The last speaker we visted was a man named Eric Zeanah who is president of American Accessories. Eric recieved an Industrial Engineering degree from the University of Tennessee in 1984 and began working for one of his professors doing part time time studies. He was eventually hired by the company which he later spun off into American Accessories. In this way, Eric is not necessarily and entrepreneur in the since that he created something from nothing, he took a company, which already existed and didn't exactly work, and changed in into a successful business.

American Accessories is a unique company which provides companies such as Unilever, Philip Morris, and Johnson and Johnson custom manufacturing capabilities for different projects they might have. They have a vast network of 100+ facilities overseas, mainly in China, that they subcontract through. One key to their business is that they do not directly own any of the facilities, they only control factories through the orders they have and the way they want the manaufacturing lines to run. American Accessories is truely an international company with roughly half of their employees working out of thier Chinese office.

Many might first think that working in China might would be extremely difficult due to many factors such as the language barrier, comunist government, distance and timzone difference. However, Eric who knows no foreign languages, explained that China in his opinion is the most capitalisitic country in the work an the easiest government to work with. He has never had to sit accross a government official except when he bought is house over there. Additionally, because of the internet, communication is so rapid and cheap that it is much easier to do business there than it was back in the 80's when he started.

Mr. Zeanah was full of advise for young entrepreneurs and those interested in running a business one day. The most important thing I learned from Eric was the importance of the relationship you have with the poeople you work with. Eric is the ultimate networker and is friends with many of the people he works with. He often goes on dinner outings with the people he works with and to have both a fun time and talk business. The importance of knowing how to network with people and how to have a business discussion should not be overlooked. The other important point I took from Eric was the importance of service. He believes that the concept of service has died in this country and it is too easy to say no. He spoke of the importance to listen to your customers and provide them what they want instead of what you think they want, even when it is difficult. It is much easier to get an existing customer to buy something new and different than to find a new customer. One of the lines I picked up was "the easiest thing to sell in business is an answer" therefore you should listen and absorb like a sponge to learn about a market or a problem, then make it better.