This week Zebra Jeff and I attended the two day 2009 Wisconsin Entrepreneur’s Conference, hosted by The Wisconsin Technology Council.
The short:
One of the very best events I’ve ever had the privilege to be a part of with regard to obtaining new ideas and learning new strategies to grow your business. I have not felt so inspired and revitalized in some time.
Slightly longer and more specific:
1. We were treated to possibly the best speaking presentations I have ever witnessed, which was given by Robert Stephens, CEO, Founder, and self-dubbed “Chief Inspector” of Geek Squad… “Cheif Inspector” because, ‘he owns the business, so he can chose any title that he wants.’ (check the wiki on the Chief Inspector and his Geek Squad) It’s hard to summarize in words exactly why Robert’s presentation and speaking style were so effective, but in a flurry of descriptive cliches and buzz words, he was: relevant, engaging, timely, inspiring, entertaining, simple, effective, and ANYTHING BUT cliche. A few key points from Robert’s presentation:
1. I stole the universal symbol for struggle/Ramen noodle catch from his presentation. A perfect icon for his presentation, and one that captures here the spirit of both the presentation, as well as the man himself. Not since I heard the phrase ‘the smile is the only universally understood communication’ some time ago now have I played witness to such a perfect observation.
b. We are currently undergoing a, “New Era of Radical Transparency,” which will eventually give way to an Era of Authenticity in the business world. As such, to not only get or stay a step ahead of the curve as a business, but simply to survive, BRUTAL HONESTY is now a MANDATORY REQUIREMENT… which leads me to the next observation I’m strongly adopting (OK, stealing if I’m being honest) from Robert;
iii. The real goal of any business, and sales business is simply this: WORLD DOMINATION. This is the paramount example of the kind of honesty that will be required to do business in the future, and another compelling example of Robert’s ‘appear so crazy in my business decisions and direction that my competition will not possibly aspire to follow me until I’m so far ahead of them that they can’t possibly catch up.’ Which, incidentally, happens to be one of the potential key’s for acheiving WORLD DOMINATION in your own business.
There are actually many more simply awesome examples of what we witnessed during Robert Stephen’s presentation, as well as the Wisconsin Entrepreneur’s Conference as a whole, and I may blog about some of those in the future as well… but for now, I don’t want to detract from any of the above by getting long-winded. To close by again paraphrasing Robert: ‘Keep it simple, basic, classic, real, and honest.’ My observation is that those words are as real as the man himself.
-ZC
Option #1: Given the current state of the economy, Zebras are getting even tougher to identify… BUT, they are still out there for the picking, stripes or not.
