In 2007, at 27 years of age, the basketball player Juan Carlos Navarro was already captain of Barcelona, world champion with the Spanish team and was considered one of the best (if not the best) European players who was still performing in the Old continent. Not for much longer. That same summer he packed his bags, took his family and went to try his fortune in the NBA, to the Memphis Grizzlies, where his friend Pau Gasol was waiting for him. Why give up at this point a consolidated career as the leader of a top club in Spain to be a substitute in a team without many aspirations in a city in the middle of nowhere in the USA and earning less than half of what he earned in the Barcelona? Perhaps because he wanted to show that he had enough level to play with the best in the Mecca of world basketball.
The American adventure of ‘La Bomba’ Navarro only lasted a year, perhaps long enough to get what he had gone looking for, and the following season he went the other way to rejoin the discipline of the club of his loves. A round trip path that in the business field has been traveled by countless professionals and managers who at some point in their careers have faced a similar dilemma: being number one in a small company or occupying a second or third line position in a larger company. Be the head of a mouse or the tail of a lion.
A typical case is that of the area director in a multinational who after a few years becomes CEO in an SME or startup. “They are people who, at a certain point in their lives, prefer to work in a place where they can have greater control over their work or greater responsibility and influence than to follow in a company with a more recognized brand but where those aspirations are more difficult to satisfy”, summarizes Alberto Blanco, senior advisor at Digital HR and Talent.
That is the most common path, but not the only one. Luis Huete, a professor at IESE, points out that the personality of the ‘traveler’ is one of the factors that determines that choice. “If what you want is to have everything more structured and take fewer risks, you should choose to be a lion tail. While if what you like is to print your style, build your own team and feel a little vertigo due to uncertainty, the best option is mouse head”. The personal brand, Blanco adds, is also altered depending on the path chosen. “Being a mouse head allows you to have more visibility within your organization but less outside it, just the opposite of what happens when you are a lion tail.”
The vital or professional moment is another determining factor. Emilio Solís, managing partner of The Human Talent Factory, recalls that when professionals are starting their careers, the most important thing is not to be the head of anything, “but to be in an excellent company that enriches you and adds value to your professional and personal profile.” . This consultant recommends starting in “large organizations that operate in cutting-edge and innovative markets and sectors and in which valuable professional skills can be learned and developed.” There will be time to try other adventures. “Because,” he continues, if you’ve lived with lions and learned from them, when it’s your turn to be a mouse you won’t be a skittish mouse. You will be a mouse with the mentality of a lion.”
The big brands and the more modest companies provide, from their point of view, complementary advantages
Joaquín Danvila is a manager in the field of training who has traveled this two-way road on several occasions. Just a few weeks ago he was appointed head of the Department of Training and Digital Development of the Institute of Stock Market Studies (IEB). Until his incorporation, he had held the general management of a smaller business school, and before that the Marketing director of a larger one. “I keep the good of both approaches. As in everything, surely the virtue is in the middle point. Small companies are tremendously flexible, dynamic and decision-making can be really fast. Working like this makes things easier, but, above all, everything, allows projects to go ahead on time and not suffer bureaucratic delays. At the other extreme, large organizations are true sources of resources, both economic and human or infrastructure. Large projects can be undertaken more easily and count on them with larger teams, in which specialization also helps to improve efficiency”, he sums up.
Luis Huete agrees that both experiences enrich a professional, giving him a very interesting double look. “The area management experience in a large company requires skills linked to effectiveness and efficiency in the short term. While the general management of a medium-sized company may require not only the above, but also the ability to integrate a team around a long-term vision that they have to build as a team”.
The professional should not be obsessed with whether his movement affects in any way the reputation of his career
This type of career movement, either in one direction or another, can be read as positive or negative depending on how the story is structured. And many professionals who find themselves in this dilemma are concerned about how their environment may interpret this change in division. For Alberto Blanco, however, this is not a reflection that leads to any useful destination. “It indicates that the professional is more concerned with how he is perceived by others than with finding out what the true meaning of his professional career is. If what you do and what you aspire to do are aligned with your purpose, there are no pros.” nor cons between being the head of a mouse or the tail of a lion”.
In addition, Emilio Solis intervenes, and what if it were a step back? “What you have to be is smart and brave to take it on, and be able to see that future success depends on correcting mistakes and reorienting ourselves when necessary. Nowadays, the professional path is no longer linear, and you have to be very smart and bold to, like soldiers in a losing battle, know how to turn around and continue moving in another direction when it’s time”.
Of course, when traveling from one dimension to another it is inevitable that things will be lost along the way. And the ‘turncoat’ must be prepared to accept these changes. You must assume, for example, insists Luis Huete, that “in a large company there is a lot of bureaucracy and the ability to decide and execute on your own is significantly reduced.” In the opposite direction, he continues, “those who go from a large company to a small one must be aware that in addition to rigor, what is expected of that person is the ability to anticipate and manage with agility the opportunities and challenges that are generated in the market” .
Whether you go from lion to mouse or if the transmutation is the other way around, feeling a certain vertigo before embarking is inevitable. Is there an antidote? Joaquín Danvila prescribes the same for both cases. One, he assures, infallible: “May the project be exciting and be accompanied by an excellent team personally and professionally.”