Fred Gratzon - Interview with the world's laziest man (by Paul Wilson)

<body> <p>For my venture strategy class, I was supposed to interview an entrepreneur this week, and I chose Fred Gratzon, founder of <st1:City><st1:place>Fairfield</st1:place></st1:City>'s (Iowa) Great Midwestern Ice Cream and Telegroup. From his Web site: </p> <p class=Citation style='margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:12.0pt; margin-left:0in'>Fred Gratzon is an<i> entrepreneur raconteur provocateur</i>. </p> <p class=Citation style='margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:12.0pt; margin-left:0in'>In 1968 Fred graduated<i> sine laude whatsoever</i> from <st1:place> <st1:PlaceName>Rutgers</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType>University</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> as a Fine Art major. He never held a job for more than two months and is one of only five people in the entire history of the United States Government to have been fired from a civil service job. In 1979 with no money, no experience, and no knowledge of how to make ice cream, he founded The Great Midwestern Ice Cream Company. In 1984 his ice cream was judged by<i> People</i> magazine to be the best ice cream in <st1:country-region><st1:place>America</st1:place></st1:country-region>.<i> Playboy</i> made the same declaration in 1986. In 1989, again with no money and no knowledge or experience of telecommunications Fred founded Telegroup in a spare room in his house. Telegroup became an international long distance carrier and grew to 1100 employees with $400 million in annual sales. Fred's companies have appeared on<i> Inc</i> magazine's list of the 500 fastest growing companies in <st1:country-region><st1:place>America</st1:place></st1:country-region> four times. In 1995 Telegroup was the second fastest. </p> <p class=Citation style='margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:12.0pt; margin-left:0in'>Fred, ever the entrepreneurial pyromaniac, is currently lighting new fires and using<i> The Lazy Way to Success</i> as his invincible formula.</p> <p> </p> <p>This page uses frames, but your browser doesn't support them.</p> </body>