7 "Small Town" Rules for Doing Business on a Human Scale

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There is no question that major socioeconomic and technological shifts have changed the game of business. Business is now forced to play by a different set of rules. Those rules, according to popular OPEN contributor Barry Moltz, are reminiscent of how things work in a small town.

"When every customer can now talk directly to each other, it’s like a small town," he writes in a new book called Small Town Rules, which he coauthored with Becky McCray, the founder of Small Biz Survival. "When people listen more to what your customers say about your company than your advertising, it’s like a small town. When it now takes multiple jobs to support a family, it’s like a small town. When the individual human voice is valued over corporate mission statements, it’s like a small town. When everyone online is trying to band together in small communities, it’s like a small town. When everyone wants to buy their products locally, it’s like a small town."

The point is that if every consumer of every company now behaves like they live in a small town, business must now be conducted on a more human scale, and companies now need to play be a new set of rules–rules apply to small businesses and big brands alike–no matter how big or how urban.