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He is the man behind Chess World, a Melbourne shop and online store. It is Australia's most extensive collection of "all things chess" and Chess Kids, which provides mentoring, coaching and interschool competitions for primary and secondary school children.
At the age of 15, David
left school to pursue his passion for playing chess and started a chess club at a local primary school in Glen Waverley. Other schools heard about the success of the club and offered to pay for David's time, and before long he was running chess clubs at ten schools and a few neighbourhood houses, riding his bike from school to school or getting his private 'taxi' (mum) to drive him.
At 17 David met up with some other chess players who were inspired by the work he was doing and, as a group, they started chess coaching as a business. In 1997 at age 19, he parted ways with his colleagues and started on his own with a vision to bring chess to every school student in Australia. Then, in 1998, David won a Nescafe Big Break award for the business concept.
David says, "Winning the NBB prize was great for me - obviously being very close to start-up the cash was great - but more important was that other people (business people) thought the idea was a good one. That gave me added confidence to work on the business to grow what we were doing."
David found his biggest challenge was finding good people with the right mix of skills. He says, "Most issues we've ever faced have been overcome by increasing my knowledge. I am perpetually learning. So, learning about people, about hiring systems and getting more operational systems in place so staff didn't need to be as multi-skilled were all important. Creating powerful training programs and induction procedures were also very helpful.
"Two things which I think made the big difference were;
a) Hire for attitude
We can teach skills or improve systems so skills are less critical for success... you can't teach attitude. We had staff who stole from us, some who felt that the job was their right, and how dare we ask them to work, and some who looked great on the surface, but ultimately produced no results because they were lying about what they were doing and mostly socialising, not working.
b) Treat your employees like customers
Once you start applying the customer-focus mindset to your employees as well and treating them as a customer then you get much better relationships. Employees aren't just in it for the money - working out what else is important to them and focusing on them and how you can help them achieve their goals ends up as a win for the business. Lower turnover, better work ethic and generally a happier place!
Today, ten years on, David is well on the way towards achieving his vision. Chess Kids works with 645 schools around Australia. Interest in chess and the Chess Kids program is growing rapidly. For example, the Chess Kids National Interschool Chess Championships are held nationally and have grown from 821 players in 2002 to 8389 players in 2006 – a growth of over 900%. The competition is also spreading to every corner of Australia from the cities of Melbourne and Adelaide, to rural areas like Alice Springs and Mildura.
David has begun franchising the Chess Kids concept and there are now two successful franchisees in Melbourne and one in Adelaide. The concept will continue to spread across Australia, with Perth and Hobart the targets for 2008.
When asked if it is difficult to find franchisees with his level of passion he says, "Actually I'm very lucky in that regard - chess is something which a lot of people find it easy to be passionate about. Often the business owner is passionate about their business, but it is a little difficult for someone else to be passionate about mowing a lawn or cleaning a pool, or serving juice. We are finding that our franchisees are already passionate about chess, which is why they seek out our opportunity in the first place.
We also have strict selection criteria, which is very important in a franchise system, which includes a time working for us as employees - so we get to see the attitude and passion first hand before accepting someone as a franchisee.
As well as expanding in Australia, David is looking at export markets. "Overseas there is big potential for our business - again because there is nobody who has taken the commercial view and systemised his or her business," he says.
David believes that playing a game of chess is very much like running a business, and the critical things he has learnt as a chess player apply to creating and growing a successful business.
1. Create a plan - have a vision for the future
2. Make a decision - take some action!
3. Concentration and focus
4. Invest (and sacrifice) when you need to for future gains
5. Educate yourself - learn from the success of Masters of the game
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