• Small Giants

  • Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big, 10th Anniversary Edition
  • By: Bo Burlingham
  • Narrated by: Bo Burlingham, Sean Pratt
  • Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (822 ratings)

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Small Giants  By  cover art

Small Giants

By: Bo Burlingham
Narrated by: Bo Burlingham,Sean Pratt
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Publisher's summary

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 14 remarkable companies that have chosen to march to their own drummers. 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 companies they could create. And he shows how we can all benefit by questioning the usual definitions of business success. In his new afterword, Burlingham reflects on the similarities and learning lessons from the small giants he covers in the audiobook.

©2016 Bo Burlingham (P)2016 Gildan Media LLC

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What listeners say about Small Giants

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  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

fantastic book for small company builders

After having read hundreds of business books, I have to pronounce this book in the top five for small business builders. Required Reading!

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9 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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How everyone should be doing business

Narrator is easy to listen to. This is a wonderful guide to how leaders should be running companies

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8 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Felt rushed

All I kept thinking during what should have been an absolutely amazing book was "Can we please slow down and spend more than about 30 seconds on each of these stories?" There were so many businesses crammed into here that I felt like half the time we were only getting started on really getting to the meat of the story... and then it was on to the next one. There were even a few he dragged on for too long and others that were barely covered. Just felt like it could have been great, but really just missed the mark.

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6 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

good info to many stories

good info on good business practices, but hard to follow with endless boring stories that made me loose attention.

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3 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Good research but too much fluff.

while this book has lots of good advice on staying small and is def3 thought provoking, it also felt like too much fluffy, heartwarming content rather than practical advice.

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3 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Great companies that didn't go public!

Great book for people with private companies, who have a true passion to develop and keep their freedoms of being a private.

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3 people found this helpful

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Informative

I loved this book. I enjoyed hearing new, independent, and unique styles of running a company; from how to deal with customers and employees to running day to day operations. Understanding the cultural needs of a company in all aspects is critical to a successful business.

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3 people found this helpful

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Engaging from start to finish!

Bird's eye view into what makes small businesses great! Great stories to learn from! Story telling for business the business professional!

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2 people found this helpful

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Awesome!

One of the best business books I've listened to hands down, I definitely recommend it!

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2 people found this helpful

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Wonderfully Targeted to Small Giant Companies!

Most business books are written toward stories and interviews of the large successful and failed companies or the home-office entrepreneur. This book hits the sweet spot between the home office and the board room.
Specifically targeting practices and mindful insights to companies such as mine who are missioned toward the impact we have on the community versus how large we can scale.
Easy listen and well-narrated. As I find with many books these days, it could have been shorter as some examples were repetitive or a bit lengthy in this time starved world.

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