Quote:
Originally Posted by Verbiage
Dad! I'm okay.
I actually thought about you and jtodd_fl during this week; I am meeting tomorrow after work with the father of one of my good friends, he owns a lucrative flooring company that has been in his family for a few generations, and they are very well off. He's happily agreed to sit down and chat with me over sushi regarding some questions I had for him. I'm not sure if I want to enter the realm of true entrepreneurship or command a higher level of an existing organization (finance director, operations, etc.; not really into the customer aspect of things, much, although I do expect to encounter stakeholder interaction), but I wanted to pick his brains concerning some things that have piqued my interest during my current business coursework.
Let me know if these topics are okay, or what kinds of questions I should be asking:
1. Startup capital? (Sponsorship, investors, stakeholder influence)
2. Origin? (Hereditary succession or meritocracy?, company derivative, determination of market needs)
3. Hindrances? (Roadblocks, financial overhead, revenue-profit margins)
4. Maintenance? (Budget prioritization and adherence, land/labor/capital, weight of production factors when executing business duties on management scope)
5. Environments? What specifically? Environmental impact?
5.1 Economic and legal - international trade, government regulations
5.2 Technological - how this has changed scope of business over course of tenure, how has it increased/affected marketability and effectiveness
5.3 Competition - how is customer importance/satisfaction regarded, and how is it enforced; what are differentiating stakeholder characteristics, Market evolution. (Multigenerational business)
5.4 Social - promotion of diversity, level of importance and implementation of best ethics practices within corporate environment, Dynamic environment with opportunity for promotion or stagnant with little room for advancement?
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It is always a good idea to speak to highly accomplished individuals, as long as they have achieved their success ethically.
I made a few comments in
RED.
This is quite a bit of subject matter to cover and I would recommend either a singular focus on a single aspect for a deep dive or a more broad overview of his experience the business. Just my .02.