An amazing read. Very easy to read in one or two sittings. The story of the founder of Vans, and an incredible succession story, where Paul hands the business to his son, who takes the business to the verge of bankruptcy - Paul comes back, takes Vans back to its core market, and Vans regains its market share, ultimately exiting and reaching a market cap in the hundreds of millions.
A few notes i made:
- Basically 2 types of people in the world - 1st will tell you why a certain thing can’t be done. 2nd will start formulating solutions. Make it a hiring criterion to ONLY hire the 2nd.
- Bright red carrier bags at trade fairs
- Sold limited edition toys at COST price in Xmas period as a marketing loss leader
- Simplicity is the highest level of complexity