Think Big, Act Small ?

Sometimes to think big, you have to act small.

I read an article on BusinessWeek that mentioned this and I couldn't agree more with it. This was spoken in the context of Yahoo's renewed efforts to regain it's foothold in the search market place. Yahoo, a few years back was a technologists dream, but the fizz ran out faster than it started and the reason was Google? Not true..the reason lied within, as it always does..

It was because Yahoo became a "big" company and had lost it's passion to do better. When you are small, unknown and bubbling with ideas, all that you need is direction to become big and when you become big, the number of directions that you get makes it impossible for you to move!! Exactly what happened to Yahoo !! Google is still a little far from where Yahoo was and luckily they almost operate like a college (well, till now atleast technically..) to even be considered a company.

So, what do you do if you are Yahoo. You have to think the same way that you had been when you were small with all those heavenly aspirations. Yes, you have to think like a small company. Yahoo has realised this and has started something that it calls a Brickhouse, a place where developers can unleash their creative potential and the products from which would be launched "off brand" initially to minimize damage to brand and identity as much as possible..a place where developers dirty their and receive rewards for the same...a place where they are allowed to take risks and a place which is very different from the current Yahoo and very similar to Yahoo of yester years!

Pipes, Yahoo's latest success is from Brickhouse and is an example of what one can do with a startup mindset!!