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THIS WEEK is the time to focus on Christmas. It’s an interesting and conflicted time for modern Christians, because our society is telling to focus on buying, giving, rushing, and generally going crazy.
If you have a retail business, this is impossible to escape. You’re going nuts with promotions, employee shifts, maybe bad weather … just holding on for dear life until things return to “normal” in 2014.
But for our salvation, this should be simple. Read the rest of this entry »
CHRIS HUTCHINSON heads up Trebuchet Group here in Fort Collins. They deliver extraordinarily powerful consulting for their clients, particularly around leadership development and organizational change.
I had the opportunity speak with Chris (CEO) and his wife Diana (COO) this week. I’ve been wanting to have this conversation for awhile, because I’ve been following the company for four years now and have been impressed with the distinct character that they’ve built.
SOCKS FOR BROGAVIA! was started in 2012 after Jed Arlsen toured Eastern Europe on a mission trip. Impressed with the beautiful artistry of their work, he saw the opportunity to benefit starving workers by selling their products in the U.S.
With a whole bunch of hard work and dedication, Jed was able to get the socks in 26 stores for the Christmas season. Customers were amazed at the craftsmanship and fine Brogavian Highlands Goat hair, and the products flew off the shelves.
A week after Christmas, the entire business fell apart as it was discovered that hot water washing caused the products to fall apart in a mess at the bottom of the washer. The company was bankrupt within two months.
IHAD A CHANCE this week to speak with three people who, each in their own way, were influential in the creation of this blog. This has been an important spiritual journey for me, in addition to the more visible discussions we’ve had.
This helped me realize how important is is to acknowledge where your foundation is.
For most people I speak with, this is almost entirely about the people in their lives. Sure, I got into a great career and awesome company right out of college, which somehow set me up to be where I am today. But I’m not going to fall into the delusion of thinking I’m “self-made.”
I think the harder you work, the more you realize how dependent you are on supporters around you.
GALE SIMON heads up Global Wellness Solutions in Windsor, Colorado, and represents SoZo and a number of nutritional supplements. With a background in chemical research, he approaches product claims with a huge amount of skepticism.
It’s about the research.
Gale’s been promoting nutritional products for well over a decade, building up a very successful income with a previous supplement company.
MAYA (SYLVIA) DOLENA 
is a colleague of mine from when we both worked for Hewlett-Packard. She led and provided consulting, coaching and training expertise for dozens of initiatives in employee engagement, technology implementation, and customer satisfaction.
Now, Sylvia is a Master Business Consultant and Executive Coach in Hawaii, and founder of Conscious Commerce Coalition and Winning Edge University. I was grateful to have a conversation with her recently about her experience working on building trust between people and companies.
Sylvia, you have some expertise on building companies which have Trust and Integrity. Could you help me understand how you’re using these concepts?
BACK IN MAY I mentioned that Google would bear watching, because it seemed like they might be losing some of what made them special as a company. So it was interesting that I ran across a Quartz article which discussed the death of Google’s “20% time” policy.
You may not be aware of this, but it was a HUGE DEAL in the high tech industry. It was astounding that a company would give every employee 20% of their work time to pursue unrelated opportunities.
When I started at HP back in 1978, there were some philosophies which were similar to this, including the concept of the “G-job” as a sanctioned means of working on unassigned projects.
But 20% of your time, a full day every week? That’s outrageous!
Here’s the story of what most companies do: deliver products and services, build a loyal customer base, and make as much money as possible. Eventually the owner retires rich, sipping rum drinks in the Caribbean and perhaps playing some golf.
While that’s a lovely scenario, it’s not very deep.
When I coach business owners, I often find that there are some goals which are much deeper, more heartfelt. The companies who are driven by something deeper are different.
STEFANIE AND PATRICK O’NEILL own a third generation family business called 
Vern’s Toffee House. It was started by Stefanie’s grandfather, Vern Hackbarth, in 1976, as his second “retirement project” at the age of 60. I met her father last year, as the company was in the process of transitioning to Patrick and Stefanie.
It’s a fascinating little business. They had survived quite nicely for 36 years with just family and some seasonal part-time employees, and just last year took on someone year-round.
How does this survive? Quite simply: An amazingly wonderful product, a simple business model, and flawless quality.
LAST WEEK’S post When do you change your values? has generated some discussion. I try to get people to add comments to the blog posts, but some end up in LinkedIn or Facebook or as personal emails to me. C’est la vie, I guess.
It is quite possible that you’ll be faced with a fundamental decision. You tried to build a business out of the idea of benefiting a particular needy group, but after three years you just haven’t been able to figure out how to make the company sustainable. If you don’t have enough revenue, the business will eventually die.
And you certainly aren’t benefiting yourself OR that needy group if it’s not sustainable.
The Values-Based Business 