Wine.com

As the nation's leading online wine retailer and wine gifting service provider, Wine.com brings the best of the wine world to enthusiasts throughout the nation. Wine.com offers doorstep delivery of premium fine wines, gourmet products and related accessories, as well as lifestyle wine clubs and distinctive individual and corporate wine gifts.

We spoke with George Garrick the President and CEO of Wine.com. A proven CEO and entrepreneur, George has a wealth of experience in building and running successful businesses.

Your name: George Garrick

Company name: Wine.com

Website URL: www.wine.com

Your company / website vision statement / goal:

In the shorter term to be the world’s biggest fine wine store, longer term to become the premier wine portal on the Internet, your first choice for anything that has to do with wine.

What you sell / services you offer (brief description of your company):

We are a full service premium wine retailer with legal distribution to most of the US, a full selection of major brands and vintages, and complementary products like gifts, gourmet foods, and wine clubs. Wine.com is the only legally licensed online alternative to your local wine store.

Have you always wanted to run your own business? What were some of your previous jobs / companies?

For the first 20 yrs of my career I worked in larger companies. Then I got the entrepreneur bug and have never turned back. Initially I started with a small research consulting firm called Market Science Associates, then five years later joined Information Resources Inc. (IRI) as VP marketing, working my way up to CEO of North America. For six months I was CEO of AC Nielsen company. Then in 1996 I saw the Internet coming and headed to Silicon Valley, eventually taking over as CEO of Flycast. After taking that public and selling it at the peak of the bubble for over $2 billion, I became CEO of Placeware eventually selling it to Microsoft for $200 Million.

Currently I’m CEO of Wine.com. Starting with Flycast, all my positions have been as CEO reporting to a board, not as a part of a larger company.

Have you got any qualifications? Please tell us about yourself academically?

I have BS degrees in both Math and Engineering, as well as an MS in Management, all from Purdue University. I held summer internships as an engineer with both GE and GM during my college years, earning my first patent while doing summer engineering work at GE.

How / when did the idea of your website / company come about?

Wine.com was not my idea. I am a later stage CEO who generally comes into young companies when they have proven their business model and are seeking to drive aggressive growth.

If you could give readers of this book one piece of advice what would it be?

Create your own future by identifying and seeking your own opportunities, and proactively managing your own career. If you go to work for a company, no matter what they say their goal is not to manage your career. They will use you in a way that is best for the company, not necessarily best for you. This does not mean they are bad. Your boss’s goal is to achieve his goals not manage your career.

You should always have objectives for your own progress and not wait for others to help you achieve them. If you are not getting to where you want to be, take steps to make the right things happen even if you have to leave a comfortable position and move on. Make your own opportunities. Leave your comfort zone and take risks. That’s how you grow and evolve in business. If you are content to be where you are, fine, that’s your choice. But if you want to constantly develop and progress, then you have to take on the responsibility for managing that process. I would also suggest looking for roles and projects that make you stand out to your superiors and to potential employers. If your role and accomplishments are not obvious, why would people want to promote or hire you?

Who are your role models / mentors and why?

Nobody in particular, but many people who have taken charge and created their own futures. Rather than focus on any one or two role models I like to read about many of them and choose the best things I can learn from each of them and learn from that, rather than have any one person as a mentor. Nobody has it all right. Best to identify a number of people you admire and then learn what you can from each of them and combine it. (Earlier in your career, when you are just starting out, having a single mentor like your boss is definitely a good idea. But after about 5 years or so you should focus on the broader model).

Excluding yours, what company / website do you like / admire the most?

None in particular, but I admire lots of things about a lot of different companies and websites. If I had to name a few companies that I am Familiar with and admire the most for what they’ve accomplished and how they have done it in recent times, it would probably be eBay, Google and Yahoo. Nice thing about them is that they continually deliver value to their customers, continue to redefine their business models, and have good products that work.

What do you look for in an employee?

Mostly raw intelligence but also the ability to think outside the box, be creative and aggressive, have a can-do attitude about never taking no for an answer and always figuring out a way to accomplish the goal.

Must also have a good practical foundation and skills/experience in the requisite functional areas, but those are easier to find than the former. Personality, communication skills, etc. are important too. I largely hire by gut feel supported by resume and I’ve rarely made mistakes, and many if not most of my former direct reports are now CEOs, COOs or senior execs of companies.

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