Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big

I really enjoyed reading this book. It was good to be reminded about the importance of people and community within business and how focusing on them can often be the difference between a "good" company and a "great" company. It was also interesting to see that the "brass ring" comes in many different forms and that greatness can't only be measured by the size of a company. Among other things, I was drawn to the idea of supplying customer service training to the hourly employees. The book gave several examples of companies that had done this and experienced very positive results. Big things like employees developing a more "customer minded" approach to their work or smaller things like smiling and shaking hands with potential customers that might be touring the plant. This is something that I am interested in implementing in our company. There are some other points worth mentioning, namely: 1) The idea of developing Value Disciplines (We need to define where our company fits in and where we can improve) a) Best Practice b) Best Product c) Best Overall Solutions (A combination of all three) 2) The idea that a company's ability to achieve the kind of intimacy with employees it needs to grow the business depends to some extent on the relationships between the "person in charge" and the employees. 3) Accomplishing growth a) Are the right people on the bus? -Must have people that care -Need to be motivated by more than money b) Is the bus in good running order? -Great internal communications -Great Coordination between departments - Great Follow through 4) I liked the emphasis placed on making sure to remind the employees in "UNEXPECTED" ways how much the company cares for them. Overall, a good read with a lot of take-homes.

During a GE annual meeting when discussing entrepreneurial companies, Jack Welch explained why he admires them: "For one, they communicate better. Without the din and prattle of bureaucracy, people listen as well as talk; and since there are fewer of them they generally know and understand each other. Second, small companies move faster. They know the penalties for hesitation in the marketplace. Third, in small companies, with fewer layers and less camouflage, the leaders show up very clearly on the screen. Their performance and its impact are clear to everyone. And, finally, smaller companies waste less. They spend less time in endless reviews and approvals and politics and paper drills. They have fewer people; therefore they can only do the important things. Their people are free to direct their energy and attention toward the marketplace rather than fighting bureaucracy." Presumably Bo Burlingham agrees with Welch, perhaps adding that the size of a company such as GE does not determine whether or not it has these characteristics. Rather, he would identify 14 companies which he calls "small giants." They range from Selima Inc. (a two-person fashion design and dressmaking firm) to O.C. Tanner (a company with 1,700 hundred employees and annual sales of $350-million). Although quite different in size and nature, Burlingham has identified seven common threads: "First, I could see that, unlike most entrepreneurs, their founders and leaders had recognized the full range of choices they had about the type of company they would create." "Second, the leaders had overcome the enormous pressures on successful companies to take paths they had not chosen and did not necessarily want to follow." "Third, each company had an extraordinarily intimate relationship with the local city, town, or county in which it did business -- a relationship that went well beyond the usual concept of `giving back.'" "Fourth, they cultivated exceptionally intimate relationships with customers and suppliers, based on personal contact, one-on-one interaction, and mutual commitment to delivering on promises." "Fifth, the companies also had what struck me as unusually intimate workplaces." "Sixth, I was impressed by the variety of corporate structures and modes of governance that these companies had come up with." "Finally, I noticed the passion that the leaders brought to what the company did. They loved the subject matter, whether it be music, safety lighting, food, special effects, constant torque hinges, beer, records storage, construction, dining, or fashion." No doubt there are countless other companies which also meet these criteria. Insofar as they and the 14 "small giants" which Burlingham discusses are concerned, nature of business is as irrelevant as size. If I understand Burlingham correctly, they are driven by the determination to be the best at what they do, to have close ties to their communities, to create a great workplace environment, to provide excellen

I read a lot of business books. I find it interesting to hear the different lessons that people get out of a business book. My take-away on this book is the importance of the relationship these businesses have with their communities. When I finished reading Small Giants, I thought of my own company and what it would be like if we got really big and left the town we grew up in. We have been a part of our community for over twenty-five years. Our associates appreciate where we live and actively participate in charities, social programs, civic boards, and public services that allow us to give something back to a community that has been very good to us. I wondered whether we would still be as active and committed if our company became too big to remain in one city and had to spread out around the country. I don't think so. There have been a lot of really big companies that started small in a hometown, made great contributions, and left great legacies, but then moved on and lost that connection to their communities. It made me sad to think of what they'd left behind, and what we might leave behind if our company, SRC Holdings, eventually took the same path.

Many people start/buy a small business because they want the freedom to do things their way. But once a small business becomes successful, you get pressure from many different sources to get even bigger. Those sources include friends & family, investment bankers, suppliers, prospective partners, etc. Most often that growth means either taking a lot more risk, ceding control, or working even harder - some of the very things that entrepreneurs want to avoid. So often a small business owner gets torn between the conventional wisdom of "grow or die" and their gut. In Small Giants, Bo Burlingham brilliantly writes about 14 companies whose owners decided to do things "their way". These owners walked away from millions of dollars to stay true to themselves - and in return became even more spectacular. Mandatory reading for any entrepreneur who gets confused as to what success really means.

As an entrepreneur, I can relate to the business situations, tribulations, and growth pains described in this book. "Small Giants" presents various aspects of business in the life of an entrepreneur through the stories of several businesses of various sizes, types, and positions in their life cycle. Among the requirements the author used in selecting them was the idea that the private owners had made a choice to be a certain kind of business. They had the opportunity to go public or grow through franchising or grow by taking on a level of project that would require them to scale and transform into something new, but when faced with this they decided to do something else. Why and for what? The author, Bo Burlingham, also looked for companies that were admired and emulated in their own industries. And he also looked for companies that had been cited for recognition by third parties. The book is arranged by various topics rather than by business. He draws in examples from a few of the businesses in each chapter as appropriate to illustrate the point he is making. The first chapter, "Free to Choose", discusses the realization that each of these businesspeople had that they did not have to follow the public corporation path of going public, or giving up what they loved doing in order to pursue the maximum bottom line profit. It is interesting to see what conclusions each of them came to and the direction they chose. The second chapter discusses the various approaches various businesses take to "bosses". Some of these guys run the business themselves from a strong center. Others are very egalitarian and try to delegate a great deal. There is a fascinating range of approaches to this issue. The third chapter discusses the idea of uniqueness. That some of these businesses cannot translate all that well into another company. The analogy is that if you moved the Mona Lisa to another museum and put it in a different frame, it would become a different experience even though it was the same painting. Another interesting point and in fact it can become a competitive advantage for certain businesses when this is understood. The fourth chapter discusses how various of these small giants build ties to their local communities and to their customers. Again, it becomes a competitive advantage, but for many of these businesspeople it is much more about their quality of life and how that grows out of why they run the businesses they do and why they run them the way they do. The results seem to be much more of a piece of a single vision than a calculated tactic derived from studying Porter's Five Forces chart. The fifth chapter turns inward and discusses the culture of intimacy many of these businesses have with the employees and their customers. It isn't just about knowing them and being friendly; it is more about making sure they have a great experience and feel good about coming to work and coming back for another meal, or making another purch