CERCO

Does the E-Myth systemic business work in the era of social media?

Michael Gerber

Last night I had the very great pleasure of seeing Michael E Gerber speak at a seminar in London.

 A highly entertaining presenter, he spoke for over two hours without a single note!

 Much of his material was repeated from his best-selling books and programmes so was not new but it was highly thought-provoking.

 One of his (famous) examples of a great systemic business is McDonalds.

 He repeated the story last night, telling the well-known story of Ray Croc and the first time he saw the McDonald brothers’ system in operation.

 Yet many would say that the food is terrible so can McDonalds really be seen as a great business – or is it merely a great system?

 Another example he gave was Starbucks. He made the point that every coffee shop looks the same from Seattle (where the company started) to Singapore, citing this as a great fact. But according to the marketing media, the coffee company recently announced that it was going to start personalising its stores.

 In fact, they have had some difficult times recently as reported last month at http://www.brandchannel.com/home/post/2009/11/13/Starbucks-CEO-Sends-McCafe-A-Venti-Thank-You.aspx

Also, they are now promoting other brands such as VIA (their instant coffee) and in America rebranding their Gold Coast Blend with a television programme – to become Gold Coast Blend: Morning Joe Edition. The packaging will prominently feature the television show’s logo (larger than Starbucks’ own logo).

 Gerber recommends that business people create their (systemic) enterprise as if they were going to franchise it yet anecdotal research has shown us that many franchisees give up their franchises after three years.

So maybe in the era of Twitter there is a new type of business model waiting to be created!

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