Copying Success: How Orfalea Turned Paper into Power
Copying Success: How Orfalea Turned Paper into Power
Employees: “You have to nurture your people,” says Orfalea. It was a lesson the entrepreneur learned in the 1970’s, when he first began hiring people to work for Kinko’s as cashiers. “At that moment, I realized my name was on the receipts and invoices. That's my money,” he says. “Well, how do you treat people who are touching your money? You kiss their fingers. Happy fingers equal happy employees and that means more money. That didn't mean I was mellow. I had the velvet glove and the steel fist. And sometimes I used the steel fist. But you can tell how good a company is by looking in the employee's eyes.”
Expansion: Orfalea decided early on that he did not want to go the franchise route in taking Kinko’s national. Again, he chose to value people and establish partnerships with others instead of seemingly adversarial relationships with franchisees. By focusing on the appropriate structure for expansion and choosing to go his own route, Orfalea turned Kinko’s into an international success.
Effectiveness: “I get bored easily, and that is a great motivator,” says Orfalea. “I think everybody should have dyslexia and ADD.” Critics suggested that Orfalea’s medical conditions would render him incapable of running a business, but Orfalea became only more motivated and focused on getting more done with less. “If I find a great idea, I work on it at the beginning, then bring in other people to make things work,” he says. “Actually, I've always been good at getting out of work.” He chose effectiveness over efficiency and it paid off.
Opportunity: “You can either complain or look for opportunity in every problem,” says Orfalea. “I prefer opportunity.” Orfalea could have given in to his conditions and accepted himself as others saw him – slow and incompetent. He chose, however, to fight that image, and to use his disadvantages to his advantage. “Trust what you see, rather than what you hear,” he says. “And don't take life so seriously – just enjoy it.”
Rejuvenation: “It seems counter-intuitive in our work-obsessed society, but longer vacations are good,” says Orfalea, “for the employer, the coworker, and the economy.” Few CEOs today encourage their colleagues to take long vacations, but then Orfalea is not your typical CEO. Orfalea understands the importance of rejuvenation as a means to boost productivity. He also knows that some of the biggest breakthroughs come when people are out exploring the world instead of the inside of a boardroom.
Today, Kinko’s enjoys revenues in excess of $2 billion and employs more than 20,000 people around the world. Despite barely being able to read or spell, Orfalea managed to create one of the most successful office and print services companies in the world.
Copying Success How Orfalea Turned Paper into Power
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“Keep your nose in the window long enough, and they are going to let you in.” That is Orfalea’s advice to up and coming entrepreneurs; he got in and he has not looked back since. But how did his hyperactive dyslexic who flunked two grades in school turn his condition into a recipe for success?
Employees: “You have to nurture your people,” says Orfalea. It was a lesson the entrepreneur learned in the 1970’s, when he first began hiring people to work for Kinko’s as cashiers. “At that moment, I realized my name was on the receipts and invoices. That's my money,” he says. “Well, how do you treat people who are touching your money? You kiss their fingers. Happy fingers equal happy employees and that means more money. That didn't mean I was mellow. I had the velvet glove and the steel fist. And sometimes I used the steel fist. But you can tell how good a company is by looking in the employee's eyes.”
Expansion: Orfalea decided early on that he did not want to go the franchise route in taking Kinko’s national. Again, he chose to value people and establish partnerships with others instead of seemingly adversarial relationships with franchisees. By focusing on the appropriate structure for expansion and choosing to go his own route, Orfalea turned Kinko’s into an international success.
Effectiveness: “I get bored easily, and that is a great motivator,” says Orfalea. “I think everybody should have dyslexia and ADD.” Critics suggested that Orfalea’s medical conditions would render him incapable of running a business, but Orfalea became only more motivated and focused on getting more done with less. “If I find a great idea, I work on it at the beginning, then bring in other people to make things work,” he says. “Actually, I've always been good at getting out of work.” He chose effectiveness over efficiency and it paid off.
Opportunity: “You can either complain or look for opportunity in every problem,” says Orfalea. “I prefer opportunity.” Orfalea could have given in to his conditions and accepted himself as others saw him – slow and incompetent. He chose, however, to fight that image, and to use his disadvantages to his advantage. “Trust what you see, rather than what you hear,” he says. “And don't take life so seriously – just enjoy it.”
Rejuvenation: “It seems counter-intuitive in our work-obsessed society, but longer vacations are good,” says Orfalea, “for the employer, the coworker, and the economy.” Few CEOs today encourage their colleagues to take long vacations, but then Orfalea is not your typical CEO. Orfalea understands the importance of rejuvenation as a means to boost productivity. He also knows that some of the biggest breakthroughs come when people are out exploring the world instead of the inside of a boardroom.
Today, Kinko’s enjoys revenues in excess of $2 billion and employs more than 20,000 people around the world. Despite barely being able to read or spell, Orfalea managed to create one of the most successful office and print services companies in the world.
Copying Success How Orfalea Turned Paper into Power
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John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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Kim CastleWith nearly two decades in the advertising and design business, with clients like Domino's Pizza, General Motors, Direct TV, Pedigree, Wolfgang Puck, Higher Octave Music, Hollywood Celebrity Products, Disney, and Paramount, as well as thousands of entrepreneurs around the world define, structure, communicate, and position their business for greater profits, BrandU(R) co-creators Kim Castle and W. Vito Montone discovered that entrepreneurs could experience the same power that big brands command for a fraction of the cost with the world's only process-based results-drive Integral approach to business creation. BrandU(R) is helping entrepreneurs grow with the power of extreme clarity from idea...to brand...to market(TM) and helping one million entrepreneurs become successful and whole so that they can make a difference in the world. Are you one of them? If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank(TM), get started now at http://www.brandu.com. - Visit Kim Castle's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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Staging DivaDebra Gould, aka The Staging Diva®, is President of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company. Inspired by many requests from aspiring home stagers wanting to start similar businesses, Gould created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Gould has trained over 1000 Staging Diva Graduates worldwide to start staging businesses. Buying decorating and selling six of her own homes in four years lead to an interest in real estate staging which she turned into a career with the launch of sixelements.com in 2002. Since then she has staged hundreds of homes in addition to teaching home staging training. Gould is the author of several home staging resources including a series of popular ebooks made up of a Design Guide, Color Guide and Portfolio Guide. For more information about Debra Gould visit stagingdiva.com. - Visit Staging Diva's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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