His growing clout in the corporate world is also causing people to take notice. Earlier this year, he threatened to call for a public boycott of Pepsi when, under pressure from Fox's Bill O'Reilly, it fired Ludacris as its new spokesperson because of his use of obscenities and then went on to place the equally obscene--but white--Osbourne family in a Super Bowl commercial. Simmons quickly won Pepsi's agreement to donate $3 million to charity. "I definitely appreciated that he stood up for me," says Ludacris.
He seems to like flexing his economic muscles. As an executive from Abbott Laboratories waits to meet with him, Simmons gets visibly upset, explaining that the company paid him around $150,000 to do a public-service campaign encouraging the community to get HIV testing. He agreed, donating the money to the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, but says he thought the money was coming from a nonprofit, not an $18 billion company that makes the tests themselves. Suddenly, $150,000 looked like chump change, and Simmons was getting ready to tell the woman so. "Why are we just talking about testing?" he asks. "Why aren't we talking about prevention? I made a deal, but I want to talk about a better deal."
These days, Simmons does a lot of speaking. His listeners have included Motorola executives (he shared a panel with Jack Welch, who wrote him a rap song ["He was very nice, but it was ridiculous," says Simmons]), and he keynoted the awards ceremony for Crain's 100 Most Powerful Minority Business Leaders. "There was Stanley what's-his-face [O'Neal, the CEO of Merrill Lynch], Dick Parsons, others," he says. "I can't even count, I can barely read, and these guys are in the audience." They paid attention. So should the rest of us. The man has got something to say.
Is there anyone this guy doesn't know? We don't think so. Here are just a few of the boldface names in Simmons's circle of friends.
Russell Simmons didn't get an MBA from Harvard but learned all he needed to know about running a business on the streets of Queens. Here are a few of those lessons.
Design your brand for a core market, and don't worry about appealing to the masses. They'll come to you if your product has integrity. "You go to the people who are the smartest and most sophisticated and deliver on day one. Do a good job of it, and it'll grow on its own," says Simmons.
A new business idea can take years to come to fruition. You can lose a lot of money in the meantime. But most entrepreneurs give up way too early. Simmons often takes years to develop a new idea, learning from mistakes along the way. "If something doesn't work, then you know what not to do," he says.
Simmons lives exceedingly large-- his home in Saddle River, New Jersey, measures 35,000 square feet and features such amenities as Gianni Versace's bed and 10 fireplaces. But he also gives large, with charitable foundations, regular benefit bashes, and business ideas that he says are aimed at helping poor people. Not that he's not interested in making money: "It's hard to help the poor if you're one of them," he says.
Simmons's companies are filled with longtime loyalists who get to act as entrepreneurs, developing projects they feel passionately about. Typically, Simmons and one of the other executives will discuss a new product or line, then the executive will go off on his own to develop a working business plan and come back to Simmons for the ultimate sign-off. "I try to incentivize people fairly," says Simmons, "with opportunity and money."
Jennifer Reingold (jreingold@fastcompany.com) is a Fast Company senior writer.
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Recent Comments | 2 Total
April 17, 2008 at 11:23am by THELMA SHEARIN
Complaint: Sent: Friday, February 29, 2008 11:59 AM
To: agent@rushcard.com; complaints@complaints.com; Shearin, Thelma (DMHMRSAS)
Subject: DO NOT DELETE - SERIOUS PROBLEM
To Whom It Concern:
I am contacting all media and newspapers I can until Russell Simmons hears about this.
This is just one email that I sent to rushcard agents. I only got an auto response saying they receive my complaint, nothing else.
I would like to say that the TV stations are advertising Rushcard.com so people can obtain a debit card, well this is a rip off. When you join rushcard.com, you have to pay 1.95 + whatever the atm charges which is usually 2.50 to 3.00, which I usually pay 4.95 to get my own money, and you have to pay 1.00 on swiping transactions.
I have a Rush card and I tried to withdraw my money on payday on February 1, 2008 for 780.00 from Bank of America's Atm Machine. The machine did not dispense my money. I tried to do the transaction again, now it was insufficient funds. I didn't receive the money at all. I went inside to talk to the people at Bank of America and they said they couldn't help me, that I would have to talk to my Bank (rushcard). I called Rushcard and talked to some foreign person (which is always the case, and you can't never understand what they are saying) in which they told me that I would have to fill out some Error allegation papers which they faxed to me and I faxed back 5 times.
I have been calling Rushcard since my money was taken, and all I can get is a foreign person telling me the papers have been forwarded to their corporate offices which no one seems to have the number to. I have sent all necessary paper work, and they tell me its going to take 90 days. I feel like it didn't take 90 days or seconds for them to take my money and put it in the hold status so why can't they just give me my money back. A guy named Victor has called me twice asking me for a receipt from that day. I faxed the receipt along with the other papers, but the only receipt that Bank of America's ATM gave me only showed by balance, nothing more and nothing less. That is all I have. That receipt has the number on transaction number on it and I have called the ATM network services and they said they don’t see why my bank is taking so long to give me my money because their records indicate that I didn’t get my money that day, but they can’t issue my money, my bank has to do it.
780.00 might be chump change to Russell Simmons and his associates but it's a hell of a lot to a working person such as myself. I want my money back and if I don't receive my money, legal and media actions will be taken as well as the internet. People need to know about this RUSHCARD that is advertised on TV. with the high fees, and no dispense of money. Because of this, I have surely cancelled my direct deposit. This happen 3 times to me, but it won’t happen again because I have cancelled my direct deposit with this company. I’d rather wait on my check being mailed then to mess with this company ever again.
There are a lots of complaints found on the internet and it's a lot more people complaining. All I get is a foreign person telling me it takes up to ninety days. Well May 1 will be ninety days, I don't know what the hold up is but if my money is not there on May 1, I will be pursuing this at a higher level. All I want is my money back that I worked damn hard for. I didn't work to give my money away especially to rich people.
For other complaints refer to: http://russellsimmons.humanarchives.org/guestbook, http://www.creditcardbling.com/comments/gbook.php. These are only a few. You can find more by doing a internet search and typing in Complaints about Russell Simmons rush card.
Thelma Shearin