Ichironomics
Ever since reading Tom Peters's Liberation Management and Hermann Simon's Hidden Champions, years ago, I have been enamoured of what is called "mittelstand businesses" - small- to mid-sized companies that have a leadership position in a global niche market.
This week, I read a blog entry by Tom Peters arguing for a city economic policy that emphasizes mittelstand business - an approach dubbed "ichironomics" by Rich Karlgaard of Forbes magazine.
Now I'm wondering: What is the multi-generational economic development vision of our city of Hamilton? And, what (if any) mittelstand companies already make their home in this city?
This week, I read a blog entry by Tom Peters arguing for a city economic policy that emphasizes mittelstand business - an approach dubbed "ichironomics" by Rich Karlgaard of Forbes magazine.
Now I'm wondering: What is the multi-generational economic development vision of our city of Hamilton? And, what (if any) mittelstand companies already make their home in this city?
posted by Gideon Strauss on Locke Street at 9:01 AM
2 Comments:
G:
You continue to amaze me with your well-read mind and visionary disposition, and appreciated your call to your city to reflect on middle-to-small sized businesses. As I looked at the Peter's blog, though, it struck me that 50+M in my book ain't a small business. How can a city recruit these big time guys, even if you call em middlers?
The Perdue chicken guy called somebody at his headquarters and launced some training program at 4 am---I'm imagining his secretaries and middle managers scurrying about at his whim--and Peter's thinks thats good? My goodness, if I called my business at 4 am, nobody would be there. Or, well, truth be told, I'd be still up, working late.
These big name companies may be fine, but I'm depressed thinking that this is a model for development, holding up multi-million-producing internationally known folks as some standard. Leaves a whole lot of us out, it seems, and sets the bar too darn high.
Anyway, thanks again for your good writing and vast awareness of whose writing what out there...
While I realize that this post is nearly a year old, good ideas are timeless. I'm fascinated by this idea, here termed "ichironomics," particularly as it relates to the smaller-scale companies. I'm certain that by now my friends are sick of hearing me press the matter.
The question of how such businesses interplay with the well-being of the city they're in continues to dominate my thinking. I discussed the issue with the former mayor of Rochester, where I live, and he believes in the larger companies. Yet the research that I have done seems to indicate that mid to large companies are leery of investing in declining industrial cities, such as those scattered about the Great Lakes region. It's just not "good business."
I have to wonder, though, if good business has more to do with ethics than economics. Sustainable, family-oriented businesses may not appear on the Fortune Five Hundred list, but they certainly will cloth, feed, and shelter the poor and hungry. And who's to say that stubborn innovation in the face of prevailing economic winds will not lead to the promised land after all?
I could go on for pages and pages, but I think I'll retire for the night and muse on this a bit more. If I come to any firmer conclusions, I will be sure to post them on my blog, though I can only hope to write something as succinct and important.
- Andrew
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