『The Empire Builders Podcast』のカバーアート

The Empire Builders Podcast

The Empire Builders Podcast

著者： Stephen Semple and David Young
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 Reverse engineering the success of established business empires.The Empire Builders Podcast マネジメント マネジメント・リーダーシップ マーケティング マーケティング・セールス リーダーシップ 経済学
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  • #207: Dr. Gross Skincare – Yes, A Real Doctor

    #207: Dr. Gross Skincare – Yes, A Real Doctor
    2025/05/28
    Dr. Dennis met Carrie in the elevator and they would make fun of how skincare products had no real value to them. Then they changed that. 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. [Travis Crawford Ad] Dave Young: Welcome back to the Empire Builders Podcast, Dave Young here, Stephen Semple is standing by. He told me the title, he told me, the topic that we're going to cover today, the Empire, and it's Dr. Steven Gross. Stephen Semple: Dennis. Dave Young: Dennis. Stephen Semple: Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare. Dave Young: It doesn't actually roll off the tongue, Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare. I have to admit, I've not heard of this one. Stephen Semple: Well, you're such a skincare buff, I'm kind of surprised. Dave Young: Well, a lot of people say I have amazing skin for a 90-year-old man. In my 60s, but... Stephen Semple: Now, you may not have heard of it, but the company was started by Dr. Dennis Gross and his wife, Carrie Gross, in 2000, and in 2023, it was sold to Shiseido, a big Japanese skincare company for $450 million. Dave Young: Okay, that's not chump change. Stephen Semple: That gets a little attention, right? Dave Young: Yeah, sure. Stephen Semple: Yeah. So, the products were created by Dr. Dennis and his dermatology clinic, and they were originally just sold and marketed to his patients. So, it was literally one of these little tiny businesses, where the stuff is being designed by a real doctor, a real dermatologist, but in the early days, basically the only place you could buy it was his clinic, and the only people who really knew about it were the patients, and the people the patients told. So that's really how it started. And Carrie grew up in California, so they're in New York, but Carrie grew up in California, and she spent her days outdoors, and her skin was starting to show its age. And Dennis, basically, when they met, Dennis was already a dermatologist, and he started to give her hope and optimism. And actually, how they met was she was not a patient or anything like that, don't go there with your minds, they lived in the same building, and they met on the elevator, and basically got to know each other because they ride up the elevator together periodically. And at the time, dermatology was just being used for rashes and things along that lines. And it's the 90s, and creams were being bought in the department store, and they were moisturizers, and there were no indie brands. And for fun, they would look at the labels together, and he was amazed at how little there was in terms of effective ingredients in these creams. As a dermatologist, he could look at it and go, these really don't do anything. And peels were starting to be done, the whole thing, you put stuff off... But they were aggressive, and to him, it made no sense that the skin would be a part of the body where the best thing you could do would be to injure it so that it comes back stronger, it just didn't make sense to him. And he really didn't see the results, and people would look blotchy afterwards, and things along that line. So, he decided to design a peel that would work better. And the whole secret ingredient was, there was a second step that would turn the chemical reaction off, so that it wouldn't be so damaging. So, it was a two-step process that he created. Now, his offices were near the UN, and he had lots of variety of clients. So, the whole thing that he found that was amazing is he was able to test the product on a lo...
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    17 分
  • #206: Transformers –

    #206: Transformers –
    2025/05/21
    Snippet 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 Simple 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. [Pinpoint Ad] Dave Young: Welcome back to the Empire Builders Podcast, Dave Young here, along with Stephen Semple, and we're talking about empires. And the one you gave me now is I have to admit, I am familiar with the brand, but I'm not an active participant in the brand. I think I've mentioned on here before, I raised four daughters, and so today's topic is Transformers. And none of my daughters were ever into Transformers as a toy. I was beyond toys when Transformers, I think first came around. So I've never even really jumped into the movies. But big, big brand. Stephen Semple: Huge brand. Dave Young: Tell me how they got started. Stephen Semple: Well, and the interesting thing, I almost included my oldest daughter, Crystal, in the recording of this, and I decided that, no, we might do a follow-up episode with her because she is a massive Transformers fan. Dave Young: Wow. Okay. Stephen Semple: And the interesting thing is she never played with them as a kid, but she found herself into the fandom. And today there's a whole thing I want to do about fandoms because it really speaks to the role that social media plays with a lot of companies. Dave Young: I feel like as a kid, I would've loved them. Stephen Semple: Because there's this unbelievably rich storyline behind Transformers that is incredible. And then it's actually one that is fragmented into the Michael Bay Transformers storyline versus the historic ones, because Michael Bay is the one who made the movies. It's this crazy world when you dig into it. But, the story of Transformers is actually a story of a battle between two decent-sized companies. So it's not normally what we do, but it was so interesting, I thought we got to talk about this because it's a story about a battle between Tonka and Hasbro. Dave Young: Oh, man. Just like Wonka and the other guy. Yeah. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. Today the Transformers franchise, I think is a $25 billion franchise between the movies and the toys. It is massive. And the story goes back to we're in July of 1983, and Tonka is struggling for a new hit. Tonka is being run by Steve Shank, and they're like $10 million in the hole, and they're known for trucks. And think back to the '80s, what's happening, video games are growing and the market is shifting away from things like playing with trucks. And Tonka did not shift with it. So they're really, really struggling. And Shank has hired a Mattel veteran, Pat Fellie. He's the guy who basically helped turn things around at Mattel with He-Man. So he was basically the really a key person with developing of He-Man. And so they need something quick. And the shortcut is to license existing toys because the development and manufacturing is done. It's quicker and cheaper to market. So they go out everywhere looking around for something to market, and they come across this toy that Knickerbocker has. Knickerbocker is going out of business, and it's this interesting toy, which is a car and a robot, but it's a cheap knockoff. The real one is being done in Japan by Bandai, which is making this thing called a Machine Robo. And so Steve Shank heads to Tokyo to get the rights. And Bandai demands, okay, well, we can make this for you, but you got to buy 800,000 units as part of the deal, and Tonka has never sold that much, and it's an unknown toy in basically an unknown market. Dave Young: 800,000?
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    18 分
  • #205: Specialized Bikes – Staying Ahead of the Trends

    #205: Specialized Bikes – Staying Ahead of the Trends
    2025/05/14
    Mike Sinyard dropped out of school at 16, toured Europe on a bike and became the Specialist no one knew they needed. 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. [ECO Office Ad] Dave Young: Welcome to the Empire Builders Podcast. I'm Dave Young, and that's Stephen Semple. We're talking about empires and business building and all of the things. And the subject that you whispered in my ear just as we started was Specialized mountain bikes. Mountain bikes is not my area of expertise. Specialized is a brand name or are we just talking about mountain bikes in general? Stephen Semple: No, Specialized is a brand name, but they do more than mountain bikes, but where they're really known is mountain bikes. Dave Young: I kind of thought that they were a- Stephen Semple: Yeah. Dave Young: Yeah, which is first of all, Specialized is a strange name for a brand. Stephen Semple: It is. Dave Young: Like calling yourself exclusive, okay. But I'm anxious to hear more. Like when you and I were kids, mountain bikes didn't exist. It just wasn't even a thing. Stephen Semple: They did not. No, they did not exist. Dave Young: There were bikes and there were road bikes, racing bikes, or you had a bike with just the usual kind of fat tires. Stephen Semple: Yes. And even before the mountain bike came along, you had a period of time there was the BMX bike actually predates the mountain bike. Dave Young: But more for kids and early teens. Stephen Semple: Yeah, exactly. So it was founded by Mike Sinyard in mid 1974 is when he started this business. So- Dave Young: It does go back a ways. Stephen Semple: Yes. And he didn't start right away building mountain bikes. That does give you an idea where the mountain bike trend happens. And today they have like 1,300 employees, they do half a billion in sales. And he started selling parts for bicycles. And it really wasn't until the mid 1980s that they became a big force in the mountain biking space. And the interesting thing that we're going to be talking about is they made some decisions along the way that almost put them out of business. Dave Young: Okay, love that kind of thing. Stephen Semple: That's the thing that really jumped out at me on their whole story. So Mike grew up in San Diego. His dad was a machinist in the Navy. His mom cleaned houses. They didn't have a lot of money. They didn't go out to eat, they didn't do all those sort of things. They were just a very basic household. He did poorly in school. He was in school in the '60s and had ADHD and really, again, not much known about that back in those days. And so he moved out of the house, dropped out of school at age of 16, and what he would start doing is he would go to flea markets and he would buy things, then resell them. And what he figured out was live cheap. So he had lived in a house with lots of roommates, was doing this living cheap thing, going to flea markets, buying stuff, reselling it, and eventually he decides to go back to school and give school another go. And he attended San Jose State University. And one of the things that happened is remedial programs started coming out and that's what allowed him to go back to school. And he basically did remedial everything. Like every class, every class was a remedial class, gets out of school, gets a job at an airport refueling planes, and he decides to become a pilot and started in an aviation program, got his pilot's license. Which,
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    23 分

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