Start Now! SBCC Startup Method.

My friend Amar Bhide's new book A Call for Judgement continues to gain attention. The main argument of the book is that financial institutions don't do well when management is centralized and lending is based on financial formulas rather than the judgement of the loan officer.

With technology changing so quickly it is more important than ever that the "man on the spot" make the go/no go decision and then all the little adjustments that must be made on a daily basis. Once the reach a certain size, EF Schumacher thought the magic number was only 300 employees, business enterprizes loose their ability to adapt quickly to changing conditions and take advantage of local circumstances.

Maybe this number has grown beyond 300 employees with better information systems and better management practices. But at some point, large businesses are at a disadvantage and start making dumb mistakes.

It looks to me like Starbucks is making a mistake putting beer and wine into their coffee shops, what do you think?

We'll be brainstorming again in anticipation of our first monthly "Big Event" at this Friday's (Oct 22) Denver IDEA Cafe. Hope you'll join us, or email me your thoughts at JohnSWren@aol.com. Our brainstorming question will be, "what incentives can we give other chambers of commerce to cooperate with what we are doing and to staff a free table at our first event?"