The faster your company grows, the more you encounter with duplication. Imagine a hedgehog with unevenly growing spines. At some point, it turns into an ugly sea urchin and urgently needs a manicure. The same things happen with the companies.

The larger your company is, the:

  • more stakeholders and their requirements;
  • more clients/verticals and their requirements;
  • more markets with different characteristics and user segments;
  • more demands on your product.

Mass customization leads to the opposite requirements and the need to move not just fast, but very fast. But 50% of the time is spent on reporting and coordination of meetings. The remaining 50% – on business modeling and research (regular meetings). Here comes the understanding that the amount of time spent at work and the value created by an employee – are completely different things. Nevertheless, it would be fair to say that the improvement of communications in the company (i.e. not just communication, but communication for the exchange of information) is a noble job.

Complexity is your friend. Over time, the competing companies won’t be able to run at the same speed because of the ability to cope with complexity. This is caused by the following reasons:

  • The old ballast (old business model, technology, thinking, leadership, etc.) pulls back. If your slower competitor is 10 times bigger than you, its inertia force will allow you to crush him.
  • The more structured the work is, the harder it is to rebuild it according to the new reality. There is an internal conflict between performance and flexibility. We can always promote an agile approach to all aspects of work, but in the short term, it does not make us as efficient as possible.
  • The more structured the work is, the less time remains on the management of strategic thinking, which creates value. It’s the number one problem for the people who have high positions in the company but are forced to engage in operational things. It’s a lot easier to be engaged in the operating activities than in the strategic ones. Only one kind of top managers is valuable – the one who comes out of his comfort zone and the heart of which requires change.
  • The larger the company is engaged in the strategic things, the more people suffer. Back story: the higher positions in the company are engaged in the decision-making process, the fewer opportunities have the front line employees to make the customer pleased. Fortunately, such cases are widely described in business literature, so it’s quite obvious.
  • You should always remember that your competitors are not doing better and suffer from almost the same things as you. From almost the same. The one who will find out the difference and be able to run it first is the King.