IDEA 5 INSIGHT When I discuss the successful practices of large and successful corporations with SMEs, I all too often get a response along the lines of – ‘We would do that too, if we were as big as Apple’, suggesting that best practice is the preserve of businesses that can afford it. The fact […]

IDEA 5 INSIGHT When I discuss the successful practices of large and successful corporations with SMEs, I all too often get a response along the lines of – ‘We would do that too, if we were as big as Apple’, suggesting that best practice is the preserve of businesses that can afford it. The fact is, however, that rather than Apple behaving as it does because it is successful – it is successful because it behaves as it does. The practices I highlight are the cause of the success these businesses enjoy. They have been behaving as they do, in most cases since day one, when they were very small indeed – often operating out of the proverbial garage. There is a great deal of merit in looking at these highly successful corporations and determining what we can learn from the success they have enjoyed. There is real merit in…