Defeating the size matters reality. Is the Southland rugby team showing the way for the little guys in business?

One recurring BigCake theme is that size matters in economic growth.

Geography has delivered NZ a crap hand – we are a distant spec on the world’s consumer, financial and business maps and that seriously hurts our export businesses.

And this costs us heaps – an estimated 10% of our wealth generating potential according to the World Bank. That’s nearly $14 billion a year or the combined annual revenue of NZ’s big four oil companies.

So a shitload.

Anyway Southland – from an Auckland perspective – is a distant tiny spec on the nation’s rugby map, but somehow the little poor guys got up to beat big rich guys last week.

It’s something Southland have been doing week after week, except for a slip up against another little guy, Northland.

Phil Gifford in yesterday’s Sunday Star Times offered four reasons to explain how this was done:
1. The Southland team has heroes
2. The team shares its success
3. They keep their feet on the ground
4. They out perform expectations.

BigCake could add a few himself. Southland:
5. Make the most of the little they have got
6. Focus on their strengths
7. Are aware of their weaknesses
8. Are well managed and well led
9. Are lucky.

Which all looks a hell of a lot like a recipe for success for the little businesses that could.

In sport – where we suffer from the same distance and size constraints as business – we seem to be good at getting this recipe right. I think NZ sits near the top in terms of national performances at Olympic Games.

In business? Not so much.