May 31, 2007
big news at orbital wines
Orbital Wines, the parent company of my main client, Stormhoek, have just hired a new Managing Director, Mike Paul. Here’s the story in the UK trade press:
Orbital was founded eight years ago and has rapidly built a reputation for being one of the industry’s most creative and forward-thinking companies. Commenting on the new arrival, CEO Jason Korman said: “I have a clear vision for the future of Orbital Wines. We want to overlay our strong marketing and innovative ability with a clear commercial strategy and Mike’s record of success and leadership will be integral in taking Orbital to the next level.”
The key phrase here is, “taking Orbital to the next level”. We’ve grown a lot in the last twelve months, especially since we took on Tesco as a customer [the world’s largest wine buyer, bar none], late last year. So we have to up the organizational ante etc.
Managing growth might just be the toughest thing in business. I find it exhausting. New demands are placed upon the business, faster than the organization can ever catch up. Sometimes it feels like bringing a glass of water along to a forest fire. But I guess that’s part of the adventure.
[Bonus Link:] In January, 2006 Johnnie Moore and James Cherkoff did this really wonderful podcast interview with Jason Korman. A lot of what was discussed is still VERY pertinent to the wine business, or any business, really. Seriously worth listening to again.
Exhausting, indeed, Hugh! But exhilarating too.
Both the art and hacks biz have doubled sales, then doubled them again, and yet again, over the last three months… I’ve done almost as much work this quarter as I did all last year. Every time I think I’ll have a little down time, a new batch or orders floods in.
But hey, it beats having the opposite problem, right? And it’s kind of nice to be able to just throw cash at problems I used to spend days trying to fix myself, leaving me the space to focus on the important stuff that can’t be outsourced.
Mu wife runs an exclusive boutique B&B (Auberge Le Fleur) in sunny South Africa and she had several enquiries from bloggers asking if she stock Stormhoek. Can anybody tell us where you can buy it in JHB — made enquiries in SA to no avail — Wellington A BIT FAR AWAY.