The Profit Prophet

While taking statistics during my quest to get an MBA and while earning my engineering degree, the professors always emphasized the importance of finding the statistical mean of any population by using the Central Mean Theorem (a.k.a the highest point of the Bell Curve). As an engineer, this was essential in order to maximize throughput, minimize cost and waste, and ultimately make a better, faster, cheaper widget. A funny thing happened on the way to the dark side of marketing. I discovered that the only thing in the middle of the road was quite literally dead road kill. I do not know if you remember stores like Bradlees, Ames and Service Merchandise (just to name a few), but they all folded because the environment changed and they were caught trying to service the mythological “average customer.” Part of that change came when Wal-Mart began its juggernaut with the discount department store. Wal-Mart did two things right: 1) Focused on “mobile” consumers, and 2) Fo...

During my 15 years of helping start and working for start-up companies, I have learned a few things from all the mistakes I have made and from the mentors and advisors I have met and worked with. Though there are dozens of things you may have to worry about when starting a company, I will highlight the 3 Deadly Startup Sins that will pretty much guarantee your eventual failure. Leadership Actually, Leadership is the number one element in the eventual success of any new endeavor. And the number one mistake made with most start-ups is assuming that the founder or inventor should be the person running the company. History has proven this is often not the best course of action for the success of a company. Henry Ford stated that even though Thomas Edison was the smartest person he had ever met, he was a horrible businessman. I have seen far too many people, who happen to be brilliant inventors or scientist, be absolutely horrible leaders. Ever endeavor, large or small, rise...

In my entrepreneurial journey, I have been fortunate enough to have met both good and bad mentors and entrepreneurs.  The one thing that make a good entrepreneur it the fact that KNOW the the journey is going to be hard and arduous, but they decide to do it anyway.  What makes a poor entrepreneur is a person who thinks there is a shortcut, or an magic wand that will make the "successful."  Yes, some successful entrepreneurs "look" like they just magically made their fortune, but that is such an illusion.  Everyone of them had to fight, and scratch, and claw and yes, a few got a little bit luckier than most, but it was NEVER easy.  And if you think creating something new is easy, stop right now.  You will never make it. Actually, most of the successful entrepreneurs had to pivot when they ran into an unforeseen obstacle in their path. Yes, even the mighty Google did not know how it was going to make money until someone came up with the idea for AdWord...

I wrote a blog post about a year ago titled " The Moldy Middle " which went into detail about how companies that target the statistical "mean" are doomed to fail primarily because they try to be all things to all people, and end up becoming irrelevant to anybody. Recently, Seth Godin posted a blog about this subject entitled " The paradox of the middle of the market ." In this blog, Mr. Godin actually says it is OK to seek out the middle because he believes that this is where "profits meet scale." Now, Seth might be right for a short period of time, but over the long haul all the things that he lists will come to saturate a organization and eventually paralyze its ability to respond to any changes in the market. I respect Mr. Godin immeasurably, but find it hard to believe that he still believes that there is a monolithic "mass market" of middle of the road anything. Oh how the old ways die hard even with enlightened individuals. New...

Wow, this is a question we all ask, but are not sure why we do it. I am starting this blog for two reasons: 1) Is to impart some (albeit small) amount of wisdom that I learned during my 20 odd years as an engineer, marketeer, salesman, in operations, and business development; 2) To attract other liked-minded individuals to this blog to ask questions on how to improve their business by eliminating the friction most companies have in selling their products or services. This friction is caused mostly by a total lack of strategy. As the saying goes, "In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king." Hopefully, my one eye can help some people out there. OK, why the profit prophet? Back when I first stared out at Texas Instruments some 25 years ago, I got the reputation of only looking at deals that involved profit margins, not gross revenues. This was so contrary to the prevailing mindset at TI, that people soon thought I would be terminated. But my boss (Jim Watson...