On Nov. 7, the Longwood University College of Business and Economics brought Will Margiloff, founder and CEO of New York based Innovation Interactive LLC, to speak on the factors that create a successful entrepreneur.
Innovation Interactive is a firm that, according to the company's website, "develops innovative and integrated campaigns for the world's leading brands." Innovation Interactive specifically focuses on online marketing and new innovative ways to advertise via the Internet.
Innovation Interactive's current clientele includes Colgate, H&R Block, Reckitt Benckiser, J.C. Penney Co., NBC Universal, Coca-Cola, Nestle and Kraft Foods as well as other Fortune 500 companies. Margiloff, a Hobart University graduate, founded the company in 2002 and has since been seen as a pioneer in the field of online marketing. With over 16 years of Internet marketing experience, Margiloff held multiple management roles in other Internet based companies before founding Innovation Interactive.
"The Executive-in-Residence series is intended for the students to get a feel for how executives of major corporations think and how they became so successful," said Kenneth Parmely, one member of the Dean's Student Advisory Board for the College of Business and Economics.
Parmely went on to talk about how the advisory board helps select speakers who are prominent in the business world to come speak with students at Longwood. "It's basically how he operates his business, how to be more efficient and more of an insight into the life of an executive."
The presentation began with an introduction of Margiloff first by Dr. Paul Barrett, the dean of the Longwood University College of Business and Economics, and then again by Brandon Caracciolo, president of the Dean's Student Advisory Board.
Margiloff began his presentation by telling the audience of his self-proclaimed "a-ha" moment when he had recently graduated from Hobart, in which his then-girlfriend had left him and he decided to leave his job doing cold calls for advertising to really pursue his passion for Internet media. From this point, Margiloff informed the audience more about his current company, Innovation Interactive. He went on to talk about Innovation Interactive's plan to engage, retain and acquire clients, and how those three points were the basis to the company.
After informing the crowd about his company, Margiloff began to tell his story of success from his childhood. Margiloff's first main point was that it is impossible to be successful without passion. He then told of how as a child he had a passion and desire for sports, and while he knew he would not always compete in sports, he learned to find his passion at a very young age.
Margiloff also commented on work ethic in this section. He told of his first jobs from a mere lawn mowing business to running a goose-shooting business that he ran with his mother. He then talked about a job he found after searching for a while in which he could get paid $15 an hour to shovel snow for IBM, as long as it was supposed to snow. Margiloff emphasized the fact that he could be paid to nothing if it did not snow. Margiloff then told the audience, "Nothing in this world is going to present itself to you; you have to work to find opportunities."
In this segment, Margiloff said how he was an American history major carrying a 2.7 GPA in college, but how his admiration for historical figures helped him in his business career. Margiloff talked about how Alexander Hamilton was the poster child for time management and how Thomas Edison exemplified the meaning of passion and tenacity.
From there Margiloff transitioned into his second segment in which he talked about his early professional career. He then came back to his initial moment, where at the beginning of the speech he talked about making a change in his career. It turned out that Margiloff earned the position he applied for, a managerial position at an online media sales company Jumbo, due to his previous employment history coupled with the work ethic and leadership that came from his childhood and undergraduate studies.
From there, Margiloff talked about holding a position as the boss of one of three businesses that went into a merger that became 24/7 Media. Margiloff said that in the beginning if it were not for the merger, the company would have failed. He then said, "Failure is your greatest innovator." From here, Margiloff spoke on other shortcomings in his career and how multiple failures taught him to learn and fix his mistakes and finally move on to create Innovation Interactive.
Margiloff's final segment covered his time at Innovation Interactive. Over his nine year tenure at Innovation Interactive, the company grew from a $1 million with 23 employees to worth over $300 million and managing over 400 employees. Margiloff said that he learned the best management skills from his children, learning that in the end the best route to take is to promote a fun workplace and patience with employees.
Margiloff's final note was that not only are work ethic and passion important, but the final key factor in success is luck. Margiloff ended by saying, "If you forget about the end goal and only care about the money and the fame, then you won't be successful."
