Management theories du jour are worn like the latest designer suits, often more for their looks than their value. We trek from "seeking excellence" to viewing the corporation as a "fluid portfolio of businesses" and from "re-engineering" to "total quality management" to "continuous change management."

This is by no means mere cosmetics; consulting firms now have annual revenue growth that most of their clients can only envy, and writing a hot new management-theory best seller may be a good deal more lucrative than running many companies.

While many of these theories are dubious, they are not harmless. The fervid search for the big idea distracts too many people from recognizing that organizations are transformed more deeply and continuously by the relentless pursuit of small ideas.

Most of us, in fact, work in businesses whose customers view their products and services largely as commodities. Most of the time, we compete on the basis of minute differentiations and small increments of value, as perceived by consumers. That is precisely why a continual stream of small changes can, over time, have a far more powerful impact than many sweeping strategic decisions.

In the 1980's, when I was assigned to manage the subsidiary of an American bank in Greece, I found the organization in a serious tailspin. The source of the problem was fairly obvious: customer disaffection with lousy service.

Lacking the time to hatch a grand strategy or the resources to hire consultants, I brainstormed with the employees. The small change we chose to implement was disarmingly simple: We moved the president's desk into the middle of the lobby. Employees and customers could see at once that major change was under way and could now take their concerns and complaints directly to the top.

The president, who had never been especially excited about the idea, learned firsthand what was wrong and why.

That led him to initiate a total overhaul of operations, to adopt new technology that revitalized the business and to add so much value in the eyes of customers that we achieved a 5,000 percent increase in profits in less than five years.

Later, when running the same bank's Italian subsidiary, I suddenly faced a new Italian tax on interest on savings accounts that threatened a countrywide run on banks.

Our competitors ran ads and crash marketing programs to reassure their customers. Lacking a big idea, we opted for a small one: Convinced that seeing is believing, we took all of the cash out of the vaults in our branches and piled it up on the tellers' counters, where everyone could see the money. Customers were both charmed and reassured. The more cash we displayed, the more new accounts flooded in from other banks.

Our small idea, along with our subsequent innovations, helped turn a $40 million annual loss into a $50 million profit.

Notice that I said "we." A company's employees can be resourceful consultants with keen insights into its business. And they alone can identify and implement the continuing sequence of small changes that add value, enhance efficiency, build competitive leadership, reduce costs and increase profits.

Employees have an expert view of their work and, serving on the front lines, have keen insight into the typically small increments of value that create customer satisfaction and customer preference.

Employees also want their company to succeed in the marketplace, realizing that success is not only much more fun, but is the source of expanding opportunities, greater job security and more money as well.

The genius of small changes wears many faces and turns up everywhere from the plant floor to the back office. If you haven't encountered these faces yet at your company, it may be for some of the following reasons:

• Employees don't think that small improvements matter, because no supervisor has ever been receptive to suggestions or acted upon them. They may have come to think that their ideas are too trivial and that their work, by inference, is too unimportant.
• Employees have no defined forum for expressing their concerns and ideas - no regular place where the problems and opportunities they detect can be aired and acted upon.
• Employees have no authority to take risks, to try something new, to go out of the box to fix a problem or satisfy a customer.
• Employees have no mission or sense of shared purpose. They cannot tell you or anyone else why their company is different from its competitors. And when the mission is not clear, neither are the expectations.

I'll trade one major restructuring for a stream of small changes that hone the competitive edge, energize and focus the work force and spawn innovation. In fact, I may trade two restructurings. Care to bet?

Copyright © 1998 by The New York Times Company. Reprinted by permission.