Erik Wesner has authored a new book on Amish businesses, Success Made Simple: An Inside Look at Why Amish Businesses Thrive, recently featured on CNNMoney.com. I thought he might have a few insights to share on these unusual entrepreneurs. What follows is a short Q-and-A with Erik:
What types of businesses are Amish companies involved in? And what are the Amish doing that the rest of us could pick up on?
Amish businesses are clustered in craftsmanship-oriented, labor-intensive industries, such as furniture making, building, and manufacturing. This is due to a few reasons, including a restriction on education to eight grades as well as cultural norms.
For obvious reasons, the Amish are not a perfect match for the non-Amish world. But that said, there are certain mentalities common to Amish society which fit well to a business context—for instance, how Amish view the employee-employer relationship, how they think about things like debt and waste, how they enable mentorship. You consistently see strong examples of humble leadership in Amish society. You also see these businesses playing to strengths—which is one reason they’ve been able to establish a dominant presence in the furniture industry, for example.
We tend to think of the Amish as cloistered away from the world, and resistant to technology. How much do the Amish interact with the “real world”? And how do these businesses approach technology?
We do have this perception of the Amish as rejecting technology as somehow evil. In fact the Amish adopt it selectively—and subjugate it to their greater interests—core values if you will—of preserving family and community.
We in the wired world don’t want to take that idea too far, but I think there is a lesson here—in the question of whether the tech we adopt really furthers our personal and business goals, or (perhaps unknowingly) hinders us in those pursuits.
Does electronic communication, as necessary as it is, become the default mode, when a phone call or personal visit may do more to build a relationship? I’m reminded of the difference between being ‘efficient’ and ‘effective’. The mass e-mail is sometimes the best choice, but does having that option cause us to over-rely on electronic information exchange when our aims might be better served by a more personal form of communication?
Amish feel that too much reliance on technology can decontextualize and ultimately weaken relationships, and this is one reason they have not adopted everything that’s come down the pipeline. It may be more efficient, but in terms of your aims, and the principles you want to preserve, is your use of technology truly effective?
How does innovation fit in with Amish business?
Amish do innovate in the sense that they try to become better at what they do within the bounds they have drawn for themselves. One example would be the so-called ‘Amish electricity’ which is actually a term given to hydraulic and pneumatic power created by a diesel generator.
The point here for the Amish is to avoid being on the grid and avoid the temptation to own and use potentially threatening technologies that that might create. Again, Amish don’t see tech as evil, but are wary of the influences and ideas that technology such as television and internet could introduce. At the same time Amish know that they have to leverage certain means of production in order to compete in the marketplace. “Amish electricity” has been the result—as a way to power equipment but one that maintains a boundary with the world by keeping away from public electric.
The key point is that it’s not a knee-jerk shunning of all technology as it’s sometimes portrayed, but rather reflects a careful approach to the use of technology and a careful consideration of how that fits into the bigger picture which Amish seek to accomplish by living in a counter-cultural religious society.
You discuss in your book how the Amish name is used to great effect in marketing products. Talk about the Amish “brand” a bit.
You have a lot of positive associations made with the Amish “brand”. You have everything from ideas of “handmade”, “high quality”, “all-natural”, associations made with the “tried-and-true” and even the “old world” way of doing things. There are various degrees of accuracy here but generally these ideas are rooted in truth.
Interestingly though, Amish are taught by their culture not to call too much attention to themselves. So it introduces delicate issues.
Though this is a point of controversy in Amish society, using the Amish name and drawing too much direct attention to one’s “Amishness” is typically frowned upon. In fact many Amish see it as exploiting one’s religion, while those Amish who are more progressive on this issue tend to define their religion as ‘Christian’ and their ‘culture’ as Amish. Non-Amish vendors, on the other hand, generally have few qualms about using the Amish name.
So it’s an interesting dynamic where you see Amish drawing attention to their Amishness inadvertently, or through tangential clues, such as the “No Sunday Sales” signs outside their businesses and the odd calling hours which would indicate times a business owner would be available at the phone to receive calls.
I think the biggest lesson here comes when you look at what the customers are attracted to. When they buy Amish, they are purchasing not just a product they perceive as high-quality, but they are buying the feelings that come with that. In many cases they are also paying for a specific experience as well—which may be in how they purchase or receive the product, ie, by visiting in person an Amish shop tucked away down a country lane, or by having Amish craftsmen out to personally install the custom kitchen, or whatever it might be. There is something memorable about the interaction, and it can be a very experiential transaction—adding significant value in terms of the memories and stories garnered while undergoing the experience.
Regardless of your industry, I think that taking a hard look at one’s business and what one provides from this standpoint can be a good exercise. We ought to examine just what feelings or experiences a given customer is taking away from what we offer in our own businesses.
