Business Analysis: The Michael Scott Paper Company

There are some precious start-up lessons to be learnt from the short time that the Michael Scott Paper Company (MSPC) was in business. Initially, I intended to write about their winning formulas but after some thought, I don't think that it's a replicable process (in real life or even TV) and a lot was left to luck and timing. I will allocate brownie points instead.

Brownie point No.1 - They were hungry for it. Well, maybe just Michael and Pam, not Ryan...

Brownie point No.2 - Michael's actually a talented salesman. I remember when Pam got a sales call, Michael said to always mention the word 'guarantee'. There's some kind of sales psychology to do with subliminal messages applied there. I agree that if someone said they'd guarantee something to me, I'm more confident that I made the right decision, for a short while at least. He's also a fantastic negotiator when it came to selling the business. Of course, insider knowledge didn't hurt.

And, the big cookie!
They had an inside man, Jim, at Dunder Mifflin (DF), were they intend to get/steal clients from.

It's frequently mentioned on the show that DF's biggest competitor is Staples. I wonder why MSPC only concentrated on getting DF's clients but not Staples's?

Also, why stop at supplying paper? It wouldn't hurt to also supply office stationery me thinks? The delivery vans make the rounds to these clients anyway, so why not lump in other supplies? Okay, I'm not saying they should set up a Walmart. For a start, how about offering free envelopes with each paper order and then asking if they would order some for next time?

I'm guessing DF's and MSPC's clients don't go to Staples and other big office suppliers because they like the personalised customer service. But in tough times like these, wouldn't it be easy to loose clients to big suppliers if these clients already get the bulk of their stationery and supplies from others? It would be easy for clients to turn away and just include paper in their usual order with their usual stationery supplier.

Maybe the paper industry doesn't work like that and specialism works to one's advantage in this case. It' s a TV show after all. By the way, how did they split up the $60k they got from the buyout?