The ideal business plan | George Koukis | TEDxChalkida

first off thank you I was born not far from here about two kilometers of those Latvian and I wanted to say that I'm very proud and honored to be here today dead the Dex is one known worldwide and I thought it was a very good initiative and if you don't believe that I believe what I'm saying I'll let you know something yesterday was my 49th wedding anniversary and I elected to be here all of you are welcome to come to my funeral next week in Geneva the about Thursday afternoon Thursday writing okay you can come one of the biggest problems Europe and the rest of the world faces today is unemployment unemployment means there are people who would like to work but they have no capacity to work because there are no jobs instead of putting food on the table and ensuring that the family can go to universities and so forth they take money from government in order to exist there's nothing more soul-destroying than wanting to work and you cannot work and governments don't know how to make money they're not designed to make money they designed to spend money and not necessarily wisely so consequently a lot of young people are out of work and what we have throughout the world actually we have high rising the crime crime is rising at an alarming rate because they're young people they have nothing else to do I selected the topic of an ideal business plan because true job creation can only happen when an enterpreneur like you like that everybody else starts a new business and has a capacity to grow that business and provide work so that people can spend the economy benefits because we give money we pay taxes rather than taking money from the government so I'm gonna talk a little bit about this the business plan I'm talking about the things that I've done all my life nothing of what I say is lifted from a book or anything there are my own views you may agree or disagree however whatever I say I'm gonna say it under one condition that if I say something bad about businessman or politician or something it is a true statement all over the world except your own country yeah in other words if I said politicians are bad they are bad all over the world except Greece when when the Greek government goes overseas they applaud they see them as role models if you're if you are British that means mr. Cameron and mr. Corbyn and mr. Ferrante are perfect it's just the rest of the world is rotten under this environment let me let me go very fast because I have very little time they don't give me much time 18 minutes I can't even spell my surname I bought a company about a twice bankrupt company in Switzerland that's where I live now for nine hundred forty-eight thousand dollars my venture capitalist who gave me the money appointed five advisers experts all of them told me do not do it I said to one of them why is your account you said yes and I'm very proud of Crick and he says yes but you don't know anything about technology you know about banking I said no I've never been here aback says you're gonna fail ok thank you very much I also told him that I don't speak French which is the truth I'd understand a little bit but I don't speak it so they turn around to one another and said he left Phu illa ma la he says he's crazy left foot crazy he's sick in the mind it is impossible now I've been married to the same woman for 49 years I don't know what I've done wrong but it is a true statement my yesterday yes what when my wife talks about something that I have strong views against it I've created a medical condition where something happens to my eardrum there is a membrane coming down I'm gonna see a doctor before my funeral only to find out what the hell it is I just cannot hear anything so I didn't listen to them I did exactly the same thing I said fine thank you very much for your advice about the company I renamed determiners I get inspired by things that I cannot explain right now but one of them is is the name I don't have a company called your cookies Temenos I had no credit lines no veteran not want or even to this day that's a lesson for the sovereign debt that we have countries borrow money to pay the interest we cannot not only Greece Italy pretty bad United Kingdom I had no debt whatsoever we did well we will invest I have 20 year plans if I show you my business plan it hasn't got one number I'd never said to my people I want to make a million profit never all my position about a business plan we're statements that I cannot write now because of lack of time explained to you fast forward the company I bought for less than 1 million I took it public six years late at one point four billion in other words if you were eight thousand euros there you will get 1 point 4 million 1 million four hundred thousand today the company's worth multiples of that I'm talking about them but more than that more than that making money Domino's is number one in the world as they the gentleman before said number one in the world no matter what you look at every independent survey we're number one in the world in the industry we represent which is computer system for bats successively year after year we win awards we do a lot of things so and we were number five at some time in corporate governance which came about Europe around 2008 so how do you go from bankruptcy to be a dominant player the play was when when my company had zero revenues the Giants were minimal billion dollars and now there are only about 20 let me go through now something and I hope I can part my messages in a clear way there's expectations and there is reality we're talking about life what is reality when somebody starts a business plan everybody who starts a new business that want to be successful basically they want to be Steve Jobs Bill Gates whatever whatever you once you started reality setting this is real and this is reality now it's not some highfalutin philosophical statement about life in Europe where 175 bankruptcies a year and growing very fast 50,000 of those are in France so much about bankrupt ideological doctrines and useless management 550 thousand bankruptcies there that means 680 bankruptcy spec working day is frightening Forbes magazine published this report day of the day 90% of startup business go down in other words if I look at 10 business plans only one's gonna work in my own experience it's much higher than that and when I took the company public a couple of years later when the financial conditions were pretty bad they said there are only 50 percent of the listed companies companies on the stock exchange will survive and I was faced with will exist will I not exist so and we go through the business plan another contributor to that is is that it's like life business businesses common sense not something magical I don't know if I can I don't understand technology so what there are a lot of people who do it's a matter of how you manage this expectation like if life is all about you fall in love you get married you have children you you're not prepared of what they do she's are gonna be a few a few years down the track so business the same thing you want to open new offices make money invest innovate do things and then reality sets in that happened to me two hours after I got married in the afternoon I got married about 12 o'clock at that's reality now then let me tell you what the rules are thank god that's reality economy falters cash flow problems one of the most dangerous things of any company that you have a good business model is that you run out of money because you grow and you don't have enough money to support that growth so you either have to borrow or two something a lot of enterpreneurs that don't want to give up shares in the company and they end up losing losing the company and what happens divorce divorce and would gets killed the Kings not the Queen's another aspect of business plans and life is perceptions this is not mine this is a Mexican artist if I ask you what it is and I can ask you right now I'm not asking you it's all rhetoric you don't have to answer sit there and relax I'll do all the answering if I ask you what are you saying phases crossover and he did that's what it is come a little bit closer and and look at that and it's not a face whatsoever yeah for far away it looks like a beautiful woman it's only three birds trying to feed their chicks and that is not another beautiful face it's just two spirits in life and in business what happens is you start with it we start with a particular concept something changes something changes and then you're faced now I've made all the decisions I'm the decision-maker then I check it's a face of a woman and as it's a mountain it's a bird it's two horses I only sees the coupe's a lot of companies don't have the capacity to to readjust or it's too costly or you don't have enough money to do that so let me give you a practical example of this perception but perception is reality for something so these are two headhunters in Papua New Guinea first time in their life they went to the city they have no idea they've never been near a city if the lady says what's an elevator exist the decision-maker says I have no idea then a woman comes along she presses a button and two doors open there's a metal box she goes in the next thing you see is that there's some lights flashing they have no idea what is an up arrow or down arrow the doors open and the voluptuous lady comes up just what a decision-maker does he says wife eunuchs because that perfection this is real this is real don't try trust me my wife pushed me into one of those things nothing happened love you change another contributing factor is the environment you will not disagree with anything I put up there and you don't have to read it poverty literacy problems all over the world geopolitical conflicts Wars if you were to listen to that for a week and then you build you put a business plan together it would be pessimistic business plan if you spend the day with me none of this will have an influence on your business plan so how do we feel about the world around us and I must admit because I'm coming here quite often I find it very difficult to see how some people can run business in in a place where there is not good management so the environment does affect us if I asked all the people in the world and I can ask you if you agree with this what is the one thing that I can't change the way agree that we're going to improve the world at some level and we're gonna increase the quality of life again you don't have to answer it that is certain mentality our world suffers from an evil disease it's called shorter mentality okay what does mean is I make the decision for a very short period of time a teacher had a 20-year plan when you make a decision on a very short-term basis you are the following effect look at one of the three pillars in any good functioning society politics business to a lesser extent now religion hundred years ago if I said what I'm saying here I would have been burned on a stake yeah today the less relevant but they have a lot of money and a lot of power and of course you can use Tarot along those responses and do some damage but politicians throughout the world except your own country except in Greece they make decisions maximum next election businesspeople quarters bonuses everything is geared to either EPS or something so they penalize a good company sometimes they don't invest to be successful in the long term because they want to grab money and run look at all the the bankruptcies look at Enron look at the Royal Bank of Scotland Pamela Wright with let's grab as much money as possible tell me something what would Greece be if somebody says I want Greece to be this in two hundred years what decisions would you make totally different what what I've experienced the last sixty years and it's got nothing to do with political beliefs and stupidities one is worse than the other because they have no philosophical base and one of the byproducts of that is that we I fast 7 and 1/2 billion in the world today what is success that will save money they will save money the majority of that if money is the only character of success why don't we become contractors join the Mafia settle drugs be a politician that they will never go to jail anyhow and I mean safer if you want it to be a mill you come to me right now I wanna be a millionaire okay Gwen tonight the only thing you can do that is by doing something criminal I will not do anything criminal period I don't give a damn you can give me all the gold in the world the slot at the timeframe in a business sense the most criminal the decision to me a successful business plan has four or five maximum criteria of what successes in other words you and I will agree I'll give you the money you have the idea will agree that in one year time we're gonna say it were chief days if you did this and you concentrate on yoga you will make more money that we ever dreamt in your entire life but you never targeted money as an objective money should be the consequence of success I get inspired but by things like the following first you dream then you believe in that dream with every pore in your body and then you watch it happening these are not my words these are on the tombstone of the gentleman who invented the discipline their planes this is even closer to me I get even more inspired this is Michelangelo he said we don't set our targets high and we allow ourselves to miss it by a little bit we sent them very low and we achieved them in other words I could have said to my venture capitalist I'll give you a company it was a billion a million I produced a company that has 1.1 million then I expect a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth I expect to be treated like a hero for being average and our society unfortunately remunerated your procedure don't worry I'll tell you you don't have to work I'm okay we don't train them to be successful when you operate the way the Michelangelo and von Zeppelin talks about is you create so much positive energy you affect positively affect other people around you but you create other traits within yourself they're priceless your mind listens to what people say you pick and choose and make the right decision because you're a winner you don't you don't worry about something not working you can always recover it makes you the nastiest it makes you never quit I've seen a lot of young people students which are this is difficult I don't wanna do mommy no no no no no work hard never quit and you create a determination and a capacity to solve problems that you thought they were unsolvable so the road map very quickly as to what you should be doing number one criteria is that you decide to do good things if you think you have done anything business you can apply that to your personal life by the way you decide to do good things only good things you create jobs and you feel good about this you create products that they have some usefulness not della moda thing that the The Supremes the what is a prime is some very smart so the product that is useless but not he made money nobody's been questioned by the way yeah the greatest crime according to the financial crisis that we're today to be a good citizen if you don't contribute the world society then the society will not trust you you don't trust society and at the end like Greece the government doesn't trust people people don't trust the government and whatever you do you need your product your business must not be back to mother earth we drink water from bottles soon we'll be breathing air promotes oxygen bottles with poison water ways to make money I was offered to buy a very large area in Latin America forest to cut it down and make a lot of money so worried I do the membrane came down and said go away I'm not listening to you go away I'm finishing the next one is accountability accountability for me is your business plan you believe in it you get there and you do it if something doesn't go wrong accept the responsibility because whether it works or not it's always the dreamers responsibility I've seen I've spent a lot of time with entrepreneurs what I'm trying to establish this is here winner is here loser illusion always complains my parents were too tough oh that was not a university there my it was raining I missed the train there's always the plastic shoes it's always somebody else's fault who told you that in life you'll make decisions that would be gonna be perfect you can't be perfect like me you have to accept that like human yeah Lord and losers always quitter I'm not gonna do this is too hard and they do other things timeframe think long term when you think love them everything becomes very clear you know you don't know how many people came to buy Temenos for peanuts in the early days again it's good to be married for a long time to the same woman I'll tell you as a go away I'm not listening and finally leadership leadership with integrity what is missing in our world is ethical leadership I started a program we're not going to talk about this right now um but leadership cannot exist along with fear or guilt if you are a leader you have to be forceful you have to you have to say this is a good way I've decided I'm doing good things I'm gonna go down that path fear is not a physical thing fear is not a dagger or a sword that waits there to to kill me we are only exists because I accept it like superstition now you get another 13 here the Chinese don't like number four because it sounds like death saying the same thing as death somebody else likes number seven alabaster give me a break the numbers the provides and but we have religion stupidities people make money out of these things no you as a leader need to be fearless you whatever you allowing your body to establish itself as fear give it will consume you you become a slave to that concept so you have to be grab clarity of thought understand something even if you're the most idealistic person in the world you will be tempted but corrupt money and power corrupts most people it takes a lot of strength to say no to some of this benefit and finally innovation and greatness is within you like the other person said but you are Greek you cannot do God green successful up in anything is not a birthright I'm finishing I got my wife I think would Pamela yes I will finish in two seconds so greatness is not a birthright doesn't mean if you're born until at the end you cannot be well but you have to be born in attracted to the world and humans history has taught us that all the leaders that you see up there the change in the world did not come from political parties ideologies open her up ideas it came from a single individual so targeting your business want to be great have love for freedom don't accept mediocrity don't accept limitations because the limitations will make the average have incorruptible integrity and the final things is why here a little bit it's a word that doesn't exist in all other languages the capacity to do the honorable thing without any regards to cost to sacrifice and if anybody in the processes you're crazy just remember like Mozart you may be closer to greatness that you never dreamt thank you very much you

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 148,626

Rating: 4.8726969 out of 5

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Greece, Business, Entrepreneurship, Life Development

Id: 6VZNs1Eyrh8

Length: 23min 1sec (1381 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 30 2016