WorkWise: The appeal of small companies

(Editor's note: This is part of a two-part series on careers in small and large companies.)

Larger companies may well be losing their glow, according to a white paper by Hale Cochran, executive adviser at Polachi, an executive search firm in Framingham, Mass.

Polachi has placed approximately 1,000 senior executives -- about 50 percent of its successful candidates -- in small companies. Cochran maintains that this market trend is more favorable than when the Internet bubble burst.

Two individuals with no connection to the search firm reflect the trend. Mick Gilbert is vice president, Strategy and Business Development, at Global Green Solutions Inc., headquartered in Vancouver, B.C. Gilbert is developing a market for products and services that will reduce global warming. His previous company had 35,000 employees worldwide; Global Solutions has 25 employees from Johannesburg to Vancouver.

Esther LaBovick practices law at LaBovick & LaBovick P.A., in Jupiter, Fla., where she specializes in personal injury, wrongful death and false claims. Her last organization had 1,000 employees; her current one has 20.

Environment

Both now work in completely different environments. The home office Gilbert uses in White Plains, N.Y., is right where he needs it to travel. The content of his work is very different, too. He worked in strategy ("I was a back-office guy") at the larger organization. Now, he says, his skills and responsibilities are "aligned with the (central) activities of the business. I'm in energy and environmental business strategy in an energy and environmental company. I'm in the core of value creation here."

LaBovick seems to have had had her hands tied in her previous organization. Her staff was large and, because the company was strong financially, she didn't have to worry about costs. Still, she reported to the company's board of directors and couldn't implement a legal decision without the approval of non-lawyers. Worse than that, she says, "I had very little autonomy and could not make any decisions on my own." She describes her current situation as "somewhere in the middle," permitting her to make decisions but lacking significant resources, human or financial. Now she can tackle a problem immediately rather than wait for approval from a bureaucracy. Her approach to her basic work is clearly different: "I pick and choose which cases we handle and my caseload." She's paid on contingency by private individuals -- very different from her previous non-profit, where she received a salary, regardless of case outcome, and where clients were corporate.

Bottom Line

Gilbert describes his change as strategic, enabling him to "do something different and differently." Both he and LaBovick are intimately involved in the details of their work. Gilbert mentions that when something goes wrong with technology, he can't call someone in IT to fix it. While they both use the phrase "more hands-on" to describe their work, Gilbert comments, "You end up doing things as a great learning opportunity. There's no one's turf to step on."

The two also agree with the white paper that there are:

-- Fewer established procedures (Global Green is still developing them).

-- Increased P&L responsibility (current or projected) and cross-functional involvement.

-- Greater involvement with the board of directors and external parties.

However, they differ on doing more internal selling, which Gilbert does, to get ideas through the system. "Our company is early-stage. We're going from a concept developed in a lab and we're trying to convert that to a commercial opportunity." LaBovick has greater latitude to act without discussion.

One interesting feature of smaller companies that Gilbert, LaBovick and the white paper never mention is that of quirkiness. Larger companies seem to stifle individuality more; smaller ones, draw it out.

LaBovick "doesn't miss anything" in her old company. Gilbert confesses to having found the correct spot for himself: "I feel that my entire brain and capabilities are being engaged," but he misses the socialization that came through work.

Nonetheless, he adds, "This is what I should be doing. I'm not looking back."

Dr. Mildred Culp, an award-winning journalist, also writes two syndicated columns -- WorkWise Interactive, on youth employment, and the classic WorkWise, on emerging workplace trends. Contact her at 708-672-1300 or culp@workwise.net. Copyright 2007 Passage Media.