Among the management roles that I have fulfilled to date, I have had the good fortune of having worked in senior management roles within what I would term a mid-sized company (multi million dollar annual sales turnover) and also a very large company (annual revenue comprising multiple hundreds of $ millions).
What I’ve found is that whilst larger companies enjoy clear advantages which are largely linked to economies of scale, larger companies (generally) tend to evolve at a slower rate where internal operating refinements (e.g. system/ process adjustments) and workplace cultural development is concerned. Unless large organisations have a strong leader with clear vision and determination to succeed in accordance with the chosen strategy (and is committed to cutting out distractions along the way) I have found that internal politics tend to overshadow practical thinking and decision-making, and the stronger (more vocal/ opinionated) shareholder voices tend to sway the organisation off the course that is set by directors.
With considerable internal politics permitted to dominate, commercial journeys can become seriously disrupted as the focus of internal stakeholders and decision-makers becomes more about “putting out political fires” than having an outwardly directed strong focus on identifying and pursuing new opportunities. And change for large organisations often takes a protracted time frame to achieve mainly because of the political minefield that a change proposal becomes subjected to as it moves slowly through different decision-making levels…much to the frustration of the change instigator. Hence why many people around the world leave the corporate environment to instead work within smaller scale businesses.
My advice to owners of smaller scale operations is certainly do not lose heart due to your level of operation not placing your business among the larger players/ competitors that operate in the same sector/ industry as your business does. You can still create considerable comparative advantages for your business, in the form of:
- Reduced decision-making time-frames, through operating either with a “flat structure” where individuals have clearly laid-out realms within which they can largely work autonomously.
- Ensuring that levels of decision-making are clearly prescribed, and designated decision-makers are truly empowered to get on and make decisions which fall under their jurisdiction.
- Become courageous at making adoption (go ahead) decisions as early-on in your innovation/ research (e.g. new product development) process as you can…be “first-to-market”. Work through your risk assessment as quickly as possible based on reliable information to hand, and if/ when you conclude that the opportunity/ initiative looks like it has strong potential to be successful, then get on and implement it…before your competitors do.
- Be prepared to challenge your status quo at a frequency which is at least no less than in coincidence with reviewing and re-setting your Strategic Plan (i.e. every 3 or 5 years). And be willing to change direction/ modus operandi (or both) to test the effect of trialing something new (e.g. new IT system, practice, client set, direction, market, etc). Allow your “Pandora’s Box” to open…and let some of the treasures that you find within, out.
- A First Class work culture. I have often been asked, what is the “real” effect of a positive workplace culture in the context of a business environment. Every time my answer has been, if an organisation leader truly has an innate/ natural ability to develop strong constructive relationships between people then directors need to make sure that a key objective prescribed to their appointed leader (CEO/ GM, etc) is for them to actively facilitate the initiation and nurturing of positive relationships between the people who they are to lead. I have found that by cultivating such a favourable workplace culture it can actually serve as the GREATEST catalyst for organisation refinement and achievement. Happy people are productive people.