Big Spaceship: Right Now Better Now Go Big

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are all the serial side effects coming after size expansion, I would propose let the company maintain its “cautious growth mode” and just be what it is now. It is not worthwhile to trade-off a thorough set of value proposition and culture environment.

New York University Assistant Professor of Management and Organizations Dolly Chugh once said “An organization’s culture sends signals to people about what’s important around here (para.3)”. It works like a magnet that always helps to attract the right kind of people. Lebowitz also acknowledges the significance of corporate culture as he said “Culture is the most important thing to success in this economy” (Business, para.2). In order to flourish and sustain Big Spaceship’s innovation driven culture, recruitment remains an everlasting challenge for them. Just like Prohaska said “It’s very difficult to find people who can align with our cultural objectives and who also have the different skill sets and thinking-on-your feet kind of approach that we need” (p. 11). However, when interviewed by Business Day, Lebowitz gave a surprisingly simple answer, “Don’t hire jerks, no matter how talented they are” (para. 5). He furthers that, he would rather go for the second best or whoever that is a nice guy, as the incremental personal value an employee could contribute to the company not only hinges on talent.

Precisely speaking, Big Spaceship looks for future employees who are just like themselves— creative, forward looking, laid back and nice. On average, every new comer will go through 8 rounds of interviews held by members from different parts of the company before they are officially accepted. Big Spaceship runs such a tedious and time-consuming process just in order to select the right people who best fit in the culture. When they finally become part of the company, they are embraced with Big Spaceship’s highly individual initiative culture, which awards them with freedom, autonomy and independence but also asks for a high level of responsibility and constantly pushes everyone to work harder and think harder. (Culture, slides 4)

The two espoused values existing within Big Spaceship are openness and creativity, and both are reinforced everywhere. Yes, everyone is creative, but nobody is a creative. Creativity is a quality, not a title. It is the exact kind of quality that distinguishes you from those who were filtered out from the company. As for openness, Big Spaceship’s culture also motivates everyone to be part of the discussion and decision making. What is more precious is that the company pushes for a flat hierarchy when it comes to brainstorming. Voice from an intern and that from a top-tier manager could be heard at the same volume. Company culture helped foster a stronger sense of engagement, belonging, and pride. It may not be verbal or tangible all the time, but employees could always feel that they are there. This situation is only practical under the premise that it is a small-size company, because in any middle-sized company, there is usually middle level management which made it nearly impossible to sit down together around the same round table. Information tends to spread through tedious reporting channel.

With regard to leadership issues, Big Spaceship uses a transformational leadership style, it aims at not only creating connections with the employee’s wallet but also connecting the whole person to the culture and the company (p.11). Currently, as I mentioned above, there were “no layers of middle management between those top-level leaders and the front-line professionals who actually work on projects for clients (p.13)” for the purpose of avoiding unnecessary hierarchy. A flatter hierarchy and a broader span could possibly enhance the company’s transparency. Then externally, possibly a better image or reputation is maintained. However, the current model can not last long if Big Spaceship is about to grow in size. It is inevitable that more layers of management will be added even if it would run against Big Spaceship’s original idea. Also when there are a large crowd of young and talented people work closely in the same physical space, how to efficiently management them will be a more difficult question to answer. But there is one thing that we can say for sure, gradually Big Spaceship will lose its unparalleled characteristics.

Regardless of the final answer to whether go big or not, top-level figures should begin to consider how to increase profit margins. There are many alternative ways to achieve this. On the one hand, they could “expand their scope of services” in order to respond to today’s market dynamics. Or they could just ask for more when they take over some really really big cases. Internally, they should work together to find a revised organizational structure. Human capital has always been greatly valued inside the company, so how to keep these young talents in Big Spaceship? I think only culture is not enough, it should be accompanied with something else, for example, better employee development opportunities and material awards like compensation. After all, we live in a commodity world and employees are first human then director, strategist, producer or some titles.

At current stage, I think the boutique culture are still consistent to Big Spaceship’s organic growth. On the contrary, brutal and unmanaged growth may adversely undermine creativity. After all, they have been working under this mechanism for about 13 years, and everything still seems on the right track. Thus, we have to acknowledge the strength of the its being small. Plus, Big Spaceship once challenged to open a satellite office in LA, which did not work out at last. I will not categorically deny the possibilities that Big Spaceship will go big in the future, it should just be e really careful decision. In order to be irreplaceable, Big Spaceship should still hold the value proposition that it have been holding for the decade. After all, if the hard core is eroded and the spirits are diluted, then Big Spaceship has nothing to differentiate itself and stand out amongst its rivals.

Work Cited:

Harvard Business School Review,

Website: https://jinquiry006.wordpress.com/2011/02/24/big-spaceship-small-company-big-culture/

New York Times Online: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/30/business/30corner.html?_r=0

Class Slides ( Leadership & Culture)