Micro-corps: Rise of the Idea Architects (A New Generation of Entrepreneurs)

By John Basso

Micro-Corps: Rise of the Idea Architects (A New Generation of Entrepreneurs) explores the fundamentals of starting and fostering a successful Micro-Corp in the age of the “bigger is better” business culture. John Basso, a technology and sustainability thought leader and CIO of Amadeus Consulting, shares his insight about what it takes to make a small idea flourish as an ultra-lean, ultra focused Micro-Corp. This book provides entrepreneurs with the tools and concepts necessary to work outside of traditional corporate structures by channeling their passion and augmenting their long and short term approach to produce business results within tight budgets and limited resources. Unlike small businesses, Micro-Corps leverage individual skills, focus on growing in profits rather than in size and are able to remain flexible throughout the ebb and flow of funds. Thanks to advances in the service and product industries, Idea-Architects are able to outsource much of the labor and resources needed rather than investing thousands of dollars into hiring a workforce. Though the amount of work and passion required to run a Micro-Corp is substantial, this business model has proven time and time again to not only generate substantial revenue, but to be fulfilling and provide job satisfaction to those willing to put in the effort. Based off of a series of interviews with successful Idea-Architects in a variety of fields, along with wisdom from John’s own business experience, Micro-Corps walks through the different business models, organizational approaches and productivity tactics that allow these smaller-than-small businesses to take off.

• Language: English
• Publisher: John Basso
• Release date: Sep 5, 2012
• ISBN: 9781452440743

John Basso

John Basso is a veteran business technology consultant who has been leading technical teams and implementing leading-edge custom application development solutions for over 15 years. His dynamic spirit and enthusiasm have helped Amadeus Consulting build exceptionally close relationships with many long-term clients. Leadership John's demonstrated ability to manage complex custom software development programs has led to senior executive positions with several Amadeus Consulting clients from start-up through venture funding. As the Chief Technology Officer of PlanetOutdoors.com, John led the development and technical operations of a major e-commerce retailer. At Circadence, a network communication and infrastructure company, he led corporate strategy, product marketing, advertising and research. John currently sits on the board of advisors of iSatori Global Technologies, where he helped establish key processes for sustained business growth. As the Chief Strategy Officer of iSatori, John managed the technology group and the design, development and implementation of an advanced technology platform. In addition, John has extensive experience with venture capital funding and was a key contributor to equity investments deals for three different promising startup companies of over $20 million each. Experience Prior to Amadeus Consulting, John was a senior technology practice consultant for Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) in Chicago, where he spent five years delivering enterprise software solutions to Fortune 500 companies. John managed large-scale projects across the U.S. and Europe, developing technical architectures to link legacy and client server systems. Family When not working on client projects, John enjoys spending time with his wife, Gina, and their 2 kids, running, hiking, scuba diving and snowboarding. John also volunteers for the FIRST Robotics Competition, helping high school science students compete at national championships. Education John was named a "Forty Under 40 Business Leader" by the Denver Business Journal in 2005. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science with Departmental Honors from Illinois State University.

Book preview

Micro-Corps

Rise of the Idea-Architects: The Next Generation of Entrepreneurs

By John Basso

Copyright 2012 John Basso

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Foreword

In the middle of the 2008 recession, as one of the leaders at Amadeus Consulting, the technology solutions company I had co-founded eighteen years ago, we were faced with two choices for survival: hunker down until the storm was over, or grow our capabilities so we would be better prepared for future fights. We chose the latter. We believed that the recession was going to be deeper and longer than anyone thought, and there would be no practical way to hide from it. We also believed that when the recession was over the marketplace would be radically different, and the old way of doing business just wouldn’t work.

That is when we started building out our service lines and broadening our foundation and that is when I tried to hire Sam to head up a new creative services department. I had worked with Sam before on other projects; he knew his stuff. Not only was he good at his craft of creative design but he had business smarts – he could work from both sides of his brain.

Sam was in the middle of multiple life events, all good, but no matter what I did I couldn’t convince him to join my company. Being persistent, really persistent, I kept after Sam, but he wouldn’t budge. Then I learned that Sam had started a new company. Sam claimed it was just an experiment but when he gave me the details I knew he was on to something. It wasn’t that I could predict the future but rather, I had seen this pattern before with other clients. Somebody had an idea that most people would laugh at because there was no way to turn their idea into a real company. What gave it away was Sam was making $5 a day. Yes, $5 a day! I told Sam that he had made it and he was set. At that point he had no idea what I was talking about. I gave up trying to hire Sam for how could I compete with $5 a day?

What I knew that Sam didn’t yet know was that it was only a matter of time and some effort before $5 a day turned into $50 and then turned into $500 and eventually $5000+ a day. His experiment would then be his full time job. It wasn’t until a year later I consciously realized that this pattern I had seen over and over with my clients wasn’t luck but rather a different type of company – a Micro-Corp. Run by a different kind of owner – an Idea-Architect. What is a Micro-Corp? What is an Idea-Architect? Nothing less than the most exciting approach to manage a business that I have seen in the 20 years I have been working with entrepreneurs.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1: Small is too big

Companies are really big these days!

Back down to earth

What happened to my day?

Lack of focus

Growth in size vs. profit

Innovation or the lack of it

Creativity and quality curtailed

Chapter 2: Why bother?

Our roots

What do you really want?

A million dollar idea isn’t going to cut it – sorry

Chapter 3: What makes a good Idea-Architect?

Passion

Being persistent

Having good support from their families

Having this deep, deep desire to make something better

Enriching their own lives

A knack for not seeing failure

Not being concerned with image

The ability to create something

Flexible and confident

Chapter 4: Strategies for building a Micro-Corp

Best Fit

Routine

Fail very, very fast

Fake it

Bursting

Don’t judge other’s ideas, just your own

Focus more about the idea than the company

Practice your pitch

Failure is part of success, get used to it

You can’t afford yourself

Start learning

Don’t be greedy

Don’t be cheap

Find others like yourself

People don’t have ideas but rather people see ideas when the opportunity arises

Make space for creativity

Avoid traps

Chapter 5: Now what?

How do I start?

Who can help?

Importance of measuring success

Chapter 6: Helping Others

Appendix A: Questions and Answers

Appendix B: Factoids and sidebars

Appendix C: Acknowledgements

Appendix D: About the Author

Appendix E: Resources

References

Introduction

The idea that bigger is better permeates business culture today. Do a search on your favorite news site for the word merger and see for yourself. Today I did a search and several larger-than-large companies appeared at the top of the list. For example, in 2011 we saw several giant companies trying to merge – AT&T and T-Mobile just to name twoi. These are companies with billions of dollars of revenue and tens of thousands of employees. Why? On the surface there is always some sort of reason, such as reduced overhead, efficiency, consolidation, or even reduced competition. Turns out that the merger fell through by the time I was ready to go to print, but with a multi-billion dollar back out clause, this wasn’t some whimsical attempt of a merger but rather something that both companies thought was possible.

Dig deeper and you will find plenty of evidence that mergers rarely meet their stated merger objectivesii.