INC.: How did you respond to your failure?
BOSTIC: I realized that I had to go back and get some lessons, and I felt that a big corporation was the best place to learn.
* * *
INC.: Do you still believe that?
BOSTIC: I believe you need to develop skills and acquire experience. You can do that in big corporations, but it's important to know what you're looking for. Most people don't get a range of experiences in a big company. They get stuck in a very narrow window for a long time. So I advise young people to get the corporate education but have a clear plan. Move around. Learn what you need to learn. Then step out of the corporate environment and get into your own enterprise.
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INC.: But can you really apply skills developed in a big company to a start-up? Aren't the conditions so different as to make the experience from one situation pretty much irrelevant to the other?
BOSTIC: Not at all. I'm talking about basic business skills -- how to sell, how to market, how to create a plan and how to execute it, how to think strategically, how to handle profit-and-loss responsibility. I would never have been able to build American Photo Group or this new business without the skills I acquired in big companies.
* * *
INC.: You're giving those companies an awful lot of credit. I mean, how much of that stuff can really be learned?
BOSTIC: It can all be learned.
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INC.: Even selling? I know a lot of people who would say that 95% of selling is natural talent.
BOSTIC: I don't buy that. Of course, some people have more natural ability than others, but selling is not an art. It's a discipline. There's a specific selling process you have to go through, and anyone can learn it. It involves taking all the different steps, reducing them to a checklist, and then executing them one by one. There's no magic to it, and you don't need a lot of natural talent. What you need is a disciplined, organized approach to selling. If you have that, you'll outperform the great salesman who doesn't understand the process every time. Selling can definitely be learned.
* * *
INC.: But are you likely to learn it in a big company?
BOSTIC: It depends on the company. I was fortunate that my first job after Burger Chef was at American Hospital Supply Corp., where they really do teach you how to sell. They teach a systematic approach to selling to an entire hospital. We had a 250-man sales force at American. When I left after about five years, I'd moved up into the top 10 or 15, not because I was such a great salesman, but because I had learned the process.
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INC.: How do you know you weren't a great salesman?
BOSTIC: Because, after American, I worked with really great salesmen. I had five guys working for me in the Atlanta branch, and four of them were so much better than I was, I couldn't believe it. This was at one of American's competitors, a company called IPCO -- International Products Corp. Now IPCO's approach was entirely different from American's. It didn't take inexperienced people and teach them to sell. It brought in top-flight salespeople who already knew their way around. IPCO had no training and no systems. That's why it's important to have a plan when you set out to get your corporate education. You have to think about what you need to learn and make sure you go where you can learn it.
INC.: OK, but I still can't help thinking there's a lot more to it than that. You didn't build American Photo Group to $100 million in six years with basic business skills.
BOSTIC: Of course, there's more to it. For one thing, you have to know the industry. I don't think you can walk into any competitive market, wave a magic wand, and suddenly have a $100-million company. You have to know a market really well, especially if you're going to do a start-up. By the time I started American Photo Group, I'd been in the photo industry for seven years, and I had a very clear idea of what I was going to do. I also knew a lot of people I could bring into the company, and I had a lot of outside contacts as well. So I'm not saying it's just a matter of acquiring a few skills. There's a whole range of knowledge, experiences, and connections you need if you're going to pull off this kind of growth in an orderly manner, with a minimum of risk.
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INC.: Then you're not saying this is the only way to do it, just the safest.
BOSTIC: Look. I can't deny that some people are successful operating strictly off their gut instincts -- the people I think of as entrepreneurs. Sooner or later, though, the company usually outgrows them, assuming it doesn't just die.
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INC.: Why can't these entrepreneurs simply hire someone with the necessary business sophistication to help manage the company?
BOSTIC: They can, but it's like mixing oil and water. I don't think entrepreneurs understand the role of the rational manager. They haven't grown up with data and information and strategy. Deep down, they don't trust that approach to running a company. They may even resent the sophisticated guy they bring in. They certainly don't pay much attention to him. He comes in with his plan and his facts, and they dismiss everything he says. Then they go charging ahead on their instincts. I tell you, the guys they bring in get very, very frustrated.
