Corporate vs. Entrepreneurial

Raising the Bar on Opening a New Bar……

There is a definition of “entrepreneur” vs. “intrapreneur” that is somewhat useful, but not exactly what I am trying to write about in improving and changing our team works together.    An entrepreneur can be defined as someone who takes a business idea and starts a company, bringing the idea to market.  Something out of nothing.  An intrapreneur, as defined by many textbooks, is an employee who channels that same creativity, innovation, adaptability, and leadership to develop new products and services for an employer—within an existing organization.     Digging in a little deeper, an entrepreneur generally means they take on many rewards, but all the risk that comes with running a business; whereas an intrapreneur is an individual who uses their entrepreneurial skills inside a company that they work which eliminates many of the risks that come with ownership.    When I went to business school, entrepreneurship was frowned upon in favor of conservative structured management intrapreneurship; whereas when my son went to a business school, entrepreneurship was the name of the major.  It’s come a long way.

In our company’s particular moment, we are trying to grow and scale by bringing in professional executives to lead in what has been a very entrepreneurial culture within a unique artistic industry.   We are hiring seasoned leaders who come from large successful corporations, many with the brand name recognition which I am hoping our company might achieve someday.   But we are different than the largest hospitality or entertainment companies in the world; yet, we are looking to learn, borrow, and steal the best ideas, standards of procedures, and lessons to make our company more successfully scale.  The growing pains of doing things the way we have done them vs. the slow, methodical and “corporate” approach has been a real challenge creating transitional tension as we continue to expand, grow, have fun and be profitable.   What I am hoping to achieve is to ger our team of managers to feel more entrepreneurial--to feel both the pressure and the exhilaration of successful execution.  

There are countless emails and exchanges I could use to illustrate the communication or lack of clear articulation between myself (the founder entrepreneur) and the rest of the team, but here is an idiosyncratic and very embellished example.  (The names have been changed to protect the innocent.:)   We needed a coaster for a new bar.  Seems straight forward.   Yes, the round piece of material one puts your logo on and then the customer places a drink on it.  They can be very classy or very cheap looking.  Many get wet and then trashed.    In 17 years of operation, City Winery has been coasterless!  Call us a “counter coaster culture!”  But times, they are changing. 

Now let’s pretend we were opening a new classy bar in some building and I wanted a coaster.  In my very loosy-goosy description of the concept, I suggested to our Chief Coaster Officer who gave the task to our regional manager, who passed it to our general manager who sent a courier pigeon to the head of bartending who was crushing grapes in Antarctica.  The intent was clear, we wanted a coaster among other decorative elements in this new joint.  Eventually, this gets to our newly hired VP of Supply Chain who in turn asks the national supply house where we buy our uniforms, aprons and various things for their best coasters. Two weeks later, I get a note with 10 different beautiful leather coasters, some with handcrafted stitching on the edge, some natural leather, and some fake.  The lowest price is $3 each, highest over $25 each.  I am thinking we need 10,000 of these as people are going to steal them like I do and add to a useless collection at home.  Let’s say on average it comes to $5 each  x 10,000, that is $50,000 for coasters, no fucking way!!. (oh yea, and they have a 12 week turn-around time).   Now , I’m rethinking the entire idea, but a few pennies for paper coasters, or even 20 cents for a thicker cardboard or cork version was more of what I was thinking.  I send back the task to our national supply chain executive suggesting these need to be well under $1 each and perhaps closer to 10 cents each and I want them in less than 4 weeks when we open.   Another week or so goes by and I end up going online one morning, frustrated, and I find 24hourCoasters.com, find a good deal, and send it out.  I’m brash, I’m frustrated, I’m passionate, and now I’m in a rush as we are opening in a few weeks.  And as the CEO, should I be looking for coasters?  No, but this new and unprecedented purchase was not going to happen with our new corporate process...   In my mind at midnight a few weeks ago I am thinking that this is a life-or-death situation.   How the hell can we possible exist without these coasters.  

What is it about the “risk” difference that I feel and what the hired executive feels.  For me, this detail has a critical importance (perhaps an unreasonable level which is not easy to articulate).  While there are a million details to this new bar, the entire success, to me, hinges on the coaster (among other little critical elements). In my entrepreneurial mind, to have this bar be a success, to have the customer be fully fulfilled with their drink order, the glass needs to come to rest on a coaster, not directly on the bar.  This is absurd, I know.  But to me, without this, it’s the end of the world as we know it.  This detail is important for the entire experience, the complete 360-degree vision of the business plan.   To not have a coaster, well, that puts at risk the entire plan.   And if you think that is a little extreme, well, in my mind, the coaster has a ROI analysis attached to it.  It needs its own spreadsheet examination.  It’s why I feel this is an essential component--but not at $5 each.   What is the quantifiable return on the coaster investment?  I can’t give that question to my CFO or anyone in the accounting department, they have more important things to do.  Nor can I give it the Chief Marketing Officer, as she thinks I am crazy enough as it is.  But I am obsessing in my mind as to what is the value of someone seeing a coaster under their glass, then feeling inspired enough to take it home, or like I will do, take home a few of them for a mini set and remembrance of the good time I had.   Is the marketing value of the returning customer worth $30 or $100 dollars?  Can it be achieved without this keepsake. And thus, how much is a coaster’s true value.  Again, who thinks about this?  I am certain, this insane level of passionate obsession is thought about by entrepreneurs all the time; whereas, I don’t think the general executive shares the same obsession with the task.  For most, it is an assignment that needs to be fulfilled, check the box, execute, and move on.   So the question is how to instill a more sane level of obsession and passion when there is less personal risk or perceived risk in an employee?

I believe what we are missing is the “execupreneur”, the executive who feels more entrepreneurial than intrapreneurial.   A sense of risk, but without the same stress of the real financial weight of ownership.  This is a tough balance of finding the right passionate people, open to being somewhat adaptable.  It really requires tremendous leadership on the part of myself and the executive team, plus incentive structures that can support the various decision making to be like the entrepreneur.   While I’ve encouraged in the past the value of making mistakes and learning from them—is that enough?.  Or the idea of “close enough construction”—the concept of perfection is the enemy of good.  That it is better to open the bar, even if not perfect, than wait for the everything to be perfect (wait, this goes against the need for coasters).   Nevertheless, the idea is to push the risk threshold a bit, to think like an owner.  What would I do if this was my own company?  How quickly would I make that call and risk it not being perfect.   This is the balancing act of the execupreneur. 

I went online looking for “execupreneur” and I found only a few things.   I am officially now the first to follow a LinkedIn hashtag #execupreneur that someone started.     There are a few postings for a conference that is blending executives and entrepreneurs, but I don’t really see a definition by anybody that is filling what I’m looking for.   I do like my friend Gary Vaynerchuk’s articulation on the subject.  He believes, as do I, that some people are born with the entrepreneur gene and others simply are more risk adverse and prefer working within an organization.  He is a strong believer that one can’t really even learn to become an entrepreneur, but can learn some “entrepreneurship skills”.  So, for me then, harnessing the ability to make quick decisions, make mistakes, learn from them, iterate, adapt, move quickly forward, all under the clear mission statement driven by the leader entrepreneur would be an execupreneur.  How to take the guidance from the leader and execute even if every single detail isn’t spelled out perfectly but using both creative and common sense to drive the project like the leader or owner would.  To put one’s sense in the mindset of founder/CEO, be willing to take some uncomfortable risk, but take the leap of faith like an entrepreneur would.  That is what I am hoping this message can help articulate and be the start of discussion in our office.