After scanning a particularly depressing edition of the WSJ this morning (I counted 17 articles that were directly related to big / more in the context of business / government, and their failings as a result of being big / more - culminating in Freddie Mac CFO David Kellerman's apparent suicide), my heart warmed up to a story about Randall Grahm and the Bonny Doon Vineyard in the NYT.
Seems that Mr. Grahm had a wakeup call a little while ago and intentionally downsized his entrepreneurial enterprise from a 450,000-case-per-year operation to a 35,000-case-per-year operation.
"As Mr. Grahm saw it, these may have been profitable wines, but not original wines."
Mr. Grahm's epiphany was not inspired, apparently, by any intrinsic "aha" moment, but by the standard series of events that force us all to take stock now and again, e.g., the birth of a daughter and a health crisis.
I was struck by Mr. Grahm noting that he had become a savvy marketer, master negotiator, and growth-oriented CEO, but ... at the expense of mojo. This disenchantment led to him redefining his business model and reason for being in business in the first place.
In other words, he simplified...
...in order to "create something new and strange and different, which may be the best you can hope for in the New World."
Kudos.
Ryan,
Thanks for reminding me why I've chosen to keep the size of my business small for the last 15 years. When I opened my recruiting business in 1995 I could have had lots of employees, made millions and had a "Big" life. Instead, this whole time I've chosen to remain the only employee at my company, make a comfortable living, live modestly and play outside whenever I want. I've never had it so good! And when trying financial times come around like what we are in right now, it doesn't really bother me much because I don't have a "Big" life that needs funding.
Less is truly more.
Mike Maurer
Posted by: Mike Maurer | April 27, 2009 at 05:54 PM