tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3246661322271237954.post8427812360314792337..comments2008-12-03T07:22:09.415+05:30Comments on Design of Business: Retention, culture and building products in non-urban India...Srihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02727648194763939766noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3246661322271237954.post-19544177656034665802008-03-18T07:43:00.000+05:302008-03-18T07:43:00.000+05:30Mark wrote Sri,I had an early experience with this...<A HREF="http://www.blogger.com/profile/00366902169123169877" REL="nofollow">Mark</A> wrote <BR/><BR/>Sri,<BR/><BR/>I had an early experience with this when I joined the editorial staff of Byte Magazine in its heyday in early 1981. Byte was located in a small town (pop. 5000) in rural southern New Hampshire, about 75 miles northwest of Boston. A spinoff of an even earlier journal of the then budding microcomputer industry, Byte was comprised of mostly local people who had never worked in the publishing industry before. I was probably the first staff member with real publishing experience, having transferred there from another part of McGraw-Hill in New York City, which had recently purchased the magazine. The differences between Byte and my New York office couldn't have been greater, both on a publishing experience level and cultural one, too.<BR/><BR/>For example, in New York, firing someone was a relatively straightforward process with few, if any, ramifications if handled properly. But in New Hampshire, it was much harder to fire someone you see on the streets of the<BR/>small town every day, whose sister works in another department of the same company and whose father owns the local diner where you have breakfast each morning. And when a manager took his new female employee out for lunch, the manager's wife got a warning phone call from a neighbor who saw her husband dining with "an unknown blond woman." And when a young man on your staff got killed in an automobile accident, I was left to deal with his grieving parents who come by to pick up his personal office items.<BR/><BR/>Small town life is often glorified, but it's really a set of trade offs. Anonymity versus lack of privacy. Casual connections versus true friendships. Danger from street crime versus danger from freezing to death if your car breaks down. Endless choices versus every shop owner knowing your name.<BR/><BR/>Small towns are not for everyone. And not all small towns are the same. In the case of Byte, the town was actually quite cosmopolitan due to it also being home to one of the country's better known artist retreats and having established a rather sizable creative community. The town was much more than just a bunch of pig farmers and trench diggers.<BR/><BR/>Small towns have great potential for building a business, but the culture of the town has to fit well with the culture of the company, and vice versa. And the town must offer a welcomed change if you want to be able to be able to attract employees from outside the local community.<BR/><BR/>- Markfog2https://www.blogger.com/profile/08502774736642540920noreply@blogger.com