"...keeping you great"
HEADLINES: (Happy Thanksgiving in the U.S.)
Congrats to Tony Hartl on the Sale of Planet Tan -- most importantly, he received 85% of the price in cash! Announced on November 19, he sold to a strategic buyer Palm Beach Tan. The purchase makes them the largest in the tanning industry by revenue. Noted Tony, in an email to me last week, "I decided to sell to a very strategic buyer and could not be more excited to finally realize the 14 years of effort to bring this to exit. You were very helpful and encouraging along my journey and I think it is important to thank and appreciate your advice and motivation." Tony, you ran a superb operation and are a great student of business. BTW, he's taking a six month trip around the world and plans to write a book! Here's a link to the announcement.
Single Biggest Opportunity to Ever Face Business -- with all the doom and gloom, there's good news -- and I've seen it first hand on my travels through Asia -- 1 billion additional people moving into the middle class between now and 2020. Going after this opportunity saved Eric Zuziak's $11 million architectural firm; it's helping bolster our business. Please take five minutes and read my latest "Growth Guy" column which outlines the opportunity and keys to going after it -- reprinted under DETAILS below.
India Appears Least Effected by U.S. Recession -- with a 20% savings rate (vs. 2% in the U.S.), the India banks have a lot of cash. More importantly, as my partner in India, Raghoo Potinii, said to me a couple days ago "it's only ten years ago I had just the clean shirt on my back -- all of us in India still remember and know what it's like to have nothing." And having just come from China, the contrast is night and day. China, with all their infrastructure and lifestyle, they have a lot to lose. In India, you get a sense that if everyone lost most of what they have they would just keep on doing what they're doing -- it's a country that knows how to survive on very little -- a spirit I worry is somewhat lost in the U.S. and other developed countries.
Genius Behind Steve Jobs -- this is the title of FORTUNE magazine's article about Apple COO Tom Cook -- he's been the guy behind Apple's almost flawless execution. My favorite story is how he decided to lock up the supply of a critical flash memory component until 2010 when the Nano was introduced in 2005 -- the same strategy Soft Soap used to thwart P&G. Here's a link to the article
Happy Thanksgiving in the U.S.!