Sir, Mr John Grieve Smith's assertion (Letters, March 13) that employee board representation is vital is misguided. Board level strategies must not be overly influenced by any desire to preserve employees' "much greater stake in the long-term future of the company" than that of the shareholders.

The purpose of companies is not to employ staff; staff are there to enable companies to provide a return on capital, so most staff ensure customers are attracted and serviced.

Big employee-centric companies are not well suited to surviving turbulent economies and markets. Increasing numbers of the largest businesses are now attempting to define radical new corporate strategies, ones that transform their businesses into small businesses by increasing their variable costs in order to reduce their fixed costs. I believe the future is in "atomic corporations", where alliances with many small and medium-sized enterprises replace all areas of the traditional business.

You cannot be big and agile at the same time as the cost of transformation is too high. Good strategies cannot work if employee concerns are paramount. Once boards want to apply such strategies, employees should be fully consulted, but concerns that employees will lose their jobs and perhaps careers cannot be relevant to the company strategy. For the employee, this means that the age of spending your life in just one or two corporations is over. Networking for employees and SMEs is vital.

Greg Solomon, Solomon Trade Processing, London W13 8JS