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More than 100 of Boise’s best and brightest entrepreneurs gathered early Thursday morning at the Garden City Doubletree to hear a breakfast keynote by business innovator Gary Hoover, founder of Internet-based enterprise guide Hoovers Online and Bookstop superstores. The address was part of Kickstand’s fourth annual innovation and entrepreneurship Idavation conference, meant to bring area business owners together to exchange ideas, develop strategies and network.
Hoover, whose operations are based in Austin, Tex., pioneered the retail book superstore with Bookstop, which was acquired by Barnes & Noble, and later sold Hoovers Online to Dun & Bradstreet for $117 million. He delivered a message that centered on eight characteristics of a successful enterprise: a sense of curiosity, a sense of history, a sense of geography, clear language and goals, consistency of vision, a service-based vision, uniqueness of vision and passion.
At base, he stressed that successful, innovative businesses must understand themselves completely and embody their purpose to the full before they can be of use to customers.
“Saying an enterprise exists to make profit is like saying automobiles were created to give us good gas mileage,” he said. “The only valid reason for an enterprise to exist is to provide goods and services to people and to somehow make the world a better place.”
A native of Anderson, Ind., Hoover recalled growing up in the shadow of General Motors, and how it helped turn him into a “business junkie,” getting his first subscription to Fortune magazine just before entering the seventh grade.
“Why don’t you go play basketball like a normal hoosier kid,” he said, remembering that his parents, teachers and friends were often bemused by his early obsession with entrepreneurship.
The Idavation conference was sponsored by Perkins Coie law firm, Idaho TechConnect, C&H Group, Bank of the Cascades and Volt Technical Resources. Kickstand is a nonprofit organizations with 650 members dedicated to assisting and promoting entrepreneurship and innovation.
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