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Jim Sinegal founded Costco 25 years ago.
This is a great post capturing some of what Jim learned about management, enterprise and entrepreneurship along the way.
Full of wisdom!
Shows that if you set up a small business in the right way – it can become massive.
Is it weird how we hate magpies but love the first cuckoo of Spring? Perhaps it is because the cuckoo perpetrates evil out of sight, all the time making re-assuring calls, while the magpies are just so brazen in their squawking murder and destruction.
In my experience many enterprise capital investment projects are a lot like cuckoos. Beautiful eggs are laid in the carefully constructed nests of loving parents. Shiny new enterprise centres owned and managed by the community for the community.
But it soon becomes apparent that these fledglings have tremendous appetites for cash. That two person reception desk costs a lot to staff. Then we have hosts, caretakers and security to pay for. There are rates, insurances, fuel bills and marketing costs.
There are the costs of low occupancy and repairs.
Suddenly the loving parents are run ragged just trying to get enough cash to keep the beast alive. “Forget the social purpose – we just have to pay the bills.”
The revenue streams that were written into the business plan from leases on community cafes and gyms, from rent paying tenants and the conference trade just don’t materialise as forecast.
Equipment gets stolen or broken and there is just not the cash to replace it. The shine starts to come off.
Money that could be spent elsewhere gets gobbled up by a project that is “too politically important, too symbolic”, to be allowed to fail. Other projects die so that the ‘special one’ can survive for another year.
And what of the original cuckoo – the funders that helped lay the egg? “Well you must understand – there is only so much we can do. The ‘business plan’ assured us it would be viable by now. No we can’t offer any more funding. Perhaps it can be sold?”
Now ALL fledglings go through periods when they cause their parents grief.
The sad truth is that some of them never do.
Because from the very beginning they were cuckoos.
The cuckoo she’s a pretty bird
She sings as she flies
She brings us glad tidings
And tells us no lies
She sucks all sweet flowers
To make her voice clear
She never sings cuckoo
Till summer is near
She flies the hills over
She flies the world about
She flies back to the mountain
She mourns for her love
The cuckoo she’s a pretty bird
She sings as she flies
She brings us glad tidings
And tells us no lies
My 15 year old daughter brought home a letter yesterday telling me about Industry Day:
In conjunction with our Work Related Learning programme, we have organised Enterprise Days in which all year 10 pupils will participate.
Hidden curriculum lesson 1: Enterprise is not about freedom of expression and choice – it is about complying with the policy dictats of bureaucrats. You’d better get used to following orders.
Teams of personnel from Industry will be coming into school to help run the days which aim to introduce pupils (to) aspects of Enterprise education.
Hidden curriculum lesson 2: Forget being a living, breathing person full passion, aspiration and imagination. Once you are in Industry (why the capital – Orwellian reference perhaps?) you are just personnel in teams. This way you don’t have to exercise any autonomy – you just have to follow orders. Enterprise is a bit like a strange cult – we will introduce you to some aspects. But others had best remain a mystery….
Hidden curriculum lesson 3: Understand the power of language to obfuscate and confuse. I am a professional in enterprise education and I have no idea what ‘aspects of Enterprise education’ are.
Activities will focus on developing skills such as team building and communication and will be an excellent preparation towards work experience and the world of work.
Hidden curriculum lesson 4: There is a thing called the ‘world of work’. It has laws, practices and ways of being that are different to the rest of society. You had better know how to conform.
Hidden curriculum lesson 5: If you struggle with team work and communication then the world of work/enterprise/Industry is not for you. You had better develop your potential to survive in other worlds. See Hidden curriculum lesson 14 below
Pupils will be working in teams and your child will take part in the Industry Day on one of the following days…
(and yes the first one is on April 1st – perhaps the whole thing is a spoof!)
Hidden curriculum lesson 6: There is little room for the individual in Industry. They had better learn how to smooth of the sharp edges and get along with people. We wouldn’t want too many ‘rugged individualists’ in Industry. Forget what George Bernard Shaw said about all progress depending on the unreasonable man. In industry we are polite, formulaic team players.
It is intended that pupils will not follow normal timings for the school day. The day will be as follows:
08:45am – Sign in at Reception
9.00am – Industry conference starts
10.50am – Break
11.10am – Conference resumes
1.00pm – Conference ends – pupils involved in the Industry Day should go home
Hidden curriculum lesson 7: The world of work is dominated by the bosses clock. You will do as you are told – when you are told. Because employers are benevolent you will get a break.
Hidden curriculum lesson 8: If we do not have enough for you to do you will be laid off early.
Hidden curriculum lesson 9: You had better get used to confernces in Industry. They are a lot like lessons – but longer.
In order to give the pupils a chance to experience some aspects of the world of work the pupils will be required to:
- wear appropriate clothing for business; for the boys this could be simply school trousers, white shirt and a different tie (The David Brent school of office dress then). For girls, an appropriate example would be their normal trousers or skirts and a plain top (as opposed to the haute couture that they usually wear to school). This should not, therefore involve extra expense and I would stress that this is definitely not a ‘non uniform’ day.
Hidden curriculum lesson 10: In the world of work you will be one of many clones – similarly dressed and equipped to deal with the challenges of the stationery cupboard. In the world of work we will continue to discriminate by gender.
- sign in at Reception by 9.00am. This will mean that for this day the pupils will enter through the main entrance.
Hidden curriculum lesson 11: We will confuse you by our ambiguity over timings. Although earlier we said that you could sign in at Reception at 08.45am – you must be signed in by no later than 09.00. Got it? Any non-compliance in the first instance will be dealt with by sarcasm. You should be clear that in the world of work though time-keeping is a tool of power and any difficulty you have with it could lead to severe disciplinary consequences
Hidden curriculum lesson 12: The world of work is obsessed with clocking in and clocking off on time – get used to it. Again forget autonomy, initiative and flexibility.
- behave in an appropriate, business-like manner and follow all instructions from the personnel running the Industry Days
Hidden curriculum lesson 13: Learn to moderate your behaviour when in the world of work. Understanding the mysteries of what constitutes ‘business-like’ could hold the keys to the kingdom of the corner office on the third floor.
Hidden curriculum lesson 14: There are alternatives to the ‘world of work’. These include the worlds of:
If the ‘world of work’ as experienced on Industry does not set your heart racing and your soul singing then perhaps one of these is right for you?
It is no wonder that so many highly committed educationalists who take the development of young people seriously are less than supportive when it comes to ’embedding enterprise in the curriculum’.
If Enterprise champions are pedalling such ill-conceived and poorly thought through programmes they deserve to be left to their own devices.
My eldest daughter went through a similar programme last year. The highlight for her was the ‘Enterprise Wordsearch’. You have to love those teachers for their great sense of irony!
I have just completed a 2 day workshop with a great group of partnership managers. Here is what I learned!
Anything I have missed?
Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.
Carl Jung
Most of our attempts to develop an enterprise culture are all about fixing individuals. Giving them support (because they are not strong enough), providing them with advice (because they are not clever enough) etc. It is all about fixing faults.
Very few attempts take seriously the social context in which we expect enterprise to develop. Enterprise is a social phenomena- a product of community and relationships – it is not about fixing individuals.
It is about building communities.