What Big Companies Can Learn From Startups

Mike Krass • May 15, 2012 • 2 minutes to read

So, what's the advantage of operating your company like a startup?

In my opinion, there are three distinct advantages:

Startups have the ability to pull the trigger and act quickly. A few examples include:

Decision Making Timelines: Startups literally don't have time to waste -- every moment they waste brings them one step closer to running out of cash. Startups make decisions out of necessity in order to continue taking positive steps toward achieving their goal(s).
Fewer Moving Parts: As Jason Fried wrote in Rework, your company will never be a) smaller, and b) more nimble than it is at its inception. Embrace the fact that you have fewer moving parts and are able to quickly and efficiently make decisions.

As we mentioned above, startups have to make decisions to continue making progress. With that in mind, startups clearly understand that...

Nothing is Permanent: Guess what? Decisions can be made to reverse poor choices that were previously made! Nothing is final, so stop acting like your brand can't pivot based upon real-time results of your decisions!
Pivoting: On that note, startups are able to pivot in order to be more successful. Pivot your target audience, product offering, company mission ... the list is endless!

Employees become trigger men (and women): Startups have to place faith in their employees -- they must hire productive workers that buy in 100% to the companies mission and will give 110% to help make that vision a reality. With this in mind, they are empowered to make a lot of decisions on the fly and must be creative to get things done.
Employees love their work: Because you've empowered your employees to make decisions and be independently successful within your company, they begin to love their work. Hell, it's their work that you've given them the power to make decisions and act on! Embrace this!

What do you think -- did I miss anything important?