Teaching Notes & Study Guide

with Curt Rutsky and Stu Ganslaw
Coating Sciences Inc
Windsor, Connecticut
Key Ideas.
Key Idea #1: .Partner with someone who has skills you don't have but who shares the same values.
Curt excels at marketing, while Stu is the scientist; they both have the same philosophy of business and life, and they both grew up in traditional Jewish homes. The result: a partnership that works. They have different work styles and they stay out of the other's area. When it comes to making big decisions, their mutual business philosophy generally allows for agreement.

What do you think?  What is the difference between a skill and a value?

Possible answer: A skill is an ability, while a value is a belief. You can observe values by observing a person's behavior. For example, if they value people, they will listen, be sensitive, caring, and thoughtful.

What do you think?  What values are important to you that any partner of yours would need to posses?

Possible answer: For me I would list honesty, an old fashioned work ethic, the importance of quality, the sacredness of a promise, the goodness of people and optimism.

A speaker I just heard said all of us have some vested interest and the five that are most treasured by people are: freedom, power, relationship, fun and survival. If you have a partner, it might be great for you to sit down together and each list these in order of importance. When the two lists don't match up perfectly, you will have to negotiate.

One of the easiest ways to find matched values is to choose a person who has similar parents, similar educational experience and similar religious affiliation. Many businesses today were founded by people who went to college together.

Big Idea #2: Make a product big companies don't want to make .
In their industry, Curt and Stu knew that 3M, which made masking tape, wasn't interested in making specialized pressure-sensitive labels for grocery stores. So Coating Sciences, Inc. was born. They make customized items in much smaller quantities than those available from large companies. They listen carefully to every customer and are constantly inventing products to solve their customers' problems.

What do you think?  How does one find the products that big companies don't want to make?

Answer:   First you can work for a big company and watch the business that falls through the cracks.  This is what Curt and Stu did and Leonor Ferrer had the same experience. Or you can take Donald Cassel's approach. He was a customer of a big company and they didn't do something he thought they should do. He saw the need from the customer point-of-view which I believe is more risky than seeing the need from the inside of the big company as did Curt, Stu and Leonor. 

Curt, Stu and Leonor saw cash on the table for ideas the big companies didn't want to bother with. They even knew those customers personally which is an incredible advantage. Essentially, 3M gave them the window of opportunity and even handed them their first customers. While Donald believed others would want to buy the product that he wanted to buy, he had to find his first customers.


Key Idea #3: Support the growth of every employee.

At Coating Sciences Inc. employees are encouraged to continue learning. Tuition is paid for courses and seminars, but more importantly, employees are taught to think on their own and to pursue their own ideas with no pressure to justify their decision to management.

What do you think?  Why is continuous education a powerful tool for employee retention?

Answer: People like to learn. We all feel  younger, cooler and more powerful when we learn something new or when we learn how to solve a persistent problem.   If you can't afford to send employees to school, do it yourself.  Every Friday morning, school is in session for everyone at On Target.  Owner Albert Black taught his employees what he learned in the MBA program he recently completed at SMU. His finance person teaches how to read spread sheets, his marketing person teaches sales and customer service. Albert provides a hot breakfast to open the minds of people that he continually teaches. 

Many think they don't like school, but what they don't like is being asked to learn something they don't find relevant to their lives. The work place is a place for learning because people see results immediately. And people stay where they're growing and learning. Education for the entire team is the best way to keep great people.

Key Idea #4: Invest money in technology to reap profits in the long run .
While building a new plant, Curt and Stu searched the world for the very best manufacturing equipment. They spent more money in the short run in order to reap the long-range benefit of being able to produce the best. The factory is run on a customized computer system that provides extraordinary information and flexibility. 

What do you think ?  How much technology does a business need?

Answer:  Always more than you think. No matter what you buy, you'll always what more sooner than later. Once you master the technology you put in place, you'll see that it is working for you and want more functionality.

We were lucky to see Curt and Stu's new facility full of their dream machines. If you called them today, they would probably say, "We've already upgraded and added on." This means we have to budget for technology at the beginning and forever.

What do you think?    What will be the biggest obstacle to maximizing our use of technology?

Answer: Finding the people to run it all.  The big secret is out that the "nerds" run the world, not the well-dressed, smooth-talking sales people. Steve DeAntontio told us about how he increased sales by giving the sales people more technology and David Arnold won the U.S. distribution rights to Lorus watches by investing in big technology and George Granoff is growing fast because of technology.   

Key Idea #5: Price is an issue but not the only issue .
Jeff Slutsky says we should not try to compete on price alone.

What do you think?   Why is this such good advice?

Possible answers:  As a small business, we can't beat the prices of a company that achieves saving by purchasing in bulk. We do not have the advantage of size, so we don't even try to be the cheapest. We try to either be the highest quality or the most unique. Adding a special service touch is how many of us define our uniqueness. The cheese on our pizza is flown in from Rome, or we have fresh flowers on the tables,or we know the names of our customers, or we leave a message on voice mail reminding you that you will run out of toner in your copy machine next week. We are the best at personalizing products and services, and we have to charge enough to make a profit.