Why Are There No Decent Companies? Because There Aren’t Any.

We complain about it all the time: “Why are there no decent companies in this industry?” To put it bluntly, at least within the world of small and medium-sized businesses, the kind of “decent company” we imagine simply doesn’t exist. Some people will be shocked by that statement. Others will shrug and think, “Well, obviously.”

The truth is, there’s no objective scale for judging whether a company is decent or not. All that exists are deeply personal thresholds like, “This is still manageable,” or “This has crossed the line.” So why are we stuck in environments that are so far from decent? (Of course, we can set aside the rare “good company” that exists on about the same odds as finding a needle in the desert.) To understand this, we have to look at human beings, and the most basic psychology of human groups.

Most small and medium-sized companies start not with massive capital, but with a small office or a team-sized venture, almost like a one-person business. If they happen to find a good idea and someone brings exceptional sales ability or near-magical planning skills, revenue starts to come in. That’s the point where the story begins: a small business of around 10 people grows into an SME with around 100 employees. But growth usually stops there. Why? Because where a company-wide system should have been put in place, the superpowers of individual people are still ruling the place.

A capable founder, a department head known as a sales genius, a factory manager, or some other key person’s abilities become the fate of the company. Naturally, they’re given special authority and special treatment. Then power centers form inside the organization, along with the group that follows them, while outside that wall are the “outsiders” who came in later. Some people ask, “But weren’t those talented people the ones who grew the company?” Yes, they were. The real problem is that after they create growth, they don’t hand that power over to a system; they still want to keep the company under personal influence.

That’s where a thousand conflicts of interest begin. Founding members and other core people want to keep as much of the fruit of their labor as possible, and for as long as possible. Since the pie in a small or medium-sized company is bound to be limited, fighting over it becomes a battle for survival. Those with established power cling to their bowls and spread selfishness everywhere, while newcomers try to squeeze through the cracks and build their own little ecosystem. Sometimes an experienced outsider exploits these organizational weaknesses and becomes the center of yet another power struggle.

That’s the real contradiction most SMEs live with: not a system created through agreement among members, but a desire to keep the company running under the original influence of the founders. To a new employee looking in from the outside, all of it looks like blatant absurdity—something deeply not okay.

From an HR manager’s point of view, these tangled contradictions are painfully easy to see. Why talented people can’t adjust and leave. Why growth stalls and the company ends up just trying to stay afloat. Why every new business initiative turns into empty talk. The root cause always starts with this “desire to reject systems.”

The unfortunate truth is that in most cases, even the people with the authority to improve things are standing right at the center of the contradiction. If they try to fix it, they have to tear down their own power base, so they never truly change on their own.

We have to look at this unchangeable reality calmly. In all this chaos and absurdity, there’s no need to wound yourself with self-blame. It’s better to let it go lightly with a thought like, “I knew it. You’re all the same.” That kind of distance is the best defense for protecting yourself and adapting in a world that is far from decent.