Yesterday, a colleague was telling me an exciting story of a company that was embarking on a plan to break into an emerging market. The company he described was a components manufacturer. Like every company today, they are challenged by the current economic climate. Like everyone else, they are concerned about the sustainability of their business in this new business reality. However, rather than following Lemming, Inc. off the cliff of retracting investment in the future, this company has made a strategic decision to make their future today.
This company looked inward to understand their core competencies and outward to understand the market and economic macro trends. From that understanding, they have identified a new opportunity space. They are now moving forward with a product and business model innovation program that will put them squarely in a new market and simultaneously reclassify them as a different type of business.
It is an exciting story made even more interesting when we understand that this company consists of only twenty five employees and is completely self-funded. This company is not alone in its desire to find new channels of opportunity. But we often hear people lament that their company can’t embark on the path of innovation because they are too small or lack venture backing. Yet, here we have a proof point that size needn’t be a constraint on innovation. Small companies have certain strengths that they can leverage to help them along the way—agility, focus, team affinity, management engagement.
Of course, this parable contains a message for the big guys, too. When small companies are driving innovation all around you market eco-system, how long can you afford to hunker down and try and simply wait out the storm? You can’t. Such misplaced confidence will only ensure that one day in the not too distant future you realize that someone else has eaten your lunch.
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