To be successful in business, Dave Roberts says you have to be good, smart and lucky. You don’t expect to hear luck invoked as a key factor by the CEO of a company—PopCap Games—that was just sold for up to $1.3 billion. Classic CEO talking points include lingo such as “We were in the right place at the right time.” That kind of message implies that founders were in control of external events.
But Dave Roberts clearly said the “L” word—and for gamers everywhere, luck is a very powerful force. PopCap makes the blockbuster games Bejeweled and Plants vs. Zombies with a mix of creativity, business savvy and luck.
Capping the 2011 University of Washington Entrepreneur Week, Roberts shared PopCap Games’ growth timeline in the rapidly evolving landscape of social media and mobile devices. Watch highlights of his lecture.
Student teams from universities in 49 countries submitted a record number of applications for the 2012 Global Social Entrepreneur Competition (GSEC). If you were one of those teams, you might be thinking “what now?” You research, plan, build and practice your pitches so that you can become the next GSEC winner in 2012! Follow the next 12 blog posts in November and December to get expert advice on building your winning social venture.
Michael Potts, CEO of the Rocky Mountain Institute, spoke to a group of University of Washington students in all fields – business, engineering, public affairs – about solutions for a renewable energy future.
He addresses energy efficiency, building efficiency, 21st century electric cars, trucks, planes – and gives success stories such as a recent project to retrofit and “green” the Empire State Building in New York City, which resulted in both money and energy savings.
Watch this 15-minute video of highlights from Potts’ lecture.
This lecture is part of the University of Washington Environmental Innovation Challenge organized by the UW Foster School of Business.
Guest blog post by Rita Brogan, CEO of PRR
Uwajimaya’s beginnings were humble, when in 1928 Fujimatsu Moriguchi started selling fishcakes in Tacoma, Washington. Today, Uwajimaya is the largest family-owned Asian grocery and gift company in the Pacific Northwest.
In 2011, Tomoko Moriguchi Matsuno, the youngest of Fujimatsu’s seven children, leads the family enterprise as Uwajimaya’s Chief Executive Officer. ”I became an entrepreneur by inheritance,” says Tomoko. ”I started my career as an artist. An entrepreneur takes risks, and I will not take risks with my family’s business or Uwajimaya’s 400+ employees. My thought process may be risky, but then I weigh the consequences. I don’t think of myself as an entrepreneur.”
Rather, like many businesses in the Asian American community, the entire Moriguchi clan is an entrepreneurial family, working together to weigh decisions about investments and growth. They take risks together, informed by experience and a commitment to each other.
Certainly, it is an entrepreneurial family vision that has guided Uwajimaya’s growth—a vision that is as much about cultural sustainability as it is about offering the highest quality and broadest variety of Asian foods in America. It was vision, and a willingness to take risks, that inspired Fujimatsu Moriguchi to open the family’s first store at the corner of 4th and Main after they had been released from the Tule Lake Interment Center in 1945. And certainly it was vision and a commitment to community 55 years later that led the Moriguchi family to invest and expand its flagship operations in Seattle’s Chinatown/International District into a mixed use development that with 66,000-square feet of commercial space and 176 apartment units on top.
Today, Uwajimaya has stores in Seattle, Bellevue, Renton and Beaverton, OR. Tomoko was responsible for opening each of these stores. She has learned the family business from the ground up, and assumed her position as CEO three years ago, in 2008, after her brother Tomio retired from that post. Tomio steered Uwajimaya through its years of growth. Tomoko says she follows the “servant CEO” model, over a more typical American corporate approach of “strategic planning” led by a single charismatic leader. ”These days it’s much more about operations because you need to be able to fix things fast.” Tomoko adds, “I believe in mutual accountability. It’s a more sustainable approach.”
Uwajimaya’s newest Bellevue store, opened in March of this year under Tomoko’s leadership, is exceeding revenue expectations, largely because of the growing demand on the Eastside for unique, quality pan-Asian food.
All of this has Tomoko thinking about the future. She says, “It’s hard to explain that Uwajimaya is about more than just selling groceries.” Tomoko thinks about the changing and evolving character of Asian/Pacific American communities and how Uwajimaya can help educate and sustain cultural identity. She thinks about the growing “foodie” movement. She thinks about the evolution of “creative class” communities of highly educated and culturally vibrant neighborhoods. She thinks about the next generation of Moriguchi family members and their roles in taking Uwajimaya the next step.
The vision continues.
Rita Brogan is the CEO of PRR, a public affairs and communications firm based in Seattle, one of Washington’s 50 largest minority-owned businesses. Brogan was a recent recipient of the Foster School’s Business and Economic Development Center Asian/Pacific Islander Business Leadership Award. She writes the BEDC Brogan blog series monthly. Previously, she covered green economy issues with an emphasis on ways that businesses owned by people of color or women can create a competitive advantage. Her current blog topic focus is on innovation.
Guest blog post by Aspasia Bartell, UW Foster School of Business MBA student
Selected from a nationwide candidate pool, second-year Foster MBA student Aspasia Bartell traveled to Cyprus and Greece this summer with the American Hellenic Institute Foundation, a Washington, DC-based, Greek-American think tank. During the trip she had the opportunity to study current foreign policy issues and the business environments in Greece and Cyprus. The delegation met with the President of Greece, ambassadors, Greek and Greek-American business leaders and other dignitaries.
We began our trip in Cyprus, a divided country since the 1974 conflict between Turkey and Greece. Northern Cyprus remains under the control of Turkish military forces, a situation regarded as an illegal occupation denounced in several United Nations Security Council resolutions. The Greek-Cypriot government in the south wants to reunify the island, but attempts to reach a solution to the dispute have so far been unsuccessful. This situation has created hardships for the Cypriot people; for example, thousands have lost their homes and businesses as a result of the occupation and continued division.
Despite the division, the Cypriot economy is doing quite well. Over the past decade Cyprus has become a magnet for Foreign Direct Investment. The Greek-Cypriot government has taken specific measures to help drive investment including putting in place a low 10% corporate tax rate and a no withholding tax policy as a means to make investing in Cyprus as simple as possible.
UW Foster School MBA student Aspasia Bartell in Athens, Greece
Next, we visited Greece in the midst of its worst financial crisis in history.
In Athens we met with Dr. Miranda Xafa, Alternate Executive Director at the Board of the International Monetary Fund, who explained the economic crisis in greater depth. She discussed how Greece has taken out the largest loan in the history of humanity. Its debt has been downgraded to junk status. Greece is more than likely to default.
Xafa then spoke about actions Greece needs to take to make progress. She spoke on how Greece needs foreign direct investment and that this investment should be from private capital. She spoke further on how the country needs to focus on its tourism and shipping industries, which make up approximately 30% of its GDP. She also believes that officials should take a thorough look at the size of its public sector.
One of the business leaders we met with was Dennys S. Plessas, Vice President of Business Development Initiatives for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, for Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. He told us that Greece needs to isolate and to focus on its competitive advantage moving forward. He says the country needs to focus on exports of certain products as well as expanding its education system.
The political turmoil that accompanies this economic crisis has made addressing policy issues in Greece more difficult.
Greek officials are also dealing with an ongoing diplomatic dispute with their northern neighbor, the former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), over the name “Macedonia” itself. The Greek government maintains that the Republic of Macedonia should include a qualification such as “northern” to differentiate itself from the neighboring Greek region also called Macedonia. While Greek and Macedonian officials continue to debate the issue, the UN has agreed to accept any final agreement the two countries are able to reach.
Also, relations with Turkey still remain strained due to an increasing number of Turkish flyovers in Greek airspace. As a result, Greece finds it necessary to continue to spend a large amount of its GDP on its military, while those funds are badly needed elsewhere.
UW Foster School MBA student Aspasia Bartell meets Greek President Karolos Papoulias
We were fortunate to meet with Dr. Karolos Papoulias, the President of Greece. President Papoulias used our visit as opportunity to thank President Obama for his political help with the financial crisis. He ended our meeting with a powerful message that the Greek people possess an incredible amount of strength and ambition and they will emerge from this crisis.
This trip was a phenomenal experience that illustrated how the world is becoming increasingly interconnected and that the business leaders of both today and tomorrow need to have an international view. During this trip I saw how leaders from different countries often view situations through their own cultural lens. The ability to recognize this and to attempt to see issues from the cultural viewpoint of another leader is an important skill when working in the international sphere.
Guest blog post by Rita Brogan, CEO of PRR
The Brogan Blog had a chance recently to chat with Steve Tolton, the CEO of PetroCard, a leading Pacific Northwest fuel and lubrication distributor. PetroCard, specializes in unattended stations that use a proprietary card lock technology to provide fuel to commercial customers that can be as large as Pepsico or as small as the one-truck plumber down the street.
And it may be one of the largest companies you’ve never heard of.
In 2010, PetroCard grossed over $900 million. PetroCard was ranked last year as the fifth largest privately held corporation in Washington State. It is owned by Bristol Bay Native Corporation (BBNC) formed under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971. BBNC is owned by about 8,200 Eskimo, Indian and Aleut shareholders.
PetroCard started in 1997, when Steve Tolton, then the Chief Financial Officer of BBNC, was looking for promising investments. He partnered with banker Tom Farr, who saw an opportunity to consolidate the fragmented card lock business, starting with the purchase of a small company called PetroCard.
Neither Steve or Tom knew much about petroleum. But they knew a good business opportunity when they saw it. In less than 15 years, PetroCard has gone from 25 million gallons to 300 million gallons of fuel sales per year and it has leveraged its base business into other compatible business ventures
Steve Tolton attributes PetroCard’s success to focus on its customer base.. Their regional customers include school fleets and taxis, as well as Waste Management vehicles.”
“We touch our customers a thousand times a day,” says Tolton. “We stay abreast of trends so we can offer solutions to our customers before they have to ask for them.” Innovation means knowing how to manage risk with great due diligence.
“It is rare to hit a complete home run,” says Tolton. He noted, however that the “Clean N’ Green” fuel stations, PetroCard’s partnership with Waste Management, has come pretty close to a homerun—exceeding all expectations.
“For the last two years, we’ve been operating commercial natural gas stations, because of the continued expansion in the area of compressed natural gas,” said Tolton.
Tolton has grown PetroCard, but does not believe in growth for its own sake. “We focus on our commercial customers fueling and lube solutions, even though we may see other opportunities,” he said. “We’re better at taking a decent companies and helping make them better.” PetroCard’s venture into natural gas has been an entrepreneurial “home run,” built on a deep understanding of industry trends and changing customer needs, including the need for a cost-competitive product in an emerging market.
Rita Brogan is the CEO of PRR, a public affairs and communications firm based in Seattle, one of Washington’s 50 largest minority-owned businesses. Brogan was a recent recipient of the Foster School’s Business and Economic Development Center Asian/Pacific Islander Business Leadership Award. She writes the BEDC Brogan blog series monthly. Previously, she covered green economy issues with an emphasis on ways that businesses owned by people of color or women can create a competitive advantage. Her current blog topic focus is on innovation.
Cranium co-founder Richard Tait discusses his passion for entrepreneurship, the inspiration behind Cranium and his latest business venture, Golazo. He considers himself an inventor and at the top of his game when combining invention with entrepreneurship. Interviewed by UW Foster School of Business student Vance Roush (BA 2011), Tait offers inspiring insights about his leadership philosophy and how he captures trends to start new ventures.
“Entrepreneurship is about galvanizing teams of people around a mission. …the development and pursuit of a passionate dream,” says Tait. “I’m driven by a fear of failure rather than the glow of success. For me, it’s not about the prize, it’s more about the journey.”
Tait also believes everyone has a creative spirit and while society sometimes squashes that, it is in all of us.
This video is part of a series of entrepreneur interviews conducted by University of Washington undergraduate students who are involved in the UW Foster School of Business Lavin Entrepreneurial Action Program.
