Do you have to start slow to get things right?
My girlfriend just passed along an interesting link: the anti-fast culture in food…
Sure, I hate processed food just like the next guy, but it led to an even more interesting place: the Slow Company idea.
Most businesses see speed of growth as a measure of success, and aggressive growth is typically encouraged. In contrast, slow company is an approach that pursues tradition and the creative aspects of organizing business. While such businesses can respond quickly to customer’s needs, they have measured, organic growth. They tend to contain value growth with long-term relationships and priorities but react slowly to growth pressures.
The idea strikes a pleasant chord with me, and takes me back to my frustrating days of undergrad finance classes. I’ve always had uneasy notions about the heavy emphasis on growth in our economy…
It’s pretty cool that people are thinking about it from a economics perspective instead of an elitist or snotty anti-corporate perspective. And there’s even a book — from the abstract it looks like an interesting take on the matter.
The bottom line is that speed and potential growth are far too overvalued — revenue growth is built into many of our financial models like some sort of axiom, when really, all that should matter to an investor is their return, short term or long term, be it dollars or otherwise…
Otherwise can be valuable too.