M is different - but how different?

Medium organisations are different from small or large ones. How, asks Jyoti Banerjee? Check out this table from M Institute.

I recently wrote a guest column for Vinnie Mirchandani's blog, Deal Architect, on medium organisations. Although Vinnie's blog has a global audience, and my research is UK-based, it was interesting to receive comments and emails about the applicability of the UK findings to other countries. It seems that the match in ideas between the US and UK extends well beyond foreign policy (OK I admit it, its not a match - the UK slavishly copies US policy...). When it comes to M organisations, the challenges and obstacles faced by business leaders in the UK seem to map pretty well to those experienced in the US.

Much of the research on M organisations talks about how they are different from S organisations. This is primarily due to the SME label that conjoins small and medium organisations. But another valid question is to ask how they differ from M organisations. This is particularly important in the IT context, as most enterprise IT providers are pretty poor at understanding M organisations, or at selling to them.

As part of an ongoing study I am involved with at M Institute, we have tabulated the differences that we have found between the three sizes of organisation. Check out this list and tell me what you think.

Clearly, not every business will fit these arbitrary buckets. What we are looking for is behavioural performance. If the weight of answers for a particular business leans towards a particular category, then we should see the business from the perspective of that category - whatever its actual size may be.

Comments

[woodgate53]

Your table certainly appears in order to me. It illustrates the shift in needs from a small business to a medium business. As the small business grows to the M business good systems and processes are vital for control and efficiencies. They are also important as they can give management space and resources to assist growth.

Viewing the differences from a large company to a M demonstrates how imperative good people are to the M organisation.

[Jyoti Banerjee]

Philip, you have picked on a key challenge for M organisations: people. Finding them, sustaining them, growing their skills, developing their leadership potential,, etc etc. Every where I go, I find leaders of M businesses who invariably pick people as their biggest challenge.

[Philip Woodgate]

Hi Jyoti

I've also had that feedback from HR consultants in M's - recruiting and keeping the right staff is a real challenge.

P.S. In the lastest post on my blog you've got a compliment from an old collegue!