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

Bo Burlingham (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2008

It's widely accepted in business that great companies grow their revenues and profits year after year - but bigger is not necessarily better. In "Small Giants", journalist Bo Burlingham takes us deep inside fourteen remarkable privately held companies, from a brewery to a record label, that chose a different path to success. These organizations quietly rejected the pressure of endless growth, deciding to focus more on satisfying business goals - being the best at what they do, creating a stimulating place to work, providing perfect customer service and making important contributions to their communities. But what are the magic ingredients that make these companies unique? Why and how does their approach work in such widely varying industries? And what lessons can we learn from them? A fresh, inspirational guide to business strategy, "Small Giants" will help any entrepreneur consider new directions to make their company great.

Editorial Reviews

Review

For all you harried entrepreneurs out there, Bo Burlingham has a reassuring message: Relax. Bigger isn?t necessarily better. The wonderful stories in "Small Giants" show you how to prosper by retaining the vision of excellence that got you into business in the first place. (Rosabeth Moss Kanter, author of "Confidence")

About the Author

Bo Burlingham is editor at large at Inc. magazine. He has also written for Esquire, Harper's, Mother Jones, and The Boston Globe, among other publications, and is the coauthor, with Jack Stack, of The Great Game of Business and A Stake in the Outcome.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Books (October 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0141031492
• ISBN-13: 978-0141031491
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,032,387 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good to Great for the Private Company, May 17, 2008

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big (Paperback)

Loved this book. This would be the complementing book to Collins' Good to Great, which focuses on large, publicly traded companies. Small Giants is about private companies that could have sold out, gotten big, went public, etc, but chose to remain a functional working size so as not to lose what makes them special. I work for a large, regional advertising/pr agency and this book is all about us and the opportunities and challenges we face. For the small/medium size business owner to the start up, this is a must read.