Lars Wulff, Co-CEO Mud Bay Presentation

Lars Wulff delivered a number of great messages at the Portland ACG Meeting in February.    He covered how the "Muddies" at Mud Bay have successfully grown from 1 store near Olympia, WA to 45 stores - and over 400 employees -  from Bend, OR to Bellingham, WA.  

A voracious reader and student, Lars shared a list of business books he embraced along the journey. 

He learned how to overcome the titans of the pet industry from Malcolm Gladwell’s, David and Goliath.  He used some well researched but little read papers on canine and feline nutritional requirements to differentiate Mud Bay’s offering from their competitors.   Mud Bay targeted markets that weren’t shark infested with concepts from Kim and Mauborgne, Blue Ocean Strategies. 

Lars and his team work continuously on the culture at Mud Bay, implementing ideas from Culture Trumps Everything by Gustavo Grodnitzky. 

Here is a list of books Lars found most helpful along his journey at Mud Bay.

• David and Goliath, by Malcolm Gladwell
• The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, by Al Ries & Jack Trout
• The Great Game of Business, by Jack Stack with Bo Burlingham
• Blue Ocean Strategy, by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne
• The Lean Startup, by Eric Ries
• The Advantage, by Patrick Lencioni
• Culture Trumps Everything, by Gustavo R. Grodnitzky