Bigger organizations are not always better.
Making more money is a goal of most businesses. This usually means hiring more employees and acquiring other companies. Unrestrained growth seems to be the goal.
However, there are several issues with unrestrained growth.
- Earth has finite resources. Therefore, unrestrained growth is not sustainable. True, humanity may eventually live on other planets, perhaps even ones that go around other stars. Still, that’s not going to eliminate the need for resource management.
- There is a limit to how many social connections humans are able to maintain. This is known as Dunbar’s number. Whether the actual number tends to be closer to 150 or 300 doesn’t matter. We tend to work better together in organizations that are not too large. Malcolm Gladwell talks about this in The Tipping Point.
- Diversity of thought matters. The larger an organization gets, the more homogenous it’s members tend to become (at least within the context of the organization). This limits our potential, both individually and collectively. My thoughts again turn to Herbert Marcuse’s One-Dimensional Man.
- Competition is good for consumers. As companies become monopolies, they tend to raise prices for their goods and services. Companies that are too large also have too much political influence in a society.
- Finally, I want to live in a world where small organizations can thrive. Interacting with many companies and organizations makes life more interesting and our society more robust!
I also want different organizations to do a better job getting along together, but that’s a topic for another day.
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