Word: heitzing
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...enterprise, Heitz believes, the small businessman can excel against the big, rich competitor if he is willing to do several things...
Learn all the technology, says Heitz, who got his own lessons working for a succession of California vintners and picked up the scientific nuances by studying and teaching oenology at California colleges. Don't give in to adversity, he adds. In his first year on his own, he was struck by an almost biblical series of plagues: early frost, freakish heat, then hepatitis. Friends in the valley pitched in to help him pick and press his crop. "You know," he muses, "people like to see you succeed. People like to see a family working together...
...attention to the smallest details, Heitz advises. He prowls his winery like a top sergeant making a bed check, looking, listening, sniffing. "You can sense if something is wrong," he testifies. "Do you hear a knock or a rattle? Maybe an air conditioner has to be fixed. You need good ears." And, he continues, "people say that the machinery is automatic. Nothing is automatic...
...entrepreneur must recruit a few loyal aides and work them hard. Young oenology graduates clamor to join Heitz because he is demanding, and he has them do everything. To them, he is a combination of Captain Bligh and Father Flanagan. With Heitz working alongside, they perform every operation: run the crushers and the bottling line, even paint the barrel hoops black because Joe wants them to look neat. His philosophy: "If your place looks like you don't care, your employees won't care. And extreme meticulousness is the most important factor in making fine wine." Or almost...
Finally, the businessman should recognize virtues in remaining fairly small. "If you make a certain-sized batch of a product," Heitz contends, "it usually turns out much better than if you make three or four times that much." He intends to level out his own production when it reaches 40,000 cases annually, up from about 35,000 this year...