Martha Stewart treats her staff like slaves. Oh, yeah? Howard
Schultz "picks on the little guy" by shamelessly opening
new Starbucks cafes beside independent cafes. Well, listen to
this-Jeff Bezos is trying to send brick-and-mortar bookstores to an
early grave; maybe he should focus on getting Amazon.com into the
black instead. And Bill Gates-well, he just has too much money!
From tabloid fodder and paranoid proclamations to pure envy, the
public sure spends a lot of time tarnishing what are supposed to be
joyous success stories. Let's face it, if Gates
didn't rank as the richest person in the world in this
year's Forbes list, he'd still get picked on-only
for being poor instead of rich. So are the years (or months that
feel like years, given 20-hour workdays) invested in erecting new
industries, adding to today's winning ideas or merely
establishing career autonomy all worth it if they make you the
bull's-eye in the latest mudslinging match? Well, we found that
even if dues paid include botched friendships, the threat of
corporate collusion and sheer exhaustion, pursuing "the
dream," for most entrepeneurs, is worth the cost.
Facing Fierce Competitors
Even after recounting the loss of valuable time with his wife
and two small children, who stayed behind in Ohio while he laid the
foundation for his business in Atlanta, William Roth, 32,
wouldn't choose a different path if he had the chance. His
brainchild, ChannelLink, started in January 2000, is a Web-based
trade exchange connecting pharmacies with pharmaceutical
manufacturers. "When you're sitting in business school,
define the coolest thing you could do, and it would probably have
to do with pharmaceuticals, health care or technology," he
says. "And here we are, an Internet company focused on the top
pharmaceutical manufacturers, and we're being embraced by the
buyers to the point that they're hugging us at trade
shows."
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While buyers have warmed up to the ChannelLink concept,
wholesalers such as Cardinal Health, where Roth served in various
positions for 10 years, cringed at such a business model. In
response to Roth's new company, wholesalers announced their own
exchange, as did medical surgical manufacturers intending to add
pharmaceutical products. But despite the head wind, Roth negates
intimidation with confidence: ChannelLink's niche-name-brand
pharmaceutical manufacturers and fragmented pharmacy buyers-goes
beyond what he believes wholesalers can achieve. And, he says,
"there are always governmental eyes threatening any kind of
collusion implication, so the lawyers we've spoken to don't
see the manufacturers coming together to rally behind
that."
When you create a new business model, which Roth did when he
introduced the trade exchange now recognized by industry experts,
competition will undoubtedly pop up. For Roth, it's only
validation. But when your former boss, after hearing about your
idea, hops on a corporate jet just to talk it down to one of your
co-founders, it's gotta sting. "That's been really
awkward, because if you asked anyone at Cardinal what I was like,
they would've defined me as extremely loyal and
dedicated," says Roth. "But within two weeks, all that
unraveled. The friendships I made in my 10-year career
there-it's interesting how it all changes."
Michael Reed, 31, and Alan Ezeir, 32, co-founders of dotcom
domain name alternative WebSite.ws in Carlsbad, California, have also had to
defend their idea from defamation. But with projected 2000 sales of
$20 million, up $17 million from 1999, it hasn't been too
worrisome. Take, for instance, Scott Blum, founder of Internet
superstore Buy.com and Internet incubator ThinkTank, who, according
to Ezeir, told him that ".ws" would be a huge branding
challenge. The sentiment was seconded by another industry insider
in a San Diego Union-Tribune article. But the comments
didn't stop Ezeir: "AT&T was the only [long-distance]
company in 1984, and then MCI came along, and a lot of people
probably said there's no way another phone company's going
to have the ability to come on the scene."
Ezeir, a "serial entrepreneur" who met Reed when he
tried to couple telecommunications and the Internet in 1996,
hasn't spoken with Buy.com's Blum since WebSite.ws topped
60,000 registrations just 120 days after launching service in
spring 2000. He still hopes to work with Blum in the future,
though.
Other than discouraging words, WebSite.ws hasn't encountered
any all-out assaults from competitors. But if you rattle an
industry like William Roth did, it's inevitable other parties
will try to counteract the threat. According to Michael
O'Connor, an executive consultant for corporations at The
Fortunate 500 Foundation in Naples, Florida, and co-author of
The Platinum Rule (Warner Books) and
People Smarts (Pfeiffer & Co.), when
rival companies conspire against you, values (or lack thereof) come
into play. To put it plainly, ethics are the least of
competitors' concerns when their survival is at stake.
You could join them, but watch your back. "The only way you
get people not to be 'shady' competitors is if you do
something for them, and they play the Godfather game with
you-'You scratch my back; I'll scratch yours,' "
says O'Connor. "But when you no longer have anything to
offer them, then you're no longer going to get the same
response from them."
If partnering with competitors is out of the question, but their
attacks show no signs of stopping, O'Connor recommends
confronting them. "The best way to approach them is
directly," he says. "Say, 'I understand your goal is
to win, and I want you to understand my goal, in terms of our
relationship, is simply not to lose.' " A signed legal
agreement helps, of course. "Otherwise," says
O'Connor, "just don't bother with those individuals.
Create relationships with [those who have] a value system more
likely to contribute to your success."
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