Slowrise Bread
Questions for Baking Slowrise Bread
Questions contributed by John Gates on January 12, 2009
QFL: What are the questions that led you to creating the bakery?
John: All my life, I have had aspirations to do something altruistic. My forays into politics and environmental protection/advocacy left me somewhat cynical about my ability to make my ideals match my actions if I had a career in one of those fields. I still however wanted to do something meaningful with my professional life.
- How am I going to feel about the person looking back at me when I look into the mirror?
- Am I going to feel good about what I am doing with my life?
- Do I feel like I am going to make a positive contribution to the communities in which I live?
- Will my career be sustainable?
- Will my children understand and appreciate my professional life?
- Will I have the opportunity to act in accordance with my ideals - or will I be forced to make decisions and act in ways that I would not wish others to emulate?
QFL Interview Question: What questions do you ask when baking bread?
Stu: How is the dough coming together in the mixing bowl? How is the dough rising in the buckets? How does the dough feel on the bench when being formed into loaves? How is the dough rising on the boards? Is it ready to go in the oven? When the bread is curing on the cooling racks: has it cooled enough to be sliced and or packaged?
QFL: What questions do you ask in the ongoing management and growth of the business?
John: Note: These questions have grown and changed over time. Here are some of the questions that have been consistent throughout the process.
- Are we sticking closely to our core competency and to our intention in founding and running this business?
- Anytime we do something new or different, can we justify it? Is it consistent with our core competency and intent?
- Is any new or different activity going to distract from core competency / original intent?
- Are we providing a positive contribution to the world around us?
- Are we taking care of our families and our family of employees?
- Are we acting in a principled way in our business dealings?
John and Stu can be contacted at:
John Gates
Bio
Nashoba Brook Bakery opened for business on September 11, 1998 in an old warehouse in Concord, Massachusetts on the banks of the Nashoba Brook, a tributary of the Assabet River. The owners John Gates and Stuart Witt - dreamed about and planned for that day for more than a year. For several years, Stu had worked for a successful artisan bread company in Burlington, Vermont. John had just completed law school at the University of Virginia, but decided to forego plans to be an environmental advocate and join Stu instead in a burst of entrepreneurial energy.
But the story really begins with a friendship. John and Stu were close friends in high school. Though they went their separate ways after graduating, they stayed in touch and John became a big fan of the breads Stu was creating in Vermont. On several occasions, the two talked casually about going into business together. One day Stu called John and said, Do you remember how we talked about starting a bread business? Well, I'm ready. John thought hard for at least one day before he called Stu back and said, let's do it.
Stu and John spent hours over the next year philosophizing about bread, about life and about the opportunity to create a business that had meaning beyond the endless daily grind that consumes so many lives. From the beginning, they committed to starting a business that would take care of its employees, and give back to the community, while at the same time creating a space for people to meet, to talk and to organize around important social, cultural and political issues.
Homepage
http://www.slowrise.com/