Doug Tatum, author of "No Man's Land: What to do when your company is too big to be small and too small to be big," gave the opening address for Friday's session at the 2008 ATSI Convention and Expo.

Doug Tatum, Tatum, LLC

In a presentation that resonated well with attendees, Doug shared the ideas from his book, "No Man's Land" as they applied to the telemessaging and call center industry.

Doug affirmed the important role of small business, especially the small business entrepreneur, in creating most of the new jobs in the US economy. 

Although 90% of these new small businesses fail within the first few years, those that do succeed are a boon to the economy and grow until they reach a condition he termed as "no man's land."  Specifically, they become too big to still be considered small, but are still too small to be considered big.

When businesses reach no man's land, there are important techniques that can be used to effectively navigate "no man's land" and emerge successfully on the other side.  Doug detailed these various scenarios and the methodologies for dealing with them.