Getting to Scale: BALLE Seattle February Book Club

BALLE Seattle is starting a Book Club in February to accompany our on-going author series.

The first book to discuss is Jill Bamburg's Getting to Scale published by Berrett-Koehler, 2006. We will meet on February 20th at 7:30pm at a place yet to be determined. Jill herself will be speaking in late February at a time and place yet to be determined.

If you are interested, please contact BALLE Seattle. We are reading this book in preparation for Jill's talk at a location and time to be determined.

Future books will include The Great Turning by David Korten and The Small-Mart Revolution by Michael Shuman.

The following is an exerpt from a YES! Magazine review by Fran Korten, the Executive Director and Publisher of YES! Magazine.

Jill Bamburg watched with dismay the sale of three companies: Ben and Jerry's to Unilever, Odwalla to Coca-Cola, and Stonyfields Farm Yogurt to Dannon. These companies were idols of the socially responsible business world and their sale to soulless mega-corporations raised a disturbing question. Is it possible for a mission-driven business to get big without selling out? Bamburg set out to find the answer.

The result of her quest is an eminently readable book that sets out nine compelling lessons for how to grow a mission-driven business without losing its founding values. The book is full of the fresh, grounded voices of 30 entrepreneurs who love their businesses, stick to their values-and have gotten big. Not huge (Bamburg studies no billion-dollar companies), but big enough to have a market impact. You probably buy products from them-companies like Organic Valley, Equal Exchange, Eileen Fisher, Birkenstock, Working Assets, and New Leaf Paper (the paper YES! is printed on).