To hear some of the Inc. 500 tell it, it’s not from books or market research; it’s from keeping your eyes, ears, and mind open to new ways of doing things.
Back in the mid 1980s, whenever Mike Pratt hit his Salt Lake City health club, he started his workout by wrestling a too-big gym bag into a too-small locker. One day Pratt — a high school graduate working as a car salesman — pried out his bag, drove home, and headed for the drafting table he had acquired to support his design hobby.
Using cardboard, scissors, and tape, the 24-year-old athlete created the model for his dream duffel. He shaped the rectangular bag not only so that it would slide into a standard gym storage unit — measurements he’d obtained that same day by calling several manufacturers — but so that it would easily hold shoes, a water bottle, and toiletries. And unlike most soft-sided bags, Pratt’s prototype surrounded a durable rigid frame that made it easier to access the bag’s contents.
That wasn’t Pratt’s first invention. At 19 he’d designed a cup holder for use in cars and, thanks to a tip from a local businessman, arranged to have it manufactured in Macao. Five years later Pratt again looked to Asia and, based on a recommendation from another entrepreneur, contracted with a factory in Taiwan that he still uses to manufacture his bags.
Back in the States, many retailers were skeptical about Pratt’s Original Locker Bag. “Who’s going to want to carry around a box?” one asked. But Foot Locker agreed to take a batch on consignment; after selling 50 bags in a single weekend, the sporting-goods chain ordered more. Sales soared as Nordstrom and other retailers followed suit. In 1987, Pratt officially launched his company, Ogio International. (The name, pronounced OH-gee-oh, sounds catchy but, Pratt says, means absolutely nothing.) The following year, Pratt recalls, “we had $8.5 million in sales for one bag in three colors.”
These days Ogio employs almost 100 people at a 90,000-square-foot distribution center about 25 miles south of downtown Salt Lake City, plus an international sales force. The company, which had 2001 revenues of more than $47 million, still makes gym bags but now manufactures backpacks and golf bags as well. Pratt, now 41 and the father of four, still works out and, like many of his employees, sky dives, hang glides, and rides snowmobiles. “We’re kind of an extreme company,” he says.
57 % of the Inc 500 CEOs surveyed got the original idea for their business by spotting an opportunity in the industry they worked in.
About Wendi McGowan