Business With A Higher Purpose: A Review of Bo Burlingham’s Small Giants

In his book Small Giants: Companies That Choose To Be Great Instead of Big (2005), Bo Burlingham has written a book about the possibilities of business.

When we talk about business, we usually talk about the large corporations that dominate our world: Apple, Amazon, Google, etc…. As these companies grow larger and larger, more and more people work for them and so this is in some sense appropriate. The contemporary world is in many ways dominated by these corporate behemoths – even more so than when Burlingham wrote Small Giants twenty years ago.

But Burlingham sought out businesses that had taken a different path. Instead of trying to be as big as possible, the founders of these businesses aimed at excellence and personal fulfillment – for themselves and all of the business’s stakeholders:

The shareholders who own the businesses in this book have other, nonfinancial priorities in addition to their financial objectives. Not that they don’t want to earn a good return on their investment, but it’s not their only goal, or even necessarily their paramount goal. They’re also interested in being great at what they do, creating a great place to work, providing great service to customers, having great relationships with their suppliers, making great contributions to the communities they live and work in, and finding great ways to lead their lives (xvii).

While business is often regarded as boring, the companies Burlingham profiles sought to create their own little worlds in which financial objectives – while important – took a backseat to higher purposes. Paradoxically, by putting purpose ahead of profits, these companies acquired “Mojo” which turbocharged the financial aspects of their businesses as well.

What are the characteristics of these Small Giants?

One of the defining characteristics of a Small Giant in my opinion is The Pursuit of Excellence. These companies are not satisfied with good enough. Making money is not the only thing they’re after. In the products and services they provide, in the way they operate their businesses and in the relationships they foster among stakeholders, Small Giants strive for nothing less than excellence.

Excellence is a standard. It’s something to strive for and when we fall short, we get back on our feet, figure out what we did wrong, and try to do better. In other words, the pursuit of excellence is a continual process of learning and refinement. It is what some have called an infinite game. There is no end result. There is always another way to improve, another level to reach.

Burlingham distinguishes between Small Giants that primarily focus on the excellence of the product or service and Small Giants who primarily focus on the excellence of the process of doing business. Of course, a successful business requires both, but some Small Giants are on different ends of the continuum.

Selima Inc. – a boutique dress maker – employs only two people and is focused on individualized, superior dresses. Citistorage – the premier independent records storage business in the country at the time – is focused on the excellence of the business itself. Records storage being a commodity business, the excellence here must be mostly in the way the business operates rather than the product it provides.

The second defining characteristic that stands out for me is The Primacy of Relationships. These businesses do not employ corporate Dilberts. The employees are excited to be working there because the work is interesting, they are passionate about it, they are treated well by management – including being well compensated and having work-life balance – and they get along with each other. The customers are excited about the business because of the quality of goods and services it supplies.

The relationship amongst the employees is foundational. It is the chemistry among them – based on shared passion for the business, being well treated by management and respect for each other – that creates the Mojo that defines a Small Giant.

It must be said that not everybody is cut out to be part of a Small Giant. You have to get the right people on the bus, to use a phrase from Jim Collins (Built To Last, Good to Great). If employees don’t bring a foundational level of passion, competence, character and collegiality, they won’t fit in. Indeed, bad employees will sabotage the business.

When you combine the pursuit of excellence with the primacy of relationships, you create an environment in which people can thrive. Not just make money to pay the bills. The Bible says that “Man does not live by bread alone.” Our society is a testament to this. So many people with so much money and yet so unhappy and unfulfilled. In this sense, business can be a vehicle for social transformation. We usually think of government or philanthropy as the way to make the world a better place. But Bo Burlingham has convincingly shown that business may be our best hope to save the world – if only we have the intellectual wherewithal to explore its true possibilities.