It's Not Easy Being Big (1241 words)

"How about G-?" I asked. "Or R-? B-? V-?"

"Actually, they fired the entire marketing department," she said.

Small to mid-sized catalog companies tend to have reasonably stable management, often because an entrepreneur still is actively involved.

But as a catalog business grows, such stability often declines, because the company is creating a growing layer of middle managers. And middle managers have many instabilities to deal with: They're easily laid off when financial reverses occur, and they're always eager for promotion when times are good.