Saturday, August 28, 2010

What is Right

One of our employees asked me, “Is this a personal blog, or a corporate blog?” They went on to say, “If it’s corporate, then it must represent each and every one of us.”

This stumped me for a bit.

Our little company is blessed with a lot of different perspectives, which we try to take advantage of when solving problems, understanding customers, building relationships, etc. In that sense, there is no way I can represent each and every one of them—so of course, the blog is personal. I am the only author, though anyone is welcome to comment. As such, I’ll say things that some employees, some owners, some customers, some others would disagree with. I welcome the disagreement because talking things through is how we find the truth, and what is right is much more important than who is right.

That is the crux of the matter: the what—the stuff, the things, the details—are much more important than who gets credit or who authored the what. Let's work together to find the right thing to do and not worry about the scorecards. 

Here’s an outline of a conversation I had with a customer. He was hesitating to introduce an Innegra product to an old friend who builds boats. “But Doug is going to get all the credit and John won’t know it was me who made it happen.  I’ll be stuck where I am while Doug gets the raise.” (I’ve changed the names.)

I know this person and his heart well, so I responded, “Let’s just pretend for a minute that John doesn’t hold sway over all the rewards. What if you introduce this product to your friend and they put it in their boats and somewhere down the road a little girl is riding one of those boats and it gets in an accident and doesn’t sink, and she lives instead of dying, and goes on to give birth to someone who invents a way to grow corn in the desert that saves all of Africa from starvation a half century from now? John wouldn’t know and wouldn’t give you a raise, but maybe there is someone out there who does know and that’s why we’re having this conversation. The rewards may come a lot later, or may never come, but shouldn't you do the right thing anyway?"

I always get mad when someone tells me, “It’s not what you know that’s important, it’s who you know.” Not that there isn’t truth to this, but the depth is missing. One could mistake this to mean that it’s okay to do the wrong thing if it gets you in with the right people. In this case it could be interpreted to impress John rather than make the boat safe regardless of who gets credit.

Or it could lead someone to believe that the number and relationships and societal standing of the people matter, rather than the strength of the relationships and mutual respect and loyalty that are shared. Relationships are very important, but I tend to think of them in a how-can-I-help-or-be-of-value-to-this-person kind of way, regardless of their status, rather than a I-wonder-if-I-can-work-this-in-my-favor-later kind of way, which is sometimes how that original statement is used

I also find that doing the right thing consistently (and I fail sometimes) has a way of bringing about some pretty wonderful relationships, some of which would fall into others “important to know” category, and some of which would not.

With all of that in mind, this blog can only be personal and I take sole responsibility for what's in here.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

83% Full

My pastor recently talked about divorce statistics:  40% of first marriages fail, 60% of second marriages, and 70% of third marriages, averaging the 50% statistic that we all hear.  He went on to say how this does not differ from Christian to non-Christian, churched to non-churched.  All well and he made a good show of it, but...

What he failed to say was that 83% of the people who get married do find a marriage that sticks until "death do us part." 

(Math alert:  Those who never find a happy marriage among their first three spouses are 0.4 * 0.6 * 0.7 = 0.168, or 17%.  The rest, 83%, have at least one marriage that "succeeds.")

So why put this into a blog about entrepreneurship?  Because that--turning a 50% failure rate into an 83% success rate, is one of the key skills of an entrepreneur.  Central to the job description is the ability to make silk purses out of sows' ears.

Here's a quick story:  In developing the fiber, I was trying to make a "high tenacity, high modulus thermoplastic olefin." That was the original business plan.  Unfortunately, it wasn't very high tenacity, wasn't very high modulus, and nobody really understood nor cared what a "thermoplastic olefin" was.

But we had a scientist working for us (another Brian unfortunately--I guess you can't make this up) who saw the fiber and said, "There's something different about this fiber."  He tested it for ballistic properties and found it worked reasonably well.  Then he put it under an electron microscope and found that he microstructure was full of millions of little crazes and holes. 

You could take that and go, "oh crap," and wonder how a fiber that is full of little micro-breaks and defects is going to have any strength. 

Instead, our group combined that with the ballistic data and what the Formula 1 race-car guys had found and saw that the fiber really had millions of little pillows inside it, which made it the lightest structural fiber in the world.  And, when we learned that those pillows were all connected, then we realized that when each one took a hit, it would blow a tiny micro-puff of air into the ones near it, and all these millions of little micro-puffs would dissipate a lot of energy, each one acting like a nano-shock-absorber.  The shock of a bullet would dissipate and on a race track, when a car is tapped by a neigboring car at 200 mph, the energy of the "tap" is absorbed so that the part remains intact, keeping the car in the race.  This feature is being taken advantage of in bullet proof vests and panels that are lighter and less expensive, in race cars that are faster and more durable, in aircraft, in surfboards that "reduce the chop of the wave," in hockey sticks that "feel more like wood."

Instead of having a fiber that is full of micro-defects and micro-voids, we have one that is the lightest fiber in the world, among the toughest, and the only advanced fiber that naturally dissipates energy through it's microstructure.

In any entrepreneurial endeavor, there are a million reasons to quit, a million ways to look at your product or your market or your team as a sow's ear, and give up.  The difference, I believe, between success and failure is being able to shoo away all those folks who are "just being realistic," or "trying to show the practical side," and somehow adjust, adapt, change, twist, or frankly just make up that those reasons aren't right, and perhaps magically turn the sow's ear into a silk purse, even if only by the sheer force of will.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Take me to your leader

Brian is a good friend and a Christian. In the last fifteen years, I have seen him struggle with portions of his Catholic upbringing and then through the help of a friend, come to know God on a more personal level.  He is a good scientist, a better businessman, and a great friend.

Despite his firm base, I had the opportunity last night to startle him.

We were talking about our businesses, using the shorthand of a two-decade friendship. I told him about our recent struggles, and how it appeared (again, for about the eleventh time) as if the little company I founded might run aground. Then a solution appeared that was clearly beyond my power. His eyes went wide as he asked "how did you do it?" expecting some story of conference-room heroics. "There is only one explanation," I answered, pausing for effect with our wives, "divine intervention."

My wife is used to this, and in our house it is no joke. We have everything bet on this little company, and founded it solely to do God''s will.  He intervenes all the time.  Daily, it seems.

Brian, on the other hand, looked at me as if I had turned green and said, "Take me to your leader."

"What other explanation could there be?" I asked. "was it done through the power of Brian?" (Thats me, Brian Morin, CEO of Innegrity LLC. Unfortunately for this story, we have the same first name.)  Ignoring his surprise, I said, "some people in our company act like it's fine to talk about God, but 'You don't run your company that way, do you?'. They get uncomfortable, because this is their MONEY they are talking about. For others, it's like eating manna every day, only having one days supply and never really knowing that it will be there tomorrow."  I stopped, his look having turned more normal, though perhaps touched with a dab of respect, and we went on to other topics. I could tell the conversation had affected him.

This is my first post, and you'll forgive the vagueries--the intent of this blog is not to give you the secrets of our company, but rather the secrets of what I call "Living With Vertigo," that is my recent six-year walk through the desert, living on manna, starting and growing Innegrity.

I asked a good friend, one who had run a large public company for two decades and served on my board for several years, "Does the drama and stress ever go away?".

"No," he said, "it just changes."