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Entrepreneurial Zeal
Some people are born entrepreneurs like my Father. After selling Group Insurance to various small companies in the Midwest, he branched into Pension and Profit Sharing plans, which were the precursors to modern 401K-type Retirement Plans. Many of his clients were accountants doing the books of restaurants, which were being hit by McDonald’s, Burger King, and other franchises in the 1960s. He talked to Colonel Sanders at Kentucky Fried Chicken and built the first KFC in Battle Creek, MI. He purchased an auto brake shoe remanufacturing plant, where I worked during the summer. Later, he had a small outdoor sign business.
There are many articles on serial entrepreneurs, both positive and negative. After selling their company, many entrepreneurs get bored with “retirement” and look to start another business. Sam Farber (the nephew of Farberware founder Simon Farber) started Copco in 1960 as a producer of enamel-coated cast iron cookware. Retiring in 1982, Sam came up with a toy based around crates with accessories such as wheels, making the crates into cars, bookcases, toy boxes, etc. He patented it and developed prototypes. He then tried to sell it to various retail store chains. The furniture buyers said it wasn’t furniture, it’s a construction toy. The toy buyers said it’s not a toy, its juvenile furniture. So his first business after retirement was stillborn. Later on, he saw a new way to package houseware products, which he knew well. And you probably need his products in your house!
While vacationing in Europe, Farber’s arthritic wife Betsy was trying to peel apples, which is difficult using a 
traditional peeler. She even suggested using clay to test a bigger handle. Sam also recognized that any handle change would have to appeal to regular customers, and he needed 10 to 15 products to get enough attention from the retail stores. He noticed that kitchen gadgets might use a steel handle instead of plastic, but they didn’t work any better than the cheap ones. He wanted products that work better (i.e., build a better mousetrap) while keeping the price competitive.
It takes many twists and turns to bring a product line to the market, but like other successful serial entrepreneurs, Sam had unique insights while helping with the design. After testing the larger handle with depressions for your fingers, the team looked at having soft spots where the thumb and forefinger are placed. Sam realized that people needed to touch this feature in the store. He recalled seeing bicycle handle grips with thin fins on them, so he purchased a handle from a bike shop and started playing with it, and that became the inspiration for the fins. The fins are stiff enough for light duty use but will bend when a heavier grip is needed.
To complete the product, Sam came up with the name OXO. 
He liked the symmetry of the letters, which look the same reversed or upside-down. It also looks like a face, with the O’s being eyes and the X being the bridge of the nose. The package is black and white except for the red logo OXO. The user is drawn to the thumb photo to try the product attached to the card. The OXO product line started the concept of universal design or inclusive design. Even for the able-bodied, you might injure something while playing sports, or another family member might need it sometime.
Oxo is one brand that can sell in specialty stores like Williams-Sonoma, big-box stores like 
Bed Bath & Beyond, and it even has 56 items at my local Kroger store, with many 20 percent off the suggested retail price. On the PBS show America’ s Test Kitchen, Oxo products are generally top rated, such as Whisks and Kitchen Tongs. To be fair, Oxo has sponsored PBS shows in the past. We used to cut pizzas with kitchen shears, but after purchasing a pizza stone, we now use the Oxo Pizza Wheel and highly recommend it.
Are there other products like Oxo where you find great quality for the price?
Published in Group Writing
I see what you did there.
Now. Are we’all going to let you get away with this slippery display of the entrepreneurial cunning you inherited?
Absolutely! Great article about a great capitalist, and a wonderful producer of products designed to meet human needs.
NB:
My brother and I are going to hire you to do our social media campaign when we start our own post-retirement business.
PS:
Can you give me a cleverly convincing argument that I can use to get him to retire, too? Here’s the thing. I can’t remember what our idea for a beach-related product was, last summer down the shore (or any of the previous 39 ideas from the 39 previous summers down the shore) but I have a new one and it is a can’t-miss. I have one word for you. PVC tubing. OK, two words. Four words. Whatever, you are missing the main point. Stop counting the words and imagine you are struggling to carry all the stuff down to the beach, the sun is beating down, you’ve got three squalling kids….
As I said to @titustechera a long time ago, I write slow. But I might have potential product ideas.
PVC tubing is kind of solid, though. How are you going to tie the kids up with that?
A very interesting start to the conversation. Being a serial business starter myself, keeping enthusiasm is important.
Speaking of enthusiasm, this conversation is part of our Group Writing Series under October’s theme of Zeal. Is there anything you’re excited about? Why not share it with your friends on Ricochet and start a conversation. Our schedule still has openings as soon as, uh, well, tomorrow, in fact. Come sign up, and tell us more about the things you love.
Wait. I think you may have given me a new product idea. I will get back to you.
I see what you did there, too. If the other guy isn’t available, you can be our ad genius for the post-retirement “Oxo-like” business. It’s a whole new concept (the Self-Leveling All-PVC Beach Umbrella idea hit some unexpected resistance in early focus groups). Picture three squalling kids. Out of control, a danger to themselves and others. You are all out of duct tape…
Sure.
Harry’s razor blades, first heard of them as a sponsor on a Ricochet podcast and I have never looked back.
I shave my head and my face so I go through razors quick. Cheap, multi blade Bic type products don’t provide a good quality cut but the nicer cartridge systems used to cost an arm and a leg.
Harry’s blades are $30.00 for 16 cartridges vs. $25.00-$30.00 for 8 cartridges with Gillette, for example.
I also like their aftershave balm, smells good and does the trick. I can’t say I have done any comparison shopping in regards to price though.
It seems as if we all knew someone while growing up who seemed to have a hand in a few businesses, and had great ideas. Kudos not only to your dad, but for telling us about him.
Great post! I had no idea about the OXO backstory.
I’ve noticed their stuff for years. It has an initial psychological come-on – it costs more, but it’s probably not junk. If you buy one product, you experience that tactile sensation with the handle, and that’s almost . . . intimate. So when you have to replace something else, you’re drawn to the OXO brand. At the kitchen supply stores I patronize, OXO has a brand block – all the products are grouped together, so it’s not a matter of looking for the OXO version of a tool in a department devoted to parers or strainers. It’s all OXO, which makes the consumer want to buy something else to get homogeneity in the kitchen drawer, and also broadcast status position to themselves or anyone who happens to look in the drawer.
It’s brilliant marketing all the way, even though it does something many market consultants would advise against: it deemphasizes the brand name in favor of an attribute and a visual theme. Black and white sets it apart; GOOD GRIPS looks like the brand name, but it isn’t. If the package just said OXO in big red letters without the prominent attribute of GOOD GRIPS, I wonder if it would’ve had the same success. It might have been a niche product relying on a pricey nameplate. GOOD GRIPS taps that segment of the audience that’s aspirational but practical.
None of which would matter if it wasn’t a good product, and it is.