Gary Hoover began his entrepreneurial journey at an early age.  Convinced that the best way to change the world (for the better) was to lead or create enterprises, he started subscribing to Fortune Magazine at the age of 12.  While other kids were playing baseball, he was memorizing the Fortune 500.  He visited hundreds of corporate headquarters and offices before he was 18, and studied the stock market in depth.  His question was the same, “what separates the losers from the winners?” 

In this quest, Gary’s research was not limited to for-profit enterprises, but included the study of all types of enterprise from empires to unions, from General Motors to the United States of America.  As part of his education, he studied economics at the University of Chicago under Milton Friedman and two other Nobel Prize winners, served as a securities analyst for CitiBank on Wall Street, worked as a buyer for Federated Department Stores, and headed up acquisitions and strategic planning for the giant May Department Stores Company. 

At the age of 30, he finally took the plunge and created pioneering book superstore BOOKSTOP, which helped change the nature of book shopping in America.  BOOKSTOP also won kudos for its preservation and restoration of historic buildings such as old movie theatres.  This company was sold to Barnes & Noble for $41.5 million cash when it was 7 years old, and became a cornerstone for their industry-dominating superstore chain, which today does over $4 Billion in annual sales.  After he and his partners sold BOOKSTOP, Gary returned to his first love of understanding businesses, and (in 1990) began a small business information publisher, the Reference Press. 

This company, under the leadership of Gary’s college friend Patrick J. Spain followed by present CEO Jeff Tarr, has evolved into Hoover’s, Inc., the world’s largest Internet-based provider of information about enterprises.  Hoover’s Online covers over 20,000 companies around the world, and includes private, public, and non-profit enterprises.  Millions of users from all countries access Hoover’s every day for the site’s easy-to-use and easy-to-read information on enterprises, generating over 400 million page views a year.  In July of 1999, Hoover’s went public; in March of 2003, the company was purchased by Dun & Bradstreet for $117 million.  Like BOOKSTOP, Hoover’s has changed the way we do things.  This is what Gary Hoover started out to do as a teenager.

Hoover also knows failure, having started travel superstore TravelFest in 1993 – and closing it down in 1998-99 as airlines slashed commissions to travel agents.

Today, Gary Hoover travels the world speaking to Fortune 500 executives, trade associations, entrepreneurs, and college students about how enterprises are built and how they stand the test of time.  From his own successes and failures, and from the lessons of the thousands of companies studied by Hoover’s, he draws real-life examples of the things that really matter.  He talks about the role of history, of geography, of demography, of curiosity, and the other key things that aren’t discussed every day in the newspaper.  Gary speaks from long experience and long study about the big picture, about the critical components of the successful business mission. 

His ideas are revealed in depth in his book, Hoover’s Vision: Original Thinking for Business Success.

Gary Hoover also maintains a list of new business ideas, now over 100 concepts, as reported in Fortune Small Business Magazine in the spring of 2002.  It is likely that Hoover will start yet another enterprise in the near future.

In the spring of 2002, Gary’s alma mater the University of Chicago opened Hoover House dormitory, named in honor of Hoover for the gifts of stock in his companies made to the University over the last 20 years.  He continues to be an active supporter of nonprofit entrepreneurship, particularly in education.

Today, Gary Hoover travels the world speaking to Fortune 500 executives, trade associations, entrepreneurs, and college students about how enterprises are built and how they stand the test of time.  From his own successes and failures, and from the lessons of the thousands of companies studied by Hoover’s, he draws real-life examples of the things that really matter. His lessons are not about how to do this or that, which accounting technique works best, or how to compensate your staff.  Gary speaks from long experience and long study about the big picture, about the critical components of the successful business mission.  His eight key points for success are:

1. Curiosity -- nothing is ever discovered by looking in the same place as everyone else, or looking in the same way as everyone else; all discovery starts with exploration.

2. History -- you can't know where you are going if you don't know where you are coming from; watching key long-term trends is a critical part of successful leadership; what are some of the trends to watch today?

3. Geography -- we all come from somewhere, we all grew up somewhere; in a shrinking world, it is more important than ever to understand people and places.

4. Clarity of Vision -- can any third grader understand your vision or are you trapped in double-speak and jargon?

5. Consistency of Vision -- do you stick to what you are good at and what you believe in, through thick and thin?

6. Unique Vision -- do you sound and look like all your competitors or do you stand out, following a unique path that is true to your enterprise and yourself?

7. Service -- the only valid reason for the existence of an enterprise is to deliver products and services to people, to somehow make the world a better place; the minute you think that power resides in the Board room or in Washington, rather than in the hands of customers, you are most likely at the beginning of the end.

8. Passion -- if you aren't doing something you love, you will never be the best at it!