By Bob Meyer

Here’s a story that happened a few years ago…it illustrates the point that how you look at what you have, in this case empty Navy warehouses, is creativity at its best.

A decade ago Admiral William “Bud” Flanagan was the commander of the Atlantic Fleet. As the czar of the 55-square-mile Norfolk Naval Base he oversaw an $11 billion budget, and he busily charted a course that will change the U.S. Navy. One of those changes embraces the ever-expanding use of barter.

Under the Navy’s new rules, a commander who saves money or generates outside income can use the funds to buy new ships, planes or other equipment.

So Adm. Flanagan traded empty Navy warehouses with the nearby Norfolk International Terminal, which was cramped for space. The terminal agreed to load cargo onto Navy ships as payment, saving millions in outside labor costs.

Flanagan also worked with local developers—trading a landfill area with 440 somewhat-shabby Navy apartments for the building of better naval housing elsewhere.

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This entry was posted on Friday, February 16th, 2007 at 12:45 pm and is filed under Entrepreneurs & Small Business, Best & Brightest Barter, Real Estate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.