Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Should You Hold "Office Hours"? - Bill Taylor - HarvardBusiness.org

A case in point was a general partner at Flybridge Capital by the name of Chip Hazard. (Great name for a venture capitalist, by the way. If he was a commercial banker, he'd have to change his name to Moral Hazard, but that's a thought for another day.) Chip recently announced that on December 9, he'll be holding his first-ever office hours. "Thinking about starting a new technology focused company?" the invitation asked. "Already working on a tech company and interested in getting feedback from a VC? Facing a business challenge and looking for advice? Ready to get financing and want to review your pitch?" Sign up in advance and you get 20 minutes one-on-one with Chip.

This is either a pretty good idea or an incredibly dumb one. By scheduling people in do you get more attendance/input or less? I'm betting less. But it would be more organized.

Ever read the book 'Free'?. There's a logical discussion about how charging anything - even a penny - takes down the interest level. If the goal is to get more input or questions from customers or students or employees - why not just say 'my door is always open?' Is there something unique about calling it 'office hours'?

Posted via web from Jim's posterous

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