Fast Company-September l999 'The State of the New Economy: Martin Sorreli' by William C. Taylor Page 227 Nathan Johnson

This article looks at how businesses compete globally and what is affecting the competition. A man named Martin Sorreli has a company, which deals with management consulting and is very successful financially. He feels the success of competition is highly correlated to the Americanization of the companies, which is where most Internet knowledge is being created.

Even though his company, WPP, is based in London, he operates it in New York because of its many advantages of being based in the U.S. Because of the increased population predictions in Asian countries, he feels a successful business still needs to compete globally, however.

He feels many of the big successful companies should not be arrogant since competition is still a factor. He also wonders if the companies could possibly defeat themselves if they become 'too big' with expansion too quickly. In this case, the competition would not destroy the company, but the company would be its own worst enemy if it becomes unmanageable as it expands. It is possible that they may become what so many other mega companies become. They may become slow, lazy, bureaucratic, and not responsive to the consumer.

In these extremely large companies he feels the people in the 'bottom' positions should still be able to make important decisions and that they see firsthand what the CEOs do not see. The small companies are able to do this more readily which helps them to be ingenious and flexible. It's a challenge for both sizes of companies to function at a big and small level since there are advantages to both.

To help improve the internal communications of the large companies, it seems to be most successful if small units are formed to allow a more "human" operation. The interaction between employees is very important to the health of any company.

I feel these small units are important even in the University system. I feel the moral, attitudes, and ideas are developed more effectively from a group of individuals where they are familiar with others. They have more pride in the workplace if they feel important and then they can make a difference to help improve the system.

-- Anonymous, September 09, 1999