The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses Hardcover
by Eric Ries
Business and Career Growth: Can a Business or Career Become Static and Survive?
Building a business or a career is a continual process of expanding your goods, services, skills, and network. The first day that I sat down to start my career as a recruiter, I had no contacts. I had a telephone, an empty legal pad, and a box of blank 5 x 8 index cards.
After a decade, my contact management system contained tens of thousands of contacts. I had personally tracked and created files for these people. Most of them I have reached out to by phone, email, or professional networks. I still make new connections every day. Little has changed except that my file system has gone from paper to a computer.
I continually added clients.
Here is a partial list of companies where I had recruiting contracts:
PepsiCo
Pepsi Bottling Group
Frito-Lay
Coca Cola, USA
Coca Cola Foods
Mobil Oil Company
Soft Soap
Pillsbury Green Giant
International Playtex
Quaker Oats
Dannon Corporation
No Nonsense Fashions
Coca-Cola Foods
Del Monte Foods
The Clorox Company
Nestle
Brach & Brock
Catalina Marketing
Health Resource Corporation
Majers Corporation
Welch Foods
Softsoap
E & J Gallo
Sunny Delight
M & M Mars
Tambrands
Nabisco
News America Marketing
El Dorado Marketing
Imagitas
ConAgra Foods
ConAgra Armour Swift-Eckrich
Polaroid Corporation
Dial Corporation
Dep Corporation
United Vintners
7-Up
Miller Brewing Company
13-30 Corporation
Hain Celestial Group
Q-Interactive
Label Dollars
Promo Edge
Centiv
The Sunflower Group
PromoWorks
The Wine Spectrum of Coca Cola
Kaiser-Roth
DSD Communications
Black & Decker
ActMedia
Linkewell Health
Bush Brothers Beans
Marketing Technology Solutions
Sunny D
Twenty-Ten Corporation
InStore Broadcasting Network
Insignia Pops
The Beecham Group
GlaxoSmithKline – GSK
Jacobs Suchard
Cody Kramer
SVP Worldwide
Mauna Loa
Garden Burger
EAS
New World Pasta Company
Vacation Connections
Lala USA
Continental Promotion Group
Kayser Roth
Morningstar Farms
Duracell
Kiss Products
Phillips Food Brokerage
Unicous Marketing
Kelley Clarke Food Brokerage
Wizards of the Coast
Oberto Sausage
Fanfare Media
Linkwell Communications
Lindt
Nurserymen’s Exchange
Maybelline
Advantage 360
American Italian Pasta
Warner Lambert
Fuel Rewards/Centego
First Flavor
Potlatch Corporation
Crossmark Food Brokerage
RB (Reckitt Benckiser)
Marketing Force
J&J Snack Foods Corporation
Cartera Commerce Inc.
Alcon Laboratories
Ray-O-Vac
Naterra
ICOM
Slim Fast (Unilever)
Potlatch Corporation
Dean Foods
…and others
Companies Come and Companies Go.
In the list are many companies that no longer exist. In some cases, the brands still exist. However, these brands are part of another company. To stay in business, I had to continue to grow new business.
Companies come and go. People come and go. Processes change. Opportunities are here today and gone tomorrow. People who build new relationships and expand their relationships will build security.
Change is constant in business and careers. The process of building a business and building a career never ends.
Image: reynermedia/Flickr
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