Choosing a new supply chain partner is no small matter…or is it? In this “food for thought” opinion piece, Kevin Lanigan, VP Sales and Marketing, suggests that bigger isn’t always better when it comes to finding the right premedia provider. Smaller companies that can think forward and act fast may offer the best competitive advantage for helping you navigate through today’s light-speed marketplace.

Does Size Matter?

Consumer products companies are under brutal pressure to meet the ever-changing needs of massive retailers as well as consumers. In light of this pressure, what characteristics and values should you be getting from your packaging supply chain partners? Which is more important: The size of your vendor companies or their focus on your goals? The numbers of their workforce or the talent of their workforce? The amount of their revenues or their ability to quickly achieve alignment with your brand’s needs? The number of production plants they have or their ability to offer you dedicated resources? The cost of their services or their ability to lower the total delivered costs of your product?In service market segments it is quickly becoming true, as marketing wunderkind Seth Godin says, “Small is the next BIG.” What does that really mean for a supply chain partner? Where size matters is in relation to critical mass. Critical mass is defined as: a size large enough to produce a particular result. So, the key is to define what particular result is needed and then define the critical mass needed by your supply chain to deliver that result.

The consumers we all serve want WHAT they want, WHEN they want it, WHERE they want it, for the PRICE they want it. And manufacturers and retailers are scrambling to meet that need. Brands are scrambling to create business models that are constantly being redefined. The squeeze is on. A behemoth supply chain can no longer be counted on to accept a brand mission in January and expect that mission to stay static for the rest of the year. A new supply chain model is needed. A supply chain of tightly knit companies that are aligned in systems and processes, but are highly adaptable to dynamic, evolving needs at each step of the chain.

A larger sized vendor may be of great value if you are purchasing components, but not necessarily when you are in need of highly integrated services. The service sector is the fastest growing segment of our economy. This is due in part to a growing number of small to medium sized service providers who have learned to wrap themselves around their clients’ business needs, and actively morph their companies to address those changing needs.

Their smaller size allows their management to be nimble, connected, innovative and, most of all, responsive to the marketplace. A much larger organization must fight organizational inertia to be nimble. In this case, size is of critical importance. The larger the company; the greater the inertia. How do the best large companies deal with this size issue? They know the secret of being small. They break their company down into smaller, more focused and more flexible business units that often operate much like standalone entities.

Yes, there are relationships where size matters. But it may not be the criteria that matters most. In today’s world of change, being nimble and innovative may be far more important than being big. Consider the case of CraigsList. This internet upstart has only 18 employees, but boasts the fourth largest amount of traffic of any web destination. Ebay, in contrast, has over 4,000 employees but can only dream of that kind of traffic–which may be why they recently bought CraigsList.

Small is the next big…and this is a trend that will have major impact on how Consumer Products Companies manage their supply chains.