'AMERICAN INVENTOR' JUDGE WANTS TO HELP SMALL BUSINESSES
Salesby5 hosts Doug Hall to San Antonio
San Antonio — January 15, 2007 — Doug Hall, a well-known product developer and a judge on ABC TV’s “American Inventor,” wants to save the nation’s competitive edge.
He believes he can do that by giving small businesses the same advantages that big corporations have. His reasoning goes like this — because small businesses created 85 percent of the major commercial breakthroughs since World War II, why not provide them the kind of coaching and forecasting that Fortune 100 companies buy?
“Corporate America isn’t good at inventing new things. It’s good at buying those ideas and commercializing them,” Hall said.
Hall’s goal brought him to San Antonio this week for a two-day session with the staff of Miner Corp., a call center and product servicing company that helps national retail chains with their inventory handling.
The Miner visit was Hall’s first stop in a campaign to ramp up the creativity of small business culture. He wants small companies to get the same kind of consulting that companies like Nike and Walt Disney enjoy — only at more affordable rates.
“It’s time to open it up to the masses,” Hall said.
Hall’s forecasting models for Fortune 100 companies can cost $250,000. “For small business, I want to cut that cost to $500,” he said.
Hall left Procter & Gamble after 10 years to start his own invention company and a market research firm.
He also opened Eureka! Ranch, an 80-acre retreat in Cincinnati where top executives learn new ways to grow their companies.
Erik Darmstetter, a San Antonio-based business consultant, went through Hall’s program at his own expense.
“Outside of the ranch, Darmstetter’s the most knowledgeable about what we do,” Hall said.
Miner Corp. is a client of Darmstetter’s, and some Miner executives were at a Houston seminar when Hall explained his intention of expanding his program to 400 centers by Labor Day.
What impressed Hall about Miner was its brief history of remarkable growth and the company’s eagerness.
“They volunteered immediately,” Hall said.
CEO Philip Miner and President Jeff Schmeck co-founded San Antonio-based Miner Fleet Management Group — the nerve center of Miner Corp.
Both are fanatics about innovation and they initially hired Darmstetter, the owner of Sales by 5, to teach them strategies for business growth.
Fleet Management Group was founded in 2001 and over the past five years claims 578 percent revenue growth. The private company, which doesn’t release its earnings, reported revenue of $50 million in 2006.
The idea for the company was hatched over beers between friends.
Schmeck, then a materials handling supervisor at H.E. Butt Grocery Co.’s main warehouse, and Miner, a salesman of loading dock equipment, thought there should be a better way to equip and service parts in a warehouse or department store stockroom.
They pooled their money and specialized in selling and servicing such things as dock lifts, pallet jacks and trash compactors.
“The first national contract was with CompUSA,” Miner said. “We didn’t want to go national at first; we wanted to build credibility and trust within the Southwest region.”
But CompUSA said that to keep its business, Miner needed to expand out of Texas and provide it with a national program. Miner started companies in Arizona and Florida, but it couldn’t grow quickly enough.
To knit together a coast-to-coast operation, Miner searched out local service companies in major urban centers that the service center could refer calls to. That was the start of the National Service Partner Network.
Miner’s idea of an innovation might be just a quicker way to get a better high-speed door installed or repaired, but that might be what a company needs to stay ahead of its competition.
“Most of what makes America work isn’t flashy stuff,” Hall said. “It’s about the nuts and bolts. It’s about real people who make this country run.”
Hall and Darmstetter put the Miner staff through a systematic work session to come up with a list of ideas to improve the company. Darmstetter will continue working with Miner, but Hall left with a commitment that should benefit his grand plan.
“Miner agreed to help us validate a sales forecasting model,” Hall said.
Sales arising from implementation of innovations will then be tracked according to the forecasts.