Simple, eloquent, practical--author Bo Burlingham inspires with six precepts for great businesses

by Gale E. Martin, Director of Marketing, S. Dale High Center for Family Business

Someone once relayed an anecdote about a well-respected navy admirable, much admired for his military acumen, for his courage, but above all, for his leadership. What was the secret to his success, he was asked.

The admirable relayed the following story: Every day, he goes to his personal safe, takes out a piece of paper, unfolds it and reads this message:

Port-left. Starboard-right.

So, there you have it. Simple precepts reinforced daily made this navy man one of the most admired leaders in our modern day.

In the same way, Bo Burlingham, author of Small Giants: Companies Who Choose to Be Great Instead of Big, identified a half-dozen qualities common to the great businesses he studied. He shared them with his signature blend of credible enthusiasm during his presentation to the S. Dale High Center membership yesterday at a breakfast seminar at the Lancaster Marriott.

Were the guiding principles that Bo shared unwieldy and complex? Were they radically different messages for seasoned business leaders? Frankly, they could not have been more simple. Most likely, many of them have already been intuited by business leaders who have enjoyed a measure of success.

Yet, according to member evaluations, they found Bo's simple message compelling and reaffirming. Basically, Bo said that the businesses he explored for Small Giants all had an off-the-charts kind of "mojo," or business charisma, resulting from the synergy of six factors:

1. The leader factor--owners and leaders know who they are, what they want out of business and why
2. The community factor--the companies are rooted in the communities in which they do business.
3. The customer/supplier factor--the companies enjoy close personal relationships with their customers and suppliers.
4. The employee factor--the customers come second. Employees come first.
5. The (missing) margin factor--the companies have a sound business model and protect their gross margins.
6. The passion factor--the owners and leaders are in love with what their companies do.

None of those precepts is complex though I'll admit one of them is provocative. I'd never heard the counsel to put employees before customers though it is apparently the central premise of the book Nuts: Southwest Airlines' Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success by Kevin Freiberg and Jackie Freiberg.

By embodying the six factors Bo identified, the small giants he studied surmounted incredible odds and obstacles felling other good and near-great businesses--challenges such as competition from giant corporations, the humblest of humbling beginnings, and crushing debt, to name a few. 

Following Bo's talk, in response to the question, "What did you find most valuable about the presentation?" attendees said things like:

• A great perspective on the importance of culture in making a great company;
• Bo's confirmation of the importance for community involvement;
• He reinforced the need to maintain and grow company culture; and
• After listening to Bo, he made me feel as though I can move forward as a leader in a small family business as an employee not family member.

More than a few guests mentioned the practical wisdom of Bo's presentation.

Sometimes, keeping your family business on course to success, to realizing its potential, can be as simple as reminding yourself daily of what's truly important: Employees. Community. Customers/Suppliers. Leadership. Passion.

Leading a family firm might simply be a case of telling yourself "port-left; starboard-right" more often than you think anyone needs to hear it.

For slides of Bo's presentation from the S. Dale High Center website, click here. For a link to another great summary of Bo's presentation by Scott Heintzelman, "The Exuberant Accountant," click here.