Business Strategy and Innovation: Developing a Business Strategy Business Strategy and Innovation: Developing a Business Strategy Program Transcript [MUSIC PLAYING] One of the most important things that a business owner, an entrepreneur, needs to understand is that if you cannot articulate your plan-- if you can't take from your passion to written form to convince others that you have a great plan then you're going to have a lot of difficulty. If you're looking at financial institutions, if you're looking at borrowing money, if you're looking at people investing. And so you have got to understand your passion, and be able to articulate that on paper, and then ultimately convince others that it's important. One of the keys to my success in starting and operating several businesses is that I put my idea is to paper. I have a white board in my house. I am walking around and every floor in my house I am putting pen to paper. I have a notebook that I carry with me. It's really important that I capture the ideas on paper and then I can also translate that to my team. And so as a small business my goal is to have the same policies and procedures as a medium to larger business does. And so when I start a business I think about my people first, we have our mission and our vision statements that we put together and every one of my mission statement start with my people. I want to be well-known for my employees and my team. If I can do that first, if that's my goal, the clients are going to come. The profitability will come and I have proven that time and time again. Be passionate about your concept and your idea. Be passionate about your team members. That's leadership. If you can motivate a team around your passion and get them on board you can do anything. In all our businesses we have meetings weekly with my executive team and we talk about our people. What's happening in their lives, what's happening in our business. How do we minimize problems in the workplace? Because our employees spend so much time with us. If they can't feel like they're part of the family at work then where can they? So it's ultimately critical that they feel comfortable. That they feel valued and respected. And that's part of leadership. That's leadership 101. You have to be passionate and in my opinion, you need to be known for the people that work with you, just as much as you need to be known for the services you provide. [MUSIC PLAYING] When developing the strategy for Business Owners Benefit Association we had to consider, for one, why hasn't it been done before? This is not a complicated © 2016 Laureate Education, Inc. 1 Business Strategy and Innovation: Developing a Business Strategy concept. You take a lot of buyers and you buy products cheaper than you would individually. Well having said that, small businesses are an underserved population. Because if you're selling a service like insuran ...

1. Business Strategy and Innovation: Developing a Business
Strategy
Business Strategy and Innovation: Developing a Business
Strategy
Program Transcript
[MUSIC PLAYING]
One of the most important things that a business owner, an
entrepreneur, needs

2. to understand is that if you cannot articulate your plan-- if you
can't take from
your passion to written form to convince others that you have a
great plan then
you're going to have a lot of difficulty. If you're looking at
financial institutions, if
you're looking at borrowing money, if you're looking at people
investing. And so
you have got to understand your passion, and be able to
articulate that on paper,
and then ultimately convince others that it's important.
One of the keys to my success in starting and operating several
businesses is
that I put my idea is to paper. I have a white board in my house.
I am walking
around and every floor in my house I am putting pen to paper. I
have a notebook
that I carry with me. It's really important that I capture the ideas
on paper and
then I can also translate that to my team.
And so as a small business my goal is to have the same policies
and procedures
as a medium to larger business does. And so when I start a
business I think
about my people first, we have our mission and our vision
statements that we put
together and every one of my mission statement start with my
people. I want to
be well-known for my employees and my team. If I can do that
first, if that's my
goal, the clients are going to come. The profitability will come
and I have proven
that time and time again.

3. Be passionate about your concept and your idea. Be passionate
about your team
members. That's leadership. If you can motivate a team around
your passion and
get them on board you can do anything. In all our businesses we
have meetings
weekly with my executive team and we talk about our people.
What's happening
in their lives, what's happening in our business. How do we
minimize problems in
the workplace? Because our employees spend so much time with
us.
If they can't feel like they're part of the family at work then
where can they? So it's
ultimately critical that they feel comfortable. That they feel
valued and respected.
And that's part of leadership. That's leadership 101. You have to
be passionate
and in my opinion, you need to be known for the people that
work with you, just
as much as you need to be known for the services you provide.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
When developing the strategy for Business Owners Benefit
Association we had
to consider, for one, why hasn't it been done before? This is not
a complicated
© 2016 Laureate Education, Inc. 1

4. Business Strategy and Innovation: Developing a Business
Strategy
concept. You take a lot of buyers and you buy products cheaper
than you would
individually.
Well having said that, small businesses are an underserved
population. Because
if you're selling a service like insurance, or if you're a fuel
company selling fuel,
you're really looking at what premium dollars come in, what are
the commissions,
what are your profitability as a vendor?
Well if you go to the individual small businesses it takes so
much time, and
almost as much time, in some cases, to really spend evaluating

5. the small
business. When you could spend that time on a medium or
larger business and
get more commissions. And so what we had to do at BOBA is to
take the risk that
if we can convince enough small business owners to partner
with us, to become
associate members, that truly together we are, and we do, bring
more buying
power than any large business in the country.
So the risk of building that strategy was that , are we going to
invest the time and
energy and the money upfront to make that happen? The answer
was a
resounding yes. We have spent a lot of money, and research,
and time to bring
this together. And we are very happy now that as we start to
take off in our first
year, that we have dozens and dozens of businesses, even larger
businesses,
realizing that they want to sponsor, they want to be a part of
this.
Because again, the idea is not difficult to understand but the
reason it hasn't
been done before in this manner is because there is a lot of risk
up front. And as
an entrepreneur, as a small business owner, I know and I've
been blessed with
profitability. But I've left a lot of money on the table because I
could not compete
with some of these services that BOBA brings. And now we
can. We can bring
power back to the small business owner.

6. And so the innovation is not what we're doing but it's how we're
doing it. How
we're bringing people together. How we are convincing vendors
that would never
work with a small business, or even a small association like us,
if they didn't have
the belief in what we were doing, what our management was
doing. And that we
are able to convince and network through a decade of success in
our own small
businesses. To bring these owners together. Convince them to
be a part of our
association.
And so that the large businesses of the world create a win-win
scenario. They're
going to get our buying power but we're also in a get their
reduced prices. And
we're going to be able to compete right alongside the large
businesses of the
world.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
© 2016 Laureate Education, Inc. 2

7. Business Strategy and Innovation: Developing a Business
Strategy
The location of BOBA, Business Owners Benefits Association,
initially is located
in Knoxville, Tennessee. And Knoxville, Tennessee is where
our other
businesses are located. And we believe that we have to convince
our local
business owners and our community neighbors that our
association is worth
joining and worth becoming a member of.
And so at the Knoxville Chamber, BOBA is the small business
advisor to its
2,200 members. We partner with a chamber and equal status
with Verizon and
Pepsi. We believe that it's important to bring a voice to small
business in the
chamber. We also sponsored recently the Smoky Mountain Air
Show with the
Blue Angels. Again, bringing that to our community to

8. celebrate, which is the first
time in 16 years that an air show had been in the Smoky
Mountains.
And so as we work with our neighbors, as we work with small,
medium, and large
businesses in Knoxville. And we have successfully had dozens
of businesses
become members. We then start to look nationally, and
ultimately internationally.
We know that as business owners that are struggling with the
same problems in
England, in Bosnia, in places in Africa, that we need to bring
them the same
solutions that we're bringing to business owners in America.
So BOBA is nationally, but it's also internationally, focused.
And we know that the
more creative minds, the more that we bring international
voices to the
membership of BOBA, that we will only become stronger.
Because we do focus
on, and we live by our motto, the dream of one and the buying
power of many.
And those many are worldwide.
So we're looking forward to the future. We're looking forward
to growing, not only
nationally, but internationally. And most importantly, I am very
excited to start to
hear from business owners and what solutions they need to be
provided in their
own country.
[MUSIC PLAYING]

9. So the considerations that BOBA and its executive team need to
consider as we
move internationally are things like vendor networks,
relationships in certain
countries. We also have to understand the regulatory and
compliance
requirements for banking, international banking, and association
statuses in
different countries.
So as we start to focus overseas in different markets we will
then start to partner
with and ask other business owners. We will ask governments to
help us better
understand the marketplace in those countries. Each country has
its own set of
laws and regulations. And so what we want to do is be the best
small business
advisors that we can be. And in order to do that, we have to
understand
strategically, and tactically, at the business owner level what
the requirements
are.
© 2016 Laureate Education, Inc. 3

10. Business Strategy and Innovation: Developing a Business
Strategy
What are the real needs from the business owners that are
working in the
community and in different service industries and
manufacturing? But also what
do the political-- or what are the political requirements to break
into new markets
and make sure that we are compliant and doing the right thing
with those local
businesses?
Were based on a vendor network. That is really the creativity
behind BOBA is
that we partner with large vendors. And the vendors believe in
us to the point that
they would give us phenomenal pricing because of where we're
going. And that
passion that we believe in wholeheartedly, we convince other

11. large businesses
and national networks to believe in us as well.
And so as we look to international markets we have to find
those same type of
relationships and develop those relationships so that we are just
as value added
to the small business owner in an international market. And so
in large part our
vendors in America also extend in their multinational
corporations but in some
cases they're not. And also in some cases there may be a unique,
specific,
country specific problem, that BOBA May be able to solve or
help be a part of the
solution. But in order to do that, we have to hear the voices of
small business
owners and the government officials in the country.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Business Strategy and Innovation: Developing a Business
Strategy
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FOOTAGE:
BenEricPromotion
Photo used by permission of Dr. Eric Barton.
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12. EricPinningOnPromotion
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13. Business Strategy and Innovation: Developing a Business
Strategy
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Eric at Vanquish office
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http:www.whyboba.com

14. Business Strategy and Innovation: Introduction to BOBA
Business Strategy and Innovation: Introduction to BOBA
Program Transcript
[MUSIC PLAYING]
MALE SPEAKER: Walden University alumnus Eric W. Barton
is an entrepreneur
and international business leader with more than a decade of
experience in
establishing and managing successful multimillion dollar
companies throughout
the United States, Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. He
currently owns
and manages 28 world-reaching financially solvent entities and
has employed
more than 11,000 people over the past decade. In this case
study, Eric will share

15. with you the importance of establishing a well-structured
strategy whenever
building a new business and how he incorporated business
strategies into his
newest entrepreneurial venture. Business Owners Benefits
Association, or
BOBA.
ERIC W. BARTON: In 2007 and 2008, when the global
economy was in crisis,
my small business here in the United States felt the financial
impact, as did many
others in my community. I knew that I didn't just want to ensure
the success of
my own business. I also wanted to help other small businesses
thrive since they
are the heartbeat of the US economy.
I, along with my management team and staff, invested eight
years of heavy
research, spent countless hours talking to small business owners
about their
needs and what would help them flourish. And we pinpointed
the areas in which
we could truly make a positive social change impact and still
profit from it. From
this, Business Owners Benefits Association, or BOBA, was
born.
BOBA is a national association committed to offering solutions
to entrepreneurs
and small business owners who are interested in controlling or
reducing the costs
associated with operating their business or organization.
Essentially, through the
power of membership, BOBA becomes a single-source provider

16. for its members,
delivering time and cost savings opportunities while eliminating
the need to have
multiple contracts for the many products and services required
to operate a small
business.
As an example, as a BOBA member, a flower shop owner can
purchase fuel at a
reduced cost rather than going to the pump and paying retail for
each of his or
her four delivery trucks. We can evaluate their insurance needs
and provide them
with options that may result in cost savings and risk reductions.
We also monitor,
at no cost, their partial deliveries from different suppliers and
file claims for
refunds for late shipments. In addition, we create HR policies
and procedures to
ensure compliance with state and local regulations.
Until BOBA, there has not been a single solution for small
business owners to
turn to for cost savings and risk management. In providing these
solutions we are
© 2016 Laureate Education, Inc. 1

17. Business Strategy and Innovation: Introduction to BOBA
able to bring to life the company's motto-- of the dream of one,
the buying power
of many.
What BOBA does for the small business owner is we provide a
single source to,
one, be a business advisor to come alongside the business
owner. From the top
down, we are business owners. We face a lot of the same
challenges. And we
have really worked hard to help our associate members
understand their
markets.
We look at things like insurance and risk reduction. The small
business owner

18. that's out there at a flower shop or in a restaurant, they may not
have the time to
really look at insurance. And for that matter, a lot of insurance
producers and
brokers really don't spend the time to truly analyze where the
small business
owner is and where there are gaps and what they need. And so
what we do is we
provide and we focus on being advisors first. We don't ask
small businesses to
spend money that they're not already spending in the
marketplace.
So if you are using credit cards, if you have insurance
requirements, if you're
getting package delivery, you have HR and payroll services,
you're buying fuel,
those type of services are things that we want to come alongside
you, evaluate
your needs, and if nothing else, make sure you're fully
understanding where your
risks are, what your costs are today, and what the future cost
could be.
For BOBA, we want to make sure that you are getting the best
competitive price
and that you are truly understanding where you could be if we
all, again, come
together as business owners and small business owners, in
particular, and buy
our goods and services wholesale. It's very similar to what large
businesses do
because, as a small business owner, you understand that if you
make a mistake,
it can be devastating to your business.

19. Time and time again, we come to a small business owner's place
of business, we
talk to he or she about what they're doing, what are the
requirements, and we
find out that, in a lot of cases, they don't have the proper
insurance or they don't
have the time to really look at the regulatory and compliance
issues facing their
industry.
And so those are the things we help out with by taking time and
spending time
with small business owners because we've been there. We are
there today. Our
ownership and our management understand what you need and
what you're
facing.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
© 2016 Laureate Education, Inc. 2

20. Business Strategy and Innovation: Introduction to BOBA
Business Strategy and Innovation: Introduction to BOBA
Additional Content Attribution
FOOTAGE:
BenEricPromotion
Photo used by permission of Dr. Eric Barton.
Eric_in_Dubai
Photo used by permission of Dr. Eric Barton. Retrieved from
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ericbarton/4029137825/sizes/l/
EricPinningOnPromotion
Photo used by permission of Dr. Eric Barton.
100_0538
Photo used by permission of Dr. Eric Barton.

21. IMG_1603
Photo used by permission of Dr. Eric Barton. Retrieved from
www.govanquish.com
BOBA Logo_193 PMI_RGB_300.dpi
Photo used by permission of Dr. Eric Barton. Retrieved from
www.whyboba.com
100_0887
Photo used by permission of Dr. Eric Barton. Retrieved from
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ericbarton/4029891860/
Eric at Vanquish office (2)
Photo used by permission of Dr. Eric Barton. Retrieved from
www.govanquish.com
Eric at Vanquish office
Photo used by permission of Dr. Eric Barton. Retrieved from
www.govanquish.com
DSC_0244
Photo used by permission of Dr. Eric Barton. Retrieved from
www.whyboba.com
© 2016 Laureate Education, Inc. 3
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http:www.govanquish.com
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https://www.flickr.com/photos/ericbarton/4029891860
http:www.whyboba.com

22. http:www.govanquish.com
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