Timeless Wisdom for Today's Entrepreneur

Innovative, cutting edge, cooperative culture, commitment to excellence, aggressively seeking to increase market share…all these attributes have defined the Toyota Motor Company for the 45 years since they first entered the US marketplace in 1965. And then the headline in the NY Times yesterday, “Toyota’s Slow Awakening to a Deadly Problem.”

An accelerator defect has caused deaths and near deaths since 2002, and resulted in over 2000 complaints, and yet it was not until last Friday that the Chairman and grandson of the founder,  Akio Toyoda, finally publicly stated that he was “deeply sorry” for the problem and resulting recalls. Other senior management formally apologized and expressed confidence that the solution to the problem is imminent. But as of today there is still no conclusive evidence that a solution has been found. Remember, this is eight years since the problem was first identified. How can an industry leader permit this lax attitude, especially since Toyota’s reputation was built on quality? For that matter how could General Motors allow Toyota to out-do them in their own back yard in the first place?

My answer?  Act as if you have competition breathing down your back despite how well the business is doing, and make sure to stay true to core values. ”Watch your back” should be emblazoned on every company’s walls, because sooner or later in a free market economy, a competitor will be there to challenge a successful enterprise, and only a “hungry” company will be able to hold their own.

Fast forward to this afternoon. I was invited to give a talk at Google’s main campus in Mountain View, California. Campus is an apt term for the facility. Lap pools, beach volleyball, high-end food courts, and 24-hour access only begin to describe the experience. All they needed was a raucous fraternity house to really feel like a college campus!

The employees who worked there were even more exciting than the physical plant. They were universally “up,” stimulated, and excited about their work and their workplace. I was told that engineers are encouraged to spend 20% of their work time on something independent, new and exciting. Working collaboratively, not being satisfied with “good” but working for “great,” constantly staying ahead of the game (think Google phones), and thus maintaining superiority.

So when does Google turn into Toyota?

When they take their eye off the ball, rest on their laurels, and not want to publicly admit when they screw up, and take full charge of the situation.

Just like people, there are lifecycles to businesses. With the wide-eyed youthful energy and excitement that the 20-somethings bring to the 10 year-old Google enterprise, presumably there are many years to go before approaching the complacency of a middle age “success” story.

In the new book Start–Up Nation, authors Dan Senor and Saul Singer chronicle the story of Israel’s “economic miracle”, and how a country of 7 million people with no natural resources, surrounded by enemies, and in a perpetual state of war, produces more start-up companies than large peaceful and stable nations like Japan, China, India, Korea, Canada and the United Kingdom.

The book suggests a number of explanations for this success, but I would like to offer my top ten, which have direct applicability to today’s entrepreneurs in the United States:

1. Persist in the Face of Adversity. Going on your own is tough, and the one step backwards can often seem more like a treadmill in reverse than a prelude to the two steps forward. Keep your eye on the prize and take it one day at a time.

2. Networking is a Necessity. Gone are the days of the know-it-all, one-man band style of entrepreneurship. Yes, you must lead, but yes, you must arm yourself with all the tools you can, and access as many connections as possible along the way. Wherever possible, get a little help from your “friends.”

3. Think Cross Culturally. In our increasingly global economy, learning how others think is essential. Celebrating diversity is good to do and good for business.

4. Need to be Nimble. As small entities, start-ups can and must stay nimble. As technology increases at an increasing rate keep your eyes open and beware of being the “eight track” before you even hit the marketplace.

5. Create “Mashups”. Increasingly modern industry is assimilating cross-disciplinary perspectives. The breakthroughs of tomorrow will come from technologies designed for one product being married to technologies designed for something totally different to create a third new and exciting product.

6. Celebrate Failure. Ask any successful entrepreneur. No question there are more learnings from failure than success. The key is to distance oneself psychologically so that a business failure does not become a cause for personal failure,

7. Support Industrial Policy which Spawns New Initiatives. We’re all in this together. New industries need public assistance in the incubation stage. The key is to calibrate the entry, the exit and the specifics, but history shows us that public/private initiatives can pay off big for everyone.

8. Creativity is King. Thinking outside the box is going to be increasingly important as we face the almost insurmountable challenges confronting us today—shortages of clean water, global climate change, world hunger. The list is endless, and business opportunities abound while social good is being achieved.

9. Boost Bottom-Up Management. Command and control didn’t work too well for General Motors in 2009’s economy. Israeli army units and tech startups share something in common, the perspective that the success of the enterprise trumps individual glory, and thus good ideas are listened to no matter where they come from.

10. Have a Little Chutzpah. As I write in my book Business Mensch, to break through and stand out in today’s start-up “jungle” one must know which rules should be broken when and for what ultimate purpose. Very few “home-run” business ideas succeeded without ruffling a few feathers.