Once again, Seth Godin's post strikes a cord. If you are a small business owner or an entrepreneur, it's worth a quick read. In summary, Godin says the secret of 'small is the new big' thinking is that you won't fail and you can't fail and you don't need to worry about a bailout. Not because you're small in headcount or assets, but because you act small. If you act small and think big, you are too small to fail. You won't need a bailout because your business makes sense each and every day. You won't need a bailout because your flat organization (no matter how large it is) knows about problems long before they're too big to deal with. And that's just big thinking.
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/10/too-small-to-fa.html