Think Big, Act Small: How America's Best Performing Companies Keep the Start-up Spirit Alive

New and updated insights about the practical and simple ways companies can achieve consistent growth

Tradition says there are three ways to grow a company’s profits: Fire up the sales team with empty promises, cut costs and downsize, or cook the books. But what if there’s a better way—a way that nine amazingly profitable and well-run companies are already embracing?

Jason Jennings and his research team screened more than 100,000 American companies to find nine that rarely end up on magazine covers, yet have increased revenues and profits by ten percent or more for ten consecutive years. Then they interviewed the leaders, workers, and customers of these quiet super­stars to find the secrets of their astoundingly consistent and profitable growth.

What they have in common is a culture—a community—based on a shockingly simple precept: Think big, but act small. It works for retailers like PETCO, Cabela’s, and O’Reilly Automotive, manufacturers like Medline Industries, service compa­nies like Sonic Drive-In, private educational companies like Strayer, industrial giants like Koch Enterprises, and software companies like SAS.

These companies think big ideas about solving customers’ problems, making better products, and creating value. And yet they never stop acting like start-ups—staying humble, treating every employee like the owner, and teaching managers to get their hands dirty.

Jennings and his researchers have updated this book with new takeaways about why these companies continue to thrive—through the 2008 economic downturn—and have now increased revenues and profits for fifteen consecu­tive years. Any company, no matter the size or industry, can benefit from fol­lowing their examples.

Jason Jennings is the bestselling author of four highly acclaimed leadership and management books—Hit the Ground Running; Think Big, Act Small; Less Is More; and It’s Not the Big That Eat the Small . . . It’s the Fast That Eat the Slow. USA Today called him one of the three most in-demand business speakers in the world.

Visit jennings-solutions.com.