Does 'Utah' get some credit for Overstock.com's success?

Understanding what it takes to conceive, grow and sustain a successful Utah technology company is critical to the long-term health and viability of the state's economic future.

I gained greater insights into this process last week as a participant in the 20th annual Investors Choice Conference held at the Marriott City Center Hotel.

Produced by the non-profit Wayne Brown Institute, the investor conference provided a venue for 27 enterprises to tout investment prospects in their respective companies and technologies in front of scores of investors and venture capitalists. My company, Politis Communications, was recently engaged to provide public relations services to the Wayne Brown Institute.

During the lunch portion of the day-long event, the WBI joined with the MountainWest Venture Group to recognize Patrick Byrne, president and chief executive officer of Overstock.com (Nasdaq: OSTK), as the MWVG's Entrepreneur of the Year.

As in other public events where he has spoken before, Byrne was affable and quite open in his remarks as he helped paint a picture of Overstock today versus where it was when he and others gained control of the company four years ago.

Although much of Overstock's wares come from companies that merely built too much of one item and want to sell the excess quickly, he also described how the premise behind Overstock puts him in a position to look closely at a lot of companies that have gone out of business.

This opportunity to examine corporate carcasses has led Byrne to draw a correlation between the Chinese art of feng shui and failed companies.

Just as the practitioner of feng shui seeks to strategically position objects, furniture, plants and the like to achieve positive balance in a room, building or a campus setting, so too Byrne believes that corporations should seek to achieve balance. Correspondingly, he believes those that do not do this are destined for failure.

Trying to do too much or to expand beyond an organization's core focus or competencies are other examples, he believes, of how a company can get out of balance and achieve a bad corporate feng shui.

Byrne's most interesting , and I believe profound, statement came as he was wrapping up his prepared comments when he said, "The quality and the character of the Utah people are what set it (the state) apart."

He also suggested that it was, in fact, because Overstock.com is based in Utah that it has been able to achieve the success it has garnered in such a short period of time.