If you think “scale” gives your largest competitors an easy ride, think about this. I met recently with a subsidiary CEO of a global insurance monolith. Standing at his 17th floor corner window, he began to regale me with his recent success: three acquisitions closed, loss-making businesses back into profit, and then stopped, stared at me, and whispered in a hushed tone that another of his fellow divisional CEOs is trying to steal his most profitable portfolio company. He asked my advice about his alternatives: accept it gracefully, fight like hell internally or structure an external trading relationship that might frustrate the move.

I am not kidding, when I say to circumspect entrepreneurs, why are you so fearful of your large competitors hurting your business when they are busy fighting their own?