North Face founder shares insights – "Never trust your banker. Write down your goals. Arrogance is your biggest risk."

Kenneth "Hap" Klopp, the founder and former chief executive of The North Face, never climbed the famed Swiss mountain that inspired his company’s name, but his goal of building the world’s best outdoor-gear company was just as daunting.

On Monday, Klopp shared his business insights with roughly 400 business students at the University of Utah’s 15th annual Spencer Fox Eccles Convocation.
Klopp, who describes himself as a "serial" entrepreneur, founded The North Face in 1968. He called that portion of the Eiger mountain in Switzerland "the most aspirational climb that existed in the world at that time."

Klopp eventually sold The North Face but continued to build new companies, forming an international consulting firm, building a new apparel company called Unimatrix, and acquiring Canterbury of New Zealand, a rugby apparel company.

Klopp’s advice to students was simple: Never trust your banker. Write down your goals. Arrogance is your biggest risk.

"There was a study done and it showed that 93 percent of all the CEOs on listed companies on any of the exchanges write their goals," Klopp said. "Only 1 percent of the population of people do that. There are sacrifices you have to make when you want to be a leader. There are sacrifices you make as an entrepreneur. And you only know that you’re willing to make them if you know where you’re going."

By Dave Anderton
Deseret Morning News

Full Story: http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,635154110,00.html