Hidden champions - small and medium sized companies
MBA News Barbara Barkhausen / 02-06-2012
Small and medium sized companies have often been overlooked by job seekers in the past as they can’t offer the same salaries at the start as the big corporations. This initial downside, however, turns itself around quickly, as employees can advance their careers much quicker.
Photo: Gerd Altmann / pixelio
Usually they take on more responsibility early on, as decisions get made quicker and it is easier for employees to learn company structures and strategies more efficiently. Smaller and medium sized companies also often offer a more personal atmosphere – as people tend to know each other. Not everyone is made to work in a small to medium sized company, though. Employees need to be quite entrepreneurial as decisions often have to be made independently and achievements or failures are more visible. Smaller and medium sized companies also demand more flexibility from employees and a willingness to attend to tasks outside of their professional experience. Executives in those smaller companies also need excellent communication skills and emotional intelligence as they need to be able to communicate with experienced executives from corporate clients as well as with an employee in a production facility.
Many students these days favour smaller companies. A survey conducted by the German consultancy Kienbaum amongst 300 students in 2010 showed that 60 per cent of the questioned young people preferred smaller companies to big corporates.
Source:
Spiegel
