We have been told that regardless of where you are in the world, you can locate a Stern Alum who is willing to give generously of their time and provide advice. We had the privilege of experiencing this first hand during summer break when we met Chris Cook (MBA 2003), former serial entrepreneur turned investment banker. Chris' story is especially inspiring as it is one of a young kid who turned a bedroom based snow and skateboarding company into a national distribution business. He not only built several companies but took a $100 million company public. Now at Hawk Capital Canada, Chris has transitioned into the world of banking to help them salvage troubled assets.
L&G: Why did you decide to get your MBA? Cook: I did the Executive Program so I came into it older than most students who take the full time program. I started when I was 33 and, by that time, I was a serial entrepreneur. I took the dot.com crash as an opportunity to frame my practical business experience in an academic manner because my intuition and gut feelings had no structure. The MBA was a chance to review some of the decisions I had made and the paths I had taken. The MBA also rounded out some of the weaker points of my business insight. In running a business, your awareness is heightened in financial aspects whereas marketing and strategy can be less obvious. The whole MBA experience took varying levels of strength and weaknesses in my business abilities and brought them all up to a much higher level. L&G: Tell me more about some of your serial ventures… Cook: The company I took public had a 100 mm market cap. Also, my partner and I started a business in his bedroom. We were just two young kids selling snowboards and skateboards making it up as we went along. When we got out of it, it was a national distribution business importing from Europe, Hong Kong and Indonesia. It was a fun business but if we knew then what we know now, we would never have started it. A lot of it was ignorance. We broke every rule taught in strategy class. Specifically, there were two entrenched players with 50% of the market. There was no way we should have ever done what we did.
L&G: So why were you successful? Cook: A combination of a little luck and ignorance with a lot of hard work and determination. Our approach was different. We developed an innovative approach, we were more focused than the competition on service and we also served more remote areas of the country effectively to meet the needs of the entire market. We worked closely with retailers who were young and na've like us. It was a lot of fun.
L&G: Why did you transition to finance? The process of taking a company public through a complex reverse takeover made me think "this is interesting". It was a dynamic exercise that was really exciting to me but when it ended it was clear it was time to move on and expand my knowledge and experiences. I wanted to use my MBA to reinvent myself and enter a whole new world built on the foundation of practical experience
L&G: Tell me about your role at Hawk Capital. Cook: I am heavily involved in transaction advisory. We are now getting into the distressed world. We work with banks in their troubled asset divisions. We first quickly identify if the project is salvageable or if liquidation is the only way out. Then we do a 2-3 week analysis and we chart the path to recovery and align that with the bank as well as the company's objectives. Being there, shepparding the process and improving recovery values is our value add. Our compensation is aligned with the success of the bank. As opposed to high fees, we charge a lower fee initially and a success fee on the back end. This is nothing new to U.S. or Europe but it's a relatively new concept in Canada.
L&G: Was it hard for the entrepreneur in you to mold to corporate life? Cook: Entrepreneurship is about being creative, building, thinking, and solving problems. Even as an entrepreneur, I was always acutely aware that I had to account to someone. You have creditors, shareholders and family members you are responsible to. Regardless of your job, you always have a boss. Also, there is a direct correlation between the amount of effort you put into something and what you get out of it. This is the same if you are an entrepreneur or if you are working for someone else.
L&G: Do you have an itch to return to it? Cook: My creative side is being satisfied by what I am doing at Hawk. We deal with a series of problems, companies and widgets every day that require creative solutions. Whether it's building a business or helping one out of trouble, the creative stuff is what appealed to me about being an entrepreneur. Also, running a business isn't always just fun and games. It's a marathon that never ends- a continual thought. For me, entrepreneurism and the kick I got out of it, wasn't on the operating side or idea of being your own boss or setting your own hours; it was creating and building something tangible. I have found a great opportunity in a corporate context where I have the creative outlet and the added benefit of helping other businesses succeed.
L&G: What distinguished Stern from other Canadian and U.S. MBA programs? Cook: The Stern program is very unique. It was a roller coaster with high periods of activity and then a dip to recovery and then back into craziness. I have two speeds: high and off. Stern fit well with my personality. Rather than sustain 3rd gear all the time, I would rather power up to 5th then park it. It was also Stern's reputation. The finance education I was getting beat anything I would get out of a Canadian school.
L&G: Any advice for aspiring entrepreneurs? Cook: Set targets, goals and milestones and, if you fail to meet them, use them as an opportunity to re-evaluate what you are doing. Remember it is very easy to do things for free. A long time ago, my mentor gave me a really good piece of advice: "put a value to your time". In other words, assign a monetary value to your time when making the go/no go decision for a new venture. Ask yourself, if my time were money, would I invest in this project? Does it make sense to say I have to work 1,000 hours before I get $1 in revenue? If 1,000 hours is worth x dollars, ask yourself if you would invest x dollars as an investor for a stake in the project. You can even go as far as discounting the return for the risk of the project. It's very easy to get caught up in "I'm doing something". However, you need to be doing something with an objective. You need guideposts, just like you would get if you are working for a big company.
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