Big Corporate Apathy & Why Entrepreneurs Think Things Suck

You will not learn anything new from this post, everything about it is common sense. On the other hand, there are a lot of smart people out there with no common sense at all. Then there are a lot of people who either have never worked in a real big company or worse, got out of a real big company and had marginal success with their little business that they lose perspective of how big companies and more importantly, how big company employees work. The longer that marginal success lasts, the unhappier the little company becomes with the love it gets from the big company. Why?

Let me tell you a story of a guy from a few groups I read, a guy who had obviously ended up where he is at because he couldn’t get along with his coworkers and didn’t keep his skills sharp enough to get a new job when everyone got fed up with his incompetence and arrogance. This guy ended up somewhere on the bottom and crawled just high enough to reach a keyboard so he can spend his days in front of a monitor whining about how nobody loves him, how his Action Pack isn’t arriving on time, how his Action Pack didn’t come with all the CD’s, how Microsoft is unfair with the SBSC program, how Microsoft with $50 billion/quarter in revenues needs to spend a lot of it to make his $120/quarter-in-licensing-business more profitable, how Microsoft doesn’t love him, how nobody loves him.. sniff.

Almost brings a tear to our eye, doesn’t it? Ok, no, it doesn’t, but its the similar line of thinking that diludes a lot of people into thinking that because they are hard working and visionary gamblers (maybe risk takers sounds better?) that everyone else is. That because they are willing to drop everything to help and even bend their rules and policies for a greater good, everyone else ought to, too! Or, if they are a tad more reasonable they adopt the “change influencing feedback” and talk to the wall for years because they don’t understand big company dynamics, employees and motivation.

How are BIG company employees different from Entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurs are willing to forgo the immediate gratification and safety for a big payoff in the future.

Employees are seeking the highest possible immediate payoff with the least amount of hassle.

There are thousands and thousands of ways you can over-analyze the difference but at the end of the day thats all there is to it. Employees take no risk and they know all the returns. Entrepreneurs take (sometimes) calculated risks for an unknown but hopefully huge returns down the road.

How do you get huge returns? By being flexible, open to change and ideas, optimistic, through sacrifice, hard work, self-motivating, etc. You put in long hours, you deal with people you probably wouldn’t deal with if you could, you’re willing to work under different conditions day in and day out, you accept, embrace and cause change. You keep on trying, and trying, and trying to find the change that will get you to the big payoff faster.

Now, if you’re a BIG company employee, how do you get huge returns? You don’t, you’ve got two numbers you need to hit: one to keep your job, the other to get a bonus/promotion. Thats it. No need to change. No need to sacrifice. No need to get to the payoff faster. You just mind your place, your performance and over time you move up higher up the chain. And if you don’t, you get another job.

The Core of Employee

Big company, small company, it doesn’t matter. Let’s talk about employees alone. They are in it for the now. They get the security that their job will not change day to day. They get the security that their pay will not change week to week. They get the security of knowing what their health insurance coverage is, what their pension plan will be, when they will be able to afford a new iPod, when to take that next vacation with the peace of mind that they can be away from everything and not a thing will go wrong while they are gone.

So their incentive to go against the grain and challenge the policies, their bosses or other peoples bosses is slim to none. Their incentive to work harder than they ought to hit their numbers is not there either, sometimes it even works in the opposite direction – “if I kill this month the boss will up my goal for next quarter and there is no way I am going to be able to hit that number, let me defer this deal”;

Motivation? Management? Over 50 years ago Abraham Maslow published the Maslows Hierarchy of Needs, which tries to explain the motivation and how workers can be motivated differently depending on how some of their basic needs are covered. Ironically, he did his research on rhesus monkeys..

So what does the pyramid say? Well, it looks at the needs a person has as they go from the very basic biological and physiological needs for survival (food, water) all the way to self-actualization, finding the meaning of life, etc. It stands that at each stage different incentives can be offered to help the person reach that next stage in life.

So what motivates corporate employees? Well, there are your basic needs such as free soda and occasional company lunch. Then there are safety needs, that is likely a cubicle with three walls – so here they are motivated by having their own office. Then there are needs related to belongingness and love – being on a successful team that takes care of each other, that is respected by others, that gets some cohesion. Then we climb into the esteem needs, the corporate awards, promotions, big titles for even the most unessential of employees (ever notice how companies call their riff-raff sales people “product, project, business development, managers even though they manage essentially no one?). Step up to the final stage, that of realizing your potential (shooting everyone in the office, burning down the building, etc)

Thats at least the theory. So, what motivates that lowest of an employee who though his or her inexperience has the unfortunate misery of dealing with your whiny butt? To get as far away from you as possible, of course. How? By making you as happy as possible so you hand over as much money as possible so they can get as quick of a promotion as possible! It’s that simple. In corporate environments everyone starts at the bottom. Very bottom. If they have any brains, they are promoted, quickly.

Are they going to go up to their superiors and tell them everything they do is wrong – heck no, they don’t want to get fired. Are they going to violate their employment contract or company policy – and get fired? Are they going to try out different things for a few quarters, just to see what might really pay off eventually? Why? God willing things look good and I get to move over to that other team, lord just give me the strength not to kill the bastard in the next cubicle for four more weeks and I’m on the easy street!

And therein lies the core benefit of employment – that if you are unhappy for whatever reason you can with very limited risk find a different job elsewhere.

Entrepreneurs don’t get this.

Everything written above is an outright spit in the face of the entrepreneurial spirit. Entrepreneur does not and will not comprehend the lack of motivation, lack of incentive, lack of.. I mean, for the love of god, they do the same shit every single day and they don’t rip their heads out?!? I could never do th..

But just as you’re sounding that last word out, consider just how much stability YOU demand from the really big company. You never want them to change. How happy are you when the bank you rely on goes through a magical transformation that doubles your fees. Or when your phone company gets bought up and the service you now get falls apart. Or having to deal with another person where you already established a relationship with ….

Starting to get it now? Those are your safety needs, your reliability requirement so you can continue to grow your business without things underneath you constantly changing without your explicit consent.

So how do we work together…

The major cause of unhappiness between entrepreneurs and big company employees is in their lack of understanding for each other. Entrepreneur wants the big company employee to change their company so it can serve the entrepreneur better. The big company employee wants the entrepreneur to be the asset that makes their key performance indicators go up. The two are in direct conflict with each other, and frankly impossible.

So.. back to the agrarian society and bartering?

No, through tolerance. Through understanding what motivates each other and how to best form a relationship based on understanding. But, lets consider ignorance first – if the big company employee screws the entrepreneur, the entrepreneur will find another company to deal with. If the entrepreneur screws the big company employee they will get a new job, stop doing their current job to the fullest potential, take a 2 week vacation during the entrepreneurs busy season or put their entire focus on another entrepreneur who has their best interest at heart.

So.. how do we all win?

Through give and take. You like what that big company employee is doing for you? Understand their needs. Write to their boss and tell them what they have done for you. Tell others why they need to work with the big company employee. Understand where the big company employee needs to go and help them get there. Same goes for the big company employee. Understand your entrepreneurs needs and where they want to go. Try to give them the direction the big company is taking and how they can meet their need – the big payoff. When the really big company employee does something remarkable for the entrepreneur, that entrepreneur is closer to their payoff. So that entrepreneur better be cognizant of the fact that the big company employee wants to be happy too – so make them happy. Life is beautiful! Until there is a problem. Neither side can go far in either direction – entrepreneur can’t take the risk, the employee can’t get fired. So they lie to each other – “Oh, we’re going to get that done in FY08” or “I have a huge deal I am working on” or “I’ve been in meetings all week to resolve that problem” or “We’re too swamped to look at that new offer you guys have” (because we’re trying to take all our business to the other big company)..

When companies (be it entrepreneur or big company employee) go out of their way to BS one another the whole system falls apart and neither wins. When companies work together, understand each others motivations and needs, everyone has a chance to win. The key is tolerance and understanding.

How ridiculously simple is that?