This Tuesday’s class involved a last-minute change in speakers.
Effective entrepreneurs must be constantly ready to adapt to often sudden, unpredictable change. And that is just what we did…
Luckily for us, on faculty here in the Political Economy & Commerce Department at Monmouth College is a former serial entrepreneur who started and ran three business-to-business (B2B) firms prior to his formal academic career (who just happened to be in the classroom to see our originally scheduled speaker).
Below, class member Jeff Larsen tells the story of this entrepreneur; Dr. Lee Miller. Pay particular to Jeff’s discussion of outsourcing; a key general area of great opportunity for entrepreneurs in the B2B marketplace.
Prof. Gabel
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Lee Miller is a business professor here at Monmouth College, but before his teaching career began he was an entrepreneur who started up and owned three different manufacturing corporations. Miller went to Ohio State University where he got his mechanical engineering degree. His first job out of college was with Eaton Corp. in Cleveland, Ohio as a mechanical worker. He moved all around the country working for them and moving up the ranks within Eaton. He eventually earned a management position where he needed to know a good amount of accounting so he decided to get his MBA.
While working at Eaton Corp., Miller saw their need for outsourcing to smaller companies for certain projects as an opportunity. So it was at that time that he decided to create Manufacturing Solutions, Inc. He started the company up from money that he had saved throughout his career and his father also chipped in 50% as a silent partner. Manufacturing Solutions mainly made mechanical parts that larger companies didn’t want to do themselves so they would outsource the job (to someone who can do it more efficiently than they can themselves).
At Manufacturing Solutions, his first job was for his old employer, Eaton Corp., where he passed with flying colors. The company grew more and more each year and even did some outsourcing jobs for Ford Motor Company. After ten years of owning Manufacturing Solutions, Miller sold the company to pursue other passions. When he sold the company, there were 40 full-time employees.
After some time off, Miller decided to start up another manufacturing company, but this one would manufacture medical supplies. This start up went much smoother than the first one because Miller had experience and also had more funds to start the company up. This company mainly focused on producing a medical device used in biopsies. Miller actually patented the design while taking classes to earn his Master’s at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). This product sold very nicely to customers, but mainly to a company located in Baltimore. The Baltimore company wanted to buy in larger volume than Miller’s company could produce so instead of hiring more employees and moving to a larger plant, Miller decided to sell the whole product line (equipment and all) to the Baltimore company. This company lasted around 7 years.
Miller’s third company was more part-time and short-lived than the other two. This company was called Machine Solutions, Inc. and they mainly produced parts for mechanical machines. It was at this time that Miller received a teaching offer to Bangkok University where he taught for three years. Miller then moved back to the U.S. to teach here at Monmouth College.
Lee Miller ran three successful corporations, which he built from the ground up until he sold them. His main philosophy in running those businesses was to do it until you lost the initial love to do it. Every business move he made was done because it was what he wanted to do with his life at that given time. Miller always said that he wanted to run his businesses until eventually he would teach at colleges, which is where he is at now in his career. He also encourages people to continue to take classes at different schools throughout your life to continue to learn different fields of study.
Jeff Larsen
