Mail

Off the Market, Back in Business

As a publisher, I loved Bo Burlingham's feature about the sale of Inc. [The Anatomy of a Sale--Ours, September]. The energy from Inc.'s new owner is already evident in the pages of the magazine. I read it from cover to cover, and it's the best issue in years.

I also enjoyed the story about Bill Strickland [What One Man Can Do]. I have heard him speak and read lots of other articles about him. None captured the power of Strickland and his vision like John Brant's piece.

Bobby Stark
President
Parthenon Publishing
Nashville

I'm glad Inc. was bought by someone who will keep it the way it is. I have been a subscriber for more than a year now, and it's the most worthwhile magazine subscription I have ever gotten. I'm 22 years old and attended Penn State for only two years before joining my family's company. Not completing my business degree left me with many holes in my understanding of business. Inc. has given me the knowledge to handle situations and conversations that I find myself in on a daily basis. Keep up the great work.

Brandon Jadlocki
Equipment supervisor
Reed Supply Co.
Huntingdon, Pa.

I'd like to wish everyone at Inc. magazine good luck with their new owner. I read Inc. through the '80s while starting my own business. I stopped reading it and most business magazines in the '90s when the dot-com nonsense appeared to be rotting everyone's brains. Inc. seems to have come back around to being a useful source of knowledge again. I really hope it stays that way.

Gary H. Lucas
Project manager
Dynatec Systems
Hightstown, N.J.

I don't understand how you can publish the details about the sale of the magazine. It seems to me that you included information in the story that violates the confidentiality agreements that bind all parties in a transaction such as this. Without releases from all parties concerned, it seems that you have crossed the line. Yes, there is freedom of the press, but I don't think that grants you the right to divulge information that you gained as an insider. I'd really appreciate your justification for this.

Stuart R. Jordan
Managing partner
Stuart R. Jordan Consulting
Norwalk, Conn.

Bo Burlingham responds: I agree there would be a serious ethical question had I divulged information that I had gained as an insider after signing a confidentiality agreement. In fact, I was not an insider, and I signed no confidentiality agreement. Neither, for that matter, did editor in chief John Koten. The information I included in the article was either public knowledge or freely given to me by the people I interviewed. Did my sources violate their confidentiality agreements? I don't think so, but you'd have to ask them. Generally, such agreements are designed to protect the buyer. In this case, the buyer--Joe Mansueto--waived his protection so that our readers might hear the full story of the sale and learn its lessons.

Ojai Ovation

Having once lived in Ojai, I'm not surprised that the Ojai Valley Inn's management team had such an innovative and caring solution to its renovation dilemma [Rebuilding Shangri-la, September]. Ojai is not just a place; it is a special community of people who not only care for each other but are committed to preserving their serene environment. Even residents who have never set foot on the property are very proud of the inn. Now they have a new reason to feel that way.

Linda Bowen
Sales representative
Weichert Realtors
Jersey City

Cheering for the Competition

My firm has experienced the "free fall," as Norm Brodsky calls it, that happens when demand goes up and the number of competitors skyrockets [The More, the Merrier, September]. This considerable change has caused us, like Brodsky, to evaluate our place in the market.

Like Brodsky, I think the rush of new competition is exciting. The entrance of competitors has educated more potential clients about our services and has given us more business.

David Sonde
President
The Winvale Group
Washington, D.C.

Maybe Norm Brodsky doesn't have as many competitors as he thinks he does--maybe he isn't really in the document-destruction business. He appears to have developed an encyclopedic knowledge of what needs to be destroyed and what does not. He knew the hospital was destroying many more documents than necessary when the hospital's compliance officer did not. Document destruction is an easily entered, easily commoditized business in which it is a struggle to get premium prices for extra services. But if Brodsky started looking at his company as a regulatory compliance business that offers document destruction, he might be able to negotiate better prices for his services.

Michael Schatzki
Principal
Negotiation Dynamics
Far Hills, N.J.

Norm Brodsky's column about dealing with competitors coming into your space resonated with me. Our company provides residential schools and programs to underachieving youth. It's an area that is growing very rapidly, with lots of small competitors popping up on the radar screen. I plan on citing parts of Brodsky's article when we hold our semiannual meeting with our school and program directors across the country. Many of them are lamenting the same issues that Brodsky's partner Bob Feinstein was.

Elliot Sainer
CEO
Aspen Education Group
South Pasadena, Calif.

Sarbanes-Oxley Sufferers

Businesses fear that good internal controls seem to be whatever the reviewing external accounting firm says they are [Surviving Sarbanes-Oxley, September]. And defining those internal controls is part of the problem that leads to runaway costs related to implementing Section 404 of SOX.

Under SOX, the SEC requires public companies to document their internal controls governing financial reporting. Companies also have to include a statement about which framework management used to evaluate the effectiveness of its controls. The SEC says that companies must use a "recognized control framework" that meets certain guidelines. It also says that the "COSO framework satisfies our criteria and may be used."

The Committee of Sponsoring Organizations framework is overly complex. And although the SEC doesn't require using it to evaluate internal controls, no other framework exists in the United States. Clearly another framework is required, and soon. And it shouldn't come from public accounting firms--it's in their interest to create a costly and bureaucratic system. For private companies, I think the best group for the job would be the CFOs of actual businesses. They could come up with a practical and cost-effective set of rules for smaller companies that don't use public accountants.

Gary H. Smith
President
G.H. Smith Co.
Atlanta

I've dealt with the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation from an IT controls standpoint at two different companies, and Inc.'s insight into the situation is the most accurate and informative I've seen.

Bill Knitter
IS group leader
Performance Technologies
Rochester, N.Y.

Beggars Can't Be Choosers

The idea of using managed competition to offer employees a choice of health care plans is totally out of touch with the real health care problems facing small businesses [Do I Have a Choice? September]. Costs are obscene. We can't worry about offering choice to our employees; the choices we face are whether we can afford to provide health insurance at all. We have the same number of employees as we did three years ago, but our costs have more than doubled. How about telling us about choices that are truly affordable? Besides relocating to Canada.

Lowell Wagner
Vice president
Ohio Valley Marketing Communications Group
Huber Heights, Ohio

Those Who Can't, Teach?

Who cares if the universities can't find enough entrepreneurship professors [The Best Jobs That Nobody Wants, September]? Academic notions of entrepreneurship are outdated, irrelevant, and unlikely to generate as much value as breakout approaches developed outside that blah-blah M.B.A. environment.

Daniel Wolf
President and CEO
Dewar Sloan
Chicago

I have an M.B.A. in entrepreneurship, and I promise that if universities dropped the Ph.D. prerequisite for a tenure-track position, this need for more professors would go away overnight.

Mark Sandefur
Management consultant
North Highland
Atlanta

Saving Your Company From Your Older, Fuddy-Duddy Self

I hope reading Stephanie Clifford's article will help more aging business owners realize the importance of planning an exit strategy [Saying No to Retirement, September]. Too often I see older business owners destroy the worth of their companies by being overly risk-adverse.

I own a holding company that has controlling interest in four separate companies. Those businesses are considered aggressive and competitive. I am a maverick now, but I know that in time I'll start to get more cautious and conservative. My plan is to structure the business, as we expand, into units that can be sold separately to key employees or other entrepreneurs. This should bring a greater sale value in the long run.

To me, owning a business is like having a child: After you raise it, it needs to go out on its own and take care of itself. And if you do a good job, it will take care of you in your later years.

Tim Adams
CEO and president
Executone-TCom
Chattanooga