Being a Small Giant with Bo Burlingham

Do you know the difference between being ‘big’ and being ‘great?’ Bo Burlingham, author of Small Giants, does, and he was one of the driving forces that shaped entrepreneurship as we know it today. Today, Bo talks about what it means to be a small giant, to have ‘mojo,’ and what choices those companies make that the others don’t. He explains that client and customer relationships aren’t the only ones that matter. Finally, would you DARE show your employees your financials? Bo says you should, but he lays an even more important groundwork for creating the type of company culture where everyone cares because they have a stake in the company’s success. If you believe it’s better to be great than to be big and that there are more important things than maximizing revenue, you’ll love this episode of Business Reimagined. Key Points: At 5:30 – Bo talks about the defining differences between companies that choose to be great instead of big and those who don’t, and what he means when he says a company has ‘mojo.’ At 9:00 – According to Bo, you DO have a choice in what kind of business you want to run, and there are consequences to pollution and cheating your customers. You can’t blame it on business. At 11:00 – Bo addresses the trade-off between great and big, and whether you have to choose one or the other to succeed. At 16:00 – Company culture is a relatively new idea, and Bo talks about working with one of the shaping forces behind open-book businesses. At 20:00 – Bo reflects on the impact of his career on entrepreneurship, and whether or not he thinks he’s really done the heavy lifting or not.