J.Eterman company
Title: The Rise and Fall of the J. Peterman Company , By: Peterman, John, Harvard Business Review, 00178012, Sep/Oct99, Vol. 77, Issue 5
Database: Business Source Premier Section: First Person
The Rise and Fall of the J. Peterman Company
With a keen eye and a flair for romantic copy, John Peterman created a successful catalog company. As an entrepreneur, he was in his element. As top manager of a fast-growing enterprise, he was ultimately much less successful. What happened?
You create a company out of nothing. Five hundred dollar investment. It grows. It sparks. It hums. It's powerful, heady. You want to reflect that power, but you also want your employees to understand that you haven't changed. You are authentic and without pretense. You wear boots and jeans and a denim shirt to the office, and you wear boots and jeans and a denim shirt to bank meetings, meetings with investors, and on television. You are who you want to be. J.P. Jeans, $38. J.P. Boots, $300.
THERE COMES A TIME IN THE life of a growing business when you, as its founder and top manager, realize that the company has taken on a momentum of its own. You influence it, certainly, but more and more you are swept along by it. I hit that point in 1996. I created the J. Peterman Company on a $500 investment and $20,000 borrowed, unsecured. I made the company grow. I gave it momentum. And then I began to recognize that it had gained a momentum of its own. I watched it hit its stride-and then I watched it stumble and fall. J. Peterman went into Chapter 11 on January 25, 1999, and has been purchased by Paul Harris Stores, to reemerge as what, I'm not sure. I am no longer associated with it.
Now I'm in a transition period. I'm saddened by the loss of J. Peterman. (I mean that quite literally. Ironically, John Peterman is J. Peterman, and J. Peterman is John Peterman, but I no longer own the J. Peterman name.) And I've been operating-living under significant pressure. Going
Database: Business Source Premier Section: First Person
The Rise and Fall of the J. Peterman Company
With a keen eye and a flair for romantic copy, John Peterman created a successful catalog company. As an entrepreneur, he was in his element. As top manager of a fast-growing enterprise, he was ultimately much less successful. What happened?
You create a company out of nothing. Five hundred dollar investment. It grows. It sparks. It hums. It's powerful, heady. You want to reflect that power, but you also want your employees to understand that you haven't changed. You are authentic and without pretense. You wear boots and jeans and a denim shirt to the office, and you wear boots and jeans and a denim shirt to bank meetings, meetings with investors, and on television. You are who you want to be. J.P. Jeans, $38. J.P. Boots, $300.
THERE COMES A TIME IN THE life of a growing business when you, as its founder and top manager, realize that the company has taken on a momentum of its own. You influence it, certainly, but more and more you are swept along by it. I hit that point in 1996. I created the J. Peterman Company on a $500 investment and $20,000 borrowed, unsecured. I made the company grow. I gave it momentum. And then I began to recognize that it had gained a momentum of its own. I watched it hit its stride-and then I watched it stumble and fall. J. Peterman went into Chapter 11 on January 25, 1999, and has been purchased by Paul Harris Stores, to reemerge as what, I'm not sure. I am no longer associated with it.
Now I'm in a transition period. I'm saddened by the loss of J. Peterman. (I mean that quite literally. Ironically, John Peterman is J. Peterman, and J. Peterman is John Peterman, but I no longer own the J. Peterman name.) And I've been operating-living under significant pressure. Going