"Welcome to Jurassic Valley!"
John Wayland stands unsteadily in the Jeep, smiling broadly, and sweeps his arm across the landscape with a grand gesture. We stare, astonished.
Before us, hundreds of mid-sized companies run, each hawking and trumpeting the benefits of their products. By instinct, they form into packs, running together, announcing alliances in unison, only to break apart and reform into other groups. It is chaos. Wonderful, exciting and invigorating chaos.
Big companies win by leveraging massive amounts of money and people.
Dave, Dr. Janus' son, says excitedly: "Hey, Dad, look over there!"
In the far distance, a massive IBM raises its head and lets out three great bellows: "Javvvvvvvvvvva! Javvva! Java!" To the left of it, an Apple Computer raises its head for a moment to stare at the IBM and then resumes munching on the consumers at its feet, uninterested. But, to the far right, a great Microsoft draws back its great head angrily and barks back: "Dot net!"
Dr. Janus, the paleontologist, speaks, softly and breathlessly. "It's just how I predicted. The greatest asset of a big software company is the massive amount of money and people that it can leverage. Each company grows its bulk as rapidly as possible in order to stomp its rivals to death. With more money and people, it can out-develop its competitors, out-market them, out-produce and, well, simply outpace them. Money brings dominance which brings more money. Simple."
John Wayland, our host, laughs. "Simple indeed, Dr. Janus. If this impresses you, you'll be even more impressed with our research." He pats the driver in front of him on the shoulder. The Jeep jerks forward and accelerates ahead towards the cluster of a buildings in the distance.
We all twist our heads and stare in delight at the great behemoths as the Jeep travels away. Only Dr. Vadim Zarevo, the renowned Russian mathematician, remains composed and a cloud of worry passes over his face.
Big companies often rely heavily on a few, megahit products.
After settling into our quarters in the Jurassic Valley Research and Museum Center, John Wayland summons us to meet him in the main museum lobby. The skeleton of a huge company hangs overhead and a broad staircase leads up to a second level. We stand in the middle, whispering among ourselves, while we wait for him.
Dave, Dr. Janus' son, wanders over to one of the displays. "Hey, Dad," he calls back, "what's the biggest company? I mean, the very biggest one?"
Dr. Janus walks over and rests his hands on his son's shoulders. "This is a Google. Very large. It grows very quickly by selling ads on its excellent search engine. But some would say that an Oracle is bigger. It is older and slower but has grown quite big on its database and its enterprise software. But, perhaps the very, very biggest might be a Microsoft which has grown huge on its Windows API and Microsoft Office franchises. A company can quickly grow enormous on one or two megahit products and leverage that dominance into many other areas."
"Dr. Janus." Dr. Zarevo addresses him from across the lobby floor. "By listening to you," he says with mild sarcasm, "big companies are invincible. If what you say is true, why is the Digital Equipment Corporation extinct?"
Dying big companies cannot compete with growing small companies.
Before Dr. Janus can reply, a loud voice interrupts. "The bigger they are, Dr. Zarevo, the harder they fall." From behind the stairs, John Wayland steps out. "You see, my dear Dr. Zarevo," he says as if wagging his finger at a child, "megahit products are invariably linked to huge markets. To exploit these markets to the fullest, a company must grow big. But these markets can often change faster than big companies can. When a huge market shrinks or is taken by a competitor, the big company cannot quickly replace that vital resource. It shrinks, losing money and people, but still retains the DNA of a big company. It can no longer compete effectively."
Dr. Janus shakes his head slowly in disagreement. "Even if an important market goes away, a big company often has a large cash hoard. It has well-honed teams of people. It can change, restructure and re-engineer. Science disagrees with you, Mr. Wayland."
John Wayland shakes his head, smiling slightly. "It's all in the genes."
Big companies encourage groups; small companies encourage individuals.
Behind the stairs, John Wayland ushers us into a large room. Computers blink. Beakers bubble. Machinery hums. Incubators heat. A brand-new, floor-standing electron microscope made of smooth white metal hunches over, ready for use.
"Our research reveals that big companies have two powerful and unavoidable traits. These traits are woven into every dollar that the company touches and every person, including the CEO, that it employs. These traits are caused by chromosomes. Each dollar and person carries a copy of this genetic information."
"Actually, these traits exist in all companies. But, in big companies, they are powerful forces while being much weaker forces in smaller companies. When large groups of people gather together, as in a big company, the group has a greater influence on the individual than would be otherwise. In a company of three people, one person might easily speak out and insist on his viewpoint being heard. In a company of a thousand people, that person is more easily drowned out and ignored. In other words, big companies have significant group dynamics that small companies don't."
Politics is inevitable and always favors the superficial over the real.
"The first genetic trait that all big companies have is what we have named the politics chromosome."
"Politics occurs in all large groups, even in a Microsoft, even in a Google. When it is impossible for each person to know every other person in a group intimately, politics becomes the organizing mechanism. In large groups, people must rely on the apparent traits, not the real traits which they cannot easily discover, to evaluate others. They must also rely heavily on widely-held beliefs, true or false, in order to evaluate others. In such an environment, it is natural and inevitable that a form of social Darwinism manifests itself: those that display desirable traits, such as appearing to have many skills and being well-respected, prosper while those who do not appear to have many skills and are not perceived as being well-respected fail. Instinctively, most people will change their behavior to compete. To manage perception and thus prosper, people will focus their energies on displaying the proper 'plumage'. Those who succeed are rewarded. Those who fail are ignored or rejected."
"In essence," John Wayland concludes, "this chromosome filters a big company to promote people with superficial abilities and filter out everybody else with either real or no abilities."
Dr. Janus murmurs. "Amazing."
Culture is also inevitable and always inflexible.
"The second genetic trait that all big companies have is what we have named the culture chromosome."
"Culture occurs in all large groups. Culture is the influence that the group has on each person in the group, a subconscious pressure on each person to conform. Cultural values are values enforced by a culture. Cultural values might be healthy: a culture might value hard work and, thus, people will put in long hours in order to conform. But, of course, culture values might be unhealthy, too: the culture of a hardware company might undervalue software skills and, thus, doom the company to always create poor software, no matter how much time, energy or money is invested. As a company grows in size, its people become more numerous and the culture becomes stronger and more ingrained."
"Cultural values, by their nature, are inflexible but, unfortunately, markets and the industry often change. A healthy cultural value may change over time into an unhealthy value. New values may arise. But a big company's cultural values are set and very difficult to change. A big company is severely limited by its inability to add new valuable cultural values and discard obsolete cultural values in a timely fashion."
Dr. Zarevo says wryly, "But cannot non-conformance be a cultural value? Or flexibility?"
John Wayland laughs. "No, Dr. Zarevo. Non-conformance and flexibility are anti-cultural. Cultures develop in order to force conformance and stability. They cannot enforce what they are created to work against."
Suddenly, the room shudders and the lights go out. Within moments, a backup generator begins to whir and the lights comes back on. John Wayland types furiously into a computer and throws his head in his hands in helplessness. "It's the perimeter," he wails. "We rely on government antitrust laws to keep the big companies under control. But it isn't working. The big companies are out of control!"
Compete with big companies by going where they cannot quickly turn to go.
Dr. Zarevo leaps into action. He pulls Wayland away from the computer. To the rest of us, he shouts: "Quick! Into the lobby! We have to escape!" We race through the door. Dr. Janus picks up Dave and runs after us. Dr. Zarevo pulls Wayland along and brings up the rear.
In the museum lobby, we see a great Oracle loom outside. It cocks its great head and stares through the glass at us. Then, it recoils and plunges through the glass. The glass shatters.
Dr. Janus calls out. "Use his genes against him! Dodge! Go where he can't go! Run past and he'll be too slow to turn!"
We stream around the big company, leaping and dodging. When its great maw finally comes down, we are already past it, in the parking lot.
Strive hard not to sacrifice flexibility and adaptability in your company as you grow.
We head for the Jeep but Dr. Zarevo stops us. "The Jeep can't easily dodge! We can't count on outrunning it!"
We take to the grasslands on foot, running, crouching and dodging. Distracted by the commotion caused by the Oracle at the center, other big companies abandon their carefully guarded markets and attack. They fight the Oracle and amongst themselves, battling over a tattered bits of wood and concrete. We slip away, unnoticed.
As we struggle into the mountains, Dr. Janus looks back into Jurassic Valley wistfully. He then turns and stares at the defeated John Wayland.
"The bigger they are, the harder they fall."
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