Anthony L. Iaquinto
Anthony L. Iaquinto
Anthony Iaquinto attended Columbia University Business School, receiving his MBA in Marketing and Ph.D. in Strategic Management. He has spent the last fourteen years as an educator, entrepreneur, and writer in Japan; in 2005 he was a visiting scholar at Arizona State University, Tempe. Prof. Iaquinto is now touring North America conducting research for his next book. Prof. Iaquinto is also a consultant for 100MeterFilms, an independent movie production company located in Tokyo, and maker of the critically acclaimed film: Firefly dreams. Founded by Welsh writer and director John William, its second full-length feature film is scheduled for release in 2006. Prof. Iaquinto will be credited as Associate Producer.
I started my first business venture when I was just sixteen, selling candy, popcorn and sodas out of a wooden shed behind the backstop at a softball field in a Minneapolis suburb. I didn’t make much money, but the experience provided me with a great introduction to entrepreneurship. In lieu of a more typical college summer job, my second venture involved selling customized t-shirts to outfitters and resorts in northern Minnesota. I took orders from my customers, purchased t-shirts wholesale and silk-screened them. This venture was considerably more profitable than the first and provided funds to see me through my last two years as an undergraduate and several more years of graduate studies.After completing my Ph.D. at Columbia University, I moved to Japan where I taught at a local university, and opened three businesses—an adult education center and two restaurants. Two were successful; the other was not. I have spent my adult life fluctuating between being a cloistered scholar and an energetic entrepreneur. At first glance, my dual pursuits may appear to signal an acute case of multiple personality disorder, but these two careers have not been mutually exclusive. The more I study entrepreneurship, the greater an understanding I gain about what should happen when you start your own business. The more turns I took as an entrepreneur, the wiser I got about what really occurs. Sometimes these two paths compliment each other, and at other times they contradict each other. But it is in paradoxes that I have discovered some of the fifteen principles I present in my book.Stephen Spinelli, Jr.
Stephen Spinelli, Jr. is co-founder of Jiffy Lube International, a franchise that revolutionized automotive quick service. He started his career working for a nursing home company , and helped the owner-- an entrepreneur and college football coach-- turn a small mom and pop auto-service chain into a national franchise. Mr. Spinelli then founded his own firm, serving as chairman and CEO of American Oil Change Corporation, a franchisee of Jiffy Lube based in Massachusetts. He grew his company to become Jiffy Lube’s largest franchisee, with 47 stores that posted 39 consecutive profitable quarters, with $31 million in annual sales. After selling his shares in the Jiffy Lube franchise, Mr. Spinelli started a career in academia, receiving a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of London’s Imperial College, studying with world-renowned scholar Sue Birley. Currently, he serves as vice provost at Babson College, responsible for developing entrepreneurship initiatives within the College. Prof. Spinelli also holds the John H. Muller Chair in Entrepreneurship and serves as the director of the Arthur M. Blank Center for Entrepreneurship. Prof. Spinelli has written and lectured extensively on various aspects of entrepreneurship. His work has appeared in journals such as Journal of Business Venturing and Frontiers of Entrepreneurship. He has also been featured in such popular press as the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, The Boston Globe, Entrepreneur, and Inc. Prof. Spinelli has co-authored the following books: Business Plans that Work (McGraw-Hill, 2004), Franchising: Pathway to Wealth Creation (Prentice Hall, 2003), and New Venture Creation: Entrepreneurship for the 21st Century (McGraw-Hill, 2003).Finally, he has consulted for major corporations such as Fidelity Investments, Intel Corporation, IBM Corporation, and Allied Domecq, the global wine and spirits distributor.