从汉堡王董事长到绿色食品大师

    布莱恩•史威提的简历乍一看就像是一本美国消费产品公司名录。他在担任汉堡王（Burger King）的非执行董事长之前，还曾担任过易趣网（eBay）首席运营官兼营销总监，百事可乐（PepsiCo）饮料部门的营销总监，宝洁（Procter & Gamble）的品牌经理。

    2012年3月，他穿过加州莫斯兰汀的一片草莓地，打开了一座空荡荡的仓库，他到这里来做什么呢？

    史威提回忆道：“我们需要一个地方生产自己的产品，当时我们都是在店面的小厨房里生产产品。我来到这里后，在一片农田中间看到了这幢建筑，据说它是一幢丧失抵押权赎回权的房子。当时门锁着，我只好把锁撬坏往里张望，但我发现它对我们来说是个完美的地方。”

    六个月后，这座占地35,000平方英尺的废仓库成了甜蜜地球绿色食品公司（Sweet Earth Natural Foods）的新工厂。

    甜蜜地球与汉堡王相距甚远。这家成立于2011年末的公司主要生产全天然的素食食品，比如蔬菜汉堡、墨西哥卷饼等，另外还有一种被命名为“仁慈的熏肉”的全新产品，它是由荞麦、红豆、小麦蛋白和13种调料制作而成。史威提表示：“它是一个对地球来说很友好、对心脏来说很健康，而且完全不必杀戮动物的产品。我对地球的可持续发展一直抱有浓厚的兴趣，这笔生意对我来说也是一次救赎。”

    这家公司的增长速度也堪称疯狂。刚创立时，甜蜜地球只有三个人：史威提夫妇和百事公司前营销高管，时任卡尔文公司（Calvin Klein）全球营销总裁凯利•史威提。但现在，这家公司已经拥有60名员工，公司月收入已达40万美元，史威提预计今年年底前，公司的月收入将达到100万美元。

    对那些想辞去高管职位，自行创业的企业精英们，史威提有哪些建议呢？他表示，他从自己多年的职业生涯中总结了三大经验：

    首先，创业比你预想的要困难得多。他表示：“这还不是我做过的最困难的事，但也差不多是了。在企业界，人们经常讨论一些困难的抉择，但是每个抉择在小公司里都会被放大，因为小公司既没有后盾支持，也没有可借鉴的历史经验。模棱两可的情形要多得多。”

    他特别怀念拥有一个人力资源部门的日子。最近史威提打算给甜蜜地球公司的所有员工一部分股权。公司许多员工的母语是西班牙语，史威提说：“我必须先听懂他们在说什么，然后把要说的话翻译成西班牙语，最后表达出来。”另外他还得打消员工们的疑心。“有些人心里难免有些狐疑，不由得猜想‘他为什么要无缘无故给我们东西呢？肯定有什么阴谋。’如果有一个人力资源部门的话，一定会给我帮不少忙。”

    其次，什么事都要亲力亲为。史威提指出：“在一家大公司里，你大多数时间都在开会。但是在创业公司里，你的公司能否活下来，要靠你的行动。”史威提回忆道，当年自己在百事可乐做高管的时候，“我会设置一个战略，然后时不时给销售打电话跟进一下。”但是现在，他认识每一个甜蜜地球产品的渠道商，而且亲自回复他们的邮件。

    Brian Swette’s resume reads like a Who’s Who of huge American consumer-goods companies. A former chief operating officer and head of marketing at eBay, he was chief marketing officer of PepsiCo’s beverage division and a brand manager at Procter & Gamble before taking the non-executive board chairman seat at Burger King.

    So what was he doing in March 2012, tramping across strawberry fields in Moss Landing, Calif., to break into an empty warehouse?

    “We needed a place to manufacture our products, which we were making in a small kitchen in a storefront,” recalls Swette (pronounced “sweetie”). “I saw this building, in the middle of miles of farmland, that I heard was in foreclosure. I had to break the lock on the door to look inside, but it was perfect for us.”

    Six months later, the 35,000-square-foot space opened its doors as Sweet Earth Natural Foods’ new factory.

    It’s a long way from Burger King. The company, launched in late 2011, makes all-natural vegetarian foods, including veggie burgers, burritos, and a new line of something called Benevolent Bacon, made of buckwheat, red beans, vital wheat gluten, and 13 spices. “It’s earth friendly, heart healthy, and cruelty-free,” Swette says. “I’ve always had an interest in sustainability. This business is redemption for me.”

    It’s also growing like mad. Sweet Earth started with just Swette and his wife and cofounder Kelly Swette, formerly a PepsiCo marketing executive and then head of global marketing for Calvin Klein. The startup now has 60 employees and, Swette says, a $400,000 monthly run rate he expects to reach $1 million by year’s end.

    What would Swette advise aspiring entrepreneurs about quitting the executive suite to start their own ventures? He says he’s learned three big things from his experience:

    It’s a lot harder than you think. “This isn’t the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” says Swette. “But it comes pretty darn close. In the corporate world, people talk about hard choices, but every decision is magnified in a small company, where you have no back-up and no history. There’s a lot more ambiguity.”

    He especially misses having a human resources department. Recently, Swette came up with a plan to give all Sweet Earth’s employees, many of whom are native Spanish-language speakers, some equity in the company. “I had to figure that out myself, then get it translated into Spanish, and present it,” he says. He then had to deal with employees’ initial suspicion. “They were skeptical, like ‘Why is he giving us something for nothing? There must be a catch,’” Swette says. “I really could have used some help with that.”

    Everything is hands-on. “In a big company, you spend most of your time in meetings. But with a startup, your survival is based on action,” says Swette. In his old job as a top marketing executive at PepsiCo, he recalls, “I would set strategy and, once in a while, go along on a sales call.” Now, he knows every distributor that carries Sweet Earth products, and answers their emails himself.