Welcome to another article on one way to look at. This article is about how becoming big dilutes the core purpose of why we started in the first place.
I am an avid movie watcher like many of us. I could say when you hear the word – “corporate” you will instantly get a subtle negative vibe especially if you are a South Indian movie watcher. The antagonist (mostly a corporate head) wants to grab land from innocent villagers for some air-polluting industry or along similar lines.
When I ask myself why people hate corporate? Most of the answers lie in the same scenes – “Illegal/Immoral behavior, Money/Power over values, Bad working environment, No green practices, Suppressing criticism, etc”. This is where the actual question comes in – Were they the same from the beginning?
Nope. They all started with the required zeal and real goal at first. Take anything – from a tech company to any political party in the world. They all started as change makers, future-looking companies for a better world, and eventually ended up as big corporates trying not to lose control going any extent they can.
These examples are everywhere, Google’s tagline, when it started, was – “Don’t be evil” which originally meant – “Don’t let advertisers buy the top links in your web search”. Everybody knows the search situation today. Oneplus started as a niche phone company offering features and specs targeting certain groups of people. No one could have bought a Oneplus phone without a member referral, forums were active and fixes were quick. They kept growing until they became “Corporate” losing the whole feel of the product and becoming just one more Oppo. The co-founder left the company eventually and started Nothing similar to the way Oneplus started.
It’s not just tech, let’s talk about political parties. When BJP in India came to power in 2014, ending Dynast Politics was one of the core promises of the party. But now before even the second term of power ends, the same party started offering tickets to dynast politicians for holding on to power in many recent assembly elections. This same party was known for discipline and commitment apparently ending up as every other political party as it is becoming big.
One thing is for sure when we are growing – people joining might not share the same strong belief or trust the core principles of the company. It becomes a time vs size debate at the end of the day. If you want to grow quickly, you will eventually need to forget more, but if you want everyone to stick to the original principles and values – you might never become big, as it takes a lot of time to find people sharing the same values as other employees.
This article is incomplete without this dialogue which you might have anticipated already. Remember what Joker said – “You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain”. I was just trying to make the same point more or less.
Peace!
engineeringvsme 