Be Big but Think Small

Unless you’ve been on vacation for a couple months in a remote mountain cabin, you’ll know all about the failures of the huge corporations that make up most of our economy and the governmental money to help them keep going. For whatever reason, these corporations did the things they did, and when the course was run or the market shifted, it all came crashing down.

Other than sales, budget, and number of employees, what’s the difference between a small company and a large one? For one thing, if a 35 employee business is in trouble, they won’t get a call from the government, other than perhaps one from the IRS to kick them while they are down. There are two main reasons for this: This small company failing will only hurt the employees. If a big corporation goes down, it can damage the economy and America. Second, the government budget won’t notice the loss of tax revenue from the little company.

Seth Godin of Seth’s Blog has a simple piece of advice for these huge companies: Think and act like a small business. For example, is there any legitimate reason not to have simple, transparent accounting practices? Being able to make the numbers look like you want them can be beneficial if trying to put one over on stockholders, but how does that help the managers of the company?

At what point of a company’s growth does it no longer need good customer service? It’s vital for small businesses, but large corporations don’t seem to have it a priority. In fact, when a big company does have good customer service, it becomes a major selling point and a way to distinguish itself from its competitors.

Like customer service, there are many things that a big corporation leaves behind when it becomes, well big. They may seem inconsequential, but as recent events show, the "ittle" things never stopped being important.