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It`s a widely accepted axiom of business that great companies grow their revenues and profits year after year. Yet quietly, under the radar, some entrepreneurs have rejected the pressure of endless growth to focus on more satisfying business goals. Goals like being great at what they do . . . creating a great place to work . . . providing great customer service . . . making great contributions to their communities . . . and finding great ways to lead their lives.
In Small Giants , veteran journalist Bo Burlingham takes us deep inside fourteen remarkable privately held companies, in widely varying industries across the United States, that have chosen to march to their own drummer. He searches for the magic ingredients that give these companies their unique “mojo” and the lessons we can learn from them. They include:
• Anchor Brewing, in San Francisco: the original American microbrewery
• CitiStorage Inc., in Brooklyn: the premier independent records-storage business in the United States
• Clif Bar & Co., in Berkeley: a leading maker of natural and organic energy bars and other nutrition foods
• Hammerhead Productions, in Studio City, California: a supplier of computer-generated special effects to the motion picture industry
• Union Square Hospitality Group, in New York City: the company of renowned restaurateur Danny Meyer
Size and growth aside, these small giants share some very interesting characteristics. They are all utterly determined to be the best at what they do. All have had the opportunity to raise a lot of capital, grow very fast, do mergers and acquisitions, expand geographically, and generally follow the well-worn route of other successful companies.
But, as Danny Meyer of the Union Square Hospitality Group puts it, “I`ve made much more money by choosing the right things to say no to than by choosing things to say yes to. I measure it by the money I haven`t lost and the quality I haven`t sacrificed.” ISBN: 014306228X
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Pages : 256
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