James Olan Hutcheson is the grandson of the patriarch of Olan Mills, Inc., the world’s leading photography company. He began his career with Olan Mills as a part-time telemarketer, eventually assuming responsibility for its most important operating division, Olan Mills Studios. In 1995, he left the company to create a family business consulting firm and since then has become a frequent speaker, national media spokesperson, and author on all aspects of managing a closely held firm. Hutcheson has been featured in national media such as the Wall Street Journal, Nation’s Business, Success, CNBC, the Dallas Business Journal, the Globe and Mail, and the Financial Times. Hutcheson holds degrees in psychology and sociology and a master’s degree in business administration.
INTRODUCTION
Building Companies That Last
A search of any electronic database of books will reveal scores of titles containing the words business or success. Everybody, it often seems, is looking for the keys to business success—and almost as many are offering it. Portraits of Success doesn’t propose a single key, however, nor is the plan presented for everybody.
Portraits of Success offers an approach for business leaders with profit-and-loss responsibility. I interpret that broadly to include owners, CEOs, CFOs, and senior executives as well as department heads. It’s for leaders who have a long-term perspective, those who look beyond the next quarterly numbers or other short-range financial goals.
It’s also for leaders who are managing and leading going concerns with the necessary financial controls already in place. My plan is not to advise companies in critical turnaround situations or startups where the aim is to cash out quickly through an initial public offering or sale of the company. Portraits of Success is intended to enable healthy businesses survive long term, through leadership cultivation and succession. These words will have the greatest impact on leaders building companies, not looking for immediate monetization—and for making them last decades, not helping them survive the next few weeks.
Portraits of Success is designed and appropriate for an exceptionally broad audience of leaders, companies, and industries. In my long career, I have worked with, and so direct my comments toward, closely held firms, including family-owned enterprises. Managers and leaders of small and medium-sized companies as well as those in multibillion-dollar corporations can practice and profit from these concepts—and have. These concepts have been honed in companies that manufacture, distribute, or provide a service within industries as diverse as agriculture and ranching to telecommunications, from health care to food service, all with positive results. Furthermore, the advisors to all these firms, including bankers, accountants, attorneys, consultants, private equity fund managers, and financial planners are ideal audiences for Portraits of Success.
The power of the concepts lies in their comprehensiveness coupled with a refreshing simplicity. My clients have taught me that advice does not have to be complicated to be good. For example, washing your hands is regarded by many medical experts to be the single greatest advancement in the history of health care. Simple, yet profound. Occam’s Razor is a theory that states that, given essentially equal choices, the simplest choice is the best. So it often is with successful business decisions.
These concepts, however, don’t cover every issue faced by a company. You won’t find anything here about spurring innovative product development or managing rapid international expansion, for instance. The common thread in these concepts is humanity. They are about people—managing and leading people, helping people achieve, allowing them to be happy, and encouraging them to work together productively. I have seen and I believe, given a sound business concept along with adequate capitalization and financial controls, that people are the greatest advantage in the long-term survival and success of every business.
WHAT IS SUCCESS?
As a nation, we obsess about achieving success. We talk about it and read about it. We watch and listen to others who claim to "have it" more than any other people on Earth. How to get it, how to keep it, how to enjoy it, and even, for some, how to keep our enemies from it have become the preoccupation and pastime for millions of Americans. The techniques and stories of success dominate the news and reportage of business, entertainment, politics, sports, and even personal relationships. It has always been so, and we are always going to talk about success in this way. But lost in the ongoing debate is the answer to a key question: What is success?
Some view success in the same manner as pornography, saying, "I’ll know it when I see it." The problem with this flexible attitude is that the criteria are too fuzzy and shift with each new development. Because many don’t have a clear map to success, they will almost certaily drift off course during the journey. Like the captain of the sailboat with no destination in mind, any wind is the right wind. For these people, Portraits of Success will have immediate and obvious application.
No matter how you view success, the first important step is to write your own definition. Success is not a one-size-fits-all proposition. For instance, one person’s success may consist of getting and keeping a lifelong job. For another, success may be realized by working at a wide variety of interesting positions. Others find success in their private life, considering a good marriage and well adjusted children to be the only real standard. Others want it all.
