Sunday, June 14, 2009

Cogent as a business

Updated June 18



Along the Cogent Consulting journey we've documented a few different sets of values, principles and goals. Our manifesto was created quite early. Recently we've supplemented this with a simple list of values




  • Openness

  • Integrity

  • Respect

  • Craftsmanship

  • Collaboration



and goals


  • Develop non-consulting sources of income

  • Build some kick-ass software

  • Work with good people

  • Have flexibility in lifestyle and the amount of time I want to work



We should probably rationalise all this (and I just added that task to Runway), but first I want to add some more philosophical statements that occurred to me after I read Small Giants by Bo Burlingham.


  • We need to make a profit, otherwise we can't achieve our other goals. That's a constraint

  • Doing the right thing for the customer is more important than maximising profit

  • Our families are more important than our customers

  • For everything we do we should ask not 'is it profitable', but 'is it the right thing to do?'.

  • Right now, product development depends on consulting, and consulting depends on business development. We need to bear that in mind when we're setting priorities.

When I started to write I thought there would be more points, but combined with our existing manifesto that seems to say most of what I need to say.

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