Description

Episode Summary

In 1995, Rob Tod poured a Belgian-style white beer into a pint-sized hole in the US craft beer market and sipped his way to success.  As the founder of the award-winning Allagash Brewing Company, Rob proves that if you do what you love you’ll never work a day in your life.  Sharing his success with his employees and his community has created a company based on values, not profits.  Rob and Syd also talk beer, business, B Corps, and more, in this episode of The Sydcast.

Syd Finkelstein

 Syd Finkelstein is the Steven Roth Professor of Management at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.  He holds a Master’s degree from the London School of Economics and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. Professor Finkelstein has published 25 books and 90 articles, including the bestsellers Why Smart Executives Fail and Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent, whichLinkedIn Chairman Reid Hoffman calls the “leadership guide for the Networked Age.”  He is also a Fellow of the Academy of Management, a consultant and speaker to leading companies around the world, and a top 25 on the Global Thinkers 50 list of top management gurus.  Professor Finkelstein’s research and consulting work often relies on in-depth and personal interviews with hundreds of people, an experience that led him to create and host his own podcast, The Sydcast, to uncover and share the stories of all sorts of fascinating people in business, sports, entertainment, politics, academia, and everyday life. 

Rob Tod

After graduating from Middlebury College with a major in Geology, Rob headed west. Following a couple of years in Colorado, he suspected his track would eventually lead him either back to Geology or woodworking. Before heading down one of those paths, he took a detour to Vermont where he washed kegs at Otter Creek Brewery. While at Otter Creek, he happened upon the beers of Belgium. In these inventive and surprising brews, Rob saw an opportunity to give American beer drinkers an experience they’d never had before. So he left steady pay and founded Allagash Brewing Company in 1995. The brewery has since grown from a one-man operation into one of the Top 50 Craft Breweries in the U.S. (by sales volume) and has earned a spot on Maine’s Best Places to Work list for seven years running. Rob is the Past Chair of the Brewers Association trade group and received the James Beard Award for Outstanding Wine, Beer or Spirits Producer in 2019.

Insights from this episode:

• The benefits of finding a career that you truly love and the importance of taking a step back sometimes.
• Strategies for overcoming challenges in the early days of entrepreneurship including finance and business structure.
• How to gain customers for your product and differentiate yourself from the competition in a saturated market space.
• Details on beer-making, the history of Belgian-style beers, and why Rob chose to brew white beers.
• How to continue to find motivation and purpose for you and your business during not only challenging times but successful ones as well.
• Strategies Rob has employed during the COVID-19 pandemic for his business, employees, and community.

Quotes from the show: 

• “I knew nothing about beer but really from the moment I set foot in the brewery I was just mesmerized with everything that I saw.”  – Rob Tod
• “I really felt like I was discovering a career that I didn’t think could exist. That basically combined all the things that I was passionate about.” – Rob Tod
• “You don’t want to fall into the trap of doing something you aren’t really going to love.”  – Syd Finkelstein
• “I think it’s really important, that when you choose a career, do something you love.” – Rob Tod
• “You were seen, really, as producing and selling something different than almost everybody else out there.”  – Syd Finkelstein
• On choosing to brew Belgian-style beers: “I was looking to give people as unique an experience as possible.” – Rob Tod
• “Philanthropy is a super important part of our culture and I think that we have an obligation to give back to the community that’s been so supportive of us over the years.” – Rob Tod
• “I am required to not just consider the shareholders when we make decisions but consider the community, the employees, and the environment.” – Rob Tod
• On Allagash’s pandemic plan: “It’s a great example really of innovating in the face of giant headwinds.”   – Syd Finkelstein
• “When we do get through this … we will be farther along on a plan that we already had anyway than we would have been in the absence of this COVID crisis.” – Rob Tod
• “The job of the entrepreneur and the entrepreneurial CEO is to go from doing everything to doing nothing.” – Syd Finkelstein

Stay Connected:

Syd Finkelstein

Website: http://thesydcast.com

LinkedIn: Sydney Finkelstein

Twitter: @sydfinkelstein

Facebook: The Sydcast

Instagram: The Sydcast

Rob Tod 

Website: www.allagash.com

Instagram: @allagashbrewing

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This episode was produced and managed by  Podcast Laundry (www.podcastlaundry.com)