“If the late 20th Century was the age of the multinational company, the early 21st will be the age of the micro multinational: small companies that operate globally”
I found this great quote on Neil Perkin’s ‘Only Dead Fish’. It’s a statement from Hal Varian, Google Chief Economist and I can only like what I see here. It supports our own opinion (at Duval Guillaume) that you don’t need to be huge or have offices around the whole world to be able to service clients globally.
A recent Policy Brief from the Lisbon Council states:
“Traditionally, these small, self-starting, service-driven companies would have been described as small- and medium- sized enterprises, or SMEs, but thanks to the Internet, the emergence of new business platforms and the increased openness of the global economy, these companies can enter markets with a minimum of bureaucracy and overhead. Add to that their unparalleled ability to respond promptly to changing market developments, a collaborative DNA that often translates into superior innovation performance and the lack of the institutional inertia and legacy relationships plaguing larger organizations, and one begins to see the transformative and paradigm-changing potential.”
According the brief the big paradigm shifts that are taking place making all this happen are:
- Most jobs are created by young companies and start-ups
- Today technology makes it possible for small companies to gain the reach and traction of big companies at very low cost
- New platforms and online business services are making it easier for small companies to focus on areas where they add value
- Internationalization – the key to success for almost all contemporary businesses, large and small – is easier to achieve via the Internet
- Today’s workforce has changing priorities
- Experienced and highly skilled individuals are setting out in record numbers to work for themselves
Yet another reason why the future looks bright.
'Cross The Breeze 