From Seth Godin’s new book:

BIG used to matter. Big meant
economies of scale. (You never hear about
“economies of tiny” do you?)
Years ago, people, usually guys, often ex-marines,
wanted to be CEO of a big company. The
Fortune 500 is where people went to make
a fortune, after all.
Big meant power and profit and growth.
Big meant control over supply and control
over markets.
There was a good reason for this. Value was added in ways that suited big
organizations. Value was added with efficient manufacturing, widespread
distribution, and very large R&D staffs. Value came from hundreds of
operators standing by and from nine-figure TV ad budgets. Value came
from a huge sales force.
Of course, it’s not just big organizations that added value. Big planes
were better than small ones, because they were faster and more efficient.
Big buildings were better than small ones because they facilitated
communications and used downtown land quite efficiently. Bigger
computers could handle more simultaneous users.
Get Big Fast was the motto for start-ups, because big companies can go
public and find more access to capital and use that capital to get even
bigger. Big accounting firms were the place to go to get audited if you
were a big company, because a big accounting firm could be trusted. Big
law firms were the place to find the right lawyer, because big law firms
were a one-stop shop.
And then small happened.
Enron (big) got audited by Andersen (big) and failed (big). The
World Trade Center was a terrorist target. Network (big) TV advertising is
collapsing so fast you can hear it. American Airlines (big) is getting
creamed by JetBlue (think small). Boing Boing (four people) has a
readership growing a hundred times faster than the New Yorker
(hundreds of people).
Big computers are silly. They use
lots of power and are not nearly as
efficient as properly networked Dell
PCs (at least that’s what they use at
Yahoo! and Google). Big boom
boxes are replaced by tiny Ipod
Shuffles. (Yeah, I know big-screen
TVs are the big thing. An exception
that proves the rule.)
I’m writing this on a laptop at a
skateboard park that offers free WiFi
for parents to surf the Web while they wait
around for their kids. They offer free WiFi
because the owner wanted to. It took
them a few minutes and $50. No big
meetings, corporate policies, or feasibility
studies. They just did it.
Today, little companies often make
more money than big companies. Little
churches grow faster than worldwide
ones. Little jets are way faster (door to
door) than big ones.
Today, Craigslist (eighteen employees) is the fourth most visited site
according to some measures. They are partly owned by eBay (more than
four thousand employees), which hopes to stay in the same league,
traffic-wise. They’re certainly not growing nearly as fast.
Small means that the founder is involved in a far greater percentage of
customer interactions. Small means the founder is close to the decisions
that matter and can make them quickly.
Small is the new big because small gives you the flexibility to change your
business model when your competition changes theirs.
Small means you can tell the truth on your blog.
Small means that you can answer e-mail from your customers.
Small means that you will outsource the boring, low-impact stuff like
manufacturing and shipping and billing and packing to others while you
keep all the power because you invent something that’s remarkable and
tell your story to people who want to hear it.
A small law firm or accounting firm or ad agency is succeeding because
they’re good, not because they’re big. So smart, small companies are
happy to hire them.
A small restaurant has an owner who greets you by name.
A small venture fund doesn’t have to fund big, bad ideas in order to put
their capital to work. They can make
small investments in tiny companies
with good ideas.
A small church has a minister with
the time to visit you in the hospital
when you’re sick.
Is it better to be the head of Craigslist
or the head of UPS?
Small is the new big only when the
person running the small thinks big.
Don’t wait. Get small. Think big.