At the Forum One Day...
Source: Unlimited
Author: Fiona Rotherham
Date: February 02, 2005
The mafia has the omerta - the code of silence that stops members divulging secrets, even under threat of torture or death. The Entrepreneurs' Organisation (EO) has its own form of omerta - a code of confidentiality that allows members to discuss their innermost business secrets at their monthly forums. Fiona Rotherham snuck into one.
It sounded like a good plan. Attend a monthly meeting of one of the three forums in the Auckland chapter of the Entrepreneurs Organisation - a non-profit educational organisation for young business owners with 5,500 members worldwide and 23 in Auckland. But I hit a snag straight away. The trouble with confidential meetings is they are just that -what's said in the room is meant to stay in the room, not splashed in business magazines. So we arrived at a compromise: I would interview all nine forum members (at the same time) about what they got out of it.
"When I joined it was like an alien on another planet who had found the mothership," says Ben Ridler of business coaching company, The Results Group. He found a sense of belonging, strengthened by the monthly forum meetings where close "warts and all" business and personal relationships are formed. Group chemistry is important and for competitive reasons only one company from any industry can belong to a EO forum. Even siblings and partners who work in the same firm will be placed in different forums.
"Most other organisations are not confidential and are at 'cocktail level' discussion. Here you develop a real feeling of trust," says Tony Falkenstein of bottled water company, Just Water.
Membership is by invitation, and members must be under 40 and have company turnover of at least US$1 million a year when they join. Monthly forum meetings last around three hours, and are taken seriously - those who miss more than two can (and have been) kicked out. The main rules are the aforementioned confidentiality (members are even barred from repeating anything discussed in forum meetings with their spouses or partners), and (usually) no alcohol until after the forum. The point is to share business experiences, contacts and progress with like-minded people. Members chart the month's highs and lows, upcoming challenges - including personal and family issues - and their next steps. Last month's goal is revisited to check on progress.
Members say forums save them a heap of money on lawyers' bills. Some 80% of the issues raised are common to all businesses, and around 20% are industry specific. Each month a couple of members present a business issue specific to their sector to get group feedback.
Recent convert Stephen White of Stonyridge Vineyard says before joining EO he would discuss his business dramas with his best mates over a wine, but never really ended up with any useful advice and those friends would often inadvertently tell others about his problems. "Now I get the best advice I've ever had from sober people," he says. "And I know it stays here."
So does it mean these entrepreneurs don't fail? "Turn that around," says Kinross Partners boss Stuart Chrisp. "What it does is increase our chances of success." The monthly meetings force Chrisp to concentrate on the "big picture" stuff that all business owners know they need to do but often fail to make time for. The biggest dilemma he resolved with help from the group was whether to start another new business, while Dynamite Advertising's Mat Wylie got insight into hiring a new general manager. Falkenstein, many years ago, got feedback from his group on whether to buy out his business partner at the time (he did and made a tidy profit when he eventually sold the business).
The Auckland chapter is the first in the worldwide group to add an older influence to its forums - in this case Falkenstein, who is a member of the World Presidents' Organisation (which includes chief executives and chairmen working for corporates rather than just entrepreneurs, as is the case with the EO). The younger forum members say they benefit from Falkenstein's "experience and scar tissue" and his ability to cut to the chase. He reckons being around dynamic, younger business owners keeps him brimming with fresh ideas. But, of course, he can't divulge what they are.
