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“In the context of the community we are in, the part of the country that we are in, failure is something that I would consider one of those unspoken words. It’s one of those things that people have difficulty talking about, it is the same as if there were a death in the family,” shared Christian Gurney, President and Co-Founder of Torsion Mobile before those gathered for the May 2013 edition of the Business Innovation Zone luncheon.  And yet speak of it he did, and at length. Scarcely a year out from his last BIZ presentation in which Gurney shared the insights gathered from a successful tech business launch, he returned to share insights gained from the failure of a business plan. 

The theme woven throughout his presentation and given an exclamation point when he shared the shape of the company’s revenue curve post pivot is that failing does not of necessity mean the end of the line, or the death of the dream. “Popular culture misunderstands what it means to be an entrepreneur, an adventurer, someone who runs a business. As my father told me, if you are not failing, it means you are not striving hard enough,” suggested Gurney in one of several references to fatherly wisdom that has found personal resonance as Gurney’s beard begins to gray and his 50^th birthday looms on the horizon. 

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The result was TelePharm, a remote verification and workflow application with a video conferencing solution for rural pharmacies to operate multiple locations with one pharmacist. The application enables a remote pharmacist to inspect and verify prescriptions at each pharmacy to ensure accurate dispensing filled by the local technicians.

Miller, a University of Iowa graduate in Entrepreneurship and alum of the Stamford University Advanced Project Management program was working for NCS Pearson in Iowa City and looking for the right challenge when he realized it had been in his own backyard the whole time. Raised in the rural Iowa town of Kalona, he grew up around the pharmacy business with his father, a pharmacist himself, owning five pharmacies in rural Southeastern Iowa communities.

A victim of declining rural populations, the family had reluctantly been forced to close several of those businesses as they had become awash in red ink with the diminishing revenues, the high cost of insurance and the salaries required to secure professional pharmacists at each location.

“My family was looking for a solution to this challenge, and while the concept of a remote pharmacy was not new, there was no viable software available,” he remembers. After reading some research from a University of Iowa study that suggested the need was fairly substantial throughout rural America, Miller decided to take the leap and tackle the problem himself.

Connecting with Miller in mid-2012 Colwell begin to mentor him through the business planning and product development process and helped prepare his idea for submission to the Demonstration Fund. “Our relationship was such that I could tell him what I was thinking and he would give me feedback and we would do that over and over until I had a finalized business plan,” explained Miller. Colwell’s guidance helped propel Miller to selection as a 2012 recipient of the Demonstration Fund with the board granting $75,000 to beta test his prototype. “His expertise and experience really helped me with not only the Demonstration Fund, but with the whole process. Together we laid out the pillars of TelePharm.”

Launching in late 2012, TelePharm Technologies held their first Grand Opening in Victor Iowa on November 2^nd with Governor Branstad and Lt. Governor Reynolds in attendance. The dignitaries present were a reflection of the potential impact of TelePharm Technologies. Branstad, in his comments on the occasion, described TelePharm as, “An innovative idea that hopefully will catch on and be successful here and be able to be utilized all across our state.”

 Miller explains that the pivotal role of the rural pharmacy makes its preservation a matter of economic development for a state which, while it is becoming increasingly urban, remains predominately rural. Colwell adds, “With the growing elderly population, rural pharmacies are critical, not only to dispense medication but to provide support for the clinics. If the pharmacies close the clinics are often soon to follow suit. The pharmacy becomes a staple for the smaller communities, and yet compared to most retail businesses it is very expensive to operate.”

Miller has high hopes that he can impact the preservation of rural life across Iowa and beyond, and toward that end he continues to partner with Colwell. Now the mentoring has changed its focus from product development to marketing. “Mike has so much experience with marketing that I can shoot him ideas or concepts just to get his eyes on them and to give me feedback.  I usually get a same day response which is great. He continues as a great partner and mentor.”

With the help of that mentorship, this unassuming young Iowan is working to both preserve his heritage as well as assure the future of Iowa’s small towns.

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Katie Roth kicked off her presentation with a surprising fact.  Iowa is experiencing a labor shortage! “In Iowa, with unemployment around five percent, and the typically unemployable around three percent, we are almost at a full blown employment shortage now and it is going to get much worse,” warned Katie Roth, President of Portico Staffing, at her presentation before the April Business Innovation Zone luncheon.  “In the next five to seven years everyone born between 1945 and 1955 is going to start retiring. In fact, the only reason it hasn’t already started is the great recession,” observed the 30-year veteran of Human Resource management and owner of a leading local staffing and recruitment firm.

In the face of this challenge the Senior Professional in Human Resources, as certified by the Society for Human Resource Management, offered two key strategies and appropriate tactics as to how the challenge can be met. Consistent with her presentation’s title she noted that it is all the more important moving forward to hire the right people and then make the appropriate effort to retain them.

Download a summary of the conversation (pdf file)

With many entrepreneurial teams, there is little disagreement on the execution of the business plan.  This makes for a blind team.  While you want the team to be in agreement on where you are going strategically, you need people who think differently than you and your team members to successfully execute the business plan. 

If you are on the team and looking to add people, make sure they are not carbon copies of what you already have.  If you are joining a new start-up team, challenge a few of their ideas (tactfully) during the interview.  If they push back, you are looking at a potential failed team.

It is a difficult line to see and respect, that line between agreement on the long term strategy / business plan and the more immediate issues associated with executing the business.

 There is another way to read the quote above.  The worst executive team I ever worked with was the one where everyone agreed.  In my case this was true because the President of the company was famous for the following response to any new idea:

“Are you willing to bet your job on it?”

He did not say it in an encouraging way.  He meant that if the idea failed you were fired.  You can imagine how much time it took for everyone on his team to learn to agree with every idea he ever had. He lasted about 18 months and in the process destroyed 2/3 of the stock-holder value in a $950m/yr publicly traded company.

Driving a team with fear and intimidation will destroy all creativity and useful dialog no matter the size of the company. 

To obtain a patent on your invention it must be useful, novel and non-obvious.  The confusion comes in when someone equates having a patent to having a product people will want to buy.  As I have said in blogs past, I do not believe anyone can judge for certain which ideas will succeed in the market.   Having said that, some patents just beg to be questioned.  Take patent number US 2007/0050958 A1. This one just does not seem destine to being a market success.  Take a look and you be the judge!

Brett Trout, a well know patent attorney here in Des Moines wrote a chapter for our book How Business Gets Done: Words of Wisdom by Central Iowa Experts  He had a great description of a product not destined for market success but certainly capable of passing the patent tests.  The shotgun pickle slicer, a shotgun filled with tiny razor blades sounds new, non-obvious and potentially patentable.  That does not mean anyone wants to buy one no matter how proud the inventor.  As Brett points out, a patent is your right to prevent others from making, using or selling your invention without your permission. 

We have all had that brainstorm for the “perfect product”.  Assuming yours is patentable, the decision to invest in a patent goes beyond the legal question.  You need to first determine if there is market need for your invention and that it solves a problem that people want to solve by trading money.

 (This post originally ran in February 2010.  From time to time I re-publish older posts I think are still relevant)

lunch (Photo credit: jaded one)

I was reading a blog the other day written by the group at 16 ventures.   Titled “Take your customer to lunch, not me” it reminded me of advice I have often given.  When you are working on part of you business model and looking for feedback, do not forget your current or future customers.  They are the ones that in the end will have the final vote on your success. 

Here are three approaches may want to consider:

• Turn each question you have around and look at it from the customer’s view, what will they receive for their money.  When you meet with the customer, explain the whole view of the idea from price to what they will receive.  Ask the question then do a lot of listening.  As the customer offers ideas, ask probing questions to understand the why of their response.
• Ask a former customer.  This is an opportunity to find out more about what they were really looking for and gives you a perspective from a non customer that knows your company.
• Get a few of your customers and prospects together and run the question by then in a group setting.  Let them discuss the idea amongst themselves.  You may end up with a better idea in the end than what you started with.  

Asking your customer before making a change is a great way to insure success and prevent a major failure.

(This post originally ran in March of 2010.  From time to time I re-publish older posts I think are still relevant)