BUSINESS ORIENTED INDIVIDUAL READING CHAPTER 1: SUCCESS STORIES

TEXT1

HOW TO BUILD AN EMPIRE

When Davis Horvath and Sun-Min Kim met at Parsons School of design in 2001, the pair quickly bonded over their love for design and their hope to create toys with a meaningful message. They also fell in love. But just as their relationship began, Kim's student visa expired, and she moved back to Korea.

But the couple decided to stay together. "I sent her a letter after she went back and signed it with a doodle of a little lumpy monster at the bottom, says Horvath. "She sewed a replica of the little drawing and sent it back to me as a gift. And I realized that the toy we had always talked about making was in my hand. I thought, "This is it." And so the Pretty Ugly empire was born.

Before he even called Kim to thank her, he showed the doll to a friend. This friend happened to own a small knick-knack store called Giant Robot, and immediately asked Horvath for 20 of the dolls. Horvath broke the news to Kim. "She made and sent me 20 more", he says. "I dropped them off at Giant Robot, and, by the time I got home, I had a message from my friend saying they had sold out."

Over the next 18 months, Kim sewed 1800 dolls. She sent each batch to Horvath, who would then take them to a growing list of small stores, which included hip furniture stores, card shops, and kid stores.

"We realized that these dolls had huge reach. They're for the 8-year-old girl who wants to play and for the 34-year-old woman who wants something funny on her modern furniture," says Horvath.

But it was about this time, in early 2003, that Kim put her foot down. "She said that her fingers were turning purple," laughs Horvath. "This was the turning point, the moment we decided to take this business to the next level."

The first step: Kim came back to the United States for the business - and to marry Horvath. That February, the couple got a booth at the International Toy Fair, an annual toy-ganza held in New York City. The response was immediate and positive, major toy shops were all charmed by the Uglydolls.

The formula for success, according to Horvath, is that the dolls tell a story. For example, there is three-eyed Peaco, who's coy and friendly, and floppy-eared Ox, whose name means hugs and kisses. "To us, ugly means unique and different. I think that's an important message for everyone," he says.

And it's the message and story that is pushing the business forward. Already this year, Pretty Ugly has sold twice the number of Uglydolls as it did last year. (Though Horvath won't reveal any numbers, he says "millions upon millions" of dolls have sold.) There are Uglydolls calendars, books, lunch boxes, and action figures. A trip to the website is a portal into an animated world of funny little creatures, and serves as another community-building and retail platform. Horvath says they are even branching out into the entertainment world in the near future.

"After 10 years in business, it's crazy to think that now there are people that have grown up with our dolls," says Horvath. "It's been so meaningful for us to know that the original idea has endured and made an impact."

Exercise 1. Answer the following questions based on the content of the text:

1. What did Davis and Sun-Min have in common?

2. What prompted the idea of the toy they had always dreamed of?

3. What kind of shop was the one to sell the first 20 dolls?

4. What was the reason for taking the business to the next level?

5. What makes Uglydolls different?

6. How do Davis and Sun-Min diversify their business?

7. What are their plans in the near future?

Exercise 2. Put questions to which the following data are the answers:

1. 2001.

2. 20 more.

3. 1800 dolls.

4. For the 34-year-old woman.

5. 10 years.

Exercise 3. Fill the blanks in the text with the words given below it. There are two extra words.

The Pretty Ugly was born when Davis Horvath sent a to his girl­friend to Korea and put a funny in the form of a little lumpy monster under

it. Sun-Min Kim sewed a replica of this and sent it back to Horvath as

a He showed it to his friend who sold knick-knacks. This friend liked

the and asked for more. The of 20 was sold the day they arrived

from Kim.

It took the 18 months to realize what huge reach the could have,

and to take this business to the next level.

batch couple creature dolls empire letter

love memory present signature toy

TEXT 2

THE PIONEER OF THE SPECIALTY COFFEE BUSINESS

After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, Oren Bloostein - a Long Island, New York, native - moved to New York City and found a job at Saks Fifth Avenue, working in corporate retail. It was 1979, Bloostein was 23, and he was completely miserable.

"I wanted to be somewhere where I didn't have to report to 15 people." he says. "I felt, for some reason, - and I'm not sure why - that I thought I could do something on my own. Let's call it youthful optimism, I guess."

Bloostein considered opening a franchise. Then he considered opening a. dental supply business. But ultimately, his business idea came from the ground floor of his $300-per-month six-story walk-up on the Upper East Side: A one-man coffee shop.

In the mornings, Bloostein would grab two 10-ounce cups of coffee on his way to work. During his transactions, he'd talk with the owner of the shop, trying to ply as much information from him as possible. "It was instrumental in my being in the coffee business," he says. "He was very nice to me and he offered to help. 'So long as you don't open across the street,' he told me."

Bloostein quit his job in 1984 and founded Oren's Daily Roast in 1986. With a $50,000 gift from his parents, $30,000 in personal savings, and a loan of $25,000, Bloostein opened his first location in a 400-square-foot shop at 1574 First Avenue on Manhattan's Upper East Side.

Twenty-five years later, Oren's Daily Roast is a near-$10 million business. It employs 88 workers throughout nine retail locations in Manhattan, as well as the company's coffee bean factory and corporate headquarters. Bloostein estimates the company serves about 6,000 cups of coffee per day, or over two million cups per year.

Back in the mid-1980s, when New Yorkers were just started to get a taste for specialty coffee, Bloostein decided to do something different. After seeing an ad for a small roaster in Beverage Digest, a trade publication, Bloostein decided on a

novel concept for his coffee shop: Whereas most coffee shops roasted off-site, Oren 's would do it right there in the back of his shop. "Why would people come to me if I'm going to sell the same thing?" he says. "I needed something different."

Bloostein flew out to California where, he learned, one coffee shop owner was also roasting his own beans in the back of his shop. Because he was not perceived as a competitor, the man agreed to instruct Bloostein on the roaster — "Not so much trained me, as warned me," Bloostein recalls.

Back in New York, Bloostein would arrive at the shop at 3:30 a.m. to start roasting the coffee. He closed the store at 8 p.m. and was lucky to get out by 8:30 p.m. and be home in time "for a short nap" before the next day. It was grueling. "There was nothing I didn't do," he says. "I was roaster, salesperson, manager, delivery person, repair guy, and barista. Everything."

Part of Bloostein's success lies in his fanatical obsession with quality. He constantly reminds you of the quality of the coffee beans. The quality of pastries. The quality of his customer service. "It's like wine tasting, except you have to brew the coffee," he says. "I became pretty adamant about accepting only the best. The lengths to which we go to get this quality are strenuous." He means that literally. Bloostein has traveled around the world - to Columbia, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Kenya, to name a few - in search of partnerships that secure the best coffee beans.

Those direct, personal relationships with farmers are what make Oren's so unique. They are also necessary. Bloostein explains that in the coffee trade, both high and low prices are bad for the quality of coffee beans. When prices are low, farmers can't afford to cultivate prime beans. But when prices are high, and farmers are guaranteed a certain price point regardless of coffee, the quality suffers.

"I actually go where it is grown, and I find like-minded people who want to help the farmers make more money," he says. "And one way to do that is to connect growers in touch with roasters."

The specialty coffee business in New York has changed considerably since 1986. Last year, The New York Times documented the explosion of young coffee up-starts, noting "more than 40 new cafes and coffee bars have joined a small, dedicated group of establishments where coffee making is treated like an art, or at least a high form of craft."

But Bloostein is calm about the new competition. "If they do coffee, it's good for me," he says. "If people get used to better coffee, there's a bigger market for me." And, reiterating what now seems like Oren's mantra: "It's just another reason to improve."

Exercise 1. Scan the text and give answers to the following questions using only figures or dates:

1. How old was Bloostein when he found his first job?

2. What was the rent for Bloostein's flat on the Upper East Side?

3. How much money had Bloostein saved by 1986?

4. How many workers does Oren's Daily Roast employ now?

5. How many cups of coffee per year does the company sell?

Exercise 2. Answer the following questions based on the content of the text:

1. What job did Oren Bloostein find in 1979?

2. What did he call "youthful optimism"?

3. Where did his business idea come from?

4. Where did he open his first location?

5. What kind of novel concept did Bloostein decide on for his coffee shop?

6. What is the secret of Bloostein's success?

7. Why is Bloostein calm about the new competition?

Exercise 3. Put questions to which the following data are the answers:

1. 15 people.

2. In 1984.

3. a near-$ 10 million.

4. 600 cups.

5. 40 new cafes.

Text 3

ADDING SOME PEP TO OUR STEP

When George Vlagos was in middle school, his father, a cobbler, would have him come into his Chicago shop to shine shoes every Saturday. John Vlagos, a Greek immigrant, was hoping to show his son that working with your hands is difficult and that he should get education and find a different profession.

Well, it backfired.

Vlagos went away to school, studied English, and got a master's degree. But the jobs that made it possible for him to afford a pair of nice shoes ended up driving him back to the family craft when he realized how difficult it was to find a pair of quality shoes.

"I didn't think 1 had particularly crazy expectations," says Vlagos. "I wanted a shoe made in America, full grain leather, and at a reasonable price. I was really surprised that something that existed 20 to 30 years ago was disappearing."

Vlagos's father had also seen the shift at work on the shoes he was repairing, many of them made out of plastic that couldn't be resoled or with molded rubber soles that weren't repairable.

So Vlagos decided he would design the type of shoe he had been looking for. He found a shoemaker to hand sew his design in Maine: According to Vlagos, the last part of the country where you can find craftsmen skilled in hand sewing. And he decided to source his leather in Chicago, where he is based, from Horween Leather Company, one of the oldest continuously operating tanneries in the United States. It's expensive, Vlagos says, but worth it. Since his company is small, he can visit Horween and select each hide himself.

On August 31, 2010, Vlagos launched Oak Street Bootmakers, without doing any marketing — and sold out every shoe he had within 24 hours. Blogger and friend, James Wilson of Secret Forts, wrote a post about the launch of Oak Street boots, complete with multiple close-up shots of the details of a pair of trail oxfords.

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"When I first Googled 'Oak Street Bootmakers,' nothing was online; our own website wouldn't even come up," Vlagos says. "Within 24 hours, websites in different languages were posting about Oak Street."

Vlagos was able to tap into two movements that were key to his success: The rising popularity of fashion blogs and a resurgence in American men's fashion that translated to consumers who are willing to pay more for high-quality goods. His designs are modern twists in classics, like boots, penny loafers, and boat shoes, featured in crisp, sleek photography on Oak Street's site. The vibe is chic, high-end Americana. Prices range from $210 to $356 for a pair.

"People post photographs of themselves wearing their Oak Street shoes online. "It's unbelievable," Vlagos said. "I don't have to get out there and say it myself. My customers will articulate it for me."

And Vlagos makes it a point to say "thank you" to customers. Everyone that ordered on that first day received a phone call. Vlagos takes pride in personally answering every email that comes in, too, sometimes surprising customers when they get one back at 2 a.m.

There's currently a six-week waiting list for a pair of Oak Street shoes. Vlagos's immediate goal: Have enough inventory to end the waiting list, and slowly add more retailers as he grows production capacity. In addition to online, the shoes are sold in a handful of stores in London and New York.

Vlagos recently got a call from a store manager at Dunderdon, a store in the trendy Soho neighborhood of Manhattan, telling him that pop star Usher had bought a pair of his shoes. "The best part is as soon as he put them on he did a dance and said that he loved them," Vlagos said. "It blows my mind that people are walking the streets in New York, in Chicago, in other countries, wearing something that I designed."

And what does Vlagos's dad think about his son working in the business? "He acts like he's still on the fence. He'll ask, 'Are you still selling them shoes?'" Vlagos said. "But if there is ever an opportunity to provide any support, he's the first person willing to help out."

Exercise 1. Answer the following questions based on the content of the text:

1. How did George Vlagos's father try to show his son the necessity of gettingeducation?

1. What drove George Vlagos back to his family craft?

2. What did Vlagos decide to do in order to design the type of shoe he had beenlooking for?

2. What movements were the key to Vlagos's success?

3. What is Vlagos's immediate goal?

4. What is Vlagos proud of?

Exercise 2. Put questions to which the following data are the answers:

1. In Chicago.

2. 24 hours.

3. from $210 to $356.

4. at 2 a.m.

5. 20 to 30 years ago.

Exercise 3. Match the words from the left with their contextual Russian equivalents from the right:

cobbler

craft

rubber ico>Ka

sole

leather oco6eHHOCTb

tannery noflOiUBa

hide pesHHa

shot peiwecjio

resurgence cano>KHHK

twist chhmok

vibe

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