ByExpert Panel®, Forbes Councils Member. for Forbes Business Council

On the surface, big businesses and small businesses can seem worlds apart. With larger businesses operating at great levels and serving customers at scale, they are often seen as an ideal of business success, especially when compared to companies serving small markets.

However, size is not the only measure of success. While small companies are limited by size, their ability to remain mission-focused, connect with their customers and adapt to market changes at lightning speed are attributes larger companies often lose when scaling.

Looking to small companies for guidance can enable larger ones to get back to their true roots. To help, 20 Forbes Business Council members share lessons they believe big players can learn from small businesses, as well as why the lessons are valuable for businesses of all sizes.

1. Keep The Vision Front And Center

Large corporations can learn from small founder-led firms to keep people close to the vision. Small teams thrive because employees see their impact and love working close to the founder. Big organizations could mirror this with goal setting and recognition from the top—from an Altman- or Gates-level leader. This strategy builds small-business culture and momentum toward the bigger vision. – Brian Doyle, Ross Bennet Smith

Big companies can learn to treat employees as whole people, not just job titles. In small teams, individuality is visible—think of the developer who bodybuilds, the designer who paints and the marketer who sings. Supporting those passions fuels creativity and motivation. Someone who gives their best to something unpaid will give even more to something shared—you just have to let them bring that passion. – Ivan Popov, Vipe Studio

3. Empower Employees With Ownership

Decentralization and ownership by every employee is something most big companies lack. In opting for a more rigid, centralized structure, companies disempower those with the most direct access to the truth. Palantir is a great example of how empowering those in direct contact with customers can strengthen a big company. – Vlado Vojdanovski, Hillsphere Technologies Inc.

4. Build Authentic Relationships

Big players can learn from small businesses to truly care about and connect with their customers, community and the problem they solve. Small-business owners embody their values and bring passion to every interaction. It’s about real people, not just profits, and that authenticity builds loyalty money can’t buy. – Natalie Ruiz, AnswerConnect

5. Maintain Personal Customer Connections

Big players can learn the power of personal connection from small businesses. Smaller teams often know their customers by name, listen closely and adapt quickly. This creates loyalty and trust that big corporations sometimes lose. By adopting that same agility and the human touch at scale, larger companies can strengthen relationships and stay more relevant to their audiences. – Kamya Elawadhi, Doceree

6. Adopt Velocity And Agility

Markets reward velocity and agility. Smaller teams don’t get paralyzed by perfect plans. When faced with obstacles, they get scrappy. They move, they learn, they adjust. That pace builds trust with customers and keeps them ahead of the competition. – Sam Allen, Iterable, Inc.

7. Keep The Human Touch

Big businesses often de-risk the humanity out of their brands. Small businesses don’t have that luxury; they must take risks and stand for something to be seen. As AI flattens voices, don’t be surprised if the boldest disruptions come from the smallest players. The lesson for the big end of town is be brave enough to be less boring! – Anna Harrison, RAMMP

8. View Personalization As An Advantage

Personalization is an advantage for small companies where building strong relationships matters. Malcolm Gladwell touched on this in his book David and Goliath by identifying some advantages that are accessible for small, alert and agile companies. Big companies should harness emerging technologies to become more alert and agile. – Henry Delozier, GGA Partners

9. Take Action

Small companies have a bias for action. After leaving a huge ad agency for a smaller independent one, I told my new CEO I had several ideas for changes to the website. His reply was, “Cool, let me know when you’re done.” The notion that there wasn’t a large team to debate it—and handle it—took me a bit aback, but the notion that I didn’t need several layers of approval also freed me. – Rob Davis, NOVUS

10. Start Small

One powerful lesson for large corporations from small businesses is the value of starting small to move fast. Small businesses often don’t have the luxury of perfection—they pilot ideas, learn quickly, adapt and evolve. Whether it’s a new product, customer engagement strategy or sustainability initiative, doing pilot programs and having an agile mindset helps de-risk big moves without stalling momentum. – Bill Flederbach, ClimeCo

11. Keep An Entrepreneurial Mindset

Large corporations can learn from the entrepreneurial mindset that drives small businesses. When we started Blackhawk Network, we weren’t trying to build a fintech company; we were trying to solve a problem we saw in the market. That focus on action over perfection is often lost at scale. Effort is the ultimate equalizer; it helps even the biggest organizations stay innovative and relevant. – Talbott Roche, Blackhawk Network

12. Seek Market Feedback

One core lesson is seeking out visceral and immediate market feedback. Small businesses survive because the founder is usually on the frontlines getting unfiltered customer feedback about a product or service. Big players can first learn to dismantle any unnecessary layers that disconnect them from their core customer. Second, they should strive to prevent the strategic drift caused by any delayed or sanitized reporting. – Raj Tulshan, Loan Mantra

13. Implement Lean Organizational Design Principles

One lesson big companies can take from small businesses is the power of lean organizational design. Too many middle management layers add costs and bureaucracy while stripping value. Flatter structures with broader spans of control drive agility, clarity and efficiency, which are advantages large enterprises can’t afford to overlook. – Tom Strohl, Oliver Wight Americas

14. Maintain Focus

Large enterprises try to be everything to everybody. They have a news station and a jet engine manufacturing company. I believe the secret to success at any level is to focus on a core product or service and execute relentlessly. We call it our “bullseye.” If it is not on the bullseye, we look at it very critically before we even spend a dollar on it. If it supports the mission, then we proceed. – Joe Crandall, Greencastle Associates Consulting

15. Embrace Experimentation

Big companies can learn from small businesses’ culture of experimentation. Smaller players test fast, fail fast and pivot, turning risk into learning. Large firms, weighed down by process, often lose that agility. Combining scale with speed can be very powerful, but few big companies ever crack the formula. – Anmol Verma, Finvest

16. Validate Ideas Before Scaling

Validate before you scale. Small businesses de-risk bets with waitlists, preorders and tiny pilots before spending big. Big players can copy that muscle by shipping lo-fi prototypes, doing price tests and requiring real commitment signals. It cuts waste, accelerates learning and ensures you build what customers actually want. – Roli Saxena, NextRoll

17. Be Resourceful

Large corporations can learn from small businesses to be resourceful. Small companies often face extreme shortages and show remarkable creativity to reach their goals. Big corporations, by contrast, can spend hundreds of dollars more without achieving meaningful results. – Andrey Insarov, it.com Domains

18. Avoid Ignoring Customer Individuality

In my experience, large corporations often become increasingly focused on commoditizing and systemizing client service to the extent that they ignore the individuality of their clients. Efficiency is great, but it shouldn’t come at the cost of the client experience. Small businesses are more able to employ high-touch and high-service models. As a firm gets larger, this can often get lost in that process. – Amy Powell, AimWell Financial

19. Recognize The Worth Of Your Culture

One lesson bigger organizations can learn from smaller players is the value of culture. Oftentimes, big businesses are more focused on growth at all costs, but scaling too quickly or without enough planning can lead to culture fractures that result in employee dissatisfaction or worse—turnover. Putting your people first is a winning strategy, no matter the size of your business. – Tim Brackney, Springline Advisory

20. Maintain Your Heart And Soul

Small businesses remind big players what they’ve traded away: their soul. As they scale, too many companies become hollow vessels where the mission, vision and values are reduced to tombstones for shareholder returns. Small businesses remind us that heart drives loyalty, culture and true innovation. Soul isn’t a tagline; it’s the heartbeat that keeps the business alive. – Craig Du Bruyn, Kaleido Life Inc.