NATIONAL SMALL BUSINESS WEEK 1: Small is beautiful

In 1973, Ernst Friedrich Schumacher wrote “Small Is Beautiful.”

His book propounded the idea that small organizations, whether businesses or communities, are more effective and efficient in the utilization of resources. Big corporations are wasteful in their drive towards large scale growth. He predicted that this mode of operations in large corporations would be unsustainable. He preached intermediate and appropriate technology. Today, thirty-five years later, he is being proven right: the subprime crisis, global warming, uncontrollable oil prices.

If small businesses rather than big corporations had dominated the economy and the utilization of natural resources in the past 35 years, would we have the problems we are encountering today?

images from Microsoft Clipart