A heartfelt ‘thank you’ to the teacher who impacted my entrepreneurial journey

A heartfelt ‘thank you’ to the teacher who impacted my entrepreneurial journey

8 September, 2021

Richard Levychin is an EO New York member and chairperson of EO OneWorld, a membership platform affiliated with EO’s New York chapter which believes that a diverse EO is a stronger EO. EO OneWorld will add value to EO by attracting more EO members from the Black, Hispanic/Latino(a)(x), Asian and LGBTQIA+ entrepreneurial communities. Richard is also a partner in Galleros Robinson Certified Public Accountants and Advisors, where he heads the firm’s Commercial Audit and Assurance practice. Richard is grateful to the mentors who inspired him to succeed, and wrote a touching tribute to a college professor who had a lasting impact on him. The following article originally appeared in Business Insider and is reprinted here with an addendum, as noted toward the end.

When I received a letter from my alma mater, Baruch College, awarding me with the Baruch College Alumni Association Leadership Award for Business, which was to be presented as part of their annual meeting, I was deeply humbled.

I did a flashback in time to when I was the 18-year-old immigrant kid from Jamaica, living in Springfield Gardens, Queens in New York who, in his sophomore year at Baruch, was enrolled in two back-to-back advanced accounting classes taught by Diane Gold, a 25-year-old Jewish woman with a BA, an MBA, a CPA, and a PhD.

She was close to 300 pounds. So the Black kids in the class, in our infinite smart-ass wisdom, nicknamed her “Slim.” Not much older than us, she was part hard-ass teacher and part smart-ass teacher.

Class was a combination of intense accounting content and jokes flying across the room between her and mostly the Black students. The other students simply didn’t have the courage or the material to participate in the jokes. The thing about Slim was that as long as you did your homework, did the classwork, and got good grades, you could make as many smart-ass comments as you liked.

She took a special interest in me and was unimpressed with my 90-plus test scores, choosing instead to focus on the 10% I got wrong. (“Richard, 90% in college gets you an “A.” 90% at work gets you fired”). She would do a deep dive with me on the 10% I got wrong, usually ending our conversations with “What were you thinking here? Come on. You are smarter than this.”

Categories: Coaching Entrepreneurial Journey Inspirational Legacy Member Spotlight

Tags: Baruch College Diane Gold EO OneWorld Galleros Robinson Richard Levychin

Why your company requires both brains and brawn to succeed

1 September, 2021

Contributed to EO by Robert Siegel, who teaches two of the most popular courses at Stanford Graduate School of Business. He’s also a Silicon Valley venture capitalist, sits on the boards of several startups, is a many-time entrepreneur himself, and was previously an exec at GE and Intel. Siegel’s recent book, THE BRAINS AND BRAWN COMPANY: How Leading Organizations Blend the Best of Digital and Physical, explores how (and why) many business owners in digitized industries overlook and underappreciate traditional competencies like logistics, manufacturing, customer service, and quality control. We asked Siegel about his research; here’s what he shared:

We’re constantly told that digital transformation is the most important issue facing companies today. You’re a Silicon Valley veteran who’s tired of hearing that. Why?

Because this message has become trite and simplistic. Digitization is a massive and massively important trend. Leaders in every industry need to wrestle with it. But despite fervent preaching from the Silicon Valley faithful, it’s not the only competency that matters. The less flashy, more grounded aspects of business, such as logistics and manufacturing, are still crucial to the success of any company, large or small. Amid the insistent drumbeat of digital transformation, those traditional, old-fashioned competencies are easily overlooked and underappreciated.

A cultural gulf has opened up between the realms I call brains and brawn. Others may call this dichotomy digital versus physical, the disruptor mindset versus the incumbent mindset, start-up world versus Fortune 500, or tech culture versus industrial culture. Whatever terms you prefer, it’s time to bridge the gulf and reframe the dichotomy.

Categories: BUSINESS GROWTH Guest contributors INNOVATION STRATEGY

Tags: Brains and Brawn Company digital transformation entrepreneur Robert Seigel Stanford Stanford Graduate School of Business venture capital

25 Lessons In 25 Years: Tips for Success from a Self-Made Beauty Entrepreneur

19 August, 2021

Renée Rouleau, an EO member in Austin, is the founder and CEO of Renée Rouleau Skin Care, whose products and personalized skincare are respected by celebrities, bloggers, and skincare obsessives. As she marks 25 years in business, Renée shared what she’s learned along her entrepreneurial journey.

I cut the red ribbon at 4:10pm on August 17, 1996. It was my 26^th birthday, and I was officially starting my company, Renée Rouleau Skin Care, in Dallas, Texas (though I would eventually relocate the company headquarters to Austin).

Why did I choose this exact date and time? They would never teach this in business school (not that I went to business school!), but I wanted all the luck I could get, so I consulted an astrologist named Iris. She chose this specific date and time to ensure success. Fast forward to today—a full 25 years later—and I’m proud to say my company is thriving and better than ever.

Do I owe all my success to the astrologer? No, not entirely. Over the course of a quarter-century, I’ve learned a lot of lessons about how to successfully run a company. These lessons are what made the biggest impact on my business. Here they are, just in time for the 25^th anniversary of Renée Rouleau Skin Care.

1. Treat Your Vendors as Partners (and With Kindness)

Anyone with whom you do business and who provides you with what you need to operate should be treated as a valued partner. You need them, and they need you. It’s that simple. I’ve always cultivated respectful working relationships with my points of contact, and depending on the vendor, I would even fly to meet them in person to establish a connection. The importance of treating vendors as partners was confirmed by the Covid pandemic when so many vendors shut down and the supply chain ground to a halt. It was a stark reminder that we don’t have a business without them. Once they opened back up, they put their “favorite” customers at the front of the line to get their goods, which goes to show that it pays to be nice!

2. Manage All of Your Crazy Ideas and Review Them Each Quarter

Like most entrepreneurs, I have no shortage of ideas. With so many swirling in my head, paired with my naturally high sense of urgency, I have a tendency to be all over the place, creating unnecessary chaos for my team. I manage this by keeping an “idea bank” where I write down every idea I come up with. Once a quarter, I review the list with my team to determine which levers are the next ones to pull. Over the years, this has taught me that just because an idea is good doesn’t mean it’s worth pursuing now (or ever). Timing is everything, and it’s incredibly beneficial to slow down and consider all options instead of acting immediately.

Categories: Best Practices BUSINESS GROWTH Company Culture Entrepreneurial Journey general WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS

Tags: eo austin renee rouleau Renee Rouleau Skin Care Renee Rouleau Skincare

Where there’s a will, there’s a way: My journey setting up a Covid ward in India

4 August, 2021

Contributed by Saravanakumar Periyasamy of EO Oman, director of Zawawi Powertech Engineering. In 2019, he became the director of Frontier Lifeline Hospital in Chennai, India.

My journey begins

In 2019, I was sent to Chennai, India, as part of the team assigned to turn around a once prominent, now ailing, hospital brand in South India. Personally, transitioning from the oil, gas and energy industry to the healthcare realm alone was a significant adjustment. And then, in early 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic struck before I had fully acclimated to my new environment.

The magnitude of the pandemic, both globally and personally, was unprecedented and beyond any scale of imagination. There wasn’t one economy or region that was immune to the ravages of Covid-19.

While most citizens were advised to remain indoors to tame the virus spread, some of us―the frontline workers―had to answer the call of duty. And though I had not worked in the healthcare industry before, suddenly, I was a frontline worker in an essential job who had to show up in person to work.

The first wave

Although the first wave of Covid was daunting, we would eventually learn it was mild compared with the gravity of the second wave. As the second wave hit, something inside me said, now that my family had invested in the healthcare industry, not playing our part in the pandemic wasn’t right (in terms of not having a designated Covid ward in our hospital to help to save lives).

One year into the crisis, people had grown complacent and adopted a lethargic attitude―which gave birth to the second wave. By the time the second wave hit, the healthcare system was overstretched and overwhelmed.

Our hospital, Frontier Lifeline Hospital in Chennai, has a single specialty―cardiac care. Therefore, we didn’t have a designated ward where we could treat Covid patients. As a non-medical professional, I lacked many of the necessary skillsets to set one up. Even so, I resolved to make my contribution to the crisis by setting up Frontier Lifeline Hospital’s new Covid ward and ensuring its smooth operations.

Categories: Crisis Entrepreneurial Journey Make a Mark

Tags: EO Chennai eo community EO India EO Oman Frontier Lifeline Hospital frontline worker

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