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An example given is how a marketing manager can spend an entire day, sometimes even a week, attempting to acquire one small overseas mailing list. But, Neo-Tech's domestic marketing manager has his hands full in the fiercely competitive U.S. market. He has to devote his full attention to getting out mailings of 100,000 to 200,000 pieces every week. Neo-Tech's domestic marketing manager simply can not justify spending an entire day or even an entire week of his time trying to acquire a single 5000-name overseas mailing list.
Eric Savage, on the other hand, started work at Neo-Tech Publishing as a part-time, entry-level employee. Thus, Eric could afford to spend a day, a week, even a month locating and renting a single, small, overseas mailing list. Eric was young and enthusiastic. And he was willing to push into integrated thinking and forward-essence movement wherever he could so Eric devoted himself to testing and nurturing an international marketing program.
Because Neo-Tech Publishing enacted the Separate Operations Concept, over time Neo-Tech's foreign operations became enormously successful.
There is a profound concept behind the separate-operations dynamics. Consider how foreign marketing is viewed by many small businesses as sort of a way-out, fringe idea. If a small company does decide to test foreign marketing, it usually turns out to be a big drain on management's time and offers only minuscule returns. Neo-Tech Publishing faced those same obstacles when it first ventured into foreign marketing. But, by employing the Separate Operations Concept, Neo-Tech's foreign operation not only became very successful, it became a major profit center. The initially way-out, fringe idea of global marketing developed into Neo-Tech's greatest future opportunity.
When management understands and openly encourages employees to exert integrated thinking and forward-essence movement, that business will continually be pushing into new frontiers as its workers strive to expand upon the company's money-making essence. That constant push into new frontiers can build a small business into a major business.
A business, however, must climb over an initial hump where pursuing a new, way-out area of business, such as international marketing, is not worthwhile. The solution is to enact the Separate Operations Concept. That is, separate out that new area of business and put a low-cost, integrated thinker in charge of it. That person must be enthusiastic about integrating the development of his career with the development of that new, fledgling operation.
Such dynamics apply to almost any new area of business, particularly way-out, fringe areas of business. Way-out ideas can grow into enormous opportunities if they can be made to work, but few entrepreneurs ever get around to really focusing on "blue-sky" avenues of new, untapped business. They sense, consciously or subconsciously, that the investment required is not worthwhile. They cannot justify spending their precious time on way-out, fringe-idea experiments. Their day-to-day money-making demands are too pressing.
Without understanding the Separate Operations Concept, a seemingly impenetrable wall can block a business from successfully expanding beyond its initial essence. That business can grow vertically, but it may never be able to expand horizontally. Yet, it is horizontal expansion from which empire-building growth sprouts.
In contrast, little Neo-Tech Publishing applied the Separate Operations Concept to successfully build its foreign operations. In a short time, new opportunities began arising from within the foreign area itself. Once again, Neo-Tech Publishing could not afford to pursue those new, fringe areas of business without employing the Separate Operations Concept all over again. For, the new opportunities would have sapped precious time and energy from Neo-Tech's foreign marketing manager, Eric Savage. But, once again, those new opportunities held enormous long-range potential.
Soon after Eric Savage got Neo-Tech Publishing's international marketing program rolling along, he discovered what he called the African Opportunity. Other than in South Africa, Neo-Tech Publishing was not able to market The Neo-Tech Discovery to African countries. First, African countries were desperately poor. Second, those countries had severe exchange control regulations. In many African countries simply sending money out of the country is punishable by harsh prison terms. Still, Neo-Tech Publishing received a handful of orders from elite professionals and businessmen in various African countries. Such persons had the ability to send U.S.-dollar payments to Neo-Tech Publishing. The reaction to The Neo-Tech Discovery from that handful of African customers was very positive.
Neo-Tech Publishing realized that the nature of people in African countries, people who are oppressed by totalitarian governments, causes them to respond very positively to the anti-mystical, anti-external-authority concepts of Neo-Tech. Thus, Eric arranged to run a small ad in a Nigerian newspaper offering to send information about The Neo-Tech Discovery to those who wrote Neo-Tech Publishing. Never in Neo-Tech Publishing's history was such a tremendous response to an advertisement received. Thousands of replies were received from that single small ad. The problem was that none of those Nigerians had the means to pay for Neo-Tech books. And, if a Nigerian did have money to buy a Neo-Tech book, he could be jailed simply for sending payment to Neo-Tech Publishing because of Nigerian exchange control regulations.
However, Neo-Tech Publishing decided that it could not give up pursuing African markets. The response was too high from that Nigerian advertisement and the continent of Africa too large. So, Eric formulated an idea. He wrote a form letter and sent it to all the Nigerians who had responded to Neo-Tech's ad. The letter stated that Neo-Tech Publishing understood their problem of not being able to pay for The Neo-Tech Discovery. The letter went on to explain that Neo-Tech Publishing would be willing to make a trade with them in order for them to have the opportunity to acquire books from Neo-Tech Publishing. The letter proposed that they send Neo-Tech a piece of African art, such as a wood carving. Neo-Tech Publishing would then send them a book in return. The letter was mailed out. Two months later, hundreds of wood carvings from Nigeria began arriving at Neo-Tech Publishing.
Neo-Tech Publishing, however, was not making any money from those trades. The only way for Neo-Tech to earn money would be to take those wood carvings to a swap meet, set up a stand, and sell them. But, Eric, who was now running a large, demanding international operation, could not afford the time to set up and man a table at a swap meet to sell those wood carvings. Yet, the African market, if integrated out to its fullest potential, represented a gigantic virgin market for Neo-Tech Publishing.
Once again, without the Separate Operations Concept, the African market was only a way-out, fringe idea that the management of Neo-Tech Publishing could not afford to pursue.
On the other hand, by applying the Separate Operations Concept, Eric was able to appoint an enthusiastic, entry-level employee to take charge of and pursue the African market. This new, enthusiastic worker could afford to spend his time selling art pieces at swap meets in the hope of nurturing the African market into a red-to-black venture.
Another potentially lucrative business opportunity that surfaced once Eric Savage got Neo-Tech Publishing's international operations rolling along was the idea of penetrating Neo-Tech behind Iron-Curtain communist countries. At that time, communism had not yet begun crumbling. It was already known that citizens in communist countries went wild over American products smuggled in on the black market. Similarly, the Bible, which had been banned in most communist countries, had a huge black-market network that smuggled in copies by the millions.
The repressed people in communist countries would likely respond quite positively to the enlightening Neo-Tech concepts. Such people were exposed firsthand to blatant value destruction caused by neocheaters. Their exposure to Neo-Tech could act as a catalyst. And communist countries represented over one-third of the world's population.
Eric Savage, however, could not spend his time pursuing such way-out, far-flung ideas. He was running a rapidly expanding international program. He could not fly off to Eastern Europe to spend time trying to set up smuggling networks into communist countries like some kind of James Bond. On the other hand, by applying the Separate Operations Concept, those communist markets could be pursued.
One Neo-Tech Publishing worker was a Vietnamese refugee. He very much wanted to work at disseminating Neo-Tech books into Vietnam. Likewise, Neo-Tech Publishing had a number of customers who had escaped from communist countries and who now wanted to work at disseminating Neo-Tech books into their former homelands. Although the idea of smuggling Neo-Tech books into communist countries seemed really way-out in the traditional business world, something no other established company would consider doing, it was still an idea that was realistic. And it could pay off enormously if successful. So, Neo-Tech Publishing began investigating ways to market Neo-Tech books into communist countries by whatever means possible.
Low-cost translations for communist country editions of The Neo-Tech Discovery were begun. Thus, when communism did begin falling in Europe a short time later, Neo-Tech Publishing was there on the ground floor. Good inroads into Yugoslavia and Hungary had already been made. While other multinational corporations were still trying to make contact with bureaucrats and lawyers in former communist countries to inquire about doing business there, Neo-Tech Publishing was already up and profiting. Neo-Tech was poised to make similar inroads into Red China and Russia as well. Some day, former communist countries could become Neo-Tech's largest markets.
Another example of the "way-out, fringe idea" concept is what Neo-Tech Publishing called the Encyclopedia Britannica Technique. John Flint and Eric Savage had made a trip to South America. John happened to meet an Encyclopedia Britannica representative in Venezuela. He learned that throughout South America consumers are used to door-to-door salesmen selling all kinds of items ranging from clothes to books. The customer will make a purchase on a payment plan. For many weeks a door-to-door salesman will come to that customer's house and collect a small installment payment. That way relatively poor consumers can purchase many things.
Throughout South America Encyclopedia Britannica has salesmen that go door to door doing exactly that. If the large, expensive Encyclopedia Britannica can be successfully sold door to door in South America, The Neo-Tech Discovery can certainly be sold door to door in South America. Thus, door to door sales in South America represent real potential. But, once again, Eric Savage could not afford to fly off to South America and spend months going door to door learning how to make direct sales work. Eric would then have to set up, train, and manage a network of salesmen. But, employing the Separate Operations Concept, Neo-Tech Publishing recruited an enthusiastic Costa Rican lady to pursue that area on her own. She did so with minimum resources, always trying to make those dynamics go from red to black. Someday, door-to-door sales in South America could build into a lucrative market for Neo-Tech Publishing.
The African example, the Iron Curtain example, and the Encyclopedia Britannica example are three way-out, fringe ideas that revealed themselves once Eric Savage got involved in international marketing. Similar way-out, fringe ideas continually develop in other areas of Neo-Tech Publishing. Armed with the Separate Operations Concept, Neo-Tech Publishing will be able to pursue such way-out, yet lucrative, opportunities. That, in turn, will ensure future horizontal growth for Neo-Tech.
Managements that do not pursue new avenues of growth will eventually stagnate. Their companies, at some point in time, will become outmoded. Yet, formulating new ideas for business growth is not difficult. Such ideas will naturally develop in the minds of integrated-thinking, forward-essence movers. But, a manager must know how to successfully pursue those new ideas.
If a businessperson does not understand how to pursue way-out, fringe ideas, he or she will not become an empire builder. Unfortunately, most businessmen do not know how to successfully pursue way-out, fringe ideas. They do not understand how to promote integrated thinking and forward-essence movement in others, and they have not identified the Separate Operations Concept. Even very successful entrepreneurs are often blind to those concepts as Eric Savage discovered when he first began pursuing foreign marketing. Eric had met many successful entrepreneurs who had attempted foreign marketing and then gave up in defeat.
By understanding integrated thinking, forward-essence movement, and the Separate Operations Concept, a person will acquire the tools to successfully pursue way-out, fringe ideas. That will assure open-ended, horizontal growth. He or she will then be able to build a value-producing empire.
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