Small Giants, Big Opportunity

Small Giants is the brainchild of Bo Burlingham, who has brought together a community of small companies that recognizes, adopts and champions the benefits of values driven businesses.

The Center for Values Driven Leadership and the Small Giants has something in the works called the Return on Values project to examine the connection between culture, values, and profit. In the meantime, he continues to bring Small Giants to more and more businesses.

Here is a news release of the latest area to welcome the Small Giants.

Small Giants, Big Opportunity
Edoc Service, Inc. and SKILLSOURCE® Bring the Bold & Entrepreneurial “Small Giants” Community to the Tristate Region

What do an organic energy bar brand, an underground rock star, and a first-of-its-kind microbrewery have in common?

These three companies—CLIF Bar, Righteous Babe Records, and Anchor Steam microbrewery—are just three examples of “Small Giants.” Such Small Giant companies are those that are privately held, value-driven, and see success as more than just the bottom line.

“Small Giants is both a movement, and a community,” explains Jim Mullaney, President of Edoc Service, Inc., a 2012 Fast 55 company bringing the Small Giants community to the Cincinnati, Ohio region.

“Small Giant companies go by a different axiom of business” Mullaney adds.

While conventional wisdom says businesses have to strive for endless growth, INC Magazine’s Bo Burlingham presents the idea in his Small Giants book that a select group of high caliber companies can in fact reject the pressure of “growth for growth’s sake.”

These Small Giant companies are purpose-driven organizations. They define success not merely by profits, but by contributions to their community, dedication to customer service, and preservation of workplace cultures of excellence. “Success for these companies is all of these factors, and finding great ways for their teams to lead their lives. Much of the time our focus can be on public companies in particular, but the majority of small businesses should not be modeling themselves after those companies,” says Mullaney.

That’s part of the reason and motivation behind why Edoc Service and SKILLSOURCE® are organizing the first Small Giants event in Cincinnati.

The “Small Giants, Big Opportunity” luncheon features Thomas J. Walter, the serial entrepreneur, national speaker and co-author of the award-winning book IT'S MY COMPANY TOO: How Entangled Companies Move Beyond Employee Engagement for Remarkable Results.

Walter, who is best known as the Chief Culture Officer (CCO) of Chicago-area's Tasty Catering, will speak about how and why employee engagement is the leading indicator of organizational well-being.

“The health of a company today is based on employee engagement,” explains Walter. “As employee engagement increases, profitability naturally will follow the same curve.”

At the event Walter will share how Small Giant companies have succeeded in creating engagement, and how entrepreneurs and leaders can take advantage of the concept of shared values to improve the health of their companies.

Edoc Service is already a member of the growing Small Giants community. Edoc believes other Cincinnati firms will want to experience the movement that is successfully bringing together savvy change-makers and entrepreneurial “doers” across the nation.

“A Small Giants presence here in the Cincinnati region is long overdue. Companies that are a fit to come to the Small Giants kick-off luncheon are those that strive to follow a different business mantra, and that is that ‘profits follow purpose.’ Our March Small Giants luncheon will be attended by these likeminded leaders, where they can come together in pursuit of purpose-driven, sustainable success.”

For more on Cincinnati’s Small Giants kick-off event and other Bolder Business events visit edocservice.com/blog and subscribe for updates.

Return on Energy

Mojo Media Labs founder Mike Rose authored a book that makes a great companion to Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big. In his book, ROE Powers ROI, Mike outlines a methodology for getting the right people into the right seats to maximize your ROI. Hint: it takes three distinct roles to form a successful organization. When paired with the Small Giants culture, you will be able to map out the best strategy to make your own company great without needing to go big.

Download a sneak peak of Mike’s book.