Organizing Principles

While there are many one line wonders in this little gem, overall I found there to be one unspoken assumption underlying the entire book:

“All companies should be small”

The authors never came out and said it, but statements like these say it all:

• “[Big companies] talk instead of act. They meet instead of do.”
• “You can afford to teach, and that’s something [Big Companies] will never do.”
• “Do you have a Marketing department? If not, good.”

As a side-effect the book seems confused about who its target reader is. At times is seems to be written for entrepre- oops I mean “starters” and at other times they seems to be speaking to broader audience.

For instance, the advice to “never hire anyone to do a job until you’ve tried to do it yourself first” makes sense for a person starting a company, but for a manager joining an existing company this makes no sense. All of the jobs existed before she got there!  

The principle behind this statement makes sense: “Know the reality of your business before delegating it.” Lean Manufacturing points at this with the saying, “Go. Look. See.” 37Signal’s articulation of the principle shows their bias. 

I appreciate the book’s trend-bucking of startup companies’ backwards orientation with chapters like “Outside money is Plan Z” and “Building to flip is building to flop”. I also found their essays “Start at the epicenter” and “Be at-home good” helpful for thinking about how to identify real business value.

However, I found that when the authors tried to generalize their experience to the realm of “big companies” they would rely on superficial stereotypes and come up short. I sent them an email to try to ask more about this. I hope to hear back from them soon.

Hey Guys,

Just finished Rework and have a couple questions for you. The book paints a pretty stark (black and white?) contrast between “Big companies” and small ones. My reading of it would be something like “Big are all boring and inefficient and nasty, and small companies are all green field potential (so don’t f**k it up and be like a Big company!)”. Is this something you really believe?

Do you believe that small is always better than large? Or is there another axis of thought that I’m missing? 

I’m on board with the fact that most big companies grew-up during the industrial revolution and tried to turn people into cogs, which turned out to suck. But what I’m curious about is whether you have given any thought to how big companies might not suck? 

I understand that you’ve chosen to keep 37 signals small, and Rework reflects your own experience. Do you see anything that might help point big companies in the right direction? Any insight on how the principles behind Rework might play at their level of scale?

Or is Rework simply a cookbook for others to pick up and and use to answer that themselves?

Evan

For an interesting read from someone who has worked at big companies, try this post: Big Companies Can Innovate, if they Act Small