Small Business Week: Freshii CEO Insights
As some of you may know, this is Small Business Week in Canada. Many businesses and business professionals took advantage of the various events that were held. The Calgary events included an expo and featured a keynote address by Matthew Corrin, CEO of Freshii.
Some highlights from his address that resonated with us were:
During his journey, there were times where the business was living on that line between having enough money or not having enough money to see another day, and his advice is “stay in the game”
He took inspiration from Zara (retail store) on how it provides fast fashion and adapts to what is the current trend. He applies the same concept to how Freshii adapts its menu
One of the challenges Matthew had to face:
When Freshii went public, after a couple of months its stock prices fell, the media was not kind, “they thought the best months and years were behind us”. Matthew decided to stop looking at the stock prices; you can’t run your business based on the stock price. He decided to run his business like he always had, based on his guiding principles and once he did that the stock prices improved.
His 5 guiding principles:
Talk is cheap. Execution sets you apart
Launch fast, fail fast, iterate faster
Numbers rule
Build a killer culture for your business, not a culture that kills your business
Pick your battles
