The golden rules of growth: Ronnen Harary

No one knows how to build a business better than the entrepreneurs behind some of Canada's most successful companies. These are their most powerful lessons. Ronnen Harary Co-CEO Spin Master Ltd. Toronto If you're not failing, you're not pushing the envelope "We launched Tengamo, a collectible magnetic trading game, off the success of Mighty Beans, which was a huge product line for our company—we probably did $60 million in sales on that one product line. We were under the impression that there was a marketplace for collectible novelties for kids. But at the end of the day, the product didn't sell well. And then you're faced with things like markdowns and selling for below cost. It was a costly exercise. "But product failure is not a bad thing. It can tell you what categories not to be in. It can identify weaknesses in your firm. And if you're not having failures, you're not pushing the envelope. As long as you're not betting the farm on any one product line, then it's okay. "We still take risks—we just try to mitigate them as much as possible through different things. For instance, we'll do a one-city market test before we roll out something nationally. "We're constantly trying. If you want to grow 10% a year, then you can just expand in the categories you're in. But if you want to grow more than that, then you have to try." —KS