三位被环境逼出来的成功企业家

杰奥夫•武莱塔

    现年49岁的杰奥夫•武莱塔是Fahrenheit 212的首席执行官。这家咨询公司的成功应归功于其相对新颖的业务模式。Fahrenheit 212将一半的服务费押在客户能否达到双方商定的里程碑上；如果目标达到，这家咨询公司将获得一定比例的回报。

    这还不是这家公司唯一的赌博。“2008年9月经济衰退袭来时，在两周的时间内，我们第四季度的已入账收入就损失了200万美元，”武莱塔说。“那一年非常艰难，非常非常艰难。”

    金融危机对F212这类专注于通过创新创造增长的咨询公司造成的冲击尤其严重。“第一次，美国每位首席执行官的核心关注点不再是增长，Fahrenheit正是通过增长获取收入。很多个月，首席执行官们都没什么动作。”

    武莱塔原本也可以像大多数首席执行官那样，重点缩减成本。但是，Fahrenheit新创了一个名为“35/35”的新项目。过去由武莱塔1个人负责寻找新业务机会，新项目要求整个团队将35%的时间都用于寻找新的收入机会。

    结果如何？武莱塔的财务资源一夜间增长了900%。“随后，我说服公司合伙人同意，将35%的自由现金用于寻找收入增长机会。过去，我一般是同时接触5-8家公司。如果我们能同时接触500-800家公司，情况会怎样？那段时间也是招募优秀人才的绝佳时机.....””

    这样的成功在事后笑谈起来是件美事，因为钱已经落袋为安——但当初决定实施“35/35”计划并不容易。做出这一选择，只是因为武莱塔认为他别无选择。

Geoff Vuleta

    Geoff Vuleta, 49, is CEO at Fahrenheit 212, a consultancy that owes its success to its relatively novel business model. Fahrenheit 212 bets half its fees that its clients will hit mutually agreed milestones; if it works out, the consulting firm gets a percentage of the return on the effort.

    That's not the only risky bet the company has taken. "When the recession hit in September 2008, in a two-week period, we lost $2 million of booked revenue for that last quarter," says Vuleta. "It was a touh year, bloody tough for us."

    The financial downturn was particularly bad for consultancies like F212, which focus on creating growth through innovation. "For the first time, the core concern of every CEO in the country was not growth, where Fahrenheit earns its revenue. For months, CEOs just flat-lined."

    Vuleta could have responded the way most CEOs have -- by focusing on cutting costs. Instead, Fahrenheit invented a new program called 35/35. While Vuleta had originally been solely responsible for generating new business leads, the new program called for the entire team to spend 35% of their time searching for new revenue opportunities.

    The result? Vuleta's financial resources grew 900% almost overnight. "And then I got the partners to agree that we would invest 35% of all our free cash in pursuit of revenue generating initiatives. I was used to approaching five to eight companies at a time. What if we approached 500 to 800? It was also a fantastic time to recruit great people..."

    This kind of success is fun to chuckle over in hindsight, when the money is in the bank - but rolling the dice on 35/35 couldn't have been easy. Making that choice was only possible because Vuleta saw it as his only option.