The key is small firms producing specialized goods in short runs, using advanced technologies which are at once highly flexible and no less efficient than those employed by large companies.

These enterprises are empowered to do whatever it takes to serve the customer.

Call it fashionized markets, technology revolutions or the rise of the market economies. For whatever set of reasons, the evidence is un-mistakable: Big ain't what it used to be. In fact, it never was what it promised to be.

Big means fragmented, a loss of feel for the whole, too many delays, an intolerable distortion and dilution of the original vision of the company. Too much analysis and not enough doing.

Businesses are sub-contracting lots more these days They are further sharpening their focus on the handful of critical skills which can add to their competitive advantage and niche dominance, They are keeping their commitment to large capital investments as low as possible in order to maintain flexibility.

We must create organizations that at tempt, at least, to survive by getting close to the market, and staying small enough to shift focus fast.

Overall size is irrelevant to competitive advantage. Networks are changing the definition of big. The key company of the future will have less than 150 employees.

Adapted from Tom Peters book Liberation Management Pawcett Columbine, 1992.

Written by Howard J. Leonhardt

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