從家庭主婦到家具女王
????這就是我,一個結過婚并有4個小孩的鄉村女孩正在實現的構想。當我申請第一份工作(馬薩諸塞州布倫特里Hamilton's Furniture的室內設計總監)時,該公司所有人——喬治·漢密爾頓——最初拒絕了我,因為我沒有任何經驗。我就想:“我必須得引起這個人的注意。”有一天,我和孩子們在海灘上時心中也在想著這個問題。這時我看到一架飛機飛過頭頂,打著什么廣告,我記得是百加得朗姆酒(Bacardi Rum)的廣告。每個人都在看那個廣告。 ????因此,我跑去租了一架豪客比奇(Hawker Beechcraft)飛機,讓它拖著寫有“喬治,朱迪·喬治將給你賺幾百萬”的條幅飛行。我讓飛機每天都在他的辦公室上方飛,飛了一個星期,直到他讓警察聯系我,指控我有騷擾之嫌。然后,接下來的一周,他雇傭了我。 ????后來,他的公司收購了家具店Scandinavian Design,我的傳奇就是從這里開始的。時任首席執行官羅伯特·達爾文給了我一生中真正的機會。我們一起努力,在不到6年的時間內將公司收入從300萬美元提升到了8,900萬美元左右。接著,我又開始提出所有這些想法,一家新店的想法。 ????然后有一天,我開車去上班,進門就被解雇了。羅伯特告訴我:“你有你自己的夢想,那不是我的夢想。” ????我的心都碎了。被人炒魷魚令人感覺相當羞愧,特別是對于女性。我從沒想過我能挺過來。然后,我開始制定一個商業計劃。 ????這一次,我單槍匹馬。我請了最好的律師事務所。我去找一流的會計師。我去了德勤(Deloitte & Touche),我們達成了一個協議:如果他們幫助我將這個商業計劃搭建起來,我將聘請他們做這家公司的會計師,但我不能預付。他們做到了。他們承擔了風險,為我做了20年的會計師。 ????至于啟動資金,我去找了貝恩資本(Bain Capital),在那里我遇到了米特·羅姆尼。我喜歡米特·羅姆尼。我對政治不感興趣。我一直遠離政治。但米特冒了一次貝恩資本任何人都不會冒的風險。當時,他在那里的資歷也較淺。我想米特所做的是,他認識到了我的激情和決心,相信“如果有人能做到,她就能做到。” ????并不是因為我是一個天才,也不是因為我擁有世界上最好的點子。我想,我做的最重要的事情是正確待人。猜猜看,是誰幫我拿到了啟動資金?是制造商和員工們,當貝恩資本打電話向他們了解情況時,他們都給了我很高的評價。四年內,我為這家公司籌集了3,000萬美元的創始資金。 ????1986年,我們創辦了Domain,迅速取得了成功。產品設計與(我老東家)Scandinavian的斯堪的納維亞風格截然不同。我的設計更歐式。我知道每個人都有巴黎、意大利或西班牙情結。因此,我融入了這些國家的元素,設計了外觀。 ????2002年我出售這家公司時,它的銷售額為6,800萬美元,當時是美國一流的家具公司之一。我以3,000萬美元出售了這家公司,我沒有把這些錢據為己有。約20名Domain員工從這筆買賣中獲得了巨額回報,因為我知道我想做些其他事情。如果我真的要做其他事情,我需要他人的好評。 ????Domain在2006年再度易手。當時整個行業不斷走低,最終收購它的那家公司不想長期持有它。他們進來是想輕松賺些快錢,但在家具行業這根本不可能。當時美國的經濟狀況是大蕭條以來最糟糕的情況之一。他們失去了耐心。2008年Domain提交了破產保護申請。 |
????So here I am, a country girl, really, married with four kids. When I applied for my first job [as director of interior design for Hamilton's Furniture in Braintree, Mass.], the owner -- George Hamilton -- originally said no because I'd never had experience. I thought,"I have to get this man's attention." I was thinking about that on the beach with my kids one day and I saw this plane fly overhead advertising something, I think it was Bacardi Rum. Everybody was looking at it. ????So I went and hired a Hawker Beechcraft plane with a banner that said, "George, Judy George will make you millions." And I flew it over his office every day for a week until he had the police contact me for disturbing the peace. The next week, he hired me. ????Eventually his company bought the furniture store Scandinavian Design, and that's where I worked my magic. Robert Darvin, the CEO, gave me the real chance of a lifetime. Working together, in less than six years we went from $3 million to about $89 million in revenue. But then I started bringing in all these ideas again, ideas for a new store. ????One day, I drove to work, got in, and was fired. Robert said to me, "You have your own dreams. They're not mine." ????I was heartbroken. There's a lot of shame about being fired, particularly for women. I never thought I would survive it. Then I started putting a business plan together. ????This time, I went all on my own. I hired the best law firm. I went to the best accountants. I went to Deloitte & Touche, and we made a deal that if they helped me put this business plan together, I would make them the accountants, but I couldn't pay them upfront. They did it. They took a risk. And they were my accountants for 20 years. ????For startup money, I went to Bain Capital, where I met Mitt Romney. I love Mitt Romney. I'm not political. I've kept out of that. But Mitt took a chance where nobody would at Bain. And he was relatively new there. What I think Mitt did is he picked up on my passion and drive, and said, "If anybody can do it, she'll do it." ????It wasn't because I was a genius. It wasn't because I had the best idea in the world. I think the most important thing I ever did was treat people right. And guess who got me the money? It was the manufacturers and the employees who spoke so highly of me when Bain called and interviewed them. Within four years, I had $30 million in startup funding for the company. ????We open Domain in 1986, and it really took off. The design was very different than Scandinavian [George's former employer], which is Scandinavian. I was more European. Everybody I knew wanted to be in Paris, Italy, or Spain. And so I took all those countries and developed the look. ????The revenue was $68 million when I sold the company in 2002. It was one of the top furniture companies in the country. We sold it for $30 million, and I?didn't?keep the money. About 20 people at Domain benefited tremendously from the sale, because I knew I wanted to do something else, and if I was ever going to do that, I needed people to speak well of me. ????Domain changed hands again in 2006, when the bottom starting falling out of the industry, but the company that eventually bought it?wasn't?in it for the long term. They came in, and they wanted quick and easy money, and there was no way in the furniture industry that was ever going to happen. It was one of the worst economic climates for the industry since the Great Depression. They got impatient. Domain filed for bankruptcy in 2008. |