Advantage: Small Business

I just noticed a great post by Toronto venture capitalist Rick Segal on his Post-Money Valuation blog last month that aptly demonstrates just why small business beats big business in the long run.

I’ll do my best to summarize the post, entitled Expenses - Doing Right vs. "The Policy."

Segal says a CFO recently asked him to review the expense-reimbursement section of his new employee handbook. While it was well written and detailed, Segal says it was also much too formal and corporate.

He suggested scrapping the whole thing and telling people to use common sense.

• "We need to work as a team to make sure we can hit the home run (grand slam) with the capital we’ve been given. It means watching the nickels cuz they add up to dollars.
  "Coach airfare, duh, smallest car, duh, share cars, duh, cheap meals, duh, best western, duh, skype vs. cell, duh.And that’s just the warm-up.
  "Everybody needs to look at every single expense and reduce it."

If you can break employees' feeling of entitlement, and establish trust instead, writes Segal, “you'll be amazed at how little you will have to worry about this stuff. People are generally good.”
Read the full post here.