Selim Bassoul has never been one to sit back and hope his company grows. The chairman and CEO of The Middleby Corp., a provider of restaurant and food service equipment, slashed the company’s product lines and completely changed its focus to energy-saving products during the last recession, when the rest of the industry had never considered such paths. Smart Business Executive Editor Dustin S. Klein recently had a chance to sit down with Bassoul on video to talk about how an entrepreneur can build a business in any economic climate.
Bassoul on building value for customers and cutting through needless layers of management.
Bassoul on talking with customers – both your existing customers and your competition’s.
See the full nine-minute conversation between Klein and Bassoul.
Klein interviewed Bassoul while he was in Palm Springs, Calif., at the Ernst & Young Strategic Growth Forum 2009. Klein also had the chance to speak with several other leaders about the entrepreneurial bent to their company. Among others, he had a chance to sit in on a Strategic Growth Forum conversation with Howard Schultz of Starbucks Corp. and do video interviews with NETGEAR Inc.’s Patrick Lo and 1-800-FLOWERS.COM Inc.’s founder and CEO Jim McCann.
Klein also had a chance to do some question-and-answer sessions with past Entrepreneur Of The Year Award winners and Growth Forum panelists.
Pamela Chambers O’Rourke, founder, president and CEO of 850-employee ICON Information Consultants LP.
Celeste Ford, founder, chairman and CEO of Stellar Solutions Inc.
Shelly Lazarus, chairman of Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide.
Robert Klein, founder and CEO of Safeguard Properties.
Know a company that might be a good fit for the 2010 Ernst &Young Entrepreneur Of The Year program? Contact Caroline Calfee at [email protected].