No Formula for Greatness but Many Paths

Bo Burlingham, the best reporter on small business working today, has provided us a valuable insight by looking deeply at what makes some small companies great -- and telling us why this is important. I first read this book in February and decided it was worth a second read so I put it on that stack of select books. I recently completed a careful second read. I found it to be a much better book than I anticipated. Most business books can be skimmed and the usually obvious 'lessons' cataloged quickly but "Small Giants" needs to be read carefully. The lessons readers take away will vary according to their interests and point of view.

Perhaps one of the major lessons for me is that there is no magic formula used by each of the fourteen small companies studied to achieve greatness. Each got 'there' differently -- but each knew what/where 'there' was. The acknowledgment that there is no formula is a strength of this book.

Small business has been largely ignored by the professors of business. I have discussed this issue with professors and management consultants and they have candidly admitted that this has been deliberate. There simply is not enough money to be made by studying small business; they don't buy enough high priced consulting to make it worth while and it is too difficult to get the data. And, small businesses seem to behave irrationally: they do not always make short term financial performance the only goal and reason for being. Bo Burlingham does an excellent job of going inside this irrational behavior to find the real stories.

And these are stories first and foremost of real people who make choices about the type and style of company they want to own and the values they want to live and work by. My friends who lead public or VC backed companies read this book and envy the owners of these private companies. (Will we ever have enough enlightened investors to make it possible for a few more of these companies to exist in the public markets? Probably not.)

I am very fortunate in that I spend all of my time with the CEOs of small companies. (I am the founder of CEO Roundtable, LLC, a CEO peer group company, so I see the stories Bo reports being created every day.) Small business is the most powerful and valuable engine for growth in our country -- but growth is seldom the primary driving force in these companies. These companies want to be the very best at what they do (and they know exactly what they do)and they want to make a real positive difference in the lives of their employees, their customers, their vendors and their communities. It is this wonderful paradox that "Small Giants" explores.

One other lesson I take from this book is that the leaders of great small companies work with both sides of their brains -- they are 'rational artists'. I can personally confirm this truth. Every day I see CEOs create a work of art on the canvass of business, just as Bo Burlingham reports.

We need more books that report on the passion of small business leaders to create and fewer on the easy targets of big company leaders who destroy.


Loren G Carlson
Chairman
CEO Roundtable, LLC
117 Bridle Path
North Andover, MA 01845
(978) 685-8743
lgcarlson@CEO-Roundtables.com
www.CEO-Roundtables.com

Bo Burlingham is the Editor at Large of Inc. Magazine. His latest book reports on how maverick companies have passed up the growth treadmill and focused on greatness instead. Some entrepreneurs have rejected the pressure of endless growth to focus on more satisfying business goals.