Simply Success, Jack Miller

Published by Wiley

Buy it now from Blackwell Books

Sound advice for entrepreneurs

Jack Miller founded Quill Corporation in 1956 with the help of a $2,000 loan from his father-in-law and a phone line in his father’s poultry store. In 1998 he sold out to Staples for a little under $700,000,000.

Not bad for a man who rates himself as only averagely intelligent!

Mr Miller is an old-fashioned businessman who believes in hard work and putting the customer first. Not in the glib “our customers are paramount” lip service that is almost universal today, but simply by treating customers as he would family, neighbours and friends (my interpretation, not his).

In this delightful to read book he expounds his philosophy and tells the story of Quill. He talks about the importance of having a vision, of strategic planning, of budgeting and all the other things you would expect. But he talks with his own voice, not the platitudes of the business school and is twice as readable as a result.

He talks about what it takes to be an entrepreneur, to build a healthy corporate culture and to grow into leadership. Above all he is passionate about what made his business different – its unfailing concern to provide a better customer experience than any of its rivals.

He is frank about the mistakes he has made and about the things he wishes he had done differently; but this is at heart a success story; success founded on old-fashioned values that are as relevant this century as they were when Jack and his brothers were building what became the Quill Corporation.