Entrepreneurial Ease Canada or USA?

 Develop promoters both internally and externally. Strong personalities require strong personalities around them. When putting together your team, resist the temptation of flattery. Rather than complementing the boss, you want people whose skills complement your own. The Lance Armstrong Foundation became Livestrong. The external affairs director commented, "When you have a famous face as the head of your organization, the urgency to explain what you do isn't that great—but now the urgency is really great."The star determines whether we live or die. To avoid that situation, pay attention to the following red flags: Follow the entire recipe. Cooking a full meal requires more than one ingredient. The same is true for creating an enduring brand. Your organization must deliver on the promise of your personality.

Make sure someone is monitoring all aspects, from operations to customer service.

Locate a "left brain." Stars are typically right-brained, which means they think more intuitively, imaginatively, and creatively. Fantastic, but your venture also requires someone who is more left-brained—analytical, rigorous, and willing to delve knee-deep into the data. Howard Schultz. Raymond Kroc. Ingvar Kamprad is the founder of Ikea. Anita Roddick is the founder of The Body Shop. Blake Mycoskie is the founder of Toms Shoes. Transformer entrepreneurs drive change. They typically work in traditional industries but aspire to transform their organizations or causes through innovation and modernization. Ray Kroc introduced franchising to the mundane hamburger drive-through; Ingvar Kamprad transformed staid furniture showrooms into sleek Swedish designs in trendy warehouse settings. Change can be beneficial, but will it be sufficient to restore growth to a sector that has lost its luster? Consider the case of Endeavor entrepreneur René Freudenberg. In 2006, he took over his father's industrial grease business in Guadalajara, Mexico. On the surface, what could be less glamorous than grease? Nonetheless, this lowly niche, which includes everything from machine oils to rust preventatives, generates $8 billion in revenue worldwide each year. René's father established Latin America's first grease producer, but his son wanted to change things. "I shared my dad's philosophy, but at a certain point I no longer admired him because he kept repeating the same things," he told me. 

To accomplish this, René rebranded the company. 

He attempted to make lubrication sexy. He started referring to Interlub as a "world leader in the field of tribology," which is a fancy word for "friction." He added jazz music to the company's website and changed the tagline to "X-treme lubrication." The moves worked. Interlub controlled half of the Mexican market and sold products in 30 countries. Interlub's annual revenues increased to $27 million in 2013, and its profits more than doubled. René clearly demonstrated entrepreneurial prowess. He transformed a decades-old company that produced a boring product into a cutting-edge manufacturer of a hot commodity that people paid top dollar for. He even added an environmental twist: biodegradability. However, he and his company were not without flaws. Despite the company's glamor, Interlub continued to manufacture grease for factories, a decidedly nineteenth-century product. Also, would bigger and better-financed competitors eventually reclaim the market share that Interlub had taken? Finally, René was not a great manager. He wasn't cold. "Enough," he told us. She "cared too much about protecting people" yet "needed to make decisions faster." Could he sustain significant growth? René, by my definition, is a transformer. Many transformers, like him, are socially conscious and strive to make the world a better place. Consider Toms Shoes' policy of donating one pair of shoes to the poor for every pair sold to a customer, or The Body Shop's stance against animal testing. Transformers transform the old into something new, often by adding a cause.

They also have questions: When René took over, he shifted the emphasis to the high-end market and green technologies. Interlub established itself as an industry leader in environmentally friendly, custom-made products that increased efficiency but were more expensive. He set an ambitious goal of 20% annual growth.

Is the "transformation" on which they are focusing truly meaningful, or is it just window dressing?

Is the "change-the-world" mission supported by a solid business model? Will the entrepreneur be able to overcome the traditional barriers that have held back its industry? Will the mission have to be abandoned in order to take the initiative seriously? Will selling more imply selling out? A good example of the dramatic impact—and potential drawbacks—of transformers can be found in one of the more colorful entrepreneurs of recent generations. Herb Kelleher, a Texas lawyer, and a partner developed the concept for Southwest Airlines in 1967 on the back of a cocktail napkin. They spent four years fighting lawsuits before flying their first plane. Almost every aspect of their business model threatened traditional carriers. While other airlines flew a variety of aircraft, Southwest flew only one, the Boeing 737, which reduced maintenance costs. While other airlines promoted their in-flight services, Southwest emphasized their absence—better to keep prices low. While most airlines used a hub-and-spoke model, Southwest flew point-to-point, frequently landing at secondary airports. Since 1973, the company has made a profit every year. The company's image revolved around its founder. Kelleher was a renegade who wore Stetsons, drank bourbon, and chain smoked. He told the truth about the crappy service of most airlines and thus advanced the