TOMS shoes

I was eagerly awaiting the Shilling lecture featuring TOMS shoes founder Blake Mycoskie. Mostly I was intrigued to hear from the brilliant mind behind, in my opinion, the most evolutionary marketing plan in history. I was first drawn to the shoes when I noticed the growing trend on campus (I became a fan of the concept but I tend to veer away from trends, I do not own a pair of TOMS). My research on TOMS shoes unearthed a portion of the population criticizing Blake’s business model and his intentions. I could understand the concerns of exploiting western ideal and dominance, promoting a dependence on a wealthy nation. In my opinion the company was just assisting a nation so that it can grow on its own, not creating dependence but promoting opportunities for development. Anyways I was eager to hear Blake face the controversy head on and give his thought process to the development of a philanthropy based company. Before he walked out my friends and I were making bets on if Blake was going to be sporting his famous shoes or not. I was convinced he would be (and he was, why not?). I was pleased that Blake’s personality matched his philanthropic outlook on life. He seemed like a down to earth guy that had nothing but good intentions, integrating two passions of his (building companies and helping others). I was very impressed by Blake’s speech and responses to the student answers. I understand he most likely have heard, pondered and perfected those answers over the past four years. The questions the students asked were also quite impressive. I have little to no background in business so my corners of the company were not quite to the extent of some other students. I also think it is brilliant psychologically to channel peoples' need to be perceived as "good". By buying myself these pairs of shoes I am giving shoes to those in need in Africa and now all my friends will know that I contributed to the good of humanity. Brilliant! Besides the benefits of marketing to the luke warm philanthropist (as you may recall from previous blogs I refer to those who do for show as luke warm, ie luke warm Christians etc. Also I am not implying that all people who buy TOMS are luke warm, I am simpling pointing out the appeal of TOMS to those that are luke warm) I admire Blake for setting a good example to the younger generations to incorporating helping of all humankind into every aspect of their lives even to in running a company. In my opinion the most intriguing question asked was why has it been a few years since TOMS has become a thriving business and Blake still has not sold it and has made no interest in selling the company. When I heard this question I was shocked by the absurdity, I wouldn’t want to sell a company that I put all my heart into for several years especially one that has such a revolutionary business plan. I later learned that Blake has become successful by establishing companies and selling them when they reach a point of success. So the concern was more that he had no experience with maintaining a company. I think that Blake handled the question well without coming across as refusing to sell his baby. He expressed that he wouldn’t want to sell his company to just anyone, whoever becomes in charge must have the same intentions in mind as his when he developed the idea. Over all I was pleased with the lecture. I was slightly annoyed that the “lecture” part was just a narrative of the TOMS idea (I did my research so I already knew the back story). But Blake’s witty and charming personality shined as he recollected his epiphany which made the lecture interesting and personal.