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The Empire Builders Podcast

By: Stephen Semple and David Young
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  • Summary

  • Reverse engineering the success of established business empires.
    The Empire Builders Podcast
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Episodes
  • #150: United Parcel Service – Delivery by Model “T”

    #150: United Parcel Service – Delivery by Model “T”
    Apr 24 2024
    California joins the union and messages need to be delivered. UPS had a solution and decided it needed to be luxury and efficient. Dave Young: Welcome to the Empire Builders podcast. Teaching business owners the not-so-secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom-and-pop, to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector and storyteller. I'm Stephen's sidekick and business partner, Dave Young. Before we get into today's episode, a word from our sponsor, which is, well, it's us. But we're highlighting ads we've written and produced for our clients. So, here's one of those. [Colair Cooling & Heating] Dave Young: Welcome back to the Empire Builders podcast. Dave Young here with Stephen Semple. And we're talking about empires and how they were built. Get it? That's the name of the pod... that's what we do here. Stephen Semple: I've never put that together before. Dave Young: Wow, I see. Aren't you glad I'm here? Stephen Semple: I'm so glad. Dave Young: You whispered the three letters, UPS, into my ears just as the countdown started. And I'm trying to think of a UPS story, and mostly what I think of when I think of UPS, think back years ago, I sort of remember, I think their start but I remember that being a UPS driver was a way better job back then than it is today. But that's probably not a big part of this story. So let's talk about how they started. Stephen Semple: Pretty sure it was UPS recently that actually just put through a new pay package and benefits, and things along that lines. That really ramped up what people are being paid at UPS, if I remember correctly. But you're right, this is not a big part. It's not a big part of the story. Dave Young: I think it started... how long have they been around, Stephen? Stephen Semple: They were founded on August 28th, 1907. Dave Young: I feel like probably I lived in a town so small that we didn't have one until maybe the sixties or seventies. They just didn't show up. Stephen Semple: Well, and this is an interesting part. There was a big challenge to them becoming nationwide. They were founded in August 1907 by James Casey and Claude Ryan in Seattle. I didn't realize that they had started in Seattle. Dave Young: Oh, okay. Stephen Semple: And they actually first started as their original name was the American Message Company. And today of course is known as UPS, United Parcel Service. They do like 90 billion in sales and have over 500,000 employees. Just what a monster they have become in this space. But basically they started around the time California joins the union. And you know what ends up happening now, I know Seattle's not and before people go nuts, I know Seattle's not in California, but I was just trying to, you know, Historic landmark. Dave Young: It's the West Coast, yeah. Stephen Semple: Exactly. But I get it, before people know- Dave Young: Didn't all join at once. Yeah. Stephen Semple: ... So, California joins the union. There's this growth happening. In the west, there's this need to transport items and it's hard getting things to the new territories. And lots of delivery services pop up. Wells Fargo pops up for the transportation of money. The Pony Express is created for transporting of mail. Now, of course, the Pony Express only lasts 18 months because the telegraph wipes them out. Right? Dave Young: Right. Stephen Semple: But here's the interesting thing, with the telegraph, you still need a messenger service to run the last leg. To take it from the telegraph station to the person. So, Jim Casey's, 19 years old, he's in Seattle and he sets up this business for basically running the telegraphs. That's how they start. Dave Young: Okay. They're the last mile guy. Stephen Semple: That's the reason why they're the American message service. They start off as being the last mile guy.
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    19 mins
  • #149: History of Franchising – Making Millionaires

    #149: History of Franchising – Making Millionaires
    Apr 17 2024
    Stephen and Dave right a wrong from a previous episode and dive deep into the history of franchising. A system for making millionaires. Dave Young: Welcome to The Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not so secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom and pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector, and storyteller. I'm Stephen's sidekick and business partner Dave Young. Before we get into today's episode, a word from our sponsor, which is, well, it's us, but we're highlighting ads we've written and produced for our clients. So here's one of those. [BWS Home Services Ad] Dave Young: Welcome back to The Empire Builders Podcast. I'm Dave Young, I'm with Stephen Semple. And Stephen just whispered the topic into my ear and I missed something. Stephen, you said franchise and I didn't quite catch what franchise we're going to be talking about. Stephen Semple: We're going to talk about a little bit of the history of franchising. Dave Young: The idea here is the idea of a franchise, the business model, if you will. Stephen Semple: Yeah, because if we think about the concept of this podcast as we're talking about empires, how many business empires today would not exist if it wasn't for the concept of a franchise where you create something and you license to that person the right to operate? And it's grown today into being the business model and all those other things. It has allowed numerous numbers of ordinary citizens to own successful businesses and generate wealth. It has also created a way for businesses to grow rapidly because of the fact that they're able to leverage the person's interest, hardworking expertise, and money in order to grow these businesses. Especially in the restaurant space, there's no way companies like McDonald's and Wendy's and all of these other businesses would've been able to grow at the rate that they grow if franchising had not been created, perfected, developed, and modernized. And those things have a journey that they went on as well. Dave Young: Those two key points you mentioned, it gives the average person an opportunity. If you can scrape up enough money to buy a franchise, you now own a business. Stephen Semple: Correct. Dave Young: And if you own a business, you created a business and you want to quickly expand to multiple markets, you can do it with other people's money by giving them their piece of their own little location as opposed to going and borrowing it all or doing some kind of a public offering, those kinds of things, an alternate way of growing fast. Stephen Semple: A really interesting Netflix show to watch, and it's not a documentary, but it's actually pretty accurate, is The Founder with Michael Keaton. Dave Young: Yeah, the Ray Kroc story. Stephen Semple: Yeah, the Ray Kroc story. And one of the things that Ray Kroc discovered was the best franchisees, so franchisees are the people purchasing the franchise were actually common, everyday hardworking folk who wanted to make a better life for themselves. And buying a McDonald's franchise was that avenue that actually made a better life for them. And they were the best source of franchisees, not rich folks who are looking for investments. And look, Chick-fil-A. Chick-fil-A today, it's very difficult to become a Chick-fil-A franchisee because they want to look at it and say, do you fit in? Are you that type of person? Will you actually be a great part of this family? And in Culver Restaurant, which I forget what episode Culver Restaurant is, we talked about how Culver, it's really, really important to them that basically franchisees really fit into what's being created. I think it's worth exploring the history of franchising. And I have to right a wrong, because back in episode 94, we talked about Martha Harper, and I referred to the fact that Albert Singer was the first commercial franchise.
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    17 mins
  • #148: Kodak – They Captured Their Own Moment

    #148: Kodak – They Captured Their Own Moment
    Apr 10 2024
    The amazing rise of Kodak was due to innovation after innovation and you'll never guess why George Eastman called it Kodak. Dave Young: Welcome to the Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not-so-secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom-and-pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector, and storyteller. I'm Stephen's sidekick and business partner Dave Young. Before we get into today's episode, a word from our sponsor, which is, well, it's us, but we're highlighting ads we've written and produced for our clients. So here's one of those. [Tommy Cool Air Ad] Dave Young: Hey, welcome back to the Empire Builders podcast. Dave Young here, and Stephen Semple's right there. Well, you probably can't see him, but I can see them. How you doing this morning? Because we record these in the morning. If you're listening in the evening, I felt the need to say that in case you were confused. Stephen Semple: Especially since before we started the recording, you were slurping your coffee. Dave Young: Right, in case you've never listened to a podcast before, and you didn't know they weren't live. So just before we started, yes, I was slurping my coffee, and yes, Stephen whispered into my ear today's topic. And I tell you, it is funny how words do this. This brand has sort of defined its own... It became the word for its product. It became the word for an industry almost. And when you told me the name, I had a Kodak moment. Stephen Semple: There you go. Yes. Dave Young: Right? But we're going to talk about Kodak, Eastman Kodak company, and when you said Kodak, I'm like, "Oh, man." I remember my first little Instamatic Kodak camera. And the pictures that, I think it was the 110 film that took a picture and- Stephen Semple: Oh yeah, the little film? Yeah. Dave Young: ... when you developed it, you got a four-by-four picture and a little smaller version of the same picture, wallet sized, right next to it. Stephen Semple: Yes. Dave Young: I thought that was the coolest thing. I would carry those little photos around. And I had a picture, I don't know if I still have it. It's probably tucked away somewhere. It's probably in a box somewhere. But there was a picture of me on my grandfather's horse. He had passed away already, and I was like maybe four or five, and I'm on this horse, and the horse's name was Euchre Bill. Stephen Semple: Euchre Bill. Dave Young: I can't explain that. Grandpa was gone. Stephen Semple: Card-playing horse, Euchre Bill. Dave Young: Maybe. I don't know. So that was the Kodak moment. Instantly, as soon as you said Kodak, it took me to that picture, which was still attached with its little picture next to it. Stephen Semple: I think we forget how big Kodak was. And lots of things led... Well, we even did an episode, back episode 77, where we actually looked at what we felt was the decline of Kodak that I did with Gary Bernier. At its peak, in 1996, Kodak was two-thirds of the global film market. In '76, it was 90% of all film sales in the United States, 85% of camera sales. In '96, it was the fifth most valuable business in the world, which is really quite remarkable. Dave Young: We tell our local clients that, man, if you can get to 35%, 40% market share in your category, you're a rock star. Here these guys were worldwide. Stephen Semple: Worldwide, 66%. Yeah. So today we're going to talk about what made Kodak amazing, and then the decline. We've sort of done this backwards. The decline we talked about back in 77. They were founded on May 23rd, 1892 in Rochester, New York by George Eastman. And George became the breadwinner of his family at age 14 when his father died, and he took a job as a messenger boy at an insurance company, and he was making three bucks a week. And then he became an office boy at another insurance company.
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    18 mins
Leadership Management Marketing Economics
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