For centuries, the Inuit people of Alaska and Canada have thrived in some of the harshest lands on Earth. In the long Arctic winters that last from October to May, food is scarce and survival is a struggle. Nothing grows on the icy land and the Inuit are forced to rely upon the animals of the land and sea to provide their sustenance. They hunt the caribou that roam across the tundra; they hunt the seals and walrus that swim along the shore; they fish in freezing, rough seas; and, every year, the Inuit hunt the most treacherous but prized prey of all, the whales that live in the deep ocean. Just like the Inuit, when businesses reach a certain stage of growth, they face a choice between making many small, safe sales and concentrating on a small number of big accounts that are hard to find, hard to land and that involve greater risk. The dynamic is the same as when the Inuit make the conscious decision to defer easy hunts for seal and caribou and set out to sea in their umiaks to find whales. Selling to large accounts is the key to generating significant growth in sale and revenues. In business, as in the Arctic, it pays to become a whale hunter.
