[Maxine]

Just thought I would share this thought with you as I have decided in my last few weeks doing consultancy at a large company that they could do with thinking and acting like some of us small firms do!! lol.... sorry if this sounds a bit bizarre but it has really hit me recently the main differences

* So much time in unnecessary meetings
* So much time spent with email chains of correspondence as long as your arm instead of just picking up the phone or getting on with it
* Little or no empowerment to just do things that are common sense
* Blame cultures that go round and round in circles with no help to anyone instead of just fixing or changing things
* Lack of ownership of customer service issues
* So many excuses for needing this that & the other rather than making the best of what you currently have and planning for future
* Such complacent waste of money on costs

Makes you wonder how come small firms start off not being like this, then become successful and quite large and all this stuff creeps in but how and why??? What would you do to stop this happening in your own company in the first place?

[CPLTD]

Superb Post Maxine,

I do believe you have a very valid point I shall make sure that our company although in its infancy doesnt fall into the above bracket,

Many thanks

[JohnG]

Obviously you couldn't sleep Maxine.....

When you're a one man band you know exactly what's happening and where all your money is going.

Once your company grows you take on more employees and it becomes impossible for you to know exactly what's going on at a detail level. It starts with letting someone else buy whatever stationery they think you need and, usually much later, you discover the 3 years worth of post-its and elastic bands you have in the cupboard.

You can't be sure how your employees are treating your customers; are they looking after them as well as you would? Probably not.

Big companies have this problem in spades - and no-one cares about how much money is wasted because it's not their own money.

[RedEvo]

Nice post. It's well accepted that large companies become cumbersome. They become oil tankers where we are ocean going power boats

d

[RayB]

Awesome post Maxine!

All of the issues you have identified were present in the last company I worked for - a £160 million print group which I left in 2004 when I bought what is now A Local Printer.

And running my own company is the antithesis of the issues you've identified.

The ability to make decisions without bureaucracy is so refreshing

[Maxine]

and I can't sleep tonight either (Actually I only let myself on here these days when I have finished enough work ha ha)

[Alvin]

Originally Posted by RedEvo

Nice post. It's well accepted that large companies become cumbersome. They become oil tankers where we are ocean going power boats

d

Shame power boats have a limited range.Now if you had said an ocean going Yacht.?

A

[Calibre Designs]

Maxine - brilliant post and well summarised. I have seen this happen many many times before. Sad but true...

[Chris(tina!)]

It is a great post and is also referred to in business theory regarding the 'flexible firm' or the 'flat firm' etc (as much as I remember the terminology). The most interesting thing is to see that 'academic type stuff' applied in a post to what people see on a 'real' basis!

The organisation I work for is large and they 'do' some 'things' to gain input from across all divisions into the real things that can be implemented to make change but they do not readct very quickly so we have this grass roots change the typing on a application form versus the ability (or not) to make fast strategic alterations which would have a quick impact on the company and it's environment.

I think there is a point at which a business is too large to adopt the thinking and tactics of a small one. I also think that many of the 'larger medium sized' companies would be better off looking to small than emulating big!

(P.S. Lack of ownership of customer service issues is as bad in small business as I know from my local shop!! )

[IP2]

I think this is where you see the difference of a company led by true leadership over a company led by management. There are large companies that do act like small companies (to a greater or lesser extent) when there is powerful leadership and entrepreneurial spirit, usually because the owner has built the company from the ground up and naturally knows that any decision that takes a committee meeting and / or longer than 10 minutes is a total waste or resources.

Once a company reaches a certain size, unless either the owner(s) or the managers can wield enough power and respect over the organisation, staff will try to pass the buck and avoid making decisions for fear or being seen to be wrong.

I personally believe that large companies that avoid this trap are those that are led by respected decision makers, either entrepreneurial or though supported and highly determined managers that are prepared to take risks and accept the consequences of making mistakes.

This perhaps explains why Private Equity and the likes can out maneuver public companies.