The Three Little Pigs, Revisited

I've decided to address the younger crowd today by coming up with a nice story about profitable growth. It's never too early to teach good values.

This is the story of three little pigs whose mother decided they were old enough to earn a living by themselves. She was tired of cooking and cleaning and dreamed of a better future under the sun. So she sent out the three little pigs to seek their fortune.

The first pig created a gaming company whose multi-platform product was supposed to take the world by storm. It was a cash intensive business, the pig had to hire many specialists to produce something that could compete with the major players. The pig used angel money at first, but he then had to go through a costly 2nd round of financing before the product was ready to be marketed. His board of directors were old-school pigs, they did not understand the gaming business at all, and much less the mobile market.

The pig applied for R&D government grants, but the process was long and tedious. He had to explain 20 times what his innovative ideas were about down the smallest details, and the government workers were completely clueless about the gaming industry. He was able to secure $60 000 in grants, but the whole process consumed more money in time than the grant provided.

The first pig soon ran out of money and his gaming company filed for Chapter 11 and its assets were bought at an auction by a large game company owned by a rich wolf. Massive funds were then injected to promote the game and it grossed $500M in sales the next year. The wolf - an accomplished peddler - was then able to secure government grants in no time to develop another version, now that risks were bar none.

The second pig thought he was wiser than his younger brother and went to start a hardware company. According to the business plan, the gizmo would rival everything ever created by Apple, RIM or Sony, it would make a dent in the gadget universe. The pig even had a foam mock-up for which he paid with his own money. The pig sent his business plan to a VC firm managed by a wolf with a well-known reputation . The wolf said, "Little pig, little pig, let me come in." and the VC firm closed a round of financing where the pig was now a minority shareholder. The wolf provided funds on a monthly basis to pay for salaries and basic expenses, and the pig was under enormous pressure to turn a profit even though he could not market his product due to lack of funds. All marketing expenses were questioned by wolf, who expected the gadget to sell "just by itself" because it was good. After a while, the second pig sold everything to a Chinese company for a song.

The third pig had a different perspective on seeking fortune. He first sold himself as a consultant to a local government agency. He didn't know shit, but he quickly learned the lingo. After a while, he was able to detect more needs and wanted to grow his business. He hired his 2 younger brothers and billed top rate for their services. The client was quite happy by the pigs' services, there was a large budget for IT consulting services and the third pig was able to hire more piggy consultants from local competitors. Rapidly enough, the 3rd pig was spending all his time growing his business instead of working in a cubicle. His business was certified ISO 9001, allowing him to bid on more important projects.

The 3rd pig retained 100% of his business despite the fact that he was now employing 250 piggies. He received offers from competitors but turned them down. He had a vision where he would become the number one IT consulting provider in his country. The 3rd pig bought smaller less ambitious competitors and went through an IPO (ticker was HAM) to raise more cash.

At some point the 3rd pig acquired the wolf's business, money was just to sweet the wolf was tired of harassing young entrepreneurs.

The 3rd pig then structured his business for the long run. He was past 5,000 employees when he deployed SAP, opened new business units in different geographical locations, and created a centralized management team. Company values were teached to newcomers, there was a strong HR team in place and hundreds of forms and procedures. Despite all the goodness that the 3rd piggy had put in place, the turnover was above 15%. Even his 2 younger brothers had left the company, seems there were pissed off by some company policy.

Nevermind, the 3rd pig said, there will be others.