Start Up: The Life and Lessons of a Serial Entrepreneur by Gilmour David H

Author:Gilmour, David H. [Gilmour, David H.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Wakaya Perfection LP
Published: 2011-09-17T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Three

Reaching for the Out-of-Reach

“No crime is so great as daring to excel.”—Sir Winston Churchill

So what went wrong with Clairtone?

When did the business goals to which Peter Munk and I aspired, turn from what we reached for, to what we could manage, to what we could cope with—to what we hoped would let us get out with our shirts still on our backs? Did we—as Garth Hopkins suggests in his excellent book, Clairtone: the Rise and Fall of a Business Empire—expand too quickly into the American market? Timing being everything, were we too far in front of the curve on colour television? Should we have stayed based in Toronto, as our resident advertising guru, Dalton Camp, believed? It’s difficult to say. Perhaps our problems were all of the above.

After Clairtone’s demise, there were whisperings that dogged us for years. Rumours of mismanagement and bankruptcies and the sale of our own stock. Finally, impatient with these phantom accusations, we hired the renowned Canadian barrister Robert Macaulay to undertake a complete review of our Clairtone years. When Macaulay accepted our brief, he made it clear that he would only do so if his inquiry could be entirely impartial, however well or poorly we might be portrayed in it. We accepted his terms.

His report was thorough, filed on February 22, 1974. “In short,” it concludes, “as a result of our review of this matter, it is our opinion that any allegation of improper or wrongful conduct arising out of dealings in the shares of Clairtone Sound Corporation Limited on behalf of Mr. Peter Munk and Mr. David H. Gilmour are without foundation in fact or law.”

Still, it remains a sad tale—at least, in its conclusion. The death knell for Clairtone came when we became associated with two forces—government and labour unions—that had very different agendas from ours. And here, I return to the idea of simplicity. In any company, big or small, everything and everyone must pull toward the same clearly identified goal. In this way, a good company shares the essential quality of good design. Form must follow function.

In later years, when Doug Carlson and I launched FIJI Water, the goal was to become a well-known national brand within five years of launching a new product. Everything was geared to that. With Zinio, another successful collaboration with Doug, the goal was to become one of the digital world’s most popular apps. The goal defined everything we set in motion to attain it.

Success is as simple as that. Have a well-defined objective—one that is shared by every member of the company.

Failure is what happens when objectives and agendas become muddied, confused, and contradictory. It’s a business rule that should never be broken: only run with those who share your direction. But it is a rule that Peter and I broke at Clairtone. It was a lesson we took with us to our next joint venture, Southern Pacific Properties.

The truth is, I don’t much care for most resorts. They seldom live up to expectations.

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