CEO Intern Cast Diary

Hi America I am back, sorry I left you for so long. As is always the case when we speak I have mountains share so sit, read, envision, and engage this blog for time is its spine and immortality is its reward. This past week has served to be another awakening for me, you may ask how many times will I wake? To that question, my response is simple; I will stop when the sun has finally set.

Lets move on to the details of this past week now. This week the five interns, Mr. Paulin and our producer Prescott started the city tours (Parker came too). St Louis was up first and in this city, we did two sales presentations one to a billion dollar military contractor known as DRS and the other to “a plant manager” of Omega steel. On a side note, I put plant manager in quotes because that is the repose I was given when I asked if making a trip to omega steel would be worth our time and gas. As you can imagine getting the door to DRS was no easy task, but thanks to some persistence as well as a few inside connections, we made it to a fancy conference room. Everyone needed to be an American citizen, and have a passport to get into the building, and that is one of the many reasons why Prescott’s camera was not allowed to enter the building. We asked the camera if it had a passport and got no response so we left it in the car with the king of the castle. Sorry we didn’t get the sales pitch on camera America, the presentation was textbook, take my word for it.

In the meeting with us from DRS there was a CTO, metallurgist, several other engineers, and a logician, oh my a logician (as he shakes his head and smiles). This sales pitch is exactly what school is supposed to be preparing me for but ironically, this experience can’t be taught in a class room America there is no simulating reality there is just reality so after graduation, at whatever level that may be remember one thing, school has started (another side note). Four interns presented a power point we created to kick things off.  From slide two our audiences was engaged and asking questions about information on the slides so, we had to pull out our terminator Mr. Paulin earlier than expected. He shot there question out of the sky as if he was shooting trap or skeet, PULL! After the slides were done, the questions continued and Mr. Paulin just kept loading shells.

When the meeting was finished, we made a stop toured Wachovia’s headquarters and continued to our 3’oclock with Omega. I had my reservations about omega but either way I look at it my resulting response is the same. It was an experience for the ages. Omega was like going into a large garage. There was no fancy table or leather chairs like DRS just a plant manager and an assistant in an office. We stood huddled facing the manager while Mr. Paulin politely engaged the man in conversation then bid him farewell. In one day we experienced both sides of the sales experience, one side exceeded expectations and the other was reality check.

Sales was not the only thing we learned about on the trip though, we also learned the importance of being prepared, polite, punctual, organized, aware, intuitive, energetic, dedicated and the list goes on America. The amount I learned in one day as been the theme of this whole trip and that is what  brings me to my current predicament, a question I have been struggling with since week two. The question is how do I say thank you to the Paulin’s for a summer like no other, one that has been filled with life lessons that currency can’t pay for, that a thank you letter alone cannot service. Let me put it this way I have taken a loan from the Paulin bank. My loan does not have an interest rate because the Paulin’s are not concerned with a rate of return but instead with the rate at which I learn. I call it a loan because I plan to repay. I know that I am deeply in debt and since time in this case is inflation, I will never be able to fully repay my debt. The answer then to the question posed above is time and service. The only way for me to make payments on my loan is to use my time and my hands to foster and maintain the relationship that has been established in my time here.

America you stay thank you for the intangible by giving of yourself and never leaving the thoughts of the ones you are indebted to.  Irie I, One Love. Charlie H.         

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We've got only a few days left here and soo much work to do.  We're almost finished with our plan to double the revenue of the company, which has been a long time coming.(We were supposed to have a one pager at the end of the first week)

The current plan is to finish this plan as soon as possible and talk it over with the chairman by Monday.  Then we're going to merge it with a plan that he has and Present something to the employees.  Hopefully they'll like the ideas and 

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After a long, particularly stressful day of work, we did what all CEOs do: enjoy a round of golf at a prestigious country club.

Now, by prestigious country club I mean the aerated corn field across the gravel path from the cabin. Oh by the way, we had an extreme thunder storm rampage through Decatur just a few hours prior to our excursion. You can only imagine the mud.

Young and stupid, Charlie and I hopped in the golf cart with the Cryo treated golf club and a few balls and headed for the first tee box. Standing in deep brown mud, Charlie and I fired our first shots into a distant corn bushel, the first green. Naturally, we chased down each shot in the golf cart until we finally holed out. Warmed up, we headed for the signature hole. Following the muddy slope down to a small pond (really just a huge mud puddle), we parked the cart and teed up. After launching our drives to an imaginary green, we hopped back in the cart. Funny story… Golf carts and mud don’t mix well. Before we knew it, the rear two wheels were completely submerged by the viscous mud. In grizzly effort, Charlie shoved the cart from the rear as I pulsed the gas: one foot sliding in the mud, the other on the pedal. After a seemingly endleess twenty minutes of panting, cursing, and flying mud, the cart emerged victoriously from the black diamond slope.

Returning back to the cabin, we find Gabe stumbling around as usual. Covered in mud, all we do is stare blankly at Gabe.

“Aw, you guys went off-roading without me,” exclaimed Gabe, shoving Charlie out of the passenger seat and signaling for me to go back.

I figured, “Well, I won’t make that mistake again.”

Long story short, Gabe and I, end up in the same ditch with mud up to our knees.

“Charlie, bring the Tahoe,” Gabe whimpered. “We got the cart stuck again.”

In another purely savage (for lack of a better word) attempt, Charlie and Gabe pushed the cart through the mud as I steered into the pitch black night. Within minutes, the cart sprawled up the hill. Like heroes returning from war, Charlie, Gabe and I, returned back to the cabin, and swore never again.

Truly a lesson well learned. I hope…

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It’s interesting to observe different leadership styles.  Some people lead using a well-defined and straightforward system of stated goals and enforceable expectations. Others lead through negotiation, empowerment, and subtle guidance. Still others lead by deliberately stepping back and letting others take a more vocal role. After all, not everyone can be at the helm for a team to function properly. And of course, there are those who lead through intimidation and threats. Part of the fun (among other things) of teamwork is watching the gradual definition of everyone’s unique working and leading style.

When I lived in Paris, I loved to sit in outdoor cafes and people-watch over coffee. It’s an intriguing exercise because the subjects are so unique. The petite man with the gray cashmere scarf, purple cufflinks, and a trimmed mustache—was he rushing off to close a deal? Meet his wife? Finish his novel? Stock up on fresh figs? Accept a top-secret assignment? And the graceful girl with the Pierre Hermé box of macarons in one hand and a baguette in the other—was she meeting friends for a picnic? Using macarons as a bribe? What was really in that baguette?

The intrigue comes from the knowledge that you will never actually meet these individuals, thus allowing for imagination, with a dash of whimsical, to run rampant.

On a team, this is not the case. As we learn more about each other, speculation and room for the imagination are replaced by confirmation of first impressions, surprise by the realization that half those impressions were completely off, and the gradual solidification of feelings of like or dislike, often followed by unconscious (or conscious) compartmentalization and categorization. Oops, sorry those words are so big!

The challenge of working together is not letting personal preferences hinder group progression. As a team, we can’t leave anyone behind nor can we instantaneously change anyone’s working style and personality. We can only try to embrace differences and highlight commonalities, leveraging each other’s strengths to move forward.

What is damaging to a team is when personal bias clouds professional judgment or when a heavy hand usurps reason and rationale. It’s easy to have the loudest voice in the room, but how that factors into the greater picture is a different story. Considering the fact that we’re all here to work towards a common goal without outside incentives, it’s easy to overstep the fragile boundaries of cooperation and democracy and deteriorate into tyranny. Melodramatic, huh? Just making sure you get your daily dose =)

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Our producer deliberately kept us in the dark about how the phone system worked.  As a result, we had all kinds of funny solutions to get things done.  For instance, in lieu of hanging up a call on speakerphone properly, I figured out that hanging the receiver up five times in rapid succession would do the trick.  For the first two weeks this was the only way to ensure that we weren’t still on speaker with someone.

 

Today’s blog isn’t about this though.  Today, Charlie and I have it figured out.  We can park calls, we can call other offices, dial out of the system, we can make announcements!  Right now it’s just me, Charlie, and Prescott (our producer) in the office.  Charlie and I are calling each other, making announcements, and bugging Prescott over the phone.  I just wanted to share how proud I am that we’ve mastered the phone system and spread the word that internal phone systems are the BEST!

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Sales can be broken down to three words: hello, yes or no. Everything in between is competative confusion.

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Hello ladies and gents I know it has been a while since my last blog but I haven’t forgot about you. I have just been thinking so much that my fingers have been paralyzed. Since we last spoke I have been through a weekend and two days of work. On the weekend I went out for my first ever game of golf. It goes without saying that I am not tiger, even though I promised nick that I would go three under par my first time out. I did not go three under par and that’s all I will say about the score card. In addition to the cheers from Mr. Paulin and nick I felt that I took to the game fairly well, I need to work on my drive, keeping my head down, my short game and well in a nut shell I need to practice. The day after golf Mr. Paulin took the whole team to the whole team to six flags. The rides were ok, they are no longer my favorite part of the theme park thanks to age. Not saying I am old though just saying that having my head smashed on rubber gets old fast, now I prefer to play the carnival style games, the ones where someone takes your money and you either shoot water or throw rings to try and win something worth less than what you paid. There is some level of irony present now that I have realized roller coasters don’t excite me as much as they used to. The irony stems from the fact that I was ecstatic when I found out that my empress has never been to six flags in her twenty odd years on this earth; knowing that I offered to take her to six flags for the first time once I returned home. Now that I know she has never been to six flags and I don’t like rides as much, it will be funny to see the expression on my face when we are standing in line.

The week started with six flags and continued with my special delivery also known as insight. The gift of insight was sent by the one and only management guru Mr. Paulin. The gift was given as solution to a subtle conflict that I was having with the group dynamic. Earlier this week I spoke with Mr. Paulin and explained my disdain with where the group interactions and leadership are heading. He helped me understand that some of my concerns stem from an individual bias. When I heard this the first thing that came to mind was “DUH, why didn’t I think of that,” but of course I didn’t think that because, well who points the finger at themselves first. I know how important personal development is, since mom has stressed it to me all my life. My advice America is simple, go out and buy a pair of mirror tint aviators and hold them up to your face. Don’t put the shades on, instead turn them around and tell me what you see. Irie I, One Love. Charlie H.

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Yesterday we started making calls to the companies that we want to deliver presentations to. You would not believe how easy it is to get shut down making cold calls. I just want to tell people that we save companies like theirs money every day. I don't want their social security number, I don't want their date of birth. I want to talk about deep cryogenic tempering, wear resistance, stress relief and stabilization, but some of the people that I called are genuinely skeptical that I am who I say I am and don't want to put me through to any of their engineers. I have some contacts in St Louis, but none at all in Indianapolis, and I know a guy from Chicago. This is going to be tough.

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"Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it." - Henry David Thoreau

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              I honestly can’t believe its July already. Just as we wet our feet in the world of cryogenics and small business management, the end is starting to push forward. With so many challenges, meetings, tasks and goals to complete we needed to organize them. In a simple but innovative approach, Charlie suggested we consolidate all of our personal calendars onto one huge calendar. Now populated by corporate tours, lunch meetings, dinner appointments, sales challenges, and a big red X signifying our last day, we finally have everything in front of us. Like any successful CEO, we must prioritize this mass into time guided goals.

In my mind, we have two major assignments. The first is to initiate and complete five sales challenges in St. Louis, Indianapolis, and Chicago. The second is to generate a report which proposes an action plan to generate 300 Below’s revenue within a reasonable time frame. Individually, each of these could take months to successfully complete. From this point, we have three weeks. Just a little bit of pressure…

As these next weeks progress, each day has never become so valuable. In order to complete our sales challenges, we must engage potential clients on the phone to set up a formal presentation in their office. In order to do so, we must research each company, their industry and craft specific, targeted sales pitches. Not to mention, in our free time (do we have free time?) we must analyze, design, and blueprint the various factors in further improving 300 below.

I think a nice vacation wouldn’t be a bad idea after all of this. ☻

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Yesterday after working in the office I had a feeling that I could not explain but after CrossFit this morning I understand what I was feeling. CrossFit this morning was a seventeen minute workout designed to leave you on the floor. I completed the workout and stood just fine waiting for the next round, which obviously means that I didn’t push hard enough. I view this as a problem but I also see how this habit of mine works in my favor at times because on one end of the coin I have not seen my full potential and at the other end I do need energy to be able to be productive at work. I have experiences like this on a regular basis. Overall I feel that I am selling myself short but at the same time I may just be throwing all of my similar experiences into one pot and analyzing them as a whole, which means that I may not be considering factors unique to a given experience.

The conclusion that I have come to, which is not really a conclusion, is that I need to push myself, in the office, in the gym, everywhere. I was used to getting pushed by tough coaches and mentors in the past and now it’s all self reliance and motivation. This struggle is one that also applies to my responsibilities as CEO because there is no coach standing behind me screaming PUSH, instead all I have to hold to is my internal drive and individual passion for conquering challenges as I engage them. America, aim to leave it all out on the floor. Irie I, One Love. Charlie H.

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One of the most challenging things about this summer is working together as group CEO. I’ve worked in teams all of my life, and I love teamwork for the diversity in perspective and talent that it enables. However, there’s a big difference between vertical and horizontal structure when it comes to group dynamics.  For example, when I was head of the Europe division for Harvard’s International Business Club, I had seven managers reporting to me, and I in turn reported to the club president. We worked together as a group to generate ideas and to divide up tasks, but I was in charge of keeping the division moving forward, organizing the year-long agenda, and making the final decisions. My responsibility was to make sure the group was moving forward and making significant and positive strides towards realizing the club’s greater mission.  This also meant that I reported to the club’s president and that if our division was not doing well, I bore the blunt of the responsibility for under-performance. This system of point people equally allocated authority, responsibility, and accountability.

In most corporations in America, the structure is similar: CEO, COO, CFO, and CIO. Typically, the CEO is responsible for the entire firm. The other officers report to him or her and are responsible for their respective areas within the firm: operations, finance, and information technology. Each level of power comes with a proportional level of responsibility.

As CeoInterns, we individually and collectively are the CEOs, COOs, CFOs, and CIOs of 300 Below. We’re not merely responsible for our individual performance but accountable for our group effort and the results they produce. This means that each day, we not only work with how to improve the company, but are also faced with the perpetual challenge of how to best leverage the team’s individual talents without relegating anyone to a specific role. We’re all here to learn about all aspects of running a firm. Yet we come from different backgrounds and have different strengths and weaknesses. The challenge is now to balance learning and growing with effectiveness and performance.

Moreover, as power is evenly distributed so is responsibility diffused. I think there is a subtle level of hesitancy at being overbearing, but this hesitancy cripples our ability to move forward with optimal speed and efficiency. Because no one person is responsible, there is a conflict of interest between appearing tyrannical (both to the team and on camera), fueled by the disincentive of not having individual responsibilities to account for, and the desire to learn as much as possible, to make the most out of this experience, and to bring positive change and impact to 300 Below.

Much of this conflict is a result of our unfamiliarity with each other and with different working styles. While we’re united in our cause and long-term direction, we come from such diverse backgrounds that there’s a natural ramp-up period in which we first and foremost get to know one another. Unfortunately, the short timeframe that we’re working within necessitates a condensation of this process. Already we’ve made significant strides towards group accountability. At our Monday afternoon group session, we agreed to call each other out and to be unafraid of making quick decisions at the expense of appearing autocratic. As Charles put it, “If I walk in without a shirt on looking absolutely stupid, I want you guys to be comfortable enough to call me out immediately and say, ‘Hey man, put on your shirt.’”

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He who has a 'why' to live, can bear with almost any 'how'. - Friedrich Nietzsche

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Yesterday we started researching companies that we can try to sell to in the area. We're going to give sales presentations to 5 companies in each of three cities. We have to decide what companies to approach and research them and their need for cryogenic treatment. There are hundreds of companies in every major city that would benefit from cryogenic tempering the only question is how large of a company can we walk into, talk to the right person, and sell them on the benefit to the company? If a company makes $1,000,000/year in sales? Probably. $10,000,000/year in sales? We could, but is our time better spent with a $5,000,000/year company, or should we try our luck with a $100,000,000 company? I can't really say at this point. I've never been on a sales trip...

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We finished our preliminary valuation of 300 Below around 4 PM yesterday and left work immediately afterwards to head back to the cabin. With the possible exception of Gabe (who doesn’t like to sleep during the day), we all crashed for a solid round of napping. It’s funny how easily sleep is cut out of the equation for a productive day. When the going gets busy, sleep is often the first to go. Throughout high school and college, pulling all-nighters seemed to be a competition of sorts.

“This week has been so brutal. I’ve only gotten 8 hours of sleep in the last three days.”

“Oh yeah? Well I just pulled two all-nighters in a row... I win!”

Granted, that is an exaggerated and extremely pathetic snapshot of college life today, but there was a subtle stigma attached to getting a full eight to nine hours of sleep a day. Because if you’re sleeping that much, you can’t possibly be working hard or making the most of your time.

But with those conversations on how little we sleep also come trading tips on how to fall asleep in class without the professor noticing, swapping tales of waking up from a nice nap to find yourself the center of attention (having snored, drooled, etc), and laughing over illegible notes that taper off to a squiggle.

Ironically, in all our calculations of productivity, the lack of productivity that results from little sleep is rarely factored in. When you’re handed the reins to a firm and made CEO for eight weeks, it’s hard to not want to hit the ground running and use up every second of your day to the fullest extent. But understanding our physical limitations and being able to view productivity from a long-term perspective is an important lesson to learn.

Looking around at the sleepy faces around the conference table yesterday, we consciously made the decision to put sleep back on the agenda.

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By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest. - Confucius

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I mentioned in a prior blog that I got to do a short intervies with Jay lefler and Kenny Wallace.  I thought that this was a once in a lifetime oportunity, but I may have been mistaken.  Our associate producer has been calling some race teams that will be in the area in coming weeks and getting some promising responses.  I'm really excited, because 300 Below has been working with the race teams for over 15 years.  I would love to get the chance to interview more drivers.  I would also love to interview thier engineers and pit crews to.

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           Before coming out to the Cabin and starting CEO Intern, I never really gave much thought to the lifestyle out in the Midwest. Even though Prescott and his parents constantly mentioned that life and the people out here were much simpler than the East coast, the thought process never initiated. Flying into and wandering around in down town Chicago, I couldn’t feel too much of a difference from New York City. Well, Chicago was a bit cleaner and the people were nicer. Nothing too substantial…

            After entering Decatur, and being immersed into a culture of Wal-Mart, tractor pulling, outdoor music festivals, Steak n’ Shakes, horseshoes, and the Chevy Silverado, I knew this would be different. A welcome difference nonetheless.

            It is difficult to track the progressive change in my outlook and appreciation for life out here. But I must say, after more than two week acclimating to this environment, I actually kind of enjoy it. The simple things such as lighting fireworks, skeet shooting, or talking to the people in town have really come to materialize with all of us. It seems to be easier to understand and appreciate the people and the lifestyle of the Midwest without any of the congestion and clutter of suburban life. So far this trip has been quite humbling and will surely create some lifelong memories.

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Well, I'm still at the office working to get everything prepped for tomorrow.  Everyone was a bit tired today from staying up until 2am and playing RockBand, and I certainly felt their pain after waking up at 5:30am for our CrossFit workout in Decatur at 6am.  We've had a very productive week on the production side and we continue to get help from entrepreneurs and CEOs around the nation.  Xerox continues to be most helpful (the new Solid Ink Phaser printers they sent are very cool) and I'm anxious to try and get Mike Porcaro at Intuit to engage our team.  Gary Swart, the CEO of ODesk, spoke briefly yesterday with the CEO Interns about working together to solve some of the IT problems here at 300 Below.  They are considering a switch to Linux for more security and Aladdin Systems has also been helpful in contemplating a new cryogenic processor redesign that will integrate HASP technology to prevent unauthorized copies of the new user interface.  I also had a productive phone call with one of the VPs at TidalTV.com about creating a new CEO Intern channel or integrating our programming with a network like MEN7.  We're currently in discussion to get MEN7 to film 300 Below separately in July for their MEN7 show's tech segment, which is geared toward an affluent male audience.  Hmm, what else?  Aside from contacting racing teams to schedule more NASCAR interview opportunities for Gabe (after he interviewed Kenny Wallace and Jason Leffler), we're also putting a new Amazon ordering system in place for the company so they can outsource inventory to Amazon.  I've been in touch with the AWS evangelist at Amazon, and we're anxious to see how that might play a role in our integration, too.  After analyzing printer logs for Xerox, I started to see some interesting correlations between 300 Below's productive employees and those that are not so productive.  I left the papers on the conference room table so we'll see what conclusions the Group CEO draws tomorrow morning, if they're more awake that is.  :)  As far as my wish list at the office goes, I wish we could set up a recycling program here like Babson had that would prevent so much paper from going to waste.  Is it good to create a sustainable initiative for this company?  I hope the interns confront this issue at some point, as I believe it's an interesting question, especially considering that liquid nitrogen is already from the air we breathe, so aside from the electricity consumed here, 300 Below is pretty much a green company.

 

Oh, and I'm working on getting video blogging set up!  The Group CEO has requested this and I think it's a great idea.  You'll notice when we finally figure that one out.

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           One of the biggest lessons we’re beginning to understand and incorporate into our lives is the necessity of balance in order to plan and succeed. After a long day at the office on Monday, some members of the team unwound by performing an extended concert on Rock Band late into the night. As always, the morning comes quick, and work always starts quicker. As I look around our marble conference table, rather our combined executive desk, I see worn faces and even a “power-napping” comrade. A long night of “rockin” doesn’t mix well with a long day’s work.

            When I was young, I would always ask my Dad how he could leave his head office in Kenya for weeks at a time to visit us. “But don’t you have to work like all the other Dads,” I questioned sitting on his shoulders. “As you grow older son,” he replied, now holding me in front of him. “You’ll understand what separates the successful businessmen from the rest.”

As the years passed, and I delved deeper into my emerging business career, my father’s advice materialized. However, managing my time only proved crucial when I became overburdened by assignments…

Not anymore. From the moment we awake at 6:30 am until the late hours at night, every hour of day must be carefully organized and managed. As a CEO, absolutely anything can arise with or without a moment’s notice. In order to be successful, you must accept or learn to accept, this work style and lifestyle. At first every section of our day became overrun by clutter, responsibility, and disorganization. Although our days remain very similar, we have become or are beginning to acclimate and almost welcome this flexible environment.

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Yesterday we received and assignment from the chairman. He instructed us each to research nine companies; three in Chicago, three in Indianapolis, and three in St Louis. After selecting the nine companies we are each responsible for selecting one company in each city that we will call and schedule an appointment with, for a total of 15 company visits. There are compensation incentives set out for us as well as being responsible for the dinner reservations after presentations. So can I get an encore, do you want more. Irie I, One Love. Charlie H.

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What does not kill me makes me stronger.- Friedrich Nietzsche

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A lot has happened this weekend and rather than explain day by day, I will explain the weekend to you as one whole. I believe I left you hanging a few days ago when I mentioned that we presented our industry research and financial analysis to the chairman. So to summarize the presentation let me say it went well, for practice that is. I don’t say that to discredit the time and effort put into the making of the presentation but instead to say that I knew that the bar for this task was significantly higher than we jumped. None the less the chairman said he was pleased and impressed with our work.

Now earlier the morning of the presentation we woke late, it was 7:45, we had not left the cabin and we had a half hour drive ahead of us. In the interest of time we left Beni behind because he was not ready. Later that day we find out that Beni made his way to a nearby town called Champaign and intends to stay there for the weekend since the night life there is better that that of Decatur. Champaign is an hour drive, he made it there without a car and he left from the cabin which is out in no man’s land. I was baffled by the fact that he had made it out to Champaign but not surprised that he would behaved so irrationally. Somehow the team ends up in Champaign to check out the night scene, when low and be hold Beni pops up. At the end of the night he decided to join the rest of the group for a ride home. The following day Mr. Paulin informed Beni that his behavior needs to change if he would like to continue to be apart of this experience. As usual Beni was not receptive to criticism and heard everything that Mr. Paulin and the team had to say but didn’t listen. Shape up or ship out. Irie I, One Love. Charlie H.

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Overall, I'm pleasantly surprised with the Midwest.  Being born on long island and having spent most of my life within 20 minutes of Boston, I grew up with the stereotype that there’s nothing to do here.  If you like shopping for expensive clothes and surfing, you're right, but if you like tractor pulls and dirt track, you'll fit right in.  Truth be told, I have a strong preference for races that occur on pavement, but I'd take dirt track over the mall any day.  There's just one thing that that puzzles me.  I can't understand why people who dirt tracks in every county and tractor pulls at every fair drive soo slow.  Everywhere we go, the road is full of drivers traveling at or below the speed limit on the straightest, best maintained roads that I've ever seen in my life.  The worst part is the tendency of most people here to assume the speed of those around them.  This leads to an inordinate number of slowpokes riding side by side, for miles.  They can't be bothered to speed up or slow down a fraction of a mile per hour to pass or allow you to do so or drive in the same lane as the car that they're pacing.  This makes me wonder just how they got there.  Did their similar speeds result in them winding up next to each other after hours of driving?  Did they start out together?  Or did one of them just take a liking to the speed of the other during the process of passing them?

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I have a HUGE bruise on my arm. We went shooting yesterday at the Decatur Gun Club, and it was my first time shooting trap and skeet. I’ve shot moving animated ducks and bobbing cardboard silhouettes with air rifles and video game play-guns, but never before have I used a real rifle. We tried out two—the over and under and the semi-automatic. While there is less recoil on the semi-automatic, I prefer the over and under because it feels more stable. Armed with 50 12 Ga. shotgun shells each, we took to the field and shot for a good two hours in the morning sun. It was great fun, and I had about a 30% hit rate. Around noon, I tried a double (both a high and a low house). I didn't know it at the time, but the gun shifted position and dropped from my shoulder pocket after the first shot, and the recoil subsequently punched me in the arm on the second one.  Around this time, my arm and I agreed it was time for a break.

I currently have a bruise the size of a small egg on my arm, but the experience was well worth it. What doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger, right?

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Crises and deadlocks when they occur have at least this advantage, that they force us to think. - Jawaharlal Nehru

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Today was the longest days by far and it was long because we went scuba diving into the financials. We did not complete our analysis and we are not ready to present a proposal for doubling the company’s revenue to the chairman yet. We are however mentally drained; I would like to share something with you that I said today on a phone interview with the Heralds review. The reporter asked me to share something that I have learned so far, I was taken by the question and hesitated because as I started to think about all that I have learned thus far I simultaneously reminded myself that I had only been here a week and a half. I felt that I could have ranted and raved for an hour talking about facing fears as an entrepreneur, time management, people management, planning, communication, foresight, seeing opportunities, and much more. That is why I was hesitant because I said to myself, is it possible to learn about an array of topics in such a short period of time?

The answer is yes, but my answer to the reporter was a bit different. I told her that I learned why this internship is like none other. I used an analogy to it to her, I said that the difference is that normally when taking and internship at a given corporation the intern comes in feeling like clay. Hoping to be molded into something grand and more defined than when they entered. This internship however makes you the potter. As the potter you are responsible for molding this experience in every way, shape and form. From planning to purchasing, from reading to leading, and from managing to…..well more managing. Ultimately this internship is what we make it, and that is the life a CEO.

Irie I, One Love, Charlie H.

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We agreed yesterday that blogging can take place the day of or the morning after so this blog is a morning after blog. Yesterday began with the 8-9am morning meeting where we discussed the upcoming visit from the doctor out of St. Louis.

We will be analyzing the books momentarily so I must be going, till the evening.

Irie I, one love, Charlie H.

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Today was an interesting day. We presented or findings on the company history as well as suggested industries to focus on. I apologize for the short blog today, just received a sales call. America staying in the office a little longer is not a bad idea. Irie I, One love. Charlie H.

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There’s been some tension within the group recently. So Monday afternoon, we sat down after lunch for a group therapy session. It was a good time to do it: the tension had been building up steadily in the past week, and we chose a strategic time of day when everyone was feeling relatively at ease and slightly sleepy from a big lunch.

Expecting perhaps a bit of bloodshed and at least a couple of Jerry Springer-worthy moments, I was favorably surprised by how level-headed and professional everyone was. Without compromising honesty, we navigated around blow-ups, aired our feelings, and made Monday afternoons the official group therapy time.

We spent the past three days delving into the financials of 300 Below, identifying our top customers by year since 2001, and conducting industry research. The Chairman (and original CEO) of the firm Peter Paulin came back from his trip to Washington DC yesterday, and we presented to him our recommendations on doubling the firm’s revenue.

Presenting to the CEO and founder of a firm about how his own firm is doing is a pretty interesting experience. The presentation initiated an extremely interesting dialogue on existing customers, compensation structure, and growth initiatives. How much time should we spend on industries that have proved fruitful in yielding good customers, and how much time should we spend researching industries yet untapped by the firm? This is one of the questions we’ll tackle as our next step.

To be continued….

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A true innovator has the humility to accept that he or she may be wrong, and the courage to accept that he or she may be right. - Jim Everett

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Today was the longest days by far and it was long because we went scuba diving into the financials. We did not complete our analysis and we are not ready to present a proposal for doubling the company’s revenue to the chairman yet. We are however mentally drained; I would like to share something with you that I said today on a phone interview with the Heralds review. The reporter asked me to share something that I have learned so far, I was taken by the question and hesitated because as I started to think about all that I have learned thus far I simultaneously reminded myself that I had only been here a week and a half. I felt that I could have ranted and raved for an hour talking about facing fears as an entrepreneur, time management, people management, planning, communication, foresight, seeing opportunities, and much more. That is why I was hesitant because I said to myself, is it possible to learn about an array of topics in such a short period of time?

The answer is yes, but my answer to the reporter was a bit different. I told her that I learned why this internship is like none other. I used an analogy to it to her, I said that the difference is that normally when taking and internship at a given corporation the intern comes in feeling like clay. Hoping to be molded into something grand and more defined than when they entered. This internship however makes you the potter. As the potter you are responsible for molding this experience in every way, shape and form. From planning to purchasing, from reading to leading, and from managing to…..well more managing. Ultimately this internship is what we make it, and that is the life a CEO.

Irie I, One Love, Charlie H.

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We agreed yesterday that blogging can take place the day of or the morning after so this blog is a morning after blog. Yesterday began with the 8-9am morning meeting where we discussed the upcoming visit from the doctor out of St. Louis.

We will be analyzing the books momentarily so I must be going, till the evening.

Irie I, one love, Charlie H.

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            Ok, so how do you design a plan to double the revenue of a company that has been successfully turning over profit for the past fifteen years? By the way, you more than ten years of financials to analyze as well the current resources, personnel, and infrastructure. Oh yeah, and you have two days to complete this… Good luck!

            This is a basic synopsis of the financial framework and company development assignment Pete gave us just last week. By giving us unprecedented access to more than fifteen years of financial history, every story, and each secret of 300 Below, Pete expected us to devise a revolutionary plan to double and maybe even triple the revenue of the company in hopes of reaching the ten million dollar benchmark. Now being the eager college students we are, we of course became very excited at this opportunity, but naturally procrastinated until two days before the deadline (Friday morning, 8 a.m.).

            With just a basic understanding of QuickBooks Pro, we finally delved into the company’s financial history today. As we “wandered,” so to speak, around the P&L statements and balance sheets, we started to sense a redundancy and ineffectiveness in what we were doing. In other words, we were just going around in circles without any plan. To heighten our tensions, Pete appeared on the conference line to check up on our progress and add an additional eight sub-analysis to be covered by our plan. Instantly, minor disagreements reached the level of full out argument as we scurried to find a solution. However as I always say, “all conflict leads to eventual resolution and innovation.” Eventually, we designed a query based system to organize all our past client’s accounts by amount, year, and name. In turn, we could analyze our biggest streams of revenue and compare it to our resources, personnel, and overheads. Furthermore, this would allow us to analyze the expandability of 300 Below, and deduce a plan to better marshal our current resources and lay the groundwork for future expansion.

            All in all, this was an excellent exercise to draw the group through conflict, even more conflict, slight demise, but eventual cohesion, and decision. Critical financial analysis and vision are truly essential to the success and welfare of any firm. It was an honor to have 300 Below bestow this responsibility upon us!

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A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. - Lao-tzu

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It’s interesting to find how applicable cryogenic technology is. After pitching to tractor drivers, barbers, golfers, and Nascar drivers (all within three days), I’m beginning to see how diverse and unlimited a market we have. Last week we met with John, 300 Below’s metallurgist, and he walked us through the science of deep cryogenic treatment as well as some of its applications. Because it’s a safe treatment that improves both the functional and operational life of industrial tools, weapons, engines, instruments (basically any ferrous material with at least a 0.4 % carbon level), the applications are virtually endless.

f freezing dead people when we hear the word “cryogenics.” There’s actually another word for that- “cryonics.”  Which means no, we’re not in the Ted Williams and Han Solo business.

We’ll be diving into the financial reports today to gain a better understanding of the company’s past and present revenue streams and fixed and variable costs. With that information, we can identify areas of inefficiency and brainstorm sustainable methods to boost sales. The more I learn about the company, the more excited I am for the opportunity to take 300 Below to greater heights.  

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Starting today, I will post Quote of the Day, of some famous writer, philosopher, actor, or even I will surprise you with my personal one.   

 "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are". - Anais Nin

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Hey everyone,

Sorry for the delay in blogging. These last couple days have been fully packed with excitement! So much so, that I even needed Monday to recover. Where to begin…

Let’s start with golf. Last week we found out that the Futures Tour, the prequalifying tour for the LPGA, was in town for a tournament and looking for a few caddies. Sensing a good time, Charlie and I signed up. Being an avid golfer and having caddied in the past, I really looked forward to watching these girls tear apart the course. I had the pleasure of caddying for Alejandra Shaw, a Scottish girl from Chile. Although this was her first year on the tour, she played with the confidence and grace of a seasoned veteran. With wicked winds and hardpan greens, the course played brutally. After two solid days of competition, effort, and vigor, Alé didn’t make the cut. While some might look at this like a broken sense of accomplishment, I enjoyed working with her discussing every shot, reading each putt, and just making a great new friend. What an incredible experience!

Since we didn’t make the cut, that left Saturday and Sunday open for some fun. Hauling the boat over to Lake Clinton, a horseshoe shaped lake used to cool a nuclear power plant, we began a fun and relaxing afternoon chilling and jet skiing. It was hilarious to watch everyone try to bounce up on the skis and hang on as Pete, -300 Below’s previous CEO, carved boat against the oncoming wakes. After consuming the local burger legend, the Horseshoe – a whopping burger loaded with waffle fries and cheese resting upon two golden pieces of toast. By either an act of God or raw hunger, I managed to finish this daunting challenge. Returning back to the boat, I immediately entered a food coma and proceeded to enjoy one of the best naps I have ever had as the boat gently rocked back and forth. Really not a bad way to spend a Saturday…

To thank Pete for everything he had done for us so far, we decided to host a Father’s Day barbeque in his honor. In the kitchen, I started with a bowl and just started mixing anything and everything that looked good to make a few marinades for the burgers, and the peaches. After about half an hour of trial and error, I had an English barbeque baste for the burgers, and a pear and white wine marinade for the peaches ready to go. As the guests arrived, the grills fired up and a fine evening commenced.

I guess that’s just the life of a CEO… Not too bad, I guess. :)

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Today what we needed to do and how we needed to do it was felt by all. We sat down with Mr. Paulin today after lunch and it was his last fifteen minutes with us until the upcoming Thursday since he was flying to Washington D.C. . Mr. Paulin let us know that he was aware that the group was on idol but not because of lack of drive or understanding on our part but instead because there are so many forces between the five of us coming into contact with each other. The forces arise since there are five decision makers with five different walks of life.

The office and cabin are our crucibles and the soup inside is what Mr. Paulin referred to as a dynamic situation. His charge to us left his tongue with an aura of simplicity, disguising its complexity. What he said was that there are five that need to act as one and in order to do so we all need to first have the same understanding of what our goal is, the overall goal as well as task oriented goals. When we understand our goals we then need to all agree on a system aimed at measuring task related behaviors and actions, so that we can quantify individual contributions to the completion of a given task.

 

Please understand that in his charge to us he said an infinite more that I can explain or rather than language can express but his words served as a catalyst for the, much needed, group conflict mediation talk that took place after. I will not get into specifics but I will say that a fair amount of underlying tension was fleshed out today. We took steps towards each other talking through our differences and we started to put a wise mans call of duty into action. Irie I, one love.

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We've got most of our surpluss capitol on ebay now and its time to get down to buisness for real. We have untill thursday or Friday to make a plan to double the revenue of the company. There's no time to waste if we're to do a good job on it.

We watched the footage of me interviewing Jay Leffler and Kenny Wallace. It was clear that Kenny didn’t know that I’ve built part of a car that I later raced, but a majority of the people that he’s interviewed by are TV personalities and not engineers. Even more amazing than interviewing Kenny Wallace was meeting his father and seeing him with his entire family. I met his father! Do you know how many NASCAR babies that man has had? But seriously after that it was time to get to work, for real.

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This weekend was relaxing. We finally had some down time to do laundry, clean the cabin, and catch up on some much needed sleep. We got some waterskiing time in too. I was forced to learn slalom skiing when the team found out that I already knew how to water ski on two skis. At first I wasn’t thrilled, I wanted a relaxing spin around the lake on both my skis. The team’s persistence paid off. Not only did they get me to try to get up on a slalom ski, but they got me o do it, with the promise that I could get the other ski when I succeeded. For the first time since we’ve moved in the cabin isn’t covered in clothes, boxes and luggage, which is nice. It took about 10 hours of five people’s work to get I that way.

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Nancy Xu, signing in with a great deal more brain cells than I had when I was writing my previous post. The weekend came at a great time: I was able to recharge and catch up on a three-week-long sleep debt, read a little, take care of emails, and foray into the world of culinary arts by making my first pan of roast potatoes on Thursday, followed by scrambled eggs on Saturday and a salad today! Exciting stuff, I know. In fact, it really is, since I have never spent more than ten minutes in front of a stove. Imagine the excitement—and surprise—of making something edible that others can eat without having to pay a visit to the Poison Control Center.

Granted, for full disclosure, edible is probably a loose interpretation of the word. Half the roast potatoes were undercooked (but the other half wasn’t!), I ended up eating all the scrambled eggs (thereby absorbing the risk myself), and the salad was mehh at best. But still.

Cooking aside, the past few days have been filled with firsts. I attended my first women's futures tournament (Decatur is one stop on their tour), watched a tractor pull for the first time (and made some pitches and business contacts at the county fair where it was held), and witnessed the devouring of two horseshoes (open-faced cheeseburgers topped with cheese fries). With the exception of the horseshoes, we’ve been doing a pretty good job of having fun and doing business at the same time.

Full workday tomorrow, so I’m heading to bed. Happy Father’s Day! Over and out.

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Ladies and gentlemen, horses and cows, I come before you to stand behind you to tell you something I know nothing about. This Thursday the day after Friday there will be a ladies meeting. Men aren’t allowed but they are still permitted. Wear your best cloths, if you have none still come. Seats will be provided to sit on the floor, thank you for this wonderful announcement. Well I am strapped for time right now so I am typing and thinking a mile a minute so I apologize if I write in circles or incoherent sentences or have spelling errors. I am afraid I will not have a chance to go into much detail today but much has happened.

My days have begun with this work out program called CrossFit know to Beni as cross fight, I guess it’s a Russian thing. I do the work outs with Lieutenant Paulin in the mornings and since he is off to the Marines soon he is whipping himself into shape via a CrossFit trainer. He told me about CrossFit when I got here since I pestered him about daily exercise. Now the catch to this “great work out” is that I must wake up at 4am and start the work out at 5, which along with the work out being designed as a “burn out” makes cross fit a defining part of the morning since I head to the office right after I get burned out.

Moving on, after working out I went to the office and had our morning meeting then meet with Dave and Mr. Paulin to talk about the product they introduced to us, so long story short we ate lunch with Dave and talked business. Went to tractor pull in the evenings and now I am at the cabin and I just took a bite of the steak that nick took off the grill so got to go if I want to get to sleep soon.

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I woke up this morning and did CrossFit with Charles and Beni with some varied dead lifts after running both forward and backward on a treadmill.  On our drive to the office, I called in to 102.9 FM and made an on-air suggestion for getting cryogenically treated golf clubs from 300 Below for father's day.  The host seemed to know about the process and underscored that it worked.  Later in the morning, the interns met with John Koucky to learn more about the cryogenic process.  I spent some time on the phone with our friends over at Xerox to figure out how to use their new solid ink MFP effectively.  The team then went to lunch at Mojo's Barbeque to meet a potential business contact and decided to head home early because they were feeling tired.  (See this link: http://tinyurl.com/4ycxdm)

I stayed at 300 Below until 6pm, closed the office and then left for the Macon County Fair, where we introduced the CEO Interns to tractor pulling-- which none of them had experienced before.  I left the race around 10pm to get home and prepare for tomorrow, when we will try to get access to the Macon Speedway to do some filming while Nick and Charles caddy at the Hickory Point Golf Course for the Futures Tournament.  We're all going to attend the world premiere of "Brothers at War" afterwards.  That said, Nick left steaks to marinate at the cabin and we're going to hit the sack soon so we can get up early again for CrossFit.

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