The Emerald Rose

First question! Why do a few have so much or so many dollars, and seem to be so lucky?

First Answer: because they were smart, not “Lucky” enough to know these three things,

a) They did not know everything,

b) They Only knew what they already knew,

c) They needed to surround themselves with advisors and mentors with more knowledge, more experience, OR someone who could chart their trip to success and a great business for them!!

Obviously number three is the MOST CRITICAL factor in business development to make the business REALLY work, grow, and be successful for them. No offense by that statement, BUT understand that is the REAL DIFFERENCE between just being a “business”, and “running a real business”!

It’s the critical difference between being a “wannabe” and a “Successful Business Owner”. Sure you know how to “DO” what your business is about, and YOU may even be good at what you “DO”. BUT all that means is YOU know, and can do what your business needs to DO, but how do you leverage it, and replicate it a thousand, or ten thousand times more that just YOU DOING it?

Find a sincere, (keyword!), “TEAM”, who are willing to basically work for nothing, become your “brain trust” , and are working for basically the self satisfaction of r$ on their successes to you and your company, for a free lunch and a full day to spend with you perhaps twice or three times a year. They must be willing to listen to you and your “Key Staff”, CFO, Marketing manager, Advertising folks, and all the other key folks who will keep your firm “going” on a united path, and direction toward an achievable goal with benchmarks and adjustments that the “Company NEEDS” to accomplish to survive and grow!!

One of my best jobs was working for two Harvard Grads, and their third partner who was into design and Art for Album covers and sundry other Graphic Arts projects.

As I said they were both young Harvard students who, aside from the obvious Harvard aura and famed “B” school was producing some of the greatest entrepreneurial leaders of the 20th Century, which had yet to come at that time. Anyway, I digress, but they realized they needed expert advice to build a simple idea they had to fill a void , BUT did not want to “give away the store” for it! So they sat down and, while I’m sure it came from Harvard in it’s “PRIME DAYS”, decided to create an advisory panel of PROVEN local businesses that had succeeded, and ask their owners to be on their fledgling “Board of Directors/Advisors”. Rather than be the “ceremonial Director” on “famous name to assure bank loans” etc. They set up a pretty rigorous “Board”, while the President and Treasurer had COMPLETE control of the company, they met quarterly with their “Board” for an entire day. The dates were picked, the times agreed to , but it was a “non-negotiable” that a WHOLE DAY WAS MANDATORY. At first I thought it was “a little clever”, but previous experience had shown me that unless it was a really serious setup and was worth the “Directors time” it would fall apart of simply become a “whatever” concept.

But they were VERY serious! I spent a LOT of time following and studying the process and it’s results, but as the “Director of Administrative Services” or the “fix it and clean it all up and make it all hum like a well oiled machine” I was not privileged enough to be able to ask innocuous questions and their trust in me provided answers for me, that I could piece together myself to see what was happening!

It was a simple process, all calls for the President, the Treasurer and Controller (my direct boss) were to be held and there were no interruptions to happen during “the MEETINGS”! Lunch was a simple affair, sandwiches, soft drinks or water, that’s it! No Lobster, Prime Rib, or anything else,…..because the objective was chart the company and how it grows,….and create that surety to continued growth and profit. There was constant coffee, tea, bottled water and that was it! Really the model of what business meetings should be, disciplined, thorough, and all in an 8am -3pm period.

The President of the Company would discuss what they had done, based on what they had previously agreed to, then “postulate” on the next steps they should take and how and why. Then the Treasurer would go through all the numbers that had transpired and were projected in the next six or eight months, based on their cash flow, and the other needs and requirements. The President would then do a presentation on the “new things” they wanted to implement, or accomplish and the various processes that had to be implemented and their operational input and results to date, plus a six month outlook to their effect for the future operations. The Treasurer and ,my boss the VP of Finance, would then provide assessment on the costs and necessities required to make it all happen and well as the entire “risk assessments”,…..the other “Directors/Advisors would ask questions, get answers then provide their opinions and comments, as to the “path” presented for the next six months.

After a 30 minute “break” during which “one on one” time and the break would allow them to raise any questions or specific items they had in mind. They would all then get back together render their opinions to the President, the VP of Finance, and the Treasurer, and it would conclude with a path plotted, or understanding as to changes that needed to be made before proceeding,…..or a “hold Status” pending future discussions, or additional information being provided. And the Meeting Ended.

Here comes the “commercial” for me!

As Frank Sinatra once sang, “I’ve been a puppet, a poet…., a pawn and a king, …..I’ve been up and down, and over and out,…but I know one thing. Each time I fall the only thing,…is to get up and do it all over again! That’s life, that’s what all the people say,….”

In my 74 years and over 55 of being in various businesses I must say it worked phenomenally. Then the routine “execution” of all the plans and processes were subsequently integrated, adjusted, and made actionable.

That is what 95% of all the businesses I’ve ever been involved with NEED to do, but to do it you need a person to pull it all together and make sure all the cogs are working smoothly to insure it happens. It CANNOT be done on the strength of the players I’ve already discussed, ….there need to be an “Ombudsman” to insure it is being smoothly and effectively integrated and operating at all levels,…….guess who? MOI!!

I’ve filled all of those slots and owned several companies,…it’s all the same from the local Deli (I wonder if there are any left?) to General Electric. We just “lost” sight of the principles that make them work RIGHT!!

End of rant,…but my options are writing a blog (soon to be a podcast) or pushing carts in the super market parking lot until “the big one” gets me!

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March 16, 2019