Guest Blog: The Toughest Entrepreneurial Transition

Paul Orfalea is on vacation, but I'm not! - Dean Zatkowsky

Paul often says that as Kinko’s grew, our biggest challenge was moving from a culture of things to a culture of people. A two hundred square foot store could be operated by one or two people, but there were a lot of machines and systems to master. Copiers, binders, passport photo cameras, film processing procedures, school supplies; these were the things the first store managers had to deal with every day. Customers were important, of course, but our services were so novel that even customers were more interested in the “things” that defined Kinko’s. Eventually, Kinko’s stores were over 5,000 square feet, served over 1,000 customers per day, and the store manager was responsible for dozens of coworkers. By then the coworkers, not the machines or procedures, defined the company.

Read more...

Categories: Corporate Culture | Entrepreneurialism

0 comments - Posted by Paul Orfalea at 12:00 AM

The Midas Touch

On a PBS program several years ago, an audiologist presented findings of significant hearing damage to a fan of loud music. The music enthusiast reviewed the researcher’s findings and came to his own conclusion: he would have to install more powerful amplifiers in his car. The researcher – and everyone who watched the program, I’m sure – stared slack-jawed as the music-lover thanked the audiologist for discovering that he would have to listen to music much louder to compensate for the hearing damage loud music had caused. Obviously, people hear what they want to hear, even if they cannot hear very well.

Read more...

Categories: Corporate Culture

0 comments - Posted by Paul Orfalea at 12:00 AM