Every megacorporation started with creative, capable people who weren’t afraid to take risks, but growth often brings bureaucracy, which is notoriously resistant to innovation. Growing a company while maintaining that initial innovative spark might feel impossible, but in his new book, Smaller Is Better, Brady Brim-DeForest shows you how.
For executives looking to guide their businesses through today’s turbulent landscape, the central thesis of Smaller Is Better may be a surprising revelation.
Brim-DeForest argues that when companies move away from traditional, centralized “top-down” decision-making and toward the implementation of small, self-directed, project-based teams, they can revive the spirit of innovation while remaining supremely adaptable.
One of the most important ideas of Smaller Is Better is that of the small, empowered team. Brim-DeForest says that by creating self-contained, cross-functional teams of people striving for the same goals, companies can prevent costly misunderstandings, encourage innovation, and ultimately deliver an improved client experience.
For example, imagine a company specializing in app development. Ordinarily, developers and user interface designers work closely with one another, but sales and marketing teams may not see the app until it’s completed.
In this scenario, the marketing team may not be able to gain the deep familiarity with the app that’s essential for strong marketing.
Now imagine the company uses Brim-DeForest’s idea of a small, empowered team. This team might include developers, user interface designers, cybersecurity experts, compliance officers, and sales and marketing staff.
Because team members are in constant communication throughout the development process, the company is far less likely to encounter misunderstandings between departments or run into unexpected issues with regulatory compliance or the logistics of marketing after the app has already been created.
When companies rely on small, autonomous teams, decision-making happens much faster, too. Over time, that leads to greater operational efficiency. And because employees have a greater sense of efficacy and empowerment, businesses that adopt this model almost always see improved employee retention.
This kind of decentralized approach is also a key part of helping businesses quickly adapt to changes in the market and other external forces. With a traditional bureaucratic structure, a business has a few decision-makers who aren’t necessarily on the front lines.
When people with decision-making power are closer to the outer edges of a business (as they are in Brim-DeForest’s model), issues can be noticed and rectified quickly — making it possible for even large companies to remain agile.
For Brim-DeForest, these ideas aren’t just theoretical. For 20 years, he’s served as a consultant for businesses of all sizes — from Fortune 10 companies to federal agencies to small startups. He helps leaders move away from monolithic, traditional structures and toward modern, ultra-efficient organizations.
As a founder of Monks and Managing Partner at Late Stage Capital, Brim-DeForest continues to work with global companies, but he wrote Smaller Is Better in hopes of democratizing the solutions he’s discovered.
The business landscape may be an uncertain one, but when a company decentralizes decision-making and shifts responsibility to small, competent teams, it can be prepared for almost anything.