{"id":5363,"date":"2009-04-08T12:57:34","date_gmt":"2009-04-08T11:57:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/?p=5363"},"modified":"2020-07-27T15:20:46","modified_gmt":"2020-07-27T14:20:46","slug":"small-is-the-new-big","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/small-is-the-new-big\/","title":{"rendered":"Small Is the New Big"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"bonsai\"<\/a><\/div>\n

A friend whose daughter is graduating soon from a very good college lamented that the young lady has not gained much practical knowledge about starting a career. He asked what advice I would give her, and\u2014after much thought\u2014I came up with the following: \u201cFind something you can do without being dependent on a big company.\u201d<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think this was exactly the kind of advice he had in mind, but I\u2019m sticking with it! Because one of the loudest, clearest messages in business news these days is that “big” is not necessarily a good thing.<\/p>\n

In a recent Harvard Business article (“Why Small Companies Will Win in this Economy”<\/a>), management consultant Peter Bregman contends: \u201cThe gap of confidence between small companies and big ones is growing. We used to rely on the security of big companies. That’s why we worked for them. And hired them. And put our money in them. \u201c<\/p>\n

No more, says Bregman, and he provides some interesting anecdotes about the shift of valuable contracts away from impersonal giants to the kinds of smaller companies where a buyer can get the CEO on the phone.<\/p>\n

Job-seekers may be starting to feel the same way–and the \u201csmall is beautiful\u201d trend has as much appeal for mid-career candidates as for new graduates. Wall Street Journal<\/em> Careers columnist Sarah Needleman discusses some advantages in the article “Moving to a Small Company Can Lead to Big Rewards.”<\/a><\/p>\n

So what does this mean for the Careers site? Three first thoughts:<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0 Smaller companies can start to use their size as a recruiting advantage.<\/strong> For example–promoting the values of an environment where workers have direct lines of communication to management.<\/p>\n