I remember sitting in my manager’s office in 1980 after just having completed a successful consulting assignment at the State Department in Washington, D.C. As I eagerly awaited my next job, Dave, my manager, canvassed pages of open assignments. He mentioned a consulting opportunity at Pan Am (for you younger folks, it was a major airline back in the ’80s); I thought it was a dream come true.
As a consultant, you anticipate that one assignment would eventually turn into a permanent position. I imagined the perks of working for an airline: unlimited travel to exotic locales; a bounty of delectable airline food (which was quite good in those days). I was already charting a course and ordering my first meal when the sound of Dave’s voice yanked me back into reality. He told me there were two negatives to this assignment:
1. They were still using punch cards
2. Since the operations were unionized, I had to play by union rules
The second negative was a nonissue. Once a proud member of the New York City teacher’s union, I could deal with a union shop. So the decision came down to punch cards vs. airline food. “Okay, I’m in,” I enthusiastically told Dave, ready to begin my career in this exciting industry.
Unfortunately, working as a contract programmer at a large company like Pan Am turned out to be more of a challenge than I thought. I lasted only two weeks.
My first incident involved a 20 punch card limit. Programmers were only allowed to punch a maximum of 20 cards per day, after that you were required to submit your coding sheets to a key punch operator. I had reached my limit by noon and all key punch operator personnel were out to lunch. I kept punching. End result: first violation.
The second violation happened after work hours when just about everyone had gone home. I sent a listing to the printer and waited for someone to grab it. You see, only operations personnel were allowed to burst listings and put them in cubby holes. But seeing my listing on the printer, just staring me in the face, was too much for me to bear. Knowing it was after hours and operations personnel were on skeleton crew assignments it could be hours before someone would get to it, I went for the printout. Yet again, another rule caught up with me.
That was it; my career at Pan Am was over with two, relatively minor, violations! So much for unlimited travel and tasty cuisine.
In working at Pan Am and a few other large corporations, I started to feel their rules and procedures cuffed my productivity. For me, it is far better to work for a small- to mid-sized company for several reasons.
1. Direct Impact on the Bottom Line
In a small-to mid-sized business, each employee contributes to the success of the company and, most importantly, feels that way. Whether you are a developer writing code, QA analyst testing releases or a customer support representative helping clients, you know your work is critical and everyone in the organization notices it.
2. Everyone is a Star
There really is no place to hide in a smaller shop. If you cannot carry your weight, your underperformance will be noticed. Whether it is a lack of ability or a poor attitude, your career will be a short one. On the positive side, as a viable employee you know the person to your right and to your left is competent, dedicated and will get the job done.
3. Agility
I don’t mean the software development methodology we use at MediClick. When I say agility, I mean the ability to quickly adjust to customer demands and market conditions. Decisions to change product direction can be made quickly without layers upon layers of corporate structure to get through.
A case in point occurred at MediClick several years ago. Marketing approached senior management with a need to develop a contract management application for our SaaS suite that complemented our financial and supply chain products, which had been successfully developed and deployed over the last seven years. Senior management, architects and developers held an offsite meeting. That full day meeting resulted in a decision to pursue the development of this new product line. The next day we laid the foundation and started the project.
These reasons highlight why I feel small- to mid-size companies are often more effective. On the other hand, one might argue that a large corporation offers security and longevity. So what? That security comes with a few corporate rules you have to live with. It’s worth it, right?
My rejoinder to that argument is a single word: Enron.
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