• LAMB: : You got involved with a company called Staples. And I understand that when you got involved there was one Staples store and now there are 1,700-plus. How did you -- what impact did you have on the creation of Staples?

• ROMNEY: Well, actually it was even before the first store got opened. I got a business plan -- because we had started a venture capital enterprise, I got a business plan that came across our desk, actually referred to us by another venture capitalist saying, hey, you might find this interesting.

And I read the plan and I thought it was pretty interesting. And we approached the investment the way you would expect a rigorous, analytical person to do. We went out and started interviewing people and businesses around where the first store was proposed and said, would you go to a store where you could buy office supplies for a lower price?

And we said, how much do you spend on office supplies? And it turned out that they spent a lot less, they told us, than the business plan suggested people spend on office supplies.

So we came back to founder of Staples, Tom Stemberg, and said, you know, we don’t think your idea is going to work, people aren’t buying as much in business supplies as you think.

They are not going to leave their office to go to a store to shop for business supplies at a discount. He said, people don’t know how much they are spending on office supplies, go back and get their invoices and you will find out they are spending more than they know.

Well, we did that. He was right. And I became convinced it was a great idea. We put money in the company. And I happened to be there the night we were stocking the shelves, getting ready for the grand opening, wee hours of the morning, serving pizza.

I spoke to the young associates that were getting started, and, of course, Staples became a great American business story and retail story, and that fellow, Tom Stemberg, who founded it, is one of America’s great entrepreneurs.

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