Sailboat vs Airline Carrier

Met a friend recently, who also worked in a MNC. He had been employed in both large MNC and smaller MNC. We are comparing notes of what we observedduring our tenure.

He made one interesting analogy -- comparing large and small MNC is like comparing people in cruise ship and sailors in a race sailboat.

In cruise ship, it took a lot of people to accomplish something. A lot of coordination between department and functions. And consequently, you oftendon't see the direct impact of your actions toward the business.

Large ship is also more stable, it took several people to screw up together in order to crash the ship. (Although in some cases, if one big person screwed up big, the effect will also be disastrous). There's some sort of balance of power and check-and-countercheck mechanism built-in -- thingslike the four-eye principle that I have in my current employer.

On the other hand.
A smaller MNC (and company) is like a sailboat.
In one sailboat, your action will directly impact the life-and-death of that boat. Direct visibility. You can tell directly who screws up and who performs -- almost immediately. You are in charge of your own actions.

It still needs a close coordination between the sailors, but things a bit easier.

A good analogy I would say.
And some sort of a good compass if want to survive in both.