The Most Incredible Businessman of All Time

Forget Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Andrew Carnegie, John Rockefeller, or Henry Ford. There is only one entrepreneur in commercial history who deserves the title of "the most incredible businessman of all time".

I won't keep you in suspense - of course, it's Santa Claus.

In this article I am going to analyse the man, the brand, and how he is leveraging his reach and awareness to turn a tidy profit.

And you have to face the facts - his country of origin (Finland) is doing very well, despite being a frosty wilderness consisting mainly of trees and lakes. How is such a place able to support itself as a socialist paradise?

Santa's tax payments, plain and simple. But I digress.

Taking the Personal Brand to the Ultimate Level

Let's start by look at the fluffy part: branding. What a distinctive image Santa has!

The beard, the reindeer, the distinctive laugh, a reckless lack of concern for his body mass index, but above all: those bold colours.

Red and white.

They are so strong that one of the most recognisable brands in the world (Coca-Cola, if you hadn't already guessed) decided not only to adopt the colour palette, but also the character himself.

I would not be surprised to find out that Santa is receiving regular handsome royalty payments from the soft drink giant.

Dominate Your Market

Secondly, be aware that he has an iron grip on the giving of toys at Christmas. Sure, there's the Easter Bunny in the spring, and the Tooth Fairy on any random day of the year, but they only get to hand out chocolate and money, respectively.

If our children are our future, then Santa is making damned sure that they are loyal customers. The "goodwill" entry on his balance sheet must be off the charts.

Yet despite his entertainment monopoly he has never faced an antitrust lawsuit in the USA.

I am sure he is making a tidy packet on the side by providing Facebook with consultancy and advice these days, now that the remuneration from Microsoft in the late 1990s has probably run out.

Live Long and Prosper

Santa has been in business since the fourth century AD. There aren't many non-business organisations that have survived that long, and the oldest business (Kongō Gumi) is two centuries younger than Saint Nick.

Admittedly there have been a few pivots in the Santa strategy over time - he started with the handing out of free dowries to impoverished women in the early days, and then moved on to giving food and presents to those kids whose parent couldn't afford to.

The final change in direction? Ensuring that the kids of rich folks get the best gifts (surely you've noticed that). A masterstroke!

How much do you reckon Santa gets from his Washington DC lobbying sideline?

If You're Not Paying ... You're the Product

Google may have thought they were on to a new business model by giving access to desirable software away for free, and then monetising the sh*t out of the data they harvest through those gratis products, but they are johnny-come-latelies.

I hope Santa got his consultancy fee from Brin and Page in Google stock. Actually, I don't hope. I'm sure he did.

And it goes one level deeper.

Let's face it, that "naughty or nice" list doesn't write itself. Santa is the data harvester par excellence, and I for one am convinced that the toy and other product manufacturers out there punt a tidy packet of cash his way each year, because of the knowledge and insights he collects and sells to them.

After all, have you ever noticed how the "must have" toy of the year is always given by the parents, and not by Santa?

Summary

Every company faces the same simple set of questions:

• Have you got something of value?
• Who is it of value to?
• How can you let people know that you have what they want?
• What sales approach do you need to take in order to maximise profit from your transactions with those people?

Santa Claus has taken a surprising number of alternative and innovative approaches in his answers to each of those questions. Clearly, some of the leading corporations on the planet have taken more than a few pages from his playbook.

We can all learn a lot from him.

However, believe me: you really don't want to know what his speaker engagement fees and rates are. It's easier to pretend he doesn't really exist.

Merry Christmas, everyone.