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Caribou Coffee CEO to take part in Entrepreneurship Week

By Kari VanDerVeen
April 23, 2007

It's been 30 years since Michael Coles took an initial investment of $8,000 and co-founded the Great American Cookie Co., a business adventure that just two decades later boasted hundreds of stores nationwide and more than $100 million in sales.

Yet Coles hasn't forgotten what led to his success. From his current position as the top executive of Twin Cities-based Caribou Coffee Co., Coles says the most important advice he has for college students about to enter the business world is to think big and take chances.

Michael Coles
Coles


"You've got to take risks," says Coles, noting that he took a big chance when he started his cookie company in 1977. "And take risks early. Don't wait until you're in your 40s to take risks."

Coles will visit St. Olaf College on Tuesday, April 24, to share his thoughts on overcoming adversity and his experiences as an executive and entrepreneur. His speech, titled "Caffeinate Your Growth," will kick off Entrepreneurship Week on campus.

His talk is open to the public and will be held from 7 to 8 p.m. in Science Center 280.

Amy DeSutter '08, vice president of St. Olaf's student-run entrepreneurial club, Ole Ventures, says the club has been working to get Coles to campus for several years. She hopes that Coles' speech will give students a glimpse into the entrepreneurial focus of large organizations such as Caribou Coffee and the Great American Cookie Co.

Coles got the idea to start the Great American Cookie Co. when he visited a cookie shop in California and saw how much business it was doing. Knowing almost nothing about the cookie business, Coles surrounded himself with people who did. They provided the expertise, and he provided the business leadership.

"In a lot of ways, we learned from each other," Coles says.

Coffee and challenges
In 1998 Coles sold the cookie company during his run as the Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in Georgia. As with his 1996 run for Congress, he was unsuccessful.

In June 2003, after running Caribou on an interim basis for nearly five months, he accepted an offer to become its chairman, CEO and president. His mandate: to extend the company's market reach and build its international presence.

Caribou went public in August 2005. At the time of its initial public offering, the company announced that it planned to add 188 stores to the 322 it already had.

Among the primary challenges for Coles has been steering an already established coffee company, rather than starting one from the ground up. Caribou is the second-largest non-franchised coffee chain in the United States behind industry leader Starbucks.

More recently he has had to deal with federal and state lawsuits filed against Caribou Coffee by shop managers who argue they are entitled to overtime pay.

Coles has faced challenges in his personal life as well. Just weeks after opening his first cookie store, he was involved in a near-fatal motorcycle accident. He overcame his injuries to set two world transcontinental biking records.

Since then, he has devoted time and resources to advocating for education, the arts, the environment and philanthropic organizations. And he does his best, as a busy CEO, to focus on his family, which includes his wife, Donna, and their three adult children: Lorin, Jody and Taryn.

Coles has worked on many of his philanthropic projects with Donna, and in 1995 the Georgia Chapter of the National Society of Fundraising Executives named both of them the Georgia Philanthropists of the Year. The couple also wrote a children's book together, The Land of Caring 'Bou, which was published last year. The book promotes diversity, teamwork and education in an attempt to teach children how to be successful in life.

Coles said the path he's taken has very much been defined by his family, noting that he's turned down and taken opportunities with their interests in mind.

"In every decision I've made in my life, my family has been at the center," says Coles, who has a home in Atlanta as well as a residence in downtown Minneapolis near the Caribou Coffee headquarters.

Sian Muir
Muir
Entrepreneurial skills
Sian Muir, associate director of the Finstad Program for Entrepreneurial Studies and a management studies instructor, is working to organize Entrepreneurship Week. One goal of the week's activities, she says, is to show students how entrepreneurship can hone lifelong skills such as risk-taking and creative thinking.

Other Entrepreneurship Week events include:
  • a student business plan competition that will take place Wednesday, April 25, from 6 to 8 p.m. in Buntrock Commons, Viking Theater;

  • a speech by St. Olaf alumni John Haugen '86, vice president and marketing director for General Mills, and John Meslow '60, retired president of Medtronic, on creating and maintaining a culture of innovation in large companies that will take place Thursday, April 26, 11:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. in Buntrock Commons, Black Ballroom;

  • and a marketplace for Finstad Grant award winners to showcase their wares on Friday, April 27, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Buntrock Commons, Crossroads.

Contact David Gonnerman at 507-786-3315 or gonnermd@stolaf.edu.