Capitalism With a Human Face

My wife asked me to go with her to a very American business event on Saturday, November 25, 2008. It was called The Tahoe Entrepreneurship Summit.
This was part of a bigger worldwide event called the Global Entrepreneurship Week. In truth, I didn’t really want to go. I had quite a bit of work to do and the idea of spending my day listening to presentations on how to run or start up a business didn’t really fill me with great deal of joy.
But in the end, I agreed to go with the proviso that if it was really boring we could go home early, which would allow me to get on with my late web design projects!
The drive from Carson City to Lake Tahoe was beautiful, as usual. It was one of the man reasons that I agreed to go. I'll take any opportunity to see Lake Tahoe.
The Summit was being held at Sierra Nevada College, which is a fantastic looking campus near the shores of Lake Tahoe.

Was this Going to be a Long Day?

Things didn’t look too good as I read the list of speakers; it was a mixture of local State and Federal government agents for business development and a few other speakers. I'm not being funny here, but I have heard the same speeches from these government agents on many occasions over the past couple of years.
In general they do a good job, but the prospect of listening again to how they can help new business owners construct a business plan didn’t bode well for this being a really useful event. I did see that in the afternoon there was going to be a panel from eWomen, which I am a member of, a national networking organization with its local branch run by Kymberlee Simantel.
Kymberlee is an individual who just brings a smile to my face and generally makes you feel better about yourself. So, I’m always glad to show my support for eWomen but they were going to present in the late afternoon. The big question: Could I last that long?

The Reason I Listened Up

Then I looked again and the first speaker was Roger Wittenberg. I thought this was going to be interesting because Roger is a very interesting guy! See, a lot of people talk about doing business. But Roger is that rare individual that has really has done a lot of business during his career!
As Roger spoke about his business career, it was obviously that he was speaking from his heart. He talked about his first business venture, chicken feed. You know it takes a good speaker to make chicken feed interesting! And Roger made it very interesting! Then he talked about how he set up his next company, Trex, which made him a very wealthy individual.

From Chicken Feed to Business Peaks

What made it really interesting for me was that Roger explained some of his business logic connected to his general business decisions. A lot of people think that to be really successful in business you just need luck. In some ways I do agree with this. In business you do need to be lucky. But in a lot of ways you make your own luck. Having a full understanding of an industry and its particular financial structures will help make you be lucky!
Roger then talked about how he sold Trex to Mobil Oil and about the culture of the Oil Company’s organization. Then he discussed his business logic in his decision to try and buy back Trex from Mobil Oil when Mobil was merged with Exxon Oil.
He told us all how he borrowed $30 million and had to put all his own and family personal assets at risk to buy back Trex from Exxon.
Also Roger talked about his latest business venture, Boulder Bay Resort, which he hopes will be not only be a business success but be a clear example for what he sees as the real sustainable commercial future of Lake Tahoe and Northern Nevada.

Business CAN Help Protect the Environment

I personally felt that there was a clear philosophy to all his business choices over his long business career; apart from making money, this has to do with key ideas of sustainability and protecting the local and national environment.
After his presentation, I approached Roger and we had quite a long chat about sustainability and business. I was slightly depressed but also rejuvenated by his words.
The depression came when Roger pointed out to me that I was deluding myself about how the upper echelons of corporate America really thinks of sustainability and the environment. (I'm too optimistic there.)
The rejuvenation was connected to meeting somebody like Roger.
- Jonathan