Bob Williamson left his rundown home in Mississipi to wander across the country at age 17. In 1970, Bob arrived in Atlanta at age 24, homeless, destitute, and addicted to heroin. When he found a cleaning job paying 15 dollars a week, nobody could have imagined that one day he would own a software company worth 26 million US dollars.
Business success is often the perfect combination of hard work and luck, and Williamson had both. Shortly after arriving in Atlanta, he was injured in a car accident and spent months in hospital. There, Bob Williamson decided to get back on his feet and live a worthwhile life. It was not easy: He had a criminal record, no qualifications and very few suitable job opportunities.
Later, as Chairman and CEO of Horizon Software International, with 180 employees producing software for food service systems used in schools, hospitals, and other institutions, William recalled: “I was considering either suicide—as some friends of mine had done—or finding a way to turn my life around.”
Bob Williamson's Horizon international software company specializes in food-service management solutions for the food industry. It provides food-service solutions and back-office management systems, including inventory management, purchasing, menu planning, nutritional analysis, and warehouse distribution.
Promoted eight times in two years
Eventually, William found a job putting labels on paint cans in the basement of the Glidden paint company. The boy organized the labeling room and helped Glidden become the company's first computer system. His work philosophy was: ‘Be the first person in the basement and the last to leave.’ In two years, Glidden promoted Williamson eight times.
Williamson then worked for two other paint companies. Once he became a paint expert, he began working in his basement to develop a better formula for his hobby: airbrush art. “I borrowed USD 1,000 on my Visa card, bought various chemicals, and created many different paints. At the exhibition, artists flocked to his booth to buy the paint he had created, called Polytranspar.
He turned this initial success into several other businesses: a magazine for artists, how-to books, a manufacturer supplying artists with paint and a mail-order business, learning as he expanded. As the business grew, he needed organizational tools. This was in the early 1980s, and he realized he needed systems for warehousing, inventory control and supply chain management. Williamson said: “You could not buy the software then, so I hired two programmers and we wrote software for different companies.”
Recovering from bankruptcy
By 1986, while selling 6 thousand art-related items on the market, Williamson was preparing the company for its initial public offering. During the IPO audit, however, he discovered an accountant embezzling company funds. ‘We had to fight hard to get through this difficult period.’
But he was convinced he could recover. Williamson urged his creditors not to file in court, which would force him to sell the company at a fire-sale price. “Every week, I wrote to tell them what was happening, and step by step we rebuilt the company.”
Focus on Eateries Serving Schools
After recovering, he sold all his previous business interests and founded Horizon in 1992. The company was built around back-office software William had spent years developing for his own businesses. He said, “We wrote a system for the mail-order business, software for our manufacturing company, and a system for retail. We did not sell them to anyone. We wrote them solely for our own use.”
The company focused on school food-service systems when Williamson saw that no one was writing back-office software for this market. He quickly sold it to other organizations, including hospitals, clinics, universities, and military bases. Horizon recently won a contract for Los Angeles's public school system, the nation's second largest.
Williamson's son, Michael, said his father succeeded because he knew how to seize the opportunities luck revealed. ‘You would never have thought we would focus on software for food services when we started Horizon, but that was where the path led us, and we took the opportunity.’
Williamson is now president of the well-known Atlanta company Horizon. The company generated USD 26 million in revenue in 2007, and he expects that to rise to USD 32 million this year. But Williamson still says, “I am the first one there and the last to leave.” He attributes his business success to having “turned over a new leaf.” “I always try to be honest and straightforward, without lying to or deceiving anyone.”
Hard work certainly remains an indispensable part of Williamson's lifestyle. He recalls the years of working 20 hours a day and says he still sleeps only about 4–5 hours a night. But opportunity guided him toward this success: a car accident jolted him out of a negative life, a new paint formula became a resounding success, and the software industry's potential was beginning to blossom.
According to According to Business week
