Corporate culture and the advantages of being small

I just read a very interesting essay in this month’s Atlantic Monthly about corporate culture.  The article points out the importance of culture within an organization and the difficulty of changing it once it is established.  Maybe this is old news to those of you who actually went to business school, but it’s a great insight for science/engineering geeks like me.  I keep wondering why large companies can’t see the advantage of my technology, which would be a game changer for them.  Perhaps they have too much invested in the old technology to change gears.  Perhaps those in charge of looking for new technology can’t justify anything too new to their own superiors.  And maybe, they are so hidebound in their own thinking that disruptive technology is downright scary. 

Whatever the explanation, it means that as my company grows and is large enough to develop its own culture (maybe there’s already a little of that?), I’m going to have to be vigilant that my thinking doesn’t start to run in already worn grooves.  In particular, I need to have people working for me who can stand up and tell me that I’m not considering all the angles. 

I should only have these high-class problems!