Is scale all it's cracked up to be?

We make a big thing of scale. It's become almost a religion, worshipped by the government and supported by a veritable clergy of advisers offering salvation to those seeking it. And yet.

I find myself questioning it as I.see those pursuing it hollow-eyed and frantic as they pursue business models installed by those who have no real accountability for servicing the debts incurred in anticipation of success. 

On the other hand, those I see who have smaller businesses that have grown more slowly are much more relaxed. They face the same uncertainty but have more options to deal with it, from choosing to take a hit on profits rather than sacrifice staff to completely changing strategy without persuading lenders. Of course, these are extreme ends of the spectrum of possibility, but the thing with worshipping scale is we end up with a skewed distribution curve with far more companies in the stressed and constrained categories.

The average life of a business is less than ten years, whilst the m…