Name: Small Giants
Rating: 3.8 (33 reviews)
Author: Bo Burlingham

What’s in it for me? Discover how to run a successful business while remaining small.

For as long as there have been businesses, there’s been a basic premise that the only way to succeed is to expand, constantly looking for ways to sell more products to more customers.

But in these blinks, you’ll discover that there’s another way to make your business a success, and it depends on you chasing quality, not growth. This is what companies like Anchor Brewing and Zingerman’s Deli are doing when they lovingly prepare their mouthwatering ales and sandwiches. The result? A resounding triumph for their bank balance and their quality control.

In these blinks, you’ll discover:

why being a business owner means you should memorize the names of 1,700 people;
how the shoe company ECCO helped one of its employees buy a house, and made her a shareholder; and
the secret to the Mona Lisa’s fame.

Small giants: why some companies decide not to grow.

If you’ve ever seen the CEOs of huge, publicly traded companies being interviewed, you’ll know that they always emphasize the importance of growth. No doubt this is how the companies became so big in the first place.

But in fact, there’s another kind of company: the small giant. These are privately owned companies that have faced a moment of truth where they had to decide whether to grow or not, and decided against expanding if it meant compromising their mission.

Think of W. L. Butler Construction Inc., which expanded rapidly in the 1970s and 1980s. At one stage, the owner, Bill Butler, found himself with 129 employees and $20 million in annual sales.

But he was unhappy. He realized that he didn’t want his company to keep growing as he felt he should know every employee personally. So Butler narrowed his business focus and reduced his clients from 25 to ten. This even meant letting go of his largest client, an abusive financial services company that accounted for 50 percent of the value of the company’s projects.

But staying small has some real business benefits.

Consider the Californian brewery Anchor Brewing, which has remained at around 50 employees for the past 20 years.

The small workforce fosters better relationships as everyone knows everyone else, and it also helps the employees take pride and responsibility in their jobs as they can actually see the impact of their efforts immediately.

Not only do small companies have a nicer atmosphere at work, they also tend to be better at tasks that benefit from personal interaction, like customer service. This is because the owner can literally know the face and name of every customer, which would be impossible in a big corporation.

Passion and control: owners of small giants keep control of their companies so they can do what they love.

As we saw in the previous blink, one of the key concerns for the owner of a small giant is retaining control of the company.

This is why owners want to keep their company stock in the hands of just a few individuals. If they really wanted to grow, they would probably need to find outside investors to fund the expansion, and this would mean giving away shares and thereby some oversight of the company.

Local roots: why small giants are deeply embedded in their communities.

The representatives of almost all large companies, even huge multinationals, often claim to care deeply about the communities around them. But in the case of small giants, this claim is undoubtedly true.

This is because the local community plays a crucial role in shaping the company.

Key ideas in Small Giants

What is Small Giants about?

There’s a new phenomenon emerging in the American business world: Small Giants. These are privately owned companies that don’t follow the usual corporate dogma of growing revenues at any cost. Instead, they’re driven by their heart-felt enthusiasm for their product, and focus on factors like quality and caring for their workforce. The author has examined 14 small giants to explain how this strategy has made them successful.