The beginning of this past summer I committed to myself to begin teaching my three oldest sons fundamental business principles. I decided the best way to do this would to actually build a businesses together. Each Saturday and Sunday afternoon my three sons and I would go down in my office and have a “board meeting”.
The first few meetings began as a brainstorm where we would discuss potential businesses. Nothing was off the table. We had some real interesting ideas pop up (particularly from my 11 year old Nathan). After several weeks we narrowed down the business options and informally discussed the pro’s and con’s using the Porter Model. What did we settle on? A website focusing on How To Tie a Tie. Why you ask? Well in our research we discovered that the 4th most searched “How To” phrase on the internet is How to tie a tie. There are over 2,000 searched a day on this term. Once decided we were off and running to the races. It has been a rather slow moving project, but one that has simply been life changing for my boys.
I am thrilled today to announce that last week we formally launched our website www.2tieatie.com. So why was this so important to me? The primary reason I wanted to do this with my sons was to give them a feel early in their life of what it took to create a business. I also wanted them to live the process not just talk about it. I also wanted them to take some ownership in saving and preparing for college in a manner different than just getting a job. Not that I don’t want them to also have a job and work hard, I do. But I want them in the mindset of creating assets rather than working a job. There has been one huge side benefit from this project that I had not pre-mediated. It has been the process of exposing my sons to the global economy. As we were discussing the project last night it was pointed out that:
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The project plan and specification had been put together by us in Utah.
The initial site design was done in Ahmedabad India. With over 10 back and forth iterations of the design.
The witting of the step by step instructions done initially by a writer in Eastern Europe (and failed).
We then engaged a professional witter in the USA that I had previously worked with
The picture diagrams were done by a talented diagrammer in in Pakistan
The Assembly of the Pictures and Steps were then returned to India for build out and engineering
The Quality assurance and debug of the site done by my sons back in Utah
The online store is being done using Amazon.com which is located in New York
The Video diagrams is being outsourced to my oldest sons 17 year old friends Scott and Wyatt
The ties that we will eventually sell on the website will come from Thailand and Korea
We engaged several link building efforts with two different firms, one in Southern India and the other in Romania
We also did a press announcement which was distributed out of Washington State
Wow, that is quite the world tour for a eleven year old. The reality is, we live in a global economy and the only way our children will thrive is to learn to dance in this world. I am so proud of how my sons have interacted and embraced this experience. All said, I think the experience interacting and coordinating the efforts all around the world proved to be of more value than the business experience.
I remember as I was younger in my career, everything was black and white. My opinions were strong and quickly formed. My views sharp and my perspective decisive. As I have grown older and been exposed to more cultures and experienced the dilemmas and challenges of the world, the once thin line separating black and white has expanded to a much larger thick grey line.
Yesterday I spent some time with a young man for whom I have tremendous respect. This is a young man who is in the early stages of his career, has been bitten really hard by the entrepreneurial bug, and is creating a successful web design company. In so many ways he reminds be of myself 20 years ago. He is intensely passionate, has very strong opinion, and is insanely talented. I have every confidence he will succeed.
The lengthy discussion that I had with him yesterday, related to a moral stand that he was taking relating to what type of web sites he was comfortable designing and his willingness to decline business that did not meet his moral standards. I can not help but respect anyone who is willing to take a stand and draw personal boundaries. In this apathetic world many people have become desensitized and are not willing to step forward and stand up for what they believe to be right.
As we discussed, it became very evident that we have many of the same long term goals and value systems, however on a few points we have dramatically different views.
It caused me to reflect on those simple days and in some ways longingly wish for the ON or OFF perspective that I did when I was just out of college. That being said, I have found that much of the richness of life comes from understanding and learning the perspectives in the thicker grey line. It may be messier, but it is also more rewarding to take the effort to look at the “beast” from a different angle.
We all have different upbringings, perspectives and value systems. In life, there is no simple black and white with a thin line. It is by making the attempt to understand each others perspectives, what motivates each other, and why we view things differently that unlocks the power of great advances. The lamest and most ineffective teams I have managed have been those that were homogeneous where everyone saw things the exact same way and everyone got along. The most powerful teams I have been involved with were compiled of members with extremely diverse backgrounds and differing perspectives YET all focusing on a common goal.
Looking for solutions in The Thick Grey Line requires more focus and effort, but when you find the solutions they not only last longer, but also mean more.
This week I have witnessed the most horrific example of customer interaction that I can recall in recent history. The proud recipient of the worst company interaction of the year award is Fonality, based out of Los Angeles, California.
Approximately 1 year ago we purchased an amazing new IP phone system for our office. It had all the bells and whistles of a enterprise phone system, yet at a small business price. We worked with a responsive service-oriented local company called Veracity to get the connectivity access. They referred us to a local representative of Fonality to actually purchase the hardware and server.
We installed, got it up and running, and all of a sudden our small office had the telephone appearance of a large company.
Last week I began getting very strange emails directly from Fonality (see an attached at the conclusion of this blog). I was taken aback that they were publicly disparaging a man whose name I did not even recognize. Fonality stated that he was financially insolvent and they were offering a migration path for his customers at a reduced rate. I didn’t think it would affect me because I owned my server and had paid for all hardware and software in full, outright.
As the emails continued, I began to take more notice. The tone shifted, and Fonality informed me that on May 10th the control panel of web access on the server would be shut down unless we signed up for their nifty (expensive) service plan. Without the management interface, the system is worth no more than $19.95 telephones found at Kmart.
At this point I became concerned, and began to establish contact with someone at Fonality. After several very sterile email exchanges I finally received a telephone call from Fonality’s Manager of Customer Service, Mr. Michael E. Smith. Minutes into the call it appeared that Mr. Smith had engaged in an intensive course with their attorneys which provided him with skills necessary to legally posture. He advised me that all of my problems resided with their previous vendor in our state, and that they suggest that I pursue him, not them. I was told that it was tough luck, they knew I had paid for the service already, but if I did not pay for it again, they would disable the management system. They acted as if we were old friends, and as if they were offering me a wonderful solution. I pointed out that shutting down the management system would completely cripple the phone system. Mr. Smith was quick to point out the phones would still ring and function, and that Fonality had no intention of hurting my business. I then asked how I would be able to turn the voice message system on at night, or how I would add a phone or change an extension. His response was “That would be a problem,wouldn’t it?” As I asked him my options, he replied:
1. Upgrade your service and pay us the fee
2. Live with it the way it is
3. You can sue us if you like, I don’t care
I was so blown away and actually became very terse with Mr. Smith. I thought I was living a really bad dream. Waking up this morning I realized it was not a bad dream, just very very bad business.
What am I going to do? My immediate reaction was to go chase the snake down and kill it. Not because of the money, but because of the principle. All my business sense tells me that you just can’t treat customers this way. After a good night sleep and dreams of cutting the head off the snake, I worked it out of my system.
The reality is in such a competitive market and world, companies that behave in this manner will self destruct, they don’t need active outside participation in burning their bridge. To that end I am going to purge with this blog entry, throw a few links up to make sure it gets visible on the search term Fonality, ask those who are having similar experiences with this fine example of a pathetic company to link to this blog, and let it go.
Good riddance Fonality, you just lost the faith of 1 customer, I am sure many more to follow!
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Dear Rich:
As you are likely aware, Converged Networks, the Fonality Reseller from which you purchased your PBXtra phone system, has been experiencing significant financial difficulties.
We feel that it is important for you as their customer to know that after extensive negotiation with their principal, David Burr, and after repeated extension of payment terms by Fonality, we remain unpaid for your system. This includes hardware, software, user licenses, technical support, and software maintenance costs.
Obviously, we understand how critical your phone system is to the ongoing success and daily operations of your business. Contrary to what you may have heard, your PBXtra phone system is not being shut down, and will continue to work. While we want you to continue to enjoy the full benefits that your PBXtra affords, we hope that as a fellow small business you can appreciate that we are unable to indefinitely host and support accounts for which we remain unpaid.
To that end, we would like to establish you as a direct Fonality Customer. To facilitate this, we are extending a discounted Account Transfer fee of $750 (our standard Transfer fee is $1,499). You will then be enrolled in our Annual Software Maintenance and Support Plan ($48-$65/phone, depending upon number of phones).
Example: if you own a 20 phone PBXtra system, then the total cost to transfer would be $750 + $1,160 (20 x $58) = $1,910.
Coverage details of the Fonality Annual Software Maintenance and Support program can be found here:
http://www.fonality.com/docs/pbxtra_maint_support_aggreement.htm
Specific Contract Terms & Conditions can be found here:
http://www.fonality.com/terms_and_conditions.html
This reduced transfer fee offer will remain available until 5:00PM PST on Thursday, May 10, 2007. Should you choose not to accept this offer, then please note that while your system will still provide basic functions (make/receive calls), we will be unable to continue to provide access to the following services which were contracted by Mr. Burr:
o
access to the web-based admin and user control panel
o
hosted remote monitoring, management, and reporting tools
o
proactive PBXtra management including technical support, software maintenance, and upgrade activities
During the transfer we will audit your PBXtra to ensure that it is in a standard, supportable configuration. In the event that customizations have been made, we may not be able to support those modifications and we will discuss alternatives with you. We will then convert your customer status to a direct account, complete your enrollment in our Fonality Annual Software Maintenance and Support Program, and change your PBXtra administrative password and access control directly into your name.
We appreciate your use and commitment to Fonality products and services, and I trust that we can win your continued business as a new direct customer. I apologize for any difficulty or uncertainty that this present situation may have caused. My Customer Service Manager, Michael Smith (msmith@fonality.com), will be contacting you in the next few days to discuss this proposal, and to answer any questions that you may have regarding the uninterrupted use of your Fonality PBXtra system. If you would prefer, please feel free to contact Michael directly at (310) 861-4300 x7071.
Best Regards,
Bruce
Bruce M. Runyan
Vice President
Operations and Customer Care
Last weekend my amazing daughter Nawang Sera became the first person ever in her family to graduate from college. Nawang is a Sherpa from Nepal who grew up in the small village of Khumjung which is a high village in the Himalayas just above 13,000 feet. Nawang came to live with us at the age of 15 with English being her 4th language. The past six years I have watched with great joy and tenderness as I have observed Nawang face life’s challenges head on. She always is positive, builds others, and has a determination that amazes me. Everywhere she goes she is a bit of sunshine.
Last Saturday as we sat in the commencement exercises at Snow College. The event had all the usual trappings of a real yawner. From my experience most commencement speakers blather on about notably boring nothing. I slipped into a mentally neutral position waiting for the long ceremony to conclude. I was not prepared to actually be awoken from my thoughtless slumber. The commencement speaker was an individual named Pamela Atkinson. Pamela was a feisty British woman who declared herself as a “Community Advocate”. As I listened to her introduction I sat up and took notice. She was referred to as the “Mother Theresa of Utah”. She had basically spent the majority of her life attempting to help the underprivileged focusing on the homeless. As she addressed the audience she told of her upbringing in England where she was raised in a poor family where her father left their family when she was young. She stated that she had been abused as child and had determined the only way out was education. She challenged not only the graduates, but also the audience to make a Difference in life. She went on to cite multiple examples of how small unseeingly important acts made all the difference.
As Ms. Atkinson proclaimed her personal mantra those of you saying it can not be done, get out of the way of those of us who are doing it I could not help but reflect on Nawang and her amazing story.
Nawang’s education goal is to become a Registered Nurse and gain acceptance into one of the local nursing schools that is rather difficult to gain admission. Although I have always been a believer in Nawang, at times I am often too quick to point out that the path she is perusing is difficult.
I found myself reflecting, how often am I the one “standing in the way of those who are doing it”? I resolved that from this point forward that I would not only encourage, but also believe in and fully subscribe to the dreams of not only Nawang, but also my sons, and other loved ones.
I have always loved the statement that imagination rules the world. Let’s not only get out of the way of the individuals doing great things, but let’s go stand by them and help them dream the dream and live the reality.
