Joe interrupted, “Formality. we built our company around formality, organization, structure — we’ve just forgotten that those things are there to support us, not lead us.” “yeah, you big guys are great at mass — mass communications, systems, infrastructure and processes. us little guys are all about intimacy — making a difference one customer or one employee or even one decision at a time. everything seems personal, because to us, it is personal. you guys think big, we think small.” Joe smiled for the 昀椀rst time in weeks, “maybe i could make our company a lot better if we thought smaller. we only have a few hundred dealers that sell our umbrellas, so why do we send generic communications to them? why not send personal communications to each of them?” “right. i can tell you i don’t appreciate the ‘Dear Mr. or Ms. Dealer’ e-mails i get from your sales department.” “sorry,” Joe offered. “maybe i could run open-book meetings with our employees and get them involved with the way the company is run. i could even share that information with the dealers and let them play a stronger role in our company; after all, they’re partners with us.” bill smiled. “good idea,” he said. “my people have never liked how secretive your 昀椀nancial people were. we 昀椀gured you were making too much money and didn’t want to share it with us.” “sorry again,” Joe said, gaining momentum. “you know, there’s no reason why i can’t hold informal product planning meetings with customers, dealers and employees. why does only our product department decide what the best product is? in fact, they can be part of those meetings — they’d be fun, too.” “Joe, you’re getting the hang of this. i know we would’ve loved to have a voice in your product design. we’ve suggested 18