Not everyone is being affected by the economic downturn. In fact, this is the time when the tough get going. Or in this context, the small get going.

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Being small is not always bad. Sometimes it allows you to adapt faster than any big corporation can. This has led to the popular phrase ‘Elephants can’t dance’. Jim Champy, author of Re engineering the Corporation has now written another book Outsmart, which describes how small companies are surviving in these times.

Take Control in your Own Hands

Special Application Robotics was deeply in debt when Michael Cappello took over the company as CEO and co owner in 2001. One of the first changes he made, was to take back all the core company jobs that were being outsourced. The logic being, that you don’t hand over your success to anyone else.

The company produced highly specialized and customized robots that performed dangerous tasks, and had to be manufactured with high precision. Cappello felt that these cannot be outsourced to providers who can hold the company to ransom. “I can’t subject myself to being a victim. If I promise a customer a delivery, I don’t want it to depend on some subcontractor coming through with his piece of it,” he said.

So the lesson is ‘Take Control of your core processes’