Small Giants by Bo Burlingham

While walking through Borders with Russell a few weeks ago, he exclaimed, "hey-- that sounds like your school" referring to Small Giants: Companies that Choose to Be Great Instead of Big by Bo Burlingham.

He was right.

Burlingham, editor at large at Inc. magazine and a prolific writer to boot, has made a fascinating and helpful study into small companies that prefer to stay that way (as opposed to those who have no choice but to stay small, due to lack of success). Following a common model for books (especially books about businesses and organizations), Burlingham has selected a small pool of 14 companies that exemplify the principles and practices he has focused on, then used these paradigmatic companies to illustrate his concepts.

[An aside: I think this model is a very good one; in fact, because of its appeal to all types of readers, it allows a writer to get his ideas across more clearly than other models. However, I appreciate Jim Collins' caveat about the model when he discusses "discovering buildings". In short, Collins comments that, if you simply take a group of companies that you admire and explore what things they have in common, you might discover that they all had buildings-- but that is not the practice that distinguishes them from others that you don't admire. Instead, there needs to be some sort of control-group for comparison to accurately discover the key differences. As good as Small Giants is, Burlingham did not (overtly, at least) employ this key idea of comparison.]

The gist of the book is evident in the title: success in a company (and, by way of extrapolation, any organization) is not equivalent with size or growth. Some companies, including those discussed in Small Giants, decide to remain small for particular reasons.

This idea is closer to my heart, as Russell rightly discerned, because the school that I serve has made exactly this sort of strategic decision, in some ways: we've chosen to key our campus small for the sake of the success of the educational community. To accommodate growth, then, we will start new campuses. As a result, we won't allow any campus to grow larger than around 70 students (for 7th-12th grades). Schools, it seems, are similarly stereotyped to businesses: when I share this concept with others, they are surprised, and it often takes them a while to get the fact that we are a "successful" school even though we're small.

Burlingham identifies six key principles that are especially important for a business to remain extraordinary while staying small (these correspond to most of the chapters in the book):

• Strong Leadership (chapter 2: "Who's in Charge Here?")
• Unique Core Identity (chapter 3: "The Mona Lisa Principle")
• Remarkable Customer Service (chapter 4: "Ties That Bind")
• Tight-Knit Organizational Community (chapter 5: "A Culture of Intimacy")
• Key Decision-Making Strategies (chapter 6: Galt's Gulch")
• Preparation for Future Generations (chapt 7: "Pass It On")

Burlingham describes these principles carefully, precisely, and with helpful detail, folding in stories and quotes from the leaders of his sample companies throughout. His writing is engaging, though at times he ventured into discussions that relied on the reader's technical knowledge of business concepts a bit too heavily-- this reader, for one, was not as familiar with the concepts as he assumed. Nevertheless, at the end I found his points to be clear and understood, without need of further explanation.

Obviously, the principles Small Giants highlights are important for any business, whether or not it chooses to remain small. Burlingham's focus, however, is on the nuances of the small company with regard to these principles: where they matter more or less, how they are practiced differently, and what the net effect of their practice changes the outcome of the company. Still, leadership in any size company might find Small Giants a useful read.
As business books go, I found this one to be better-than-average in readability. The writing was not cumbersome in the least for 95% of the book, and the author's ability to tell the stories of the companies he highlights is top-notch. Burlingham's book offers a number of principles that I found applicable to my school-- and you might find them applicable to the institutions you are involved with, as well. I found Small Giants to be a pleasurable and profitable read, and I think anyone in leadership of a small to mid-size organization would benefit from it.