Comments on: Small to Medium to Big

By: cheap condoms

cheap condoms — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 14:33:44 +0000

A good business plus hard work, determination, and no really dumb mistakes are commonly enough.

However, if anyone has any terrific secrets, then by all means they should write up these secrets and submit them to an appropriate peer-reviewed journal of original research.

By: cheap condoms

cheap condoms — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 13:48:55 +0000

i would like to know the differences between small and big.
because We are having a tough time deciding if bigger is better.

By: Tom Brickley

Tom Brickley — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 20:17:16 +0000

Our business model actually prevents us from growing too big as a single company. Our plan is to spin off successful products to seasoned management teams but retaining a percentage of the ownership and a seat on the board. Our philosophy is we are not the right people to grow a company exponentially and that our talents are best served remaining the incubator of products and services. We have a deep paranoia inbred in all of us regarding the cultures that must exist in the larger structures. I have no desire to deal with HR, finance, and several layers of management and all the crap associated with these ever! If we do this right we become a mini KKR or the like. I believe our strength will be our understanding of who we are and who we are not.

By: Farhan Lalji

Farhan Lalji — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 10:42:23 +0000

Having worked in lot of organisations that have tried to make the move from small to medium and doing an executive MBA with courses in entrepreneurship, I believe that the successful growth companies are the ones that have owners/founders/leaders who can adapt. The ones who may have had a great sense of loyalty but can adapt to the changing needs from executives when the business is growing. The ones who switch from focusing on the detail to having more of a broad objective perspective. Its really difficult to adapt, but if people can adapt the company should be able to do so as well. Challenging but fun, enjoy the ride!

By: Blake P

Blake P — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 02:26:48 +0000

I feel like we are on the bubble and aren’t real sure that we want to make the transition. We are having a tough time deciding if bigger is better.

By: sigma

sigma — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 21:25:33 +0000

Maybe there are a few people who, via experience, perception, etc. have found the magic secrets of business management to permit a company to grow from small to medium to large and extra large — and fries with that?

However there have been some companies that went from initial founding to large companies with the same small founding team leading all the way. Anyone heard of Microsoft, Google, YouTube, Apple, Intel, Oracle, FedEx?

For the founders of these companies, what great management secrets, experience, acumen did they have? Is it in the famous books on business management, taught in MBA programs?

Or, outrageous thought: A good business plus hard work, determination, and no really dumb mistakes are commonly enough.

However, if anyone has any terrific secrets, then by all means they should write up these secrets and submit them to an appropriate peer-reviewed journal of original research. The business research community will be thrilled finally to have some solid information on the secrets!

By: Dharmesh Shah

Dharmesh Shah — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 18:06:33 +0000

I’d be interested in learning what benchmarks you use or what patterns you look for to determine which company is now a successful medium-sized businesss? Is this based on certain revenue/profit goals? Size of the team? Market-share? Age?

Thanks.

By: Brad Feld

Brad Feld — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 17:31:09 +0000

“Small” in my definition here is a company with

By: Ole Eichhorn

Ole Eichhorn — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 15:48:29 +0000

It would be interesting to get your take on the differences between a small sized business and a medium sized business.

My own view is that a business becomes medium sized when you don’t know what everything is working on anymore. At which point you need process – for communicating what needs to be done, and for getting feedback.