We have ALL heard the arguments.
"Big companies are too conservative."
"They are too risk adverse."
"They move too slowly."
"They have too many stakeholders."
"They have too much red-tape."
"They have shareholder stakeholder conflicts."
"They are stuck in the dark ages."
And much of this is true....large organisations, by nature, are a different animal to smaller businesses. Something happens when a company scales over a certain size. The dynamic changes.
Some of this change is good, and necessary - but it also has negative side-effects due to the new size of the business.
One of the key strategies we use when crating a new market in building a brand from the ground up, is asking ourselves the question...
"As a startup, how can we leverage the difference in size between us, and a large, established organisation, to our advantage?"
or "As a small entrepreneurial startup, how can we use our small size to our advantage?"
or in more simple terms - "What can we do that giant corporations can't do?"
For us, finding the answer to this question involves looking, at every level, at what we have the resources and competency to do that the large organisations can't, struggle to, or won't do for one reason or another.
We look at everything from business strategy & organisational structure, to governance, product design, customer support....the list goes on.
As a small organization, some common areas that we identify we can excel in compared to large organizations is the potential to...
- move faster on big decisions
- take bigger calculated risks
- connect personally 1:1 with our customers
- experiment with new opportunities
- have a hyper-engaged team
We ask ourselves "How can we think in a different way to the 'big' companies?" A fresh way. With no limits.
What we have found is that when we think like this, all of a sudden, a world of opportunity opens up.
We know these strategies above are all good strategies for a successful business, so the next obvious question I want you to ask yourself is this....
"How can we bring this powerful entrepreneurial thinking to larger organisations?"
- How can we cultivate a large organisation to be subtle and nimble in the same ways that a startup is?
- How can we streamline innovation?
- How can we create a customer experience that is truely personal?
- How can we create high performance teams in our organisations that are driven and motivated?
The answer to many of these questions above is simple...but not always easy...and will obviously differ business to business.
The takeaway from this post, however, is that I want you to continuously have an awareness and understanding of how you can bring the successful elements of small, entrepreneurial business thinking to your organisation - whether you are a leader, a team member or an entrepreneur.
When you can master the science of creating high performing large organisations, your business will take off!
Keep winning.
Talk soon,
Geoff