Failure, risk, and a strategy of differentiation with James Chalmers

January 19, 2022 | Colleen O’ Connell-Campbell


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Meet James.

James Chalmers, Partner & Chief Strategist at Cortex Design. Named Inc. & Forbes' - Fastest Growing Companies twice as a President & CEO, James is an accredited investor, and an entrepreneur with several successful exits.

Differentiation as a long-term value proposition

James invests, advises, and mentors ventures and their founders from early-stage development through to commercialization. One of the reasons I wanted to bring him on my podcast is the fact that he's exited a number of businesses in which he’s NOT the founder. He is focused on medical devices and consumer health technology as the best way to democratize and provide universal access to health and wellness.

James credits differentiation as a crucial element of his success over the years. Doing things DIFFERENTLY, rather than chasing a way of doing things BETTER. A focus that’s led to not just scaling for the companies he’s led to success, but also awards and accolades.

Becoming interested in the process of scaling up business

James grew up on a farm and, at a very young age, developed a fascination for growth. “Back in the day, it would have been about seeing crops grow. And today, it's working with companies and seeing the same sort of growth. It’s always about looking for opportunities to do things that others aren't willing to do.”

Starting where the stakes are low

James’s first formal venture was a hybrid. “I wasn't an equity owner in the firm. It was while I was still in university. I convinced an ownership group to allow me to become a general manager of a small business they had. At the age of 22, it's usually pretty tough to convince someone to let you take the reins of their company. But, they really saw no major risk because the company wasn't doing very well. And I was willing to do it relatively inexpensively as a stop-gap measure for them. I negotiated a nice performance incentive.”

Turning mistakes along the way into inclusive culture

“One of the things I've learned from my opportunities along the way was that moving forward, I would always allow those around me to make the same number of mistakes I was able to. Without those mistakes, you're not growing, you're not pushing boundaries.”

The relationship between risk and confidence

“I understood that if you wanted to be successful, there were only a couple of ways to build wealth. I wasn't in a position to inherit it. For me, it was ‘how do I do more with my time?’ ‘How do I take on a little bit of risk, in order to see that upside?’ I do think that there's a level of confidence in your own abilities. I was a 22 year old GM, and I remember sitting at my desk on my first day, and, at that point, laptops were new technology. I remember typing into my laptop ‘roles and responsibilities of a general manager’. My assistant came into the office and she said, ‘you know what, you've got a great team’. Those words have been words that I've woken up to every day. It is about bringing the right people, at the right time, around you to allow businesses to flourish.”

Learning from a series of smaller exits.

“In my entire career, the time that has been the riskiest was when I was still young; I was sub 30. There was an air of confidence after the first big win, that I could do anything, and I was invincible. 11 out of 12 ventures failed! But the 12th one, which we had developed about halfway through my tenureship, was a huge success. It more than made up for all of our failures. That was probably some of the most transformative time. Because in those failures, I really was able to hone in on what I did as a professional and where I could create value for companies.”

Lessons from failure

“I'm routinely speaking on it and routinely practicing in our businesses what I learned from those failures. It all came back to this element of focus. It was really the idea of focusing on one thing and doing that; doing that differently than everyone else. Not actually better, just different. When I left the ownership group after about 14 years together, I recognized that the rest of my career was going to be focused on doing things differently.”

Today, Cortex is a 22 year old business that has all of the pieces in place to take it from where it is today to truly become a global player in it’s space. Cortex is a full service design and engineering firm for physical products. They work with clients from startup through to Fortune 500, developing products that align with the UN17 Sustainable Development Goals. “And, really, the value proposition for us is that we engage differently. First and foremost, I wake up every day, and the hat I'm wearing is one of ‘investor’. Every plant we work with, whether we have an opportunity to invest or not, we're engaging with them as though we are invested.”

Jame’s fun, frank advice for the self made nation

“I actually gave this to one of my business partners today. ‘It's not about working harder. It's about working smarter.’”

 

Listen to our entire conversation here:

https://iamamillionairesonowwhat.libsyn.com/ep209-failure-risk-and-a-strategy-of-differentiation