DOES SIZE MATTER?
Hari Vimalesh
Ex - Co-founder YuYk Corporation | Ex-Zoho - Business head- Business strategy
Imagine a Peterbuilt Motors Inc truck hauling 20 tonne goods tavelling at comfortable 50 mph from LA to Seattle. The truck driver is so very used to the route and kmows every stop motel on the way and knows where to stop for food and fuel. He's been doing the job for 19 years now. Some where near Portland there is a motorway accident, the road gets blocled and is redirected in a different route.
Not knowing this, the truck driver happily cruising at 50 mph and suddenly - BOOM. He sees a 'TAKE DIVERSION' sign. The driver sees this and is trying to break hard and turn his truck in the new direction. A sharp left turn at almost 60?. Those 8 tyres on the left side almost lifts off ground for a good 5 seconds and the remaining 8 tyres on the right side taking all the pressure. The experienced driver some how makes the turn and hell-shook by the incident, he stops the truck and tries to catch his breath. He gets down and gets to the back of his truck and opens the tunk gate. The goods that he was hauling for almost 1000 Miles is all messed up and damaged by the incident.
Now, there are 2 reasons for why this happening.
Any road we drive on, accidents are set to happen and avoiding them is not always an option.
REASON ONE
The driver was too used to the route and knows the drill at the back of his head and was not prepared for such an incident.
REASON TWO
Its pure physics. we have all known this since grade 7 at school. The forward momentum of the truck is so high that when it suddenly try to take a turn, the truck gets dragged in the direction that it was previously travelling in.
As all this was happening, there was a motorcyclist behind that same truck. He too sees the 'TAKE DIVERSION' sign board at the very last moment, but this motorcyclist didn't have to break a sweat to make this 60? turn.
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Now this elaborate analogy I gave above was to understand the problems that comes with SIZE.
Larger enterprises finds it so hard to make sudden changes in the organisation. There are so many moving parts that it practically makes it impossible to make quick decisions. You simply cannot bring a change in the process/ system. The levels of approals and reports to convice a boss who has to convice his boss who has to convice his boss.
We all know how strategy plays a huge role in Formula One. Each race, the car is designed specifically designed to suit the track and there is so much data involed prior to the teams to plan ahead. Tyre management- Pitstop strategy and what not. Old teams like Scuderia Ferrari and McLaren Racing work like clock-work, a well oiled old machine that know exactly what to do for each race. But the moment there is rain during a race they all go bonkers.
A company has to stay nible and agile even as the size grows from 5 member garage office to 100,000 people. Then and only then you will be able to make that sudden 60? turn without lifting off the tyres. But unfortunately every company in the Fortune 500 that was once a startup in a garage, a nible and agile motorcycle- have all become this 20 tonne truck.
I am looking for answers for the following:
-Is there a formula that doesnot allow the motorcyle into becoming a truck?
-If it's okay to be a truck, how does one prepare for the sudden 'TAKE DIVERSION' board?
-How does one make sure the goods in the truck is not damaged?
-Can the truck reach the destination on time with these 'TAKE DIVRESION' detours?
-DOES SIZE MATTER?