This is the first of a seven-part series where each installment takes a look at an innate ability of dogs and what business people can learn from our four-legged companions.
Dear Readers: Recently I have had the pleasure of meeting Randy Culver, a highly successful entrepreneur in the satellite telecommunications industry and major dog lover. While we were having dinner, he revealed that he was working on a book about what business leaders, particularly entrepreneurs, can “learn” from dogs. He explained that the idea is not to anthropomorphize a dog’s behaviors, but rather to use their traits, behaviors, and even their antics, as examples and analogues. Of course, I was immediately fascinated because I knew that my APPA readers would find this topic of strong interest. I was thrilled when he agreed to write a series of articles for my APPA e-update column. This is the first of a seven-part series called The Entrepreneurial Dog. Each installment takes a look at one innate ability of dogs and what we, as business people, can learn from our four-legged companions. This first article introduces the core concept and then looks at the diversity of dog breeds and how that applies to business. Enjoy! Carol Frank.
Part I – The Entrepreneurial Dog
By Randy Culver
Our animal companions are the driving force propelling the pet industry’s rapid growth. Yes, consumer preferences for quality food, health care, comfort, and entertainment for their pets are behind the industry shifts and expansion. But the parallel force is that the number of animal companions is also growing.
The dogs we bring into our homes have been a remarkably successful species. How successful? We believe the first dogs scavenged garbage at the edge of early human encampments. This same species is now fed nutritious, healthy food before resting on their soft, warm beds. What is behind that success and what can we as business owners take away from their story as a species?
All companion animals have innate abilities to interact with and delight their human partners in ways that distinguish them from other animals. After all, that’s why they are our companions. Their inherent instincts, behavior, and other skills derive from their genetic makeup. It’s these core characteristics that have made them successful. Why not identify and analyze these characteristics, and then apply them to your own business success?
As a fellow entrepreneur, I know that dogs, and our other pet companions, can illustrate the principles behind being an effective business owner. I do not want to anthropomorphize dogs or other animals—they are each their own wonderful species. Rather than ascribe to them human-characteristics or human-like behavior, let’s view them from their perspective. From that perspective, we can draw analogies to managing our businesses.
Biologist classify today’s domesticated dogs as canis familiaris, a distinct species that split off from canine lupus (gray wolf) perhaps around 70,000 years ago. In those early dog years, the canis familiaris species was distinct from it’s wolf ancestors. Distinct, but likely not all that diverse within the species. Certainly not the morphological range of size, shape, and color that we see it today’s dogs from the 4-lb Chihuahua to the 170-lb Newfoundland. Dogs, through a combination of natural selection and the direct influence of their human companions have evolved into the more than 200 standard breeds recognized by the American Kennel Club, plus countless other combinations that we lovingly refer to as mutts.
Looking broadly, the AKC groups dog breeds into seven categories such as herding, sporting, and toy, and then within these categories into the specific standard breeds. Each category defines a class of dogs and each breed the specific characteristics that distinguish those dogs from the others. Down to the individual dog, they all share the intrinsic traits that have made their collective species successful.
To draw out the analogy to you as an entrepreneur and business owner, your business must first have those ‘fundamental to success’ characteristics that all dogs have, and then build on this by embracing the specialization that dog breeds demonstrate. The fundamental characteristics include things like valuing customers, motivating employees, and keeping the books just as all dogs share vital traits such as interacting with humans, being social creatures, and having a strong sense of smell.
The breed-specific part of the analogy is that your business must target a specific niche. Yes, there are now hundreds of dog breeds, but there are thousands of others that could have been, likely were even started, but were not selected because they simply did not meet the criteria that was desired. Humans crafted and refined breeds based on a specific value proposition. For example, herding dogs were selected for characteristics that made them effective herding partners. And it didn’t stop there, the specific lines within herding dogs were further selected for those that worked well with sheep and those that worked well with cattle.
Your customers work through a comparable selective process every day. They select for the companies and the products that work best for them. Unlike dog breeds that were designed and refined through genetics over many generations, you determine your business focus and how it will be differentiated in the market. Decide what subset of customers your business needs to be bred for, and then go about designing and refining the company’s characteristics to match. Knowing what breed you want be, and carefully creating that breed can be the single most important element of your business success.
Toy dogs and working dogs share traits common to the enduring canis familiaris species, but Chihuahuas do not succeed at retrieving flailing swimmers any more than Newfoundlands succeed at hitching a ride in a purse. Like dogs, businesses succeed in many shapes and sizes and temperaments, but only if they get the basics right and add specific value to customers.
Continue The Entrepreneurial Dog Series HERE.
Randy Culver is a successful entrepreneur and founder of two satellite telecommunications companies where he has been an executive manager for the past 20+ years. He has proven experience in establishing and managing a product-based business from initial formation through revenues of >$50M. Randy and his team recently won the regional Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award. Randy has a Bachelor of Science from Virginia Tech and a Masters in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University.
Although Randy works outside of the pet industry, he knows that core business principles are fundamental to the success of any business. Randy and his wife Susie live in Colorado where they enjoy the companionship of their two dogs. Randy can be reached at randy@amergint.com.