Think big, act small: why both camps get it wrong

Why do some SMEs manage to complete their digitalisationHelping your organisation work smarter with technology, not as an IT project but as a way of working., while others struggle with it for years? The pattern we keep seeing is that companies go for extremes.

On one side you have the 'big thinkers': business owners who dream of a fully integrated digital ecosystem in which everything is connected and every process is optimised, preferably by yesterday. On the other side you see the 'small steppers', SMEs that are so cautious they reduce every digital project to the smallest possible unit. Both camps miss the point.

The problem with 'think big only'

A manufacturing company in Ghent recently cancelled a 180,000-euro ERPA single system that brings together core processes such as inventory, accounting and orders. project after eighteen months of development. 'We wanted to solve everything in one go,' the CEO told us. 'From purchasing to invoicing, from stock to HR. It became too complex, too expensive and too risky.'

We see this scenario far too often: companies that think digitalisation is all or nothing, and believe you can only succeed if you transform the whole organisation at once. The problem is that they underestimate not only the cost, but also the organisational impact. You can't revolutionise a company of 40 people in one go without it coming at the expense of your day-to-day operations.

The problem with 'act small only'

Then there is the other extreme. Over three years, a wholesaler in Antwerp had carried out five different small IT projects: a new website here, a CRMA system for managing customer relationships and sales in one clear overview. pilot there, a digital invoicing module somewhere else. Each project was a success in itself, but they were still working with five systems that didn't communicate with each other.

'We have lots of small solutions, but we still don't really have a digital strategy. We're treating symptoms, not the underlying problem.'

That's the trap of working purely incrementally: you miss the big picture. You end up with digital islands that each have their own version of the truth.

The specialist-generalist approach

Successful digitalisation contains a paradox: you have to think big and small at the same time. 'Think big, act small' is a method we learned from twenty years of IT projects and IT failures.

Think big means starting with a clear vision of where you want to go. Not just for this project, but for your whole digital future. Which processes do you want to have automated in two years' time? How should your systems talk to each other? Where are your biggest efficiency gains?

Act small means tackling that vision through concrete, manageable steps that each deliver value on their own. Steps of twelve weeks at most, with a budget of between 15,000 and 50,000 euros, that don't disrupt your operations. After all, you don't eat a watermelon in one bite either.

What this looks like in practice

An SME in West Flanders wanted to digitalise its complete order-to-cash process. Instead of doing everything at once, we split it into four phases, each delivering value of its own:

1. Phase 1 (weeks 1-12): order intake. Paper and Excel were replaced by a simple web app. This gave an immediate time saving of 4 hours a week for the back office. Budget: 18,000.
2. Phase 2 (weeks 13-24): production planning. A link between order intake and planning, so that production automatically knows what to make and when. Stock errors fell by 60%. Budget: 25,000.
3. Phase 3 (weeks 25-36): invoicing. Automatic invoices based on the delivered order, with no more manual input. Invoice lead time went from 3 days to 30 minutes. Budget: 22,000.
4. Phase 4 (weeks 37-48): customer portal. Customers can see their order status themselves. Phone contact fell by 50%, freeing up time for real advisory conversations. Budget: 28,000.

Each phase built on the previous one, but also delivered standalone value. Twelve months later, their entire order-to-cash process had been modernised, without operational chaos, within budget and with the support of the whole team.

Why momentum is crucial

The secret lies in momentum. Small successes build confidence for bigger steps. Teams that see digitalisation really making their work easier become allies instead of sceptics. Budgets that prove their ROI in months rather than years get follow-up approval more easily.

But without that big vision you still end up with digital chaos. It's like renovating a house: you need to know what the end result should look like, even if you work through it room by room.

The real danger of the extremes

Both camps feel superior. The 'big thinkers' look down on the 'small steppers' as not ambitious enough. The 'small steppers' find the 'big thinkers' naive and reckless.

Both are partly right. Big transformations do indeed often fail, and small projects do indeed lead to fragmentation. But the reality is that you need both approaches, strategically integrated rather than set against each other as opposing philosophies. Thinking big without acting small never gets beyond a PowerPoint. Acting small without thinking big never gets beyond a collection of apps.

Practical next steps

Facing a digital project? Try this exercise: write down on a single sheet of A4 where you want to be in three years (think big). On the same sheet, write what the first twelve weeks will concretely deliver (act small). If you can't get those two onto one sheet of A4, you're missing one of the two. If in doubt, a quickscan helps you bring both sides into sharp focus.