22 DECEMBER 2017 • FOGHORN BUSINESSMATTERS I remember long ago visiting the executive team of a large hospitality conglomerate. They were discussing the criteria for acquisi- tions and were insistent that they wouldn’t buy nascent startup operations. Their sole rationale was that the brands of startups were not fully developed.The team’s prime illustration revolved around a local Subway franchisee who greatly admired a mom- and-pop sandwich shop at the local State University of New York college campus. This shop had great sandwiches, wonderful service, and a fun, crazy ambiance. The franchisee admired everything Building your Brand’s Value By Bob Shaw “We now have five Gladding-Hearn boats. They are the 747 of our water-taxi fleet. They’re dependable, well built, and our customers really like them. The yard is also easy to work with, responsive and stands behind their product.” Tom Fox, Chief Executive Officer New York Water Taxi Gladding-Hearn all-aluminum construction, Incat-Crowther Designs, LOA 72', beam 27', 149 passengers, speed 26 knots with 12 metric tonnes of deadweight. It takes experience to integrate customer detailing and guaranteed speeds, backed by dependable customer service. All at a price you can afford. If you’re looking to build a new boat or upgrade an old one, we can offer com- plete design and construction, from security patrol boats to high-speed ferries. To learn more call Peter Duclos at 508 676-8596 or visit: www.gladding-hearn.com. The 747 of our fleet about the operation and told the couple that when they were ready to retire, he would buy the operation and not change a thing. Several years later, the couple called and a deal was quickly struck; the new operator was in bliss. But then a letter arrived from Subway’s legal department, reminding him that per paragraph 32J if the franchisee operated any similar business then it had to be converted to – the horror – a Subway shop. The lease was long-term and he had no option but to convert sandwich nirvana to a ubiquitous Subway store. What happened to that store’s revenues? Surely, the customers would rebel and mourn the loss of such a unique venue, painstakingly built over decades? Personally, I thought that revenue would fall by a third, and I was wrong. Revenue tripled. That’s the power of an established brand that the conglomerate recognized. We all know the difficulty of turning around a restaurant with a poor reputation. I once joined an organization with an awesome operation, but its second location was 500 miles away and had a mixed reputation at best. It took five years of hard work to turn that ship around. Our eventual rewards were delayed by seven years because of two sloppy years. I have seen my former business partner build, from scratch, four different types of businesses to annual revenues of greater than $50 million. He did it by a relentless insis- tence on taking care of the customers, taking care of the crew, and making money. Every decision and action was filtered through these simple tenets, which became the core of his success. I heard Howard Schultz discuss coming back to Starbucks as CEO after they had lost their way. Certainly Howard has a big compelling vision about Starbuck’s product and social mission, especially taking care of employees with medical benefits and free online college degrees from Arizona State University. But, he believed that focusing on the minutiae would turn the tide for the business. He summarized this philosophy as, “The more successful you become, the less the little things matter. The less the little things seem to matter, the easier it is to find yourself with a declining brand.Always pay attention to the little things.” When NASA was planning for the Apollo project, they laid out the plan and discovered they had to achieve one million things that had never been done. Talk about focusing on the details! And, this was achieved nearly 50 years ago by “The more successful you become, the less the little things matter. The less the little things seem to matter, the easier it is to find yourself with a declining brand. Always pay attention to the little things. HOWARD SCHULTZ, STARBUCKS EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN Stock photo: Pexels.com