There is this age-old story about David and Goliath, which in theory is about how some young shepherd boy took down this fierce giant with the toss of a single stone. But in fact, as Malcolm Gladwell will attest, it is about something else.

In the words of Jack Welch, big organizations – companies, agencies, institutions, armies, whatever – have massive investments, tons of people and lots of other things to slow them down. As a result, big organizations can’t change quickly… and that’s a problem. “Every big company’s gotta be a small company in their head,” says Welch. “You want the muscle of a big company, and the soul of a small company.”

It turns out that being “small” or at least being “small in your head,” enables you to act and respond with speed, which is critical to survival. Again, in the words of Jack Welch, “If you can’t move, you’re dead.”

You can’t waste hours or days and weeks wading through layers of people to get decisions made, or worse, have your strategies altered every step along the way until they are little more than impotent suggestions.

At the end of the day, it’s all about being able to get things done, about being smart and nimble and responsive.

So maybe the old adage is true… size does matter.