry LaBov is the founder and president of LaBov & Beyond Marketing Communications, Inc. Based in Fort Wayne, Indiana, LaBov & Beyond is an agency nationally renowned for its passion and its integrity as well as for its niche: creating strategic marketing, training and communication solutions for corporations with dealer, distributor or sales representative networks. Its client base is comprised of some of the most respected corporations in the world working in a wide variety of industries, including automotive, aviation, transportation, 昀椀nancial services and health care. Through the Umbrella Series of business parables and books, Barry and his team 昀椀nd an entertaining, involving and enlightening way to share with readers The Most Important Business Lessons Under One Umbrella. They not only explore the issues most vital to business success today—passion, leadership, change, entrepreneurialism, vision, loyalty, the tearing down of business silos—they bring them to life, in full, vibrant color. Indeed, lessons from the Umbrella Series have been brought to life as corporate learning events, interactive DVDs, keynote speeches and through its own Web site (umbrellastory.com). In addition to his work on the Umbrella Series, Barry has authored two critically acclaimed business books: How to Sell and Be Yourself and Beyond Comparison. He’s also a published columnist in national newspapers, magazines and various trade publications and an accomplished and in-demand public speaker. In addition to its Fort Wayne headquarters, LaBov & Beyond also has operations in Auburn Hills, Michigan, and suburban Washington, D.C. For more information on how LaBov & Beyond can market, motivate or leverage your company’s products, services or distribution network, please visit labov.com, umbrellastory.com, or call us at 260.497.0111.