I was fortunate to be a delegate to the Entrepreneur Organization’s Barcelona Conference last week. 350 founders of businesses all gathering to share their stories. Met some fabulous people. Like Conner who runs a private jet leasing company, (now that is big boys toys), Michael who named his company ‘Whatever’ because he was drafting a contract at the time he formed his business – and put the name ‘Whatever’ in the company name field – but never quite got back to it to finalize the name and it stuck… very funny story – great business.
I am energized by the variety of ways there are to change the planet and make a profitable business in the process.
Our first keynote speaker was Miguel Torres – 5th generation wine maker in Spain. He told a great story of innovation. Gradual innovation over hundreds of years. What an amazingly rich history. It makes me wonder where RedBalloon will be in a hundred years. (I thought 2015 was a long time away).
A summary of his lessons: (maybe we could turn this into a checklist)…
- Have a clear mission and values that everyone embraces
- Reinvest in the company (only take a small dividend) – only with funds can you grow
- Keep debt low – you never know what is around the corner (Torres Wines endured a Spanish Civil War which I can imagine was slightly harsher than the GFC)
- Be flexible – don’t lock yourself in to a long term strategy (I suppose a hundred years is long term)
- Good people will make good products
- Defend your territory – at all cost, if you let the competition get a foot hold you will never get rid of them.
- Experiment and try lots of things… make small mistakes often and learn from them.
- Love your business and make it your passion. There is no faking it… passion is infectious.
Clearly a man after my own heart. Great to see that such passion for a business can endure many centuries.
Imagine running a business based on fun - that's what I decided to try when I left a very serious corporate career in marketing to set up RedBalloon...
