"The big will get bigger; the small will get wiped out"
About this Quote
Revson’s line lands like a boardroom prophecy, and it’s meant to. The phrasing is blunt, almost Darwinian: “big” and “small” aren’t just company sizes, they’re moral categories in a world where scale becomes destiny. “Will” does the heavy lifting. This isn’t advice so much as an attempt to naturalize a particular outcome, to make consolidation sound like weather. If the big getting bigger is inevitable, then any brutality along the way can be framed as mere realism.
Coming from the architect of Revlon’s modern cosmetics empire, the subtext is less about abstract economics than about how brand capitalism was hardening mid-century. Revson wasn’t selling lipstick alone; he was selling the idea that advertising, distribution, and shelf space could be engineered into a moat. His era saw national media, national chains, and the rise of the conglomerate mentality. In that environment, “small” doesn’t fail because it’s bad; it fails because it can’t buy attention, negotiate placement, or survive a price war.
The sentence is also a subtle threat disguised as a maxim. It signals to competitors and partners that resistance is quaint. It tells employees what kind of game they’re playing: growth isn’t one goal among many; it’s the condition for survival. And it flatters the winner’s self-image. If you’re big, you’re not just successful - you’re aligned with the future. That’s the most effective kind of corporate rhetoric: it makes strategy feel like inevitability.
Coming from the architect of Revlon’s modern cosmetics empire, the subtext is less about abstract economics than about how brand capitalism was hardening mid-century. Revson wasn’t selling lipstick alone; he was selling the idea that advertising, distribution, and shelf space could be engineered into a moat. His era saw national media, national chains, and the rise of the conglomerate mentality. In that environment, “small” doesn’t fail because it’s bad; it fails because it can’t buy attention, negotiate placement, or survive a price war.
The sentence is also a subtle threat disguised as a maxim. It signals to competitors and partners that resistance is quaint. It tells employees what kind of game they’re playing: growth isn’t one goal among many; it’s the condition for survival. And it flatters the winner’s self-image. If you’re big, you’re not just successful - you’re aligned with the future. That’s the most effective kind of corporate rhetoric: it makes strategy feel like inevitability.
Quote Details
| Topic | Business |
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