When you run a small company, you spend most of the time justifying why you are small.  In years past, people would wonder why a company would choose that path – why NOT be big – this is America and bigger historically has been perceived as desirable.  Scroll forward to Q2, 2009 and see how many companies are touting their “bigness” – it feels wrong for this economy.

I read a great article about Jim Collins (author of “Built to Last” and “Good to Great”) this past Sunday in the NYT Sunday Business section, entitled “For This Guru No Question Is Too Big.”  A few points in the article really struck me – Jim was asked by his mentor, Peter F. Drucker, if he wanted to build ideas first and foremost – if so, Peter counseled Jim not to  build a big organization, because all he’d end up doing is managing it.  Jim chose to kept his overhead down and his staff small and focused on the ideas – ergo, small is beautiful.

I think Margaret Mead said it best:  “Never underestimate that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world, indeed it’s the only thing that ever has.”

P.S.  We just met with a potential new client who pointed out in the meeting that we were there because we ARE small – further he said – we are small* , we want a small agency – small is better!

*If your idea of small is $3 billion, good for you!!

 Talked to a long time industry pal, who has been around the interactive mulberry bush a few times.  He was telling me a story of how he was starting to feel like the village “old man” – because any time his colleagues  with less experience than he got confronted with a problem, they tended to wring their hands, panic, then realize, “hey, we can go ask the old man, he’ll know what to do!”  So, they all come tromping into his office, seeking his advice – once given, they scornfully say, “that old man doesn’t know anything!”

But, grasshopper, he does.  The pharma industry goes hot and cold on healthcare professionals – for a while, they were our sun, our moon, our reason for being.  Then came DTC and we wooed the consumer – ah, here comes the kick in the pants.  The consumers think we are liars – and pretty much hawkers of drugs for faux diseases and if you see the TV ads, you kinda have to agree (I saw the latest one and just had to roll my eyes) and we realize DTC is going to drastically change or go away.  OH NO – okay, back to the docs – but we are eliminating reps and we have given them (at best) secondary positioning on our brand sites – it’s been like a “Where’s Waldo” or “Find the Pope in the Pizza” game – see if you can find the healthcare professional link on this site!!

We have an opportunity to make it right – doctors are looking to us for the latest information and updates and samples – let’s not let them down this time.  They deserve better.

Great article in this week’s New Yorker, “How David Beats Goliath” by Malcolm Gladwell. Quote, “When underdogs choose not to play by Goliath’s rules, they win.” The article is about how to compete when you’re playing the role of David. The gist of the article is that you can’t compete using the same strategy as “the big guys”, you have to use your guile, smarts and most importantly, different tactics than the expected norm.  This is definitely true for One Eleven. When it comes to sales pitches, we can’t show up with 3 lawyers from our Los Angeles office, two VP’s of Somethings, etc and a $50,000 presentation. No, we have to attack the issue of getting our point across differently. If not, the client is comparing apples to apples and their apple is always going to be bigger and redder. Now, when it comes to the whole orchard, that’s a different story….