From: Mark Grant (mark@unicorn.com)
Date: Sat Jan 11 1997 - 09:16:09 MST
On Fri, 10 Jan 1997, Max M wrote:
> I don't quite agree here. I actually think that smaller corporations are a
> bit more inefficient.
Having worked for both large and small companies I'd say precisely the
opposite. The larger the company the slower the response, the less work
was done and the greater the number of unneccesary managers.
> But these $150 dollars an hour is for actual
> production work. What's not included here is saleswork, administration,
> Rooms, transportation, equipment,
A small company probably doesn't need saleswork because they don't have a
massive production line to keep operational; in most of the small
companies I worked for the majority of the work was repeat business from
old customers and we usually had more work than we could deal with.
Administration is easier because there's no massive management bureaucracy
to get in the way, the company probably works out of cheap offices to
reduce rent and only buys equipment when it has to.
> Any technology that will make it easier for a one man corp to do sale and
> administration will also make it easier for larger corporation.
Like sacking all the managers? I've found they're almost always the last
people to go when a large company is in trouble. After all, they decide
who gets sacked.
> Also price isn't the the most important factor when it comes to selecting
> who you hire.
True. But small companies also respond much faster. In one of my jobs the
company grew from small to large in the time I worked there. When we were
small a customer would report a bug in the software and I'd often fix it
and mail out a new version the same working day. By the time I left we had
to submit any new software version for extensive testing, which took days
to weeks. Sure, we occasionally introduced new bugs but customers were
happier to get a version with a new bug that was fixed the next day than
to wait a week for us to test it.
> Would you put your company's future in the hand of a one man corp where the
> owner can loose his ability to work form day to day?
The same could happen with a large company that only puts one person to
work on your project. For another person to take over a complicated
software project could take days.
Mark
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