84-Year-Old Billionaire: How I Turned a Small Blueberry Business into a Global Empire | John Bragg

John Bragg, founder of Oxford Frozen Foods and Eastlink (the largest privately held telecommunications company in North America), shares his journey from growing up in a small village to becoming one of North America’s largest wild blueberry producers and leading a major telecommunications company. He discusses his early entrepreneurial ventures, why he got into the blueberry business in the first place, and how he pivoted when things didn’t go quite as planned.

Bragg emphasizes key business principles like long-term thinking, efficiency, and maintaining a low-cost mindset. He also reflects on the importance of cultivating strong teams and staying humble despite his success.

John Bragg is the Chairman, President, and co-CEO of Oxford Frozen Foods, a food manufacturing company he founded in 1968. The company operates the largest fruit farm in the world, with over 12,000 acres of wild blueberries. In the 1970s, he started a cable TV company that became North America’s largest privately held telecommunications company. He did all of this from a town of around one thousand people.

00:00:00 - Introduction to John Bragg: The Blueberry Billionaire
00:01:07 - Humble Beginnings and Early Business Ventures
00:02:52 - Financing University Through Blueberries and Building an Apartment Building in College
00:05:11 - The Beginnings of Oxford Foods
00:08:05 - Mastering His Industry
00:13:37 - Using Debt
00:15:14 - Dealing with Challenges & Beating Competition
00:22:17 - A Long Term Vision
00:30:05 - Maintaining a Low Cost
00:31:30 - Creating Value and Charging More
00:39:45 - Coming Back from Losing Money
00:44:10 - Lessons from Buffett
00:54:39 - Maintaining a Low Profile
00:56:30 - Building a Culture of Improvement and Efficiency
01:05:43 - Key Indicators of a Business's Health
01:12:00 - The Key to Business Success and Longevity
01:18:00 - The Problem with Businesses and The Philosophy of Balance
01:21:56 - Defining Success



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