Climbing Everest

The old way :
- Build a big team (Minimum one hundred people)
- Bring a ton of food and material
- Wait for months before reaching the summit
- Don't take risks

The new way :
- Small team with commando spirit (10 people is enough)
- The lighter the better
- Speed is the key factor
- Use latest technlogies

If the world is your playground, take a look at skype and
how they became a world wide company in less than a
year.

There is extreme programming.
Some people are talking about extreme democracy.
Let's start talking about extreme management ?

Comments

[John S Flowers]

Om Malik, in his article called "The New Road to Riches" talks specifically about this. ( Om Malik's article ) Others (such as Paul Feld, of Mobius Ventures) are also advocates of the build small, win big model.

Even Paul Graham, author of "Hackers and Painters" wrote a recent article about this topic called "What the Bubble got right." ( Paul Graham's article )

Even my own company, kozoru, is focused on a small, skunkworks-like group of technologists building a platform and licensing it Inktomi-style to others. We have no interest in building a large corporate with a huge runway and taking in too much cash and too many people to get the plane off the ground.

The only question I have is this, "Is this the *new* way or is it simply another retro way of doing things raising it's head?"

In my mind, there were a ton of companies being built this way in the late 80s and early 90s, before the drunk-at-the-punchbowl dot com thing happened. Then everyone decided to "go big or go home" - which didn't work too well. Now we're back to basics.

Same as a lot of 70s/80s companies who were gobbled by larger players along the way.

Just my 2 pence.

[Darryl Stringer]

That's terrific! Thankyou.
We're a small company trying to work amongst the big companies, and sometimes it feels like we're out of our league. But we will succeed because we are going with "the new way", and we're growing.

[Laurent Bervas]

I totally agree with you, John. I experienced the start-up age, when everything was possible.

The difference is that today, more than ever, everything IS possible. The (business) plans for reaching the summit are available, and the customers are ready for new businesses. Just remember Skype, Google, eBay, etc. ...

[ERYCK PAUL MAYANJA]

Chameleone is a very good and famous Artist and so any one should jsut appreciate his contribution to Africa.Call me Eryck Paul Mayanja