In one of my previous articles, I advised how corporations should learn from family businesses with regard to how to take care of the customer and maintain his loyalty and affection. Indeed, this ability – hand in hand with growth in firm size – quite regularly wears. Once the large company has a more secure place in the market, the need for tight financial management starts to prevail over the willingness to invest in customer relationship management.

There is also a considerable cynicism within the start-up community when talk turns to the culture of large corporations, in particular, the quality of their people and management. Often words can be heard such as “these people are different from us“, “they lack enthusiasm and creativity”, “they are afraid to take on the risk“ or “managers pay more attention to internal politicking than to real business and the customer.“

However, is there anything that start-up companies should notice with regard to how major corporations do business? How is it possible that these giants, with those “other” people on board, are able to dominate almost every industry and collect there the vast majority of the profits? What are the necessary changes in the approach to business that they should be prepared to follow in order to mimic the success of these behemoths (which were also at some point just small start-up companies) and avoid falling into oblivion as 99% of business experimentation does?

One likely area is the management style that must adapt to the situation that inevitably comes after the initial success, the euphoria of a boom in the market. Enthusiasts have already bought the new, revolutionary product and now it needs to be sold to those who “do not yet know that they need it.” Competition has already responded, there is an alternative product on the market which fights for the favour of the same customers. The sales curve begins to flatten and it is becoming more and more difficult to achieve planned sales volumes. Shareholders are starting to remind their expectations about earnings. People are starting to get tired and the atmosphere of winning is not as strong as it was at the beginning…

The helmsman of the ship which sails in such waters will benefit from the experience that can be gained by working for a successful big firm. Among these experiences, in my opinion, also belong:

• Stick to the strategy despite the fact that short-term results might indicate that things are not going in the right direction
• Make decisions based on facts, do not react hastily to the current market fluctuations, carefully balance facts and gut feelings/experience
• Motivate the team, when business is slowing
• Be able to tease the best out of people – sensitively mix scepticism and support when assessing their proposals and solutions so that they give their best, but do not resign
• Act “politically”, i.e., be able to make the right trade-offs
• Know when to put pressure on people, but also where the limit is that should not be crossed

Small companies become great by successfully managing the “adolescence” stage when the time of massive development transits to a need to complete a solid foundation for the building, which has to be able to resist the pitfalls of “bad weather“, or maybe even “minor earthquakes “, and often the pitfalls of its own complexity. So the question is not about where the best people work, whether in start-ups or big firms, but rather if there are the right people on board in every stage of the company lifecycle.

It is good that life is not black and white and there is always someone from whom you can learn. What do you think?