Chrstine Barham had the 5 minute slot and talked about a fascinating business book “One Click: Jeff Bezos and the rise of amazon.com” by Richard L Brandt, Portfolio Penguin, 2011. Like all success stories Bezos did not become a millionaire overnight. He knew that he wanted to be an entrepreneur and planned by studying Computer Sciences at Princeton, after which he gained experience by working on computerising Wall Street processes for six years. Then with focus, timing, (some luck!) and a pragmatic decision – he chose book retailing because it looked a business in which he could rake in the most money – he set up Amazon, initially in his garage.
The qualities he displayed are all those that we could use in our own business. Interestingly, his rise to the top was not without mistakes; he was at first successful as a .com but lost millions of dollars. Undaunted by failure, he turned it around and approached it as a retail business instead. With this new focus he worked hard and went on to make huge profits with his deceptively simple customer-oriented business model : “Buy now with one click”!
Then came the hugely successful Kindle. And now he is turning his thoughts to the future and putting his money into space exploration – new horizons!
The 10 minute slot was filled by Martin Addrison of HilliersHRW Solicitors. He related a fascinating case study about the history of a Thameside property. The outcome of a court case rested on the difference between the way the the word Transferor (T) and transferor (t) appeared on a legal document. He explained the paramount importance of the written word. It is not what you mean to say but what it is that you have actually SAID. It was a fascinating account of how documents were interpreted down the decades and all the problems that arose from the differerence in interpretation of the two words. And that one small discrepancy cost millions.
The meeting was lively with our usual interesting 1 minute slots, humour, testimonies and some good business referrals.