By Joel Magalnick, Editor, JTNews
Noah Alper, a serial entrepreneur who founded the natural foods market Bread & Circus in Cambridge, Mass. and was the namesake behind Noah’s Bagels, recently wrote the book Business Mensch: Timeless Wisdom for Today’s Entrepreneur. He’ll be visiting the Stroum Jewish Community Center on Mercer Island later this month to talk about combining business with Jewish values. Alper spoke with JTNews from his home in Berkeley, Calif.
JTNews: What are you working on these days?
Noah Alper: I’m still working on my book, and I’ve been touring since September, so its been a good lengthy tour. It’s been very exciting, and I’m doing small business consulting as well.
JT: How has the reception been to the book?
Alper: It’s been great. I think I’ve sort of hit a sweet spot, unintentional when I wrote it, which was, with the difficulties in the economy, a book on entrepreneurialism is being very well received. As I’ve said to people and what has sort of resonated with them, having a 9 to 5 job is sort of a scary thing these days. It makes becoming an entrepreneur a little bit less frightening, because in some cases there’s no options at least to consider as backup. So I’ve had a lot of interest in that. Also, the other sort of major theme of the book is how doing good is good for business. That seems, especially in the Jewish community, to be getting a lot of resonance. I would say, especially after some of the financial scandals we’ve had: The Madoff thing, all of these various improprieties, the message seems to be one that’s being well received.
JT: While you’ve talked about the social aspects of your book, it’s clearly written from a Jewish angle. Is it that connection that resonates or is it something else as well?
Alper: I think that is important. I think it’s also “nice Jewish boy does good” and they want to hear the story. I think the fact that Noah’s was such a success that the communities I’ve spoken to that have Noah’s Bagels are very receptive to it.
JT: We could talk about your big successes, but it seems like you’ve had more misses than hits. Can you talk about lessons learned?
Alper: As I say in my talks, I’m hitting a .666. That’s my batting average. I’ve started basically six ventures, four of which were successful, a couple of them less than successful.
I definitely have learned a lot from the failures — probably more from the failures. Definitely humility — what not to do — which sometimes for a business person is as important as what to do. In the case of successes, I think I was able to identify trends just as they were emerging, in the case of both Bread & Circus in the natural foods area, in Alper International, which was a housewares business of mine, gourmet housewares was starting to get popular in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s when Americans had been to Europe for the first time and became very interested in Continental cuisine, Julia Child was popular, etc. I had a gourmet housewares business that was able to ride that wave.
And the third one being Noah’s, of course. The fresh bagel shops in the late ‘80s were a very dramatic and hot trend, so I think I’ve been successful in identifying some of these trends that have been coming along.
JT: As far as life lessons go, what has taught you more, the successes or the failures?
Alper: What stood out, and one of the motivations from writing the book was, the notion that you don’t have to be cutthroat and mean and totally selfish to do totally well in business.
One of the keys to the success at Noah’s was our approach to the community, to the customers, and to our employees: Sort of the golden rule. We treated these constituencies as we wanted to be treated, and we wanted to be rewarded for it in terms of customer loyalty and appreciation over and above.
We had great product, but it’s that kind of intangible that really drove our success, and I wanted to make that point very clear. That’s kind of the central theme in the book. In terms of the failures, I think that beyond anything was the humility that they taught me, and fire in the belly that they gave me to succeed in the next business.
As a matter of fact, the business just before Noah’s was really a total flop. I think the fact of having that flop made me even more hungry to succeed in the next business.
One of the reasons that that business failed, and that was a business called The Holy Land Gifts Company — it was imported foods and gifts from Israel being sold to Born Again Christians in America — was I really didn’t have a good concept of who my customers were. I was trying to perform a social mission through a business milieu.
Social entrepreneurship is a very popular theme nowadays, and I applaud it, but I also caution these social entrepreneurs to be very careful: That basically the business fundamentals are really in place, and their desire to perform that social mission doesn’t cloud their business judgment. In the case of the Holy Land Gifts Co., I think it definitely did.
JT: How do you guard against that?
Alper: Getting a lot of input from others is, I think, the first and foremost way to guard against it, and to, I heard the expression, use sort of a reality mirror. Every so often, just to test yourself and say, “How is this thing doing, is it shaping up well — this is even even before it’s off the ground — is this a direction that can be successful in business or am I just totally all over saving the world, saving this that or the other thing?” It’s a constant reality check to see the self-directed, or directed from external, objective people.
JT: Can the serial entrepreneurship be addictive?
Alper: In my case, yeah. I think I could qualify as a serial entrepreneur, and once you get into it, it is sort of a rush. There’s a big emphasis on extreme sports these days. There’s nothing more of an extreme sport than entrepreneurship, because you’re always on the edge. I say that in order to be a successful entrepreneur you have to be willing to be able to jump off a diving board knowing there’s probably a 90 percent chance there’s water in it.
JT: Does having a tzedakah box on the counter of the bagel shop cut it in a world much more sophisticated about social justice and enterprise these days?
Alper: I don’t think it’s an either/or situation. What I found with the bagel business, which I found fascinating, was we were treating our employees as well as we could, and so forth and so on, but these social programs after a while really started to take on a life of their own. We found that employees started to suggest different programs, and it started to really grow as we got larger and become more and more a significant part of our enterprise, and almost sort of defined our culture. And it got really exciting, and it not only helped in terms of customer loyalty, but got our employees excited about it, and it garnered loyalty amongst them as well.
The proof of the pudding was we had half the turnover rate of a comparable quick-serve retailer, which is the category we were in, and I think in large part it was not only our policies toward our employees but it was the fact that we were the kind of company that was doing these sorts of programs got them excited and interested and loyal to the enterprise.
JT: From what I understand, the last kosher Noah’s is here in Seattle.
Alper: Noah’s was always very well received in Seattle. It’s so ironic because we tried very hard to get the one a mile from my house kosher, and we weren’t successful. I think it’s a testimony to the Seattle Jewish community that it’s the last kosher store. I just found in my trips to Seattle that even though the size of the community is not huge like a Los Angeles or a New York or whatever, the strength of it is, and it’s really pretty exciting.
JT: Are you going to stop in for a visit?
Alper: Absolutely.