Come up with a 5 elements of each category of the SWOTof 1-800-GOT-JUNK?
Eighteen thousand expired cans of sardines.84 Fifty gardengnomes. A mechanical bull. Trophies from a nudist colony. Theseobjects are just some of the weird items that Vancouver-based1-800-GOT-JUNK? customers have asked the uniformed people in thefreshly scrubbed blue trucks to haul away. Company founder and CEOBrian Scudamore discovered a lucrative niche between “trash cansand those big green bins dropped off by” the giant waste haulers.But even in such an uncomplicated business as hauling people’sjunk, Scudamore must be concerned with managing change andinnovation.
1-800-GOT-JUNK? is an award-winning company with a corporatestaff of about 300 individuals. “With a vision of creating the‘FedEx’ of junk removal,” says Scudamore, “I dropped out ofuniversity with just one year left to become a full-time JUNKMAN!Yes, my father, a liver transplant surgeon, was not impressed, tosay the least.” However, in 2011, the company had more than 200franchises, and system-wide revenues were over $100 million.85 Notsurprisingly, Scudamore’s father is a little more understandingthese days about his son’s business. Since 1997, the company hasgrown exponentially. The company made the list ofEntrepreneur magazine’s 100 fastest-growing franchises in2005 and 2006. It was named one of the Best Employers in Canada byCanadian Business, and Scudamore won the InternationalFranchise Association’s Entrepreneur of the Year award. Scudamorealso started two newer franchises: Wow 1 Day Painting and You MoveMe.
Hauling junk would be, to most people’s minds at least, a prettysimple business. However, the company Scudamore founded is a“curious hybrid.” It has been described as a blend of “old economyand new economy.” The company’s service—hauling away trash—has beendone for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. But 1-800-GOT-JUNK?also relies heavily on up-to-date information technology and hasthe kind of organizational culture that most people associate withhigh-tech startups. The company uses its 1-800-GOT-JUNK? callcentre to do the booking and dispatching for all its franchisepartners. The franchise partners also use the company’s proprietaryintranet and customer relationship management site—dubbedJunkNet—to access schedules, customer information, real-timereports, and so forth. According to Scudamore’s philosophy, thisapproach allowed franchise partners to “work on the business”instead of “work in the business.” On any given day, all afranchisee has to do is open up JunkNet to see the day’s schedule.If a new job comes in during a workday, the program automaticallysends an alert to the franchisee. Needless to say, the company’sfranchisees tend to be quite tech-savvy. In fact, some of them haveinstalled GPS devices in their trucks to help find the mostefficient routes on a job. Others use online navigation sites. Withthe price of gas continuing to increase, this type of capability isimportant.
1-800-GOT-JUNK? has a culture that would rival any high-techstartup. The head office is known as the Junktion. Grizzly,Scudamore’s dog, comes to the office every day and helps employeesrelieve stress by playing catch anytime, anywhere. Each morning atexactly 10:55, all employees at the Junktion meet for aseven-minute huddle, where they share good news, announcements,metrics, and problems they are encountering. Visitors to theJunktion have to join the group huddle, too. One of the mostconspicuous features of the Junktion is the “Vision Wall,” whichcontains the varied outputs of Scudamore’s brainstorms. Othermembers of the executive team have visions for the company’s futureas well. Periodically they will wander through the offices ofGenome Sciences Centre, the tenant occupying the space above them,to visualize a future when GOT-JUNK? has expanded so sufficientlythat it will take over that office space. Scudamore does not use apermanent desk, instead preferring to sit in different spaces totalk with people and get a sense of what is going on in thebusiness.
Company franchisees are also encouraged to take initiative andbe innovative. For example, the Toronto franchise, which has 12trucks, sometimes gets a blue truck motorcade going down YongeStreet through the heart of the city as a way to be noticed and topublicize its services. Despite the company’s success to date,Scudamore is wondering whether he is prepared to face whateverchanges may happen in the environment in the years to come.
