Dealing With the Tough Stuff Practical Wisdom for Running a Values-Driven Business

Through decades of running their own businesses, Fraser and Lorimer have learned about dealing with tough issues. The authors relate true, sometimes shocking, stories about their companies that exemplify the hardships other entrepreneurs may encounter.

Margot Fraser is the founder and former CEO, president, and majority shareholder of Birkenstock USA. She retired from active leadership in 2002. The company is the sole importer of Birkenstock footwear in the United States and sells to more than 3,005 retailers, including 200 licensed, privately owned stores. When she started the business out of her home in 1967, ergonomic, functional footwear was unknown in the United States and was met with resistance and ridicule. Her belief in the product, and her undying conviction that others would recognize its value once they could get them on their feet, helped her persevere and slowly educate the public about the importance of foot health. This helped to establish a new category of footwear—Casual Comfort— an accomplishment that led to her induction into the National Shoe Retailers Hall of Fame. In the same year she was named the Ernst & Young Northern California Entrepreneur of the Year. She accomplished all that without any prior formal business education. She had only to follow her vision and common sense. However, continued learning was important to her. She finally attended the Executive Program for Smaller Companies at the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, and returned for an intensive marketing course the following year. She established an ESOP at her company as a way to share the profits with her employees. She also used it as an exit strategy.
Five years later, the ESOP acquired all the remaining shares and sold the business to the German manufacturer two years after that, dissolving the ESOP. Margot currently serves on the boards of the Presidio College of Management in San Francisco and the Family Service Agency of Marin in San Rafael. She speaks at conferences, women’s groups, and business incubators to encourage new entrepreneurs to take the leap into an independent future.
Lisa Lorimer is the former CEO, president, and majority owner of Vermont Bread Company in Brattleboro, Vermont. She sold a majority stake in her company to the private equity firm Charterhouse Group and partnered with it to create the largest natural and certified organic baked- goods company in the United States. The company has been renamed Charter Baking Company and services supermarkets and natural product stores under the brands of Vermont Bread, Baldwin Hill, The Baker, Rudi’s Organic, and Matthew’s All Natural, as well as private labels for various grocery store chains and other well-known national bakeries. During her twenty-three-year tenure at the company, Vermont Bread Company was the largest majority woman- owned business in the state and was listed as one of the top ten fastest growing companies in Vermont. Lisa is a graduate of the Owner/President Management Program at Harvard Business School and has served on the boards of Charter Baking Company, Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility, Union Institute & University/Vermont College, Vermont Community Foundation, the Women’s Crisis Center, and Chittenden Bank. She speaks at conferences, seminars, leadership institutes, colleges, and business schools about lessons learned from growing her company.

Letter from the Editor of the Social Venture Network Series
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Telling the Truth about Values-Based Business
Chapter One: Conquering Cash
Practical Wisdom: Own Your Numbers
Chapter Two: Coping with Everyday Stressors
Chapter Three: Learning to Trust Yourself
Chapter Four: Remembering to Trust Yourself
Practical Wisdom: Create an Advisory Board
Chapter Five: Wrestling with Goliath
Chapter Six: Facing Forces Beyond Your Control
Chapter Seven: Managing Your Mistakes
Chapter Eight: Playing President
Chapter Nine: Moving On
Conclusion: Tell Your Story
About the Authors
About the Contributors