Risk & Business Magazine Marcotte Magazine Fall 2017 | Page 23

BUILDING A GREAT BUSINESS
I
most definitely could not have listed
all 12 of these tips anywhere near
as clearly back when we opened in
’82 as I did when I wrote this piece
25 years later. But the truth is that
these “natural laws” really are all things
that we did to get going back in the early
’80s. I think they’re as true now as they
were then and will still be true 20, or 220,
years hence. They are very much the same
sort of behind-the-scenes attitudes and
approaches that have guided us over the
years. And, although I haven’t run any other
businesses, I’m pretty confident that every
successful organization would likely have
followed many of these same approaches.
Each organization will, of course, have its
own applications, but the laws themselves
will, naturally, remain the same. I hope
they help you as much as they have us.
1. AN INSPIRING, STRATEGICALLY
SOUND VISION LEADS THE WAY 
TO
GREATNESS (ESPECIALLY IF YOU WRITE
IT DOWN!)
What’s a vision? As we define it here, it’s
a picture of what success looks like at a
particular point in the future. If you’re
starting a business, I’d suggest that you
pick a time at least three to five years in the
future, and longer might be even better.
Your vision will talk about what your
business does, and why it’s special. How
the people who work in the business feel
about being part of it. How your business
relates to its customers, and about how it
fits into the community. It could even detail
what you as owner will do, and how much
money you want to make. To be effective
the vision needs to inspire the people who
will be doing the work. It also needs to be
strategically sound—i.e., while your goals
should be ambitious, you want them to be
realistic, too. To that end, the vision should
also have some key measurables so that
everyone involved has some sense of what
you’re aspiring to.
2. YOU NEED TO GIVE CUSTOMERS
REALLY COMPELLING REASONS 
TO BUY
FROM YOU
This seems exceedingly obvious, but I’ve
encountered a lot of businesses that don’t
get it—they seem to think that people ought
to buy from them “just because.” But from
the day we opened at Zingerman’s we’ve
always taken the approach that we need
our customers way more than they need us.
We’ve always assumed that we have nothing
to offer that anyone really needs. If you don’t
think the reasons your company is offering
are all that exciting, they probably aren’t. If
that’s the case, I’d say start working to come
up with more as quickly as you can—the risk
of offering too many compelling reasons
would be what we’d consider a “good
problem.” (More on that in a minute.)
3. WITHOUT GOOD FINANCE, YOU FAIL
This one is so widely accepted that I almost
didn’t include it on the list. But you know
what happens when you “assume,” right?
Plus it’s quite possible to fulfill most or all
of the other natural laws as they’re laid out
here and still not have a sustainable business
from a financial standpoint. Granted, it’s
way more likely that your finances will be
good if you live up to all the other laws on
the list, but there are still absolutely no
guarantees. Many businesses that are doing
special things fail every year because they
don’t manage their money well.
I’ll be brief here because there are a million
places for you to learn about business
finance. (You may want to start with Karen
Berman and Joe Knight’s book, Financial
Intelligence, or come to ZingTrain’s Fun,
Flavorful Finance seminar.) The bottom line
(pun intended) is that you can have all the
good intentions and good ideas in the world,
but you still have to be profitable in order for
the business to survive; you do have to have
cash on hand in order to pay the bills and
if you don’t pay your taxes properly and on
time you’ll get in a lot of trouble.
4. PEOPLE DO THEIR BEST WORK WHEN
THEY’RE PART OF A 
REALLY GREAT
ORGANIZATION
Ultimately people want to feel that their
work makes a positive difference; that their
extra efforts are noticed, that they can
improve the quality of their lives and the
lives of those around them through their
work. When we accomplish this we have
more fun, service improves, sales go up and
all those other good things that we like to
see, start to happen—and with amazing
regularity!
Here at Zingerman’s we’ve always taken the
approach that we were going to treat the
people who chose to work with us as if they
were volunteers. As with our customers, we
need our staff way more than they need us.
So how rewarding does the workplace have
to be? Well, pretty darned rewarding. Please
note that we mean “rewarding” in every
sense of the word—financially, sure, but also
emotionally, intellectually and physically.
5. IF YOU WANT THE STAFF TO GIVE
GREAT SERVICE TO CUSTOMERS, 
THE
LEADERS HAVE TO GIVE GREAT SERVICE
TO THE STAFF
This rule is less obvious and probably less
widely accepted than some of the others.
But it’s every bit as important. It’s one of
the key tenets of Servant Leadership, which
is the core of our leadership philosophy
here at Zingerman’s. (We learned it from
Robert Greenleaf’s excellent book, Servant
Leadership.) Here’s the deal: the service that
the staff gives to customers is never going to be
better than the service that we as leaders provide
to the staff. The tone comes from the top;
although exceptional service providers may
occasionally crop up on their own, they’ll
always be the exception. The rest is up to us.
6. IF YOU WANT GREAT PERFORMANCE
FROM YOUR STAFF, 
YOU HAVE TO
GIVE THEM CLEAR EXPECTATIONS AND
TRAINING TOOLS
To run a great organ