Get to Know our Entrepreneur in Residence: Don Morrison

Don is a serial entrepreneur and visionary leader who has consistently leveraged technology to improve the customer experience and top and bottom-line results. Don has been involved in the growth and development of several businesses, including American Eagle Outfitters, from one to 165 stores as President and CEO, Sundance Catalog Company as Executive Director, and Bear Creek Corporation as Senior VP of Sales and Marketing. 

 What can large organizations learn from startups?  

I am frequently asked by various civic organizations to speak about innovation.  One of my recurring themes that I talk about is the fact that all companies must “innovate or die”.

Virtually every industry (and company) is undergoing constant disruption from competitors and/or start-ups featuring new technologies, whether they realize it or not.  To survive, all companies must be innovative.

Some fun facts that support the “Innovate or die” theme:

• In the last 15 years, 52% of Fortune 500 companies have disappeared.
• Of all the Fortune 500 companies in 1955, 88% no longer exist.
• The average lifespan of publicly traded companies in 2007 was 76 years.
• Today, the average lifespan of publicly traded companies is 15 years.
• The world’s largest transportation company owns no vehicles.
  The world’s largest hospitality company owns no hotels.
• 
  One of the world’s largest retailers (until recently) owns no brick and mortar stores.
  25 years ago, none of these companies existed.

 What is one fun or interesting thing students should know about you?

• In high school and college, I managed and performed in a successful rock band.

 
What was your biggest “a-ha” moment?

• In college, I reluctantly took a “Quantitative methods in historical analysis” class to satisfy a major requirement. A year later, I realized that I could use quantitative methods to solve daily challenges in the retail world.  It enabled innovation that established and defined my career path.

What is your most used emoji?

• I don’t use emoji’s for business communications.  With personal communications will occasionally use a 😊.

What really drives you to keep going when it’s really tough?

• I am inspired by the giants of innovation (like Edison, Ford, Tessla) who were passionate about their visions and pursued them with reckless abandon until they were ultimately successful.

One of the things I have learned is, that in life, there are many things that are far worse than the failure of an idea or even a business.  Accepting that premise, enables fearless pursuit of your dreams.

What’s your approach to marketing/teambuilding? 

• Marketing-
  • Fine tune your message
  • Know your customer
  • Be relentlessly consistent

 Teambuilding-

• • Know your strengths (and weaknesses)
  • Hire the smartest people you can
  • Hire personality, almost everything else can be trained
• Talk to Don Morrison, Entrepreneur in Residence today.  Make an appointment with him via email.

Don is a serial entrepreneur and visionary leader who has consistently leveraged technology to improve the customer experience and top and bottom-line results. Don has been involved in the growth and development of several businesses, including American Eagle Outfitters, from one to 165 stores as President and CEO, Sundance Catalog Company as Executive Director, and Bear Creek Corporation as Senior VP of Sales and Marketing. He is currently chairman of deal flow for BlueTree Allied Angels, a Pittsburgh-based angel investment organization. Mr. Morrison is actively involved in mentoring and coaching several startup and early-stage companies in the region and serves on several boards of directors and advisors including, Pittsburgh Green Building Alliance and was the previous Chairman of The Linden Pointe Development Corporation which operates The eCenter @ Linden Pointe and The Entrepreneurship Academy program for area high school students.