By Kim Morisaki
“I know business owners that will look at successful techniques used by other businesses, but are unwilling to adopt the same practices because they want to figure it out themselves.”
-Manufacturing Roundtable Member
When I heard this comment, I thought to myself “Well, that’s just crazy. Why would anyone want to re-invent the wheel when good ideas are out there for adoption and adaption?” But then the words of an Asian friend of mine came back to me. He was truly puzzled by the American love of “doing it yourself”. Our pride in “pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps” and being “self-made men” was beyond his concept of common sense. Why would you want to “do it yourself”, that’s why you had friends, family and colleagues. After eleven years in Japan, I have to agree with him that independence for its own sake is over-rated.
In part, economic development at its best struggles to overcome that “do it by yourself” mindset. Whether it is setting up Roundtables for members to exchange ideas, assisting businesses to identify and implement best practices, or putting new business owners in contact with the local and state resources that they need to build a foundation; everything we do revolves around networking and sharing good ideas and information. We do it for the sake of creating more jobs and a more diverse economy to benefit everyone.
It is good for those of us encouraging this exchange of ideas amongst business people to remember that we too could benefit from adopting and adapting the best practices of our peers and working together for regional promotion. After all there is nothing new under the sun, except for maybe Twitter, and we all have so much to learn and teach which is why I’m looking forward to being an active member of the Montana in Business Blog.
“I know business owners that will look at successful techniques used by other businesses, but are unwilling to adopt the same practices because they want to figure it out themselves.”
-Manufacturing Roundtable Member
When I heard this comment, I thought to myself “Well, that’s just crazy. Why would anyone want to re-invent the wheel when good ideas are out there for adoption and adaption?” But then the words of an Asian friend of mine came back to me. He was truly puzzled by the American love of “doing it yourself”. Our pride in “pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps” and being “self-made men” was beyond his concept of common sense. Why would you want to “do it yourself”, that’s why you had friends, family and colleagues. After eleven years in Japan, I have to agree with him that independence for its own sake is over-rated.
In part, economic development at its best struggles to overcome that “do it by yourself” mindset. Whether it is setting up Roundtables for members to exchange ideas, assisting businesses to identify and implement best practices, or putting new business owners in contact with the local and state resources that they need to build a foundation; everything we do revolves around networking and sharing good ideas and information. We do it for the sake of creating more jobs and a more diverse economy to benefit everyone.
It is good for those of us encouraging this exchange of ideas amongst business people to remember that we too could benefit from adopting and adapting the best practices of our peers and working together for regional promotion. After all there is nothing new under the sun, except for maybe Twitter, and we all have so much to learn and teach which is why I’m looking forward to being an active member of the Montana in Business Blog.
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