Michael E. Gerber
The E-Myth Revisited
That Fatal Assumption is: if you understand the technical work of a business, you understand a business that does that technical work. (Location 226)
The technical work of a business and a business that does that technical work are two totally different things! (Location 228)
All of them believing that by understanding the technical work of the business they are immediately and eminently qualified to run a business that does that kind of work. And it’s simply not true! In fact, rather than being their greatest single asset, knowing the technical work of their business becomes their greatest single liability. (Location 235)
Tags: pink
All such “going-for-broke” companies were started with an Entrepreneurial Seizure by a Technician who focused on the wrong end of the business, the commodity the business made, rather than the business itself. (Location 771)
Tags: pink
true trust comes from knowing, not from blind faith. (Location 841)
Tags: pink
the Entrepreneurial Model has less to do with what’s done in a business and more to do with how it’s done. The commodity isn’t what’s important—the way it’s delivered is. (Location 1008)
Tags: pink
Note: A fundamental idea in the book and the reason why so many businesses get things wrong
When The Entrepreneur creates the model, he surveys the world and asks: “Where is the opportunity?” Having identified it, he then goes back to the drawing board and constructs a solution to the frustrations he finds among a certain group of customers. A solution in the form of a business that looks and acts in a very specific way, the way the customer needs it to look and act, not The Entrepreneur. (Location 1010)
Tags: pink
Thus, the Entrepreneurial Model does not start with a picture of the business to be created but of the customer for whom the business is to be created. It understands that without a clear picture of that customer, no business can succeed. (Location 1014)
Tags: pink
The Technician, on the other hand, looks inwardly, to define his skills, and only looks outwardly afterward to ask, “How can I sell them?” (Location 1016)
Tags: pink
The resulting business almost inevitably focuses on the thing it sells rather than the way the business goes about it or the customer to whom it’s to be sold. Such a business is designed to satisfy The Technician who created it, not the customer. To The Entrepreneur, the business is the product. To The Technician, the product is what he delivers to the customer. To The Technician, the customer is always a problem. Because the customer never seems to want what The Technician has to offer at the price at which he offers it. To The Entrepreneur, however, the customer is always an opportunity. Because The Entrepreneur knows that within the customer is a continuing parade of changing wants begging to be satisfied. All The Entrepreneur has to do is find out what those wants are and what they will be in the future. As a result, the world is a continuing surprise, a treasure hunt to The Entrepreneur. To The Technician, however, the world is a place that never seems to let him do what he wants to do; it rarely applauds his efforts; it rarely appreciates his work; it rarely, if ever, appreciates him. To The Technician, the world always wants something he doesn’t know how to give it. (Location 1017)
Tags: pink
Business Format Franchise is built on the belief that the true product of a business is not what it sells but how it sells it. (Location 1113)
Tags: pink
The true product of a business is the business itself. (Location 1114)
Tags: pink
THE FRANCHISE PROTOTYPE (Location 1204)
Tags: pink
The Prototype acts as a buffer between hypothesis and action. (Location 1218)
Tags: pink
The system runs the business. The people run the system. (Location 1221)
Tags: pink
Discipline, standardization, and order were the watchwords. (Location 1232)
Tags: pink
Ray Kroc was determined that the customer would not equate inexpensive with inattentive or cheap. Nowhere had a business ever paid so much attention to the little things, to the system that guaranteed the customer that her expectations would be fulfilled in exactly the same way every time. (Location 1234)
Tags: pink
Ray Kroc’s system left the franchisee with as little operating discretion as possible. This was accomplished by sending him through a rigorous training program before ever being allowed to operate the franchise. (Location 1237)
Tags: pink
Note: Training is often overlooked. Time and time again I have seen where businesses train to the extent where they almost make it impossible for people to get it wrong consequently make it impossible for people to fail and build a strong business system
At McDonald’s, they called it the University of Hamburgerology, or Hamburger U. (Location 1239)
Tags: pink
the franchisee learned not how to make hamburgers but how to run the system that makes hamburgers—the (Location 1239)
Tags: pink
Once the franchisee learns the system, he is given the key to his own business. Thus, the name: Turn-Key Operation. (Location 1246)
Tags: pink
great businesses are not built by extraordinary people but by ordinary people doing extraordinary things. (Location 1336)
Tags: pink
The typical owner of a small business prefers highly skilled people because he believes they make his job easier—he can simply leave the work to them. (Location 1345)
Tags: pink
the typical small business owner prefers Management by Abdication to Management by Delegation. (Location 1346)
Tags: pink
A business that looks orderly says to your customer that he can trust in the result delivered and assures your people that they can trust in their future with you. (Location 1372)
Tags: pink
There was absolutely no consistency to the experience. (Location 1403)
Tags: pink
“Burnt Child” Syndrome. This is where a child is alternately punished and rewarded for the same kind of behavior. This form of behavior in a parent can be disastrous to the child; he never knows what to expect or how to act. It can also be disastrous to the customer. (Location 1416)
Tags: pink
What you do in your model is not nearly as important as doing what you do the same way, each and every time. (Location 1420)
Tags: pink
Go to work on your business rather than in it, (Location 1453)
Tags: pink
The Franchise Prototype is the name for my business-as-a-product. It’s a way of thinking about my business as one complete thing, a whole, you might say, that looks, acts, and feels in a clearly definable way, apart from me. Independent of me. (Location 1498)
Tags: pink
Innovation is often thought of as creativity. But as Harvard Professor Theodore Levitt points out, the difference between creativity and Innovation is the difference between thinking about getting things done in the world and getting things done. Says Professor Levitt, “Creativity thinks up new things. Innovation does new things.” (Location 1519)
Tags: pink
Orchestration is the elimination of discretion, or choice, at the operating level of your business. (Location 1606)
Tags: pink
The need for Orchestration is based on the absolutely quantifiable certainty that people will do only one thing predictably—be unpredictable. (Location 1625)
Tags: pink
But for your business to be predictable, your people must be. (Location 1626)
Tags: pink
Your Business Development Program is the step-by-step process through which you convert your existing business—or the one you’re about to create—into a perfectly organized model for thousands more just like it. Your Business Development Program is the vehicle through which you can create your Franchise Prototype. The Program is composed of seven distinct steps: 1. Your Primary Aim 2. Your Strategic Objective 3. Your Organizational Strategy 4. Your Management Strategy 5. Your People Strategy 6. Your Marketing Strategy 7. Your Systems Strategy (Location 1739)
Tags: pink
The chief characteristic of the volitional act is the existence of a purpose to be achieved; the clear vision of an aim. Robert Assagioli The Act of Will (Location 1750)
Tags: pink
What do I value most? (Location 1756)
Tags: pink
Don Juan in Carlos Castaneda’s A Separate Peace: “The difference between a warrior and an ordinary man is that a warrior sees everything as a challenge, while an ordinary man sees everything as either a blessing or a curse.” (Location 1795)
Tags: pink
Your Strategic Objective is a very clear statement of what your business has to ultimately do for you to achieve your Primary Aim. (Location 1928)
Tags: pink
unless your Business Strategy and Plan can be reduced to a set of simple and clearly stated standards, it will do more to confuse you than to help. (Location 1937)
Tags: pink
It is designed for implementation, not for rationalization. (Location 1940)
Tags: pink
Ask anyone what kind of business they’re in and they’ll instinctively respond with the name of the commodity they sell. “We’re in the computer business.” Or, “We’re in the hot tub business.” Always the commodity, never the product. (Location 1979)
Tags: pink
The commodity is the thing your customer actually walks out with in his hand. The product is what your customer feels as he walks out of your business. What he feels about your business, not what he feels about the commodity. (Location 1981)
Tags: pink
Charles Revson, the founder of Revlon and an extraordinarily successful entrepreneur, once said about his company: “In the factory Revlon manufactures cosmetics, but in the store Revlon sells hope.” (Location 1985)
Tags: pink
nobody’s interested in the commodity. People buy feelings. (Location 1998)
Tags: pink
Demographics is the science of marketplace reality. It tells you who your customer is. (Location 2005)
Tags: pink