It all started in a small Southern Wisconsin town called Beloit. One of five children, William grew up tinkering with many different things. He quickly realized that he had a knack for music, so he did everything within his abilities to master that field. He played the trumpet and taught himself to play a variety of other instruments.
William was also quick to realize that nothing in life is free – that if you wanted something, you really had to work for it. The proverbial "Free Lunch" was nowhere to be found, especially when growing up in a small, economically depressed town. The problem with growing up in such an area was that people were especially cynical and hesitant to take risks or to venture off "the path most traveled." He had to fight for every new idea he had, and to work harder than everyone else to prove the cynics and critics wrong.
At age 10, William built his first house. Granted, it was a clubhouse. But this wasn't your ordinary pallet-and-scrap-wood structure. It was a two-story, A-frame structure complete with concrete floors, concrete blocked garage, and a brick façade. Had time and budget allowed, he would have added skylights, but with his go-cart parked below in the garage, he decided there were more important things to do – like driving it wildly around their five-acre spread.
After being educated as an engineer, and because he was interested in traveling, he accepted jobs requiring extensive travel, including some which required living and working abroad. He lived in the South American country of Venezuela where he worked under contract for the Venezuelan Air Force. Later, he worked under a NATO contract that landed him in the beautiful country of Norway for a year. Not wanting to leave Norway, William secured a job with a Norwegian company that performed seismic exploration for major oil companies. It took him about a year to figure out that working on a ship was not his idea of an ideal lifestyle. However, during these stints, he learned to speak enough Spanish and Norwegian to provide himself with an expanded perspective on the vastly different cultures outside the United States.
For over 25 years, William has worked with some of the largest and most dominating companies in their respective industries, as well as a number of startups. Along the way, he has had the great pleasure to work with an array of bright people who have contributed greatly to his vast reservoir of empirical knowledge. This knowledge, combined with his diverse interests in history, music, and philosophy, has been the genesis for the creation of TheArt of the Hidden Strategy. While the concepts of this book may seem, at first glance, obvious, the description and analysis of these concepts are entirely original.
During his career, he has been responsible for creating and developing numerous businesses. He has compiled sales of more than $500 million in products, consulting, and services to a variety of companies. Many companies, with whom he has worked, including Hewlett-Packard, Wal-Mart and NCR, continue to benefit from his groundbreaking efforts. In 1989, for example, HP, an engineering manufacturing company had little retail related revenues and zero business with Wal-Mart. By 2003 they were voted supplier of the year by Wal-Mart, with revenues of over $1.5 billion. Today Hewlett-Packard’s retail vertical market is over $12 billion.
In addition, William has been the creator and founder of a host of companies, including:
- WJB Enterprises – Real Estate Developer and Property Management,
- Paradigm Corporation – Commercial Construction Company (C-Corporation)
- ThreeStrategies, Inc. – Technology Consulting
- LeConcierge – Coffee, Ship and Print (C-Corporation),
- Transparent Visibility, LLC., – Technology company
- ICN Answer, LLC – Software and Book Publishing Company
William is the author of several books, patents and numerous trademarks. William is a member of the Bentonville Rotary, the Bentonville Chamber of Commerce Champions Group, and the Regional Logistics Council of Memphis. During his work with Wal-Mart, he earned the distinguished award of "The Most Indispensable Vendor" from then CIO Bobby Martin. Transparent Visibility is a sponsor of the University of Arkansas Research Center. William was asked to speak at the inaugural opening of a Research Center in Shanghai China and subsequently at the MIT Forum in Cambridge, Massachusetts.