Today CEO, central and regional management as well as all business unit managers gathered in Awapatent’s Gothenburg premises. The menu: inspiration talks, breakout sessions, updates on CRM tools, visionary thinking about the new year and solid planning for the next few weeks, along with preliminary 2013 figures.
Returning home, I’m pondering the pros and cons of having nearly 300 colleagues in two countries. There’s no denying that some aspects scale unfortunately with size. For one thing, our discussions about company-wide routines would be far less complex if the routines were intended for fewer people. Yet if our client records are maintained in a uniform fashion, we get a data set from which incredible statistics can be extracted.
It’s also a tempting idea that a smaller business could be more easily managed, e.g., a single- office firm whose managers don’t have to travel to meet. True maybe – what if I wouldn’t have had to leave Stockholm today! – but then we’d miss the sweet dynamics of parting and meeting. And without its two corporate cultures brought together under one roof, maybe Awapatent would have been an insular, narrow-minded place to work in?
Still on the train, I catch up with my emails. I’m reminded my client accounts range from cute start-ups to rather gigantic companies. I love the mix. If I’m reasonably on top of things – ah yes, the due date list – I have the luxury of choosing tasks to suit my daily mood. In a neat little boutique firm I’d surely be working with SMEs too, but it would probably take an effort to convince larger corporations we were the best choice for their cases.
So while my body is complaining after today’s heavy programme and 900 km in a train seat, right now I can’t help feeling pretty well positioned.
Tuesday 21 January 2014
Anders Hansson, European Patent Attorney