吉姆·柯林斯：通用電氣公司擁有很多外部資金,，因?yàn)樗麄円獙㈦娔軒Ыo世界,，因此需要很多的資金,。但是比爾·休利特和大衛(wèi)·帕卡德從他們導(dǎo)師弗雷德·特爾曼那里拿了幾百美元,，在他的幫助下試著生產(chǎn)一些小件產(chǎn)品，可以說完全是自力更生,。早期沒有什么客戶找他們簽約,，他們接了個給人做電震擺動機(jī)的活兒，給人做望遠(yuǎn)鏡上面用的轉(zhuǎn)儀鐘,，保齡球賽道的電子傳感器以及其它的一些東西,，通過這些賺些錢,。這就是他們當(dāng)時做的事兒。如果看看索尼的盛田昭夫和井深大,，他們先做電飯煲,，如果不成功就嘗試其它的東西。當(dāng)業(yè)務(wù)不景氣的時候,，他們會嘗試所有的可能性,，來讓公司維持下去,。萬豪起初擺艾德熊樂啤露攤兒，就是為了賣出點(diǎn)樂啤露,，能賺點(diǎn)錢維持公司的運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn),。看看他們之后的發(fā)展之路是非常有趣的,。萬豪去了華盛頓,，在夏天的時候擺了個樂啤露攤兒,。大家都喜歡在夏天喝樂啤露,。問題是,，冬天到了,，沒人想在寒冬臘月喝樂啤露。因此他擴(kuò)大了生意,。我必須要做點(diǎn)什么,，我是個人才,，人們都喜歡來我的攤兒。于是他開始賣吃的,，開了第一家豪特餐廳。這時他有了自己的店面,，豪特餐廳,。人們開始去光顧他的地盤。接著他又?jǐn)U大了規(guī)模,，開了好幾家豪特餐廳,。然后他們說既然自己這么擅長讓顧客有賓至如歸的感覺,，不如就嘗試開個酒店吧。就這樣開了一家酒店并大獲成功,。最后就變成了今天我們所知道的萬豪,。但起初都是些微不足道的事。 最重要的不是他們起步時就有巨大優(yōu)勢,，也不是他們基金充足可以快速發(fā)展,。大多數(shù)“一夜成功”的案例，準(zhǔn)備工作往往都長達(dá)20年,。
我們談到了沃爾瑪，今天它在中國的規(guī)模也很大,。薩姆·沃爾頓創(chuàng)立沃爾瑪7年后才開了第二家折扣商店,。他用了四分之一個世紀(jì)，整整25年的時間開了38家店,。38雖然是個不小的數(shù)字,，但也是花了25年,。
所有這些人都十分努力地打拼，就為了能夠讓其公司像個飛輪般一點(diǎn)點(diǎn)向前滾動,，他們自力更生,，他們創(chuàng)造很好的現(xiàn)金流，從很早就開始建立公司的文化,。最終他們成為了非常龐大的公司,。但是總的來說都是一步一個腳印的漸進(jìn)式過程,。
此外,，還有個很有趣的發(fā)現(xiàn)。如果你把這些成功公司與那些不那么成功的對手做個對比,，你之前或許會說,，要創(chuàng)立一個公司需要一個偉大的創(chuàng)意。但是,，電飯煲是偉大的創(chuàng)意嗎,？那做望遠(yuǎn)鏡上面的轉(zhuǎn)儀鐘是個偉大的創(chuàng)意嗎,？他們甚至都不知道自己究竟要生產(chǎn)什么，不是嗎,？我們要做的東西可以留到以后再討論,，首先我們要創(chuàng)立一家公司。我們觀察這些公司的過去會發(fā)現(xiàn),，它們之所以與眾不同,，是因?yàn)樗麄兠靼鬃约旱淖罱K產(chǎn)品就是公司。從很早的時候起,，他們就明白自己是在建立一種文化。他們知道自己是在建立一個體系,。他們知道,，他們建立的公司可能會往不同領(lǐng)域發(fā)展，但是公司本身才是他們的終極成果,。
這與那些“我要做電腦”或“我有個特別的主意”是不同的,。
那些不那么成功的公司通常有個好點(diǎn)子,。這些偉大的公司早期通常會經(jīng)歷一些失敗的想法，但是他們會從中吸取教訓(xùn),。因?yàn)樗麄円揽孔陨淼牧α?，很好地管理現(xiàn)金流，而資金來自于家人和朋友,。正是一點(diǎn)一滴的積累造就了日后公司輝煌的基石,。如果你看看美國的公司,，如沃爾瑪和惠普，他們都是很大的公司,，但是他們都是從很小的創(chuàng)業(yè)企業(yè)走過來的,。
幾乎這些公司一開始都沒有什么過人之處。
高德思：而且聽你的意思,，那些創(chuàng)業(yè)者最初的動機(jī)并不是“我要發(fā)大財(cái),。”
吉姆·柯林斯：不,，我認(rèn)為剛開始時他們?nèi)绻约耗莛B(yǎng)得活自己就很高興了。他們的動力是要創(chuàng)造,。你在這些成功的創(chuàng)業(yè)者中有沒有發(fā)現(xiàn)一些規(guī)律呢,？比如是否都出身貧寒，是飽受挫折還是一帆風(fēng)順,，是否都是名校畢業(yè),？還是說什么情況都有,？我腦海中所想的是那些打造出卓越公司的企業(yè)家，但是我還要將他們與那些沒有打造出卓越公司的企業(yè)家相比較,。在這些方面來說,，我看不到他們有什么差別。然而,，他們中很少有出身權(quán)貴的,。他們多數(shù)沒有這樣的優(yōu)越環(huán)境。但是生活拮據(jù)也有好的地方,，因?yàn)槿绻阍谲噹熘虚L大，你從來就不富有或者說你經(jīng)歷過艱難時刻,，這樣當(dāng)你要創(chuàng)業(yè)的時候你就不會那么害怕,，因?yàn)槟阋呀?jīng)知道什么叫做困難。有時你可能來自一個狀況穩(wěn)定的一般家庭,，但是你也有過一些獨(dú)特的經(jīng)歷,。
大衛(wèi)·帕卡德高中的時候?yàn)榱藪甏髮W(xué)學(xué)費(fèi)，在科羅拉多州普艾布羅的礦井里打工,。對他影響至深的經(jīng)歷就是,，在礦井里工作的人遭受了非常糟糕的待遇。他說,，我要成立的公司是絕不會這樣對待員工,。他的父親是位律師，但是他卻跑去挖礦,，這樣的經(jīng)歷對他后來在車庫里創(chuàng)立惠普有很大的幫助,。 |
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Jim Collins: Now, obviously GE had a lot of outside capital, they were trying to bring electricity to the world, they needed a lot of capital, but Bill Hewlett and David Packard had a few hundred dollars from their mentor, Fred Turman who helped them basically try a bunch of little products and they boot strapped. And they did little contracts early on, they did a contract for electronic shock jiggle machine for people, and they had a clock drive for a telescope, and electronic bowling alley sensor, and a number of things in the beginning, to bring in some revenue. Yeah exactly, that's what they were doing. If you take a look at Morita and Ibuka at Sony, try the rice cooker, if that doesn't work, then try this thing; they would do anything to just try to keep the doors open, while running very lean. The original A&W Root Beer franchise with Marriott, just get it running, get some root beer sold. It was fascinating to look at, how did they end up as sort of evolving? (Marriot) goes to Washington, DC and opens a root beer stand in the summer, people like root beer in the summer. The difference is, that winter comes, so he has a root beer stand, nobody wants root beer in December. So, he expands, I've got to do something, I'm really good, people like coming to my place, so he started offering food, and he had the first Hot Shoppes. So, he had this store, Hot Shoppes and people began to come in and then after a while, and eventually scaled that idea up and had a number of these Hot Shoppes and then as an experiment they tried a, they said, you know, we're really good at having people feel good when they come here, maybe we should do a hotel, they tried one and it worked. And that eventually became the Marriott that we know today. But, it was a little thing, the greatest ones,not the idea that somehow they started out with tremendous advantages, not that they had all this capital so that they did it quickly, most 'overnight successes' are about 20 years in the making.
We talked about Wal-Mart; Wal-Mart's big in China now. Sam Walton didn't open his second dime store until seven years after he started the company. A quarter of a century, 25 years into Wal-Mart's history, he had 38 stores. 38 stores is a lot, but that took 25 years to get there.
All of them, they worked really hard to just get one click onthe flywheel, two clicks on the flywheel, they tended to boot strap, they were very good with cash flow, they were building their culture from early on. And eventually they became a very large company. But, it was a real step-by-step process in most cases.
And here's the really interesting thing. If you look at the less successful folks that they were competing against, that we looked at as the comparisons, and you say, well, you have this image, what you have to do to start a company is you have to have a great idea. Was the rice cooker a great idea? Was the clock drive for a telescope a great idea? They didn't even know what they were going to make, right? What we're going to make is postponed, we're going to start a company. And we go back and look at them and what made them different, is that in the end, they understood that their ultimate product was the company. And from very, very early on, they were clear they were building a culture. They were clear that they were building a system. They were clear that they were building a company that may evolve into different businesses, but it was the company that was their ultimate creation.
Which is very different than "I'm going to make a computer," or I'm going to, I've got this one particular idea, it's all about just having the idea.
The less successful companies often had a great idea. These great companies often had some failed ideas early, they learned from those ideas. And because they boot strapped and managed their cash flow and had money from family and from friends. Little steps eventually became foundations of what became great companies. So, if you look over at the United States, you see Wal-Mart, you would see HP, you would see all these companies and you would see them as big companies today, but there's a small startup story in every one of them.
And almost none of those stories were somebody who had great advantages.
Thomas D. Gorman: Nor, I'm guessing from listening to you, were the founders typically motivated by "I'm going to go out and make zillions of dollars."
Jim Collins: No, I think they would have been happy just to pay themselves at first. They were motivated by the desire to create something. Did you find a pattern among these great successful company builders, a pattern in terms of humble roots versus not so humble roots, school of hard knocks versus coming from easy street, coming from famous schools versus not, or was it pretty much a mixed bag? What I'm doing is processing through my head the folks who were entrepreneurs and built great companies, but I have to put them against other entrepreneurs who didn't build a great company. And I can't see a real difference between them on that. However, there are very few of them that came from privilege. Most of them had not (had such benefits) necessarily. There's a lot of advantage coming from austerity, because if you've grown up in a garage, or you never had that much, or you had some difficult times, then it's not so scary to start something, because you already know what the difficulty is like. Sometimes they might have even come from a reasonably stable home but they had some other shaping life experience.
David Packard worked in a mine here in Pueblo, Colorado, when he was in high school as part of earning some money to go away to college. And a big part of his shaping experience was he felt that the way people were treated in that mine was terrible. And he said, I want to build something that stands as the antithesis to that. But here's a person, I think his father was a lawyer, but he went and dug holes and worked in a mine;(the experience) probably helped him when he was in the garage. |
