How big is too big

I get a newsletter from ethical coop, one of the organic veggie supplier in the area of stellenbosch. Most of the time I like what they write. Here is what I read in today's letter.

We often hear about banks that are "too big to fail", or car manufacturers that must "survive at all costs". Usually, it's for our own good. Only large, well-captitalised companies can implement the important changes we need to make to thrive in the 21st century, right?

Quite the contrary.

Real innovation so often comes from small groups and the young upstarts tuning into the times. Literary movements can be three of four highly influential people. Political tsunamis occur because of the works of one writer, or a few, seemingly chance meetings. History is written in terms of people, not only because we understand it best that way, but because huge social changes are so fundamentally affected by key people at key times.

As the now cliched Margaret Mead saying goes, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

That works both ways around. Where many see shadowy forces behind much of the world's ills, you can equally say never underestimate the power of a few thoughtless and greedy people to change the world.

When it comes to the environment, we see the same pattern. While the large companies or organisations, with bloated bureaucracies, can't seem to get the simplest things done, small, innovative people and companies are changing the world quickly.

Greenpeace regularly publishes a guide to greener electronics, listing the environmental efforts and sins of the various manufacturers. It caused an outcry when it first came up, with Apple Computer listed at the bottom, but Apple, to their credit, have implemented some of the most critical changes, and now sit at the upper end of the scale. Nintendo, Microsoft and Lenovo are at the bottom, Nokia and Sony Ericsson at the top.

However, a small Indian company, Wipro, has trumped everyone else and produced a computer completely free of hazardous PVC (polyvinylchloride) and BFR (brominated flame retardants), right down to their power cords.

In cars, while General Motors killed their electric car in 2006, and Chrysler canned theirs shortly after using it to get US government bailout money, a number of small companies have been successfully selling electric cars for a while, mainly in Europe and Asia. The most well-known is Tesla, with their sports car capable of going 217 km/h.

How are you making a difference?