Will smaller companies stand a better chance of survival during the coming financial turmoil ? (Back to list)

Posted by Peter Blue on 2007-Sep-19 15:28 It cant have escaped anyone's attention that things are afoot in the financial world, the sub-prime lending crises, Northern Rock's bank run, Oil prices breaking through the $80 per barrel for the first time in 20+ years, Mortgage lenders imploding and stock market jitters.



I expect everyone will have their take on the reasons for all the current problems and I expect most of it will boil down to greed, stupidity, dishonesty and lack of confidence.



Here are some more reasons why I think small, local companies ("Dingoes") will have a better chance of survival than larger companies.



Trust When everyone is under extreme financial pressure who are you going to trust ? the small, local and reachable businessman or the huge corporation hiding behind an army of lawyers and call center drones ?





When everyone is under extreme financial pressure who are you going to trust ? the small, local and reachable businessman or the huge corporation hiding behind an army of lawyers and call center drones ? Localisation When oil reaches $100 / barrel (2008 ~ 2009) who will have to raise prices the most ? the local shops who can get their products easily from local suppliers / farms or the huge global corporation who has to transport their products from half way around the world ?





When oil reaches $100 / barrel (2008 ~ 2009) who will have to raise prices the most ? the local shops who can get their products easily from local suppliers / farms or the huge global corporation who has to transport their products from half way around the world ? Flexibility If market conditions change, who can adapt the fastest ?







I will add more to this list as they occur to me or you can add yours below.



In the meantime the Cluetrain Manifesto (The End of Business as Usual) might give you some interesting ideas. Here is a small snippet :-







A powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter and getting smarter faster than most companies.

These markets are conversations. Their members communicate in language that is natural, open, honest, direct, funny and often shocking. Whether explaining or complaining, joking or serious, the human voice is unmistakably genuine. It can't be faked.





Most corporations, on the other hand, only know how to talk in the soothing, humorless monotone of the mission statement, marketing brochure, and your-call-is-important-to-us busy signal. Same old tone, same old lies. No wonder networked markets have no respect for companies unable or unwilling to speak as they do.



But learning to speak in a human voice is not some trick, nor will corporations convince us they are human with lip service about "listening to customers." They will only sound human when they empower real human beings to speak on their behalf.



While many such people already work for companies today, most companies ignore their ability to deliver genuine knowledge, opting instead to crank out sterile happytalk that insults the intelligence of markets literally too smart to buy it.



However, employees are getting hyperlinked even as markets are. Companies need to listen carefully to both. Mostly, they need to get out of the way so intranetworked employees can converse directly with internetworked markets.



Corporate firewalls have kept smart employees in and smart markets out. It's going to cause real pain to tear those walls down. But the result will be a new kind of conversation. And it will be the most exciting conversation business has ever engaged in.





