Roll with the Punches
Thomas Boatman
Published in the ACCJ Journal
You
have to have a strong stomach," says Warren Devalier on being
an entrepreneur. And when it's gut-check time, you can be sure that
this veteran of three marathons (training for a fourth) will be hanging
in there.
He's negotiated some of the largest financing projects in history and helped a country rise from the rubble of a communist dictatorship. Now, as founder of Interface Inc., he prepares Japanese for GMAT tests and university interviews, and teaches them how to cut the mustard in U.S. business schools.
"I always knew I was going to be working for myself one day," says Devalier, a native of New Orleans who joined Exxon after earning an MBA in International Relations at SAIS of Johns Hopkins University. Devalier's clients include professionals from trading companies, banks, advertising agencies, construction firms, pharmaceuticals companies and others hoping to get accepted at universities like Harvard, MIT and Stanford.
Interface provides cradle to grave, training for MBA applicants and people in career transition. This is especially important for Japanese hoping to study abroad who are not used to U.S.-style tests and interviews. All classes, except math, are conducted in English, the language of the target institutions. One-on-one contact with consultants who have MBAs, PhDs and business experience is a main selling point of Interface, Devalier says. He employs a staff of 12 and has eight consultants working for him.
Everyone gets their hands dirty at Interface. Devalier teaches advanced grammar and writing himself. This reflects one of his tenets for success: no bureaucracy.
"We don't waste time in unproductive staff meetings, needless reporting or corridor politics," he says.
In 1974, Devalier was sent to Chile right after the fall of Salvador Allende, to rebuild Exxon (Esso). He says Allende's policies had left private industry in ruins. He had to coordinate a restructuring that would cut costs by approximately a million dollars a year. Ultimately, he helped negotiate Exxon's acquisition of what was planned to become one of the world's largest open-pit copper mines.
Devalier has also been a managing director at Chase Manhattan Investment Bank in New York and a managing director of General Sekiyu in Tokyo. It was perhaps his experience as an oil-industry negotiator that provided the spark for Interface. On a management committee with four Japanese and two other western directors, he was charged with facilitating oil distribution in Japan. Much of the work involved helping Japanese and western executives communicate. And Interface became a natural evolution of those skills.
Devalier advises aspiring entrepreneurs to start with a proprietary idea. "You have to be better than the Japanese at something," he says. "You should be ahead of the times, but not too far ahead."
Other Devalier gems:
Japanese ability is helpful, but not essential.
You don't necessarily need a Japanese partner.
Have a cushion of cash flow that's more than you expect to need.
And roll with the punches. Don't give up.
"When I started Interface, I had the mistaken notion that by hanging an open sign out front, clients would just walk in the door," he says. Of course, it's not that easy, but with about 100 clients a year, Interface is a comfortable size for Devalier.
At first the business grew by word of mouth, then by recommendations from Interface graduates studying abroad. Today, about 30% of new referrals find Interface through its Web site (kkinterface.co.jp). Devalier says the business is thriving as more people consider career transitions.
"We hear the drums first, so we get insight to change," he says, and predicts that unemployment will get worse in the coming years. "The social contract (including lifetime employment) is starting to unravel," he says. "Globalization has provided the stimulus for change in a stagnant system that's imploding."
Devalier sees the recent restructuring at Nissan as a watershed event. "Accounting rules are becoming more transparent. People who were once swept under the rug are going to be swept away," he says. Some of those who then want MBAs in the U.S. should be swept over to Interface.
