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  • Published: 15 January 2017
  • ISBN: 9780143109600
  • Imprint: Portfolio
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 304
  • RRP: $49.99

Small Giants

Companies That Choose to be Great Instead of Big




It's an axiom of business that great companies grow their revenues and profits year after year. Yet quietly, under the radar, a small number of companies 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 companies that have chosen to march to their own drummer. They include Anchor Brewing, the original microbrewer; CitiStorage Inc., the premier independent records-storage business; Clif Bar & Co., maker of organic energy bars and other nutrition foods; Righteous Babe Records, the record company founded by singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco; Union Square Hospitality Group, the company of restaurateur Danny Meyer; and Zingerman's Community of Businesses, including the world-famous Zingerman's Deli of Ann Arbor.

In the revised 10th Anniversary edition with two new chapters and updates throughout, Burlingham shows how the leaders of these small giants recognized the full range of choices they had about the type of company they could create. And he shows how we can all benefit by questioning the usual definitions of business success.

How maverick companies have passed up the growth treadmill — and focused on greatness instead.

It’s an axiom of business that great companies grow their revenues and profits year after year. Yet quietly, under the radar, a small number of companies 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 companies that have chosen to march to their own drummer. They include Anchor Brewing, the original microbrewer; CitiStorage Inc., the premier independent records-storage business; Clif Bar & Co., maker of organic energy bars and other nutrition foods; Righteous Babe Records, the record company founded by singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco; Union Square Hospitality Group, the company of restaurateur Danny Meyer; and Zingerman’s Community of Businesses, including the world-famous Zingerman’s Deli of Ann Arbor.

Burlingham shows how the leaders of these small giants recognized the full range of choices they had about the type of company they could create. And he shows how we can all benefit by questioning the usual definitions of business success. In his new afterward, Burlingham reflects on the similarities and learning lessons from the small giants he covers in the book.

  • Published: 15 January 2017
  • ISBN: 9780143109600
  • Imprint: Portfolio
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 304
  • RRP: $49.99

About the author

Bo Burlingham

Bo Burlingham is Inc.'s editor at large. He is the coauthor of The Great Game of Business and A Stake in the Outcome, and the author of Small Giants.

Bo Burlingham is the author of Small Giants: Companies That Choose to be Great Instead of Big, a finalist for the Financial Times/Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year in 2006. An editor at large at Inc., he has also written for Esquire, Harper's, Mother Jones and the Boston Globe, among other publications.

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Praise for Small Giants

"With new management books arriving by the boatload, Bo Burlingham has somehow managed the near impossible--he's given us a true original. Moreover, in the process he may have 'discovered' the most interesting and under-reported corner of the U.S. economy. In short, Small Giants is a Large Masterpiece. Bo's reporting is stupendous, and his writing and storytelling skills make the book equal parts fun and profound." --Tom Peters, author of In Search of Excellence

"This well-written book should inspire thousands of entrepreneurs to reject a mantra of growth for growth's sake in favor of a passionate dedication to becoming the absolute best. Bo Burlingham reminds us of a vital truth: big does not equal great, and great does not equal big." --Jim Collins, author of Good to Great