September 8, 2004
Kinko's Founder Sees No Conflict Between Morality and Business
by Erica Grieder

	Paul Orfalea Also See Speakers@McCombs See upcoming and past speakers at the school.

On Sept. 7, Paul Orfalea, founder and chairman emeritus of Kinko’s, spoke to MBAs at the McCombs School of Business about the importance of socially responsible business practices. The event was sponsored by the McCombs chapter of Net Impact, an international network of business leaders and students committed to leveraging the power of business for the good of society.

As the head of Kinko’s, Orfalea grew the business from one copy machine on wheels to over a thousand stores worldwide. At the same time, he became well-known for his concern for employees, and the company was ranked one of the “top 100 companies to work for” by Fortune magazine on several occasions. The benefits of working at Kinko’s range from free lunch to college tuition support for the children of employees. Such policies, said Orfalea, allowed him to make a practical difference for people, particularly single mothers.

“I’ve never seen a conflict between morality and business,” said , who elaborated in his talk on the relationships between managerial concern, employee satisfaction and success in business.

Employees who feel themselves well-treated are less inclined to leave the company—or to quietly wreak havoc. “Workers have all the power,” said Orfalea, reflecting on the range of ways in which a disgruntled employee can undermine a business.

For that reason alone, said Orfalea, employers should try to keep employees happy. “Happy fingers, happy register,” he added, encouraging future managers in the room to kiss the employee’s hand rather than slap his wrist.

On the other hand, Orfalea continued, employers can see a great return by investing in the welfare of their employees. “The art of business is getting people to be motivated,” he said, noting that when he founded the company with just one copy machine on wheels, his employees were the only factor that differentiated Kinko’s from the competition.

Not only do happy employees provide better customer service, they are motivated to improve the business. One employee, said Orfalea, came up with the idea of promoting personalized calendars as holiday gifts, effectively generating a great deal of business during what was otherwise a slow time of year for copy shops.

It’s easy to see why Orfalea would sympathize with underappreciated employees, having never been happy as an employee himself. “I never was successful working for other people,” he said. “I always got fired.”

Fortunately, his goal from a young age had been to work for himself, in accordance with family tradition. “No one in my family ever had a job—we all had our own businesses,” said Orfalea.

In keeping with their entrepreneurial bent, Orfalea’s parents kept a much more vigilant eye on his savings account than his report card. This was fortunate for him, said Orfalea, as he never had much of an academic bent.

More generally, Orfalea also considers his parents’ emphasis on real-world experience rather than abstract knowledge a good way to approach business education. Acknowledging that many people in MBA programs may feel differently about this than he does, Orfalea even went so far as to say that the process of earning an MBA could have an adverse impact on business professionals by warping their perspective.

”MBAs try to escape anxiety,” he said. This is an impossible goal, he continued, because a certain amount of discomfort is inevitable when thinking of the uncertain future. Rather than trying to get around this fact, you should make peace with it: “You should get comfortable with anxiety and ambiguity.”

By taking a realistic perspective, said Orfalea, you are able to deal with setbacks and be receptive to new opportunities and ideas.

Additional Soundbites:

On his unconventional path to success:

”My first good quality is I’m a horrible reader. My second good quality is that I have no mechanical abilities whatsoever. Are there a lot of opportunities for someone who can’t fill out a form or can’t fix things?”

On studying for tests:

“You won’t remember it, so what’s the good of learning it?”

On hands-on management:

“What do you think was my favorite job in the store? I liked leaving the store. I was never in the office and was [not pleasant] at meetings. I was better at going store to store to store and seeing what people are doing right. My job was going out and looking for opportunities.”

On the problem with some MBAs:

”Too focused on school.”

On keeping busy:

“Busy people see today and yesterday, not tomorrow. I was never a busy person, because I’m not competent enough to be busy…so I was out there seeing opportunities.”