The Importance of Mindset

Several days ago, I wrote a blog called David vs. Goliath I.T. Tactics, where I discussed some strategies for a small company to compete against much larger I.T. resources of their competitors.

Fresh from a link on the Signal vs Noise blog, comes an interview with Jason Freid, President of 37signals. 37signals is a small (8 person) software company that builds easy to use applications for project management, to do lists, chat and the like. They have over 1,000,000 customers.

They see small as being a big advantage.

Jason makes several great points that guide their busness philosophy. While watching this video, it struck me that perhaps his greatest tool against being small, is his mindset. He sees small as an advantage and doesn't measure success by the number of employees (exactly the opposite!)

Some of the takeaways from the video.

1. Keep business structure loose.
2. No long term planning (no one ever gets it right anyway - stay in the 30-90 day zone).
3. Increase influence not headcount. Making a big influence is better than making a big payroll (my words).
4. Proximity kills productivity. Large teams, co-located tend to interrupt more than help each other, in Jason's experience. Half of their staff (4 people) are entirely remote.
5. Compete against FREE by providing products with value (that people are willing to pay for).
6. Don't limit your talent pool by geography.

And perhaps the best advice.

7. You don't have to be a big company to do big things. (The internet levels the playing field and allows you to be discovered - allows you the customer reach that once required huge investment by big companies.)

Perhaps 37signals' biggest competitive weapon is their mindset.