Debate: Working with a small startup or a big firm

This debate keeps coming.. and as my present room-mates are beginning to find jobs after their masters, this topic came back again. For some reasons, this is a topic that has always haunted me - and I dont seem to get an answer that is full-proof

I have always worked for a large company and have found that there are 2 primary categories in which people could be divided [ remember that 20/80 rule ]: (1) one who make things happen _irrespective_ of the position he/she is at (2) one that waits for someone to empower him/her so that he/she can then make things happen. And almost invariably, these two sets also coincides with people who take (proactive) _actions_ and people who spend their time _talking_ about how they are waiting on someone else to act before they can do something!

In a small company, things move faster - because the survival of the company depends on it. Some of my friends believe in the culture of the small companies. And they have hated the same small companies and moved on to other small companies. They tell me that they are excited about the opportunities that they get in small companies at a relatively younger age and they like the speed with which things get done - and this speed is missing in the big companies (I consider both the reasons to be half-truths)

The correct parameter:

Having worked closely with some of the other big companies as the customer for our company, I have realized that it really is the culture of the company and not the size of the company that determines the behavior of their employees - that determines the speed with which these companies work, the empowerment that they give to their employees

A quick look at the list of "best companies to work for" shows that there are 40 companies that have employee base larger than 10,000 employees (although the survey may not be exhaustive, but still demonstrates the point):

http://www.greatplacetowork.com/best/lists.php?year=current&idListName=bestusa&detail=1&order=rank

I would follow up this note with the culture of my company which is the pride of almost every single employee working at Cisco

My Answer to the Dilemmna:
One and probably the most important thing that you learn working at a large company is "human skills". It is such an important toool that you need at a large company - to get anything done, you need support from others which needs convincing the others of your point. The filters that "slow" the large corporations are important keepers - but at the same point are great teachers!

And since it is so easy for anyone to get lost in a big company - you need to choose yourself to be present in the first group mentioned above which makes things happen. This is a deliberate effort that would have to be done!