Think Big, Act Small: How America’s Best Performing Companies Keep the Start- Up Spirit Alive
By Jason Jennings
Portfolio, May 2005 288 pages, $24.95
For nearly a quarter-century, dating back to In Search of Excellence, management consultants-turned-authors have followed the same formula: Find a handful of extremely successful companies and try to determine what they have in common. Jennings, coauthor of It’s Not the Big That Eat the Small, It’s the Fast That Eat the Slow, is the latest to go down this well-worn path. His advice to leaders, after studying companies such as Koch Enterprises, Petco Animal Supplies and Sonic Corp.: Stay close to your customers, make sure you’re accessible to employees, and kill off losing projects quickly. And make lots of small bets on the future, not one big one.
