Overall Business Philosophy

The modern world has changed and continues to change, but more than just technology is changing. The human aspect has changed too. With large cities and high density populations, the village atmosphere is pretty much gone.

In a small village environment, people know each other, they knew who they traded with and they would regularly trade with the same people. This had the problem that free choice was somewhat limited -- the village was small so if you wanted a specialised skill there was only a few choices. On the other hand, it made it more difficult to rip people off because a shonky trader had nowhere to hide. Word gets around quickly in a small community and pretty soon everyone knows who they can trust (and who they can't trust).

In a small circle of people there is a strong sense of community and strong code of acceptable business ethics.

In a big city environment, traders find it a lot easier to hide behind the anonymity that comes from a sea of blank faces. If a business rips off their customer then that customer won't come back but someone else will come along before long and the business can find a new customer. The old saying there's a sucker born every minute has become the mantra of advertising agencies across the globe.

Large Corporations Can Never Be Deeply Trusted

It sounds prejudiced and perhaps a bit off-beat but there are logical reasons why you cannot have a long term business relationship with a corporation in any real sense.

• Corporations can arbitrarily change their allegiance at any time. A corporation is defined by its shareholders and board of directors. The shares can be sold and the directors replaced. The purpose of the corporation is making money, and nothing else. Thus if the directors decide that more money can be made by ignoring certain customers and chasing different lines of business then that is what they will do. In this sense there is no long term continuity of personality within a corporation. If you happen to be one of the customers that isn't considered high value then that's just too bad.
• Corporations provide a veil of anonymity that protects the incompetent and selfish whilst ignoring the responsible hard-workers. How often have you rung a customer support line to be told one story, then rung back on the same number to be told a different story? Every time you ring, you get onto a rotary exchange and come through to a different person. Each one wants to get through with you in the shortest possible time because their manager is keeping statistics on how many calls they can handle in a day. The only way for the customer to get results in this situation is to carefully take the name of the person they are dealing with and when dealing with any corporation you should always make a principle of taking the name of every person you make contact with. Why? Because you don't want to relate to the corporate, you want to relate to the individual people... that's the only way to get any service.
• Corporations change employees whenever it is convenient. Once again, a corporation has one purpose -- to make money -- and if that means sacking a bunch of people and hiring replacements who are younger (and cheaper) or if that means outsourcing their help line to India or whatever else it takes then that is what they will do. The result is that whoever you talk with this week, probably won't be who you talk with next week or next month or next year.
• Because corporations show no loyalty to their workforce, the employees have no loyalty to the corporation either. Sure, each employee can sound like their greatest desire is to devote their life to whoever they happen to work for this week, but you can be just as sure that none of them believe it. That's why none of them will give you a straight answer that comes from the heart -- their heart just isn't in it.
• There is an intuitive understanding that corporate relationships don't work so short-term thinking has started to dominate the marketplace. People may not understand how things have changed and they may not recognise what has gone wrong but (acting on instinct) they optimise their behaviour to the circumstance. The result is that they look for quick gratification when they don't feel confident about long term results.

Linux Bespoke Has Different Ideas

Wouldn't it be nice to recapture elements of that person-to-person village market atmosphere whilst maintaining the wide selection of options that the modern world offers us? It can be done, and technology comes to our aid. The world is big, but any particular part of the market is a narrow selection of that world and with powerful search engines and computer networks it is possible to get in touch with people in a way never previously possible.

Just walking around and bumping into people at random you are highly unlikely to meet the sort of people who you really need for a job. Using an active search strategy lets you rapidly single out exactly who best suits your requirements.

Humans can only maintain a working knowledge and recognition of a relatively small group of people (50 to 100 depending on the person). With the help of computer databases and powerful indexing, it is possible to keep track of a much larger number. Although detailed working knowledge of each relationship cannot be kept in mind, relationship history and networked relationships can be tracked and reviewed when necessary. This is the principle of Customer Relationship Management software and large companies are installing it because they need to track their large customer base. However, CRM doesn't have to be expensive and small businesses can gain a lot from it too. What's more, CRM doesn't just have to be customers... it applies to suppliers and subcontractors too, a better name is Contact Relationship Management which is nothing more than your old diary and address book but computerised and put on steroids.

Linux Bespoke believes that it is best to do business in the small wherever possible, but simultaneously maintain organisational links in the large to reach the widest possible community. It is important to be selective about who you commit to and who you deeply trust, but important not to be overly selective about who you communicate with.

People are Not Interchangable Machine Parts

People are incredibly complex -- the sum of their genetic predisposition and their extensive life experiences. Trying to use these people like an injection moulded gearwheel is an exercise in insanity. Sadly, it is a form of insanity that has become popular in recent years. Finding people who you can relate to is quite difficult, finding people who can add value to your business is also difficult. Relationships should be entered into gently and once established should be maintained firmly for the longest time.

It is Better to Sell Less Now and More Later

We see a lot of people looking to make a quick buck. Promotions depend on who can make the deal today, who can turn over gross profit in the shortest time. No one looks at relationship building because corporate relationships cannot be trusted anyway (see above).

The exact opposite approach is preferable when looking at the bigger picture. What we want is a long term relationship that might not make much return today, or even tomorrow but in time will become more beneficial to both parties than a fast sell. Of course, you probably hear this sort of thing all the time, it's become a buzzword to hear win-win situation or customer relationship management but the problem is that big corporations don't have the wherewithal to actually deliver on this score. Although the brand name will be there for a long term, the attitude and business direction can change at a moment's notice.

Look at Hewlett Packard... once an engineering firm focused on selling high tech, high quality devices, now a mass market firm selling disposable gear because that's what makes money in todays market. While neither approach is really wrong, no one could honestly say that the HP of today is anything like the HP of ten years ago.

While on that subject, consider Digital Equipment Corporation, once a powerful engineering company on the forefront of both software and hardware technology, now swallowed up and digested by share market mergers and takeovers.

Cooperation and Honesty Works Better than Secrecy

Some businesses jealously guard their trade secrets and many of them believe that they are doing something no one else has even attempted before. There are some special cases where secrecy really is required -- for example, protecting privacy, online transactions, credit card numbers and similar. However, some measure of balance is required: too much secrecy results in loss of trust and reduces communication and reduces cooperation.

Once a business makes commercial confidence their prime mantra, the next step is to start hiding problems. After that maybe a little bit of mildly dishonest sales promotion to keep the customers confident and the end result is keeping up appearances on the outside whilst the core of the business rots away from within.

Far better to face both the good and the bad honestly and straightforwardly. Know your own limitations and respect the limitations of others. Don't be modest about genuine achievement but also be willing to admit when you are out of your depth.

This site keeps list of links to other businesses and organisations who are related and in the same geographic area. On the one hand, this is free advertising for the competition, but on the other hand it makes this site a valuable resource for everyone. Ultimately there are always going to be times when a job is too big or too difficult for a small team to take on, then it is necessary to cut the job up and have access to people you can work with.

Other People's Ideas

Here are some of the ideas that have influenced my decision making. Most of these articles explain their position more eloquently than I am able.

• Dr. Edgar David Villanueva Nuñez talks about Microsoft and Peru
• Richard Stallman's now famous essay on Software, Ownership and Cooperation
• Raph Levien talks about Protocols
• Roderick T. Long argues that Libertarians should dislike Intellectual Property laws
• Explanation of the Creative Commons
• The Free State Project

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