11/30/2009 10:39:00 AM Bring on the Mojo: 'Small Giants Safari' hits Ozarks Springfield's SRC is a stop on a national tour of 'small-giant' companies; mojo players focus more on people, less on growth
On the Hunt: Tips from Small Giants
CitiStorage, Brooklyn, N.Y.
The data and records storage company serves the medical, legal and government fields. CitiStorage establishes incentives around the numbers of boxes stored.
"Every time they reach a certain milestone, everybody in the company gets a bonus based on reaching that milestone. And they have a lot of fun with it because when they get close to a milestone, they run a contest where people can guess when exactly they're going to get the milestone," said tour organizer Bo Burlingham.
Zingerman's Delicatessen, Ann Arbor, Mich.
The deli was the first of eight businesses that make up the Zingerman Community of Businesses, which include a mail-order company and its own training program, ZingTrain. The program helps staff share the responsibility of its own training by using a passport system. A passport includes a list of training expectations - a class, test or on-shift training, for instance - and supervisors stamp each completed requirement.
New employees start with a seven-day passport, and new passports are issued at 30-, 60- and 90-day intervals as employees advance. There are passports for managers, buyers and front-of-house positions, among others.
SRC and Great Game of Business, Springfield
Each company that falls under the SRC Holdings Corp. umbrella practices the open-book financial practices detailed by the Great Game of Business. Open-book management involves more than showing quarterly history, said Kristin Binford, marketing manager at Great Game. "You can't do anything about history," she said.
Instead of talking about the past, SRC helps its employees understand balance sheet, cash flow and financial statement numbers, and forecast upcoming weeks and months to improve performance in specified critical areas.
Beryl Cos., Dallas
Beryl Cos. operates a call center that specializes in health care. Its culture-training program, the Circle of Growth, starts with staff.
"Invest in employees first," said Beryl founder and CEO Paul Spiegelman, who also is a co-founder of the Small Giants Community. "Employee loyalty drives customer loyalty, which results in business profitability. Then repeat."
To understand a zebra, it's best to view one in its natural environment. To understand how a workplace culture impacts a company's productivity, it's a good idea to go experience that culture. That's the premise behind an upcoming business tour that will be making a stop in Springfield.
The Small Giants Safari is a Dec. 6-12 business tour that will stop at four U.S. companies, including SRC Holdings Corp. in Springfield. The small to midsize companies that 13 businesspeople from Brazilian publishing company Editora Quantum and Netherlands-based consulting firm &Samhoud will be visiting are all considered "small giants." And the people attending the safari are hoping to learn how to incorporate "small-giant" strategies into their own businesses.
The safari is the first tour of its kind offered by the Small Giants Community, a nonprofit organization founded by Paul Spiegelman, CEO of Texas-based health care call center Beryl, and Bo Burlingham, author and editor-at-large for Inc. magazine.
Companies with 'mojo'
The concept of a small-giant company comes from Burlingham's 2005 book "Small Giants: Companies that Chose to be Great Instead of Big." Burlingham featured 14 small to midsize companies that have what he calls "mojo." These companies focus less on growth and more on creating businesses that revolve around people, and some are included on the tour, he said.
"All of the companies on our tour ... really try and create employee-centered, people-friendly, community-oriented, customer-intimate companies," Burlingham said.
The idea for the safari emerged during the Inc. 500 conference in September in Washington, D.C., said SRC founder and CEO Jack Stack, who is an Inc. magazine contributor.
The international business executives on hand at the conference created a sense of urgency, he said.
"I watched the American companies in the meeting, and we were kind of ho-hum," Stack said. "You know, we kind of take for granted the things that we have. And these (international executives) are excited and jumped at the opportunity to be able to create a program to spend time in companies in the United States and take away our best practices."
The itinerary
The safari starts in New York, with a Dec. 6 dinner at Tabla, a Union Square Hospitality Group restaurant. USHG, which owns 10 New York City restaurants, was one of the small giant companies featured in Burlingham's book.
On Dec. 7, the group will visit Brooklyn-based CitiStorage and then travel the next day to Ann Arbor, Mich., to tour Zingerman's Delicatessen and learn about the ZingTrain training program.
"They'll talk about Zingerman's approach to customer service, and learn techniques to develop a vision and bring about change," Burlingham said.
The tour moves to Springfield on Dec. 9, when the group visits SRC and learns the open-book management techniques of The Great Game of Business.
"A number of companies in the book, including Zingerman's, have adopted the practices that SRC pioneered, so it seemed appropriate that we make that one of the stops," Burlingham said.
During the afternoon of Dec. 9 and the next morning, attendees will immerse themselves in the practices of SRC. They will hear an address from Stack and sit through a training session about open-book management. The group will have dinner in downtown Springfield at Farmers Gastropub, 431 S. Jefferson Ave., and stay at the Doubletree Hotel on North Glenstone Avenue.
On Dec. 10, they'll visit an SRC facility and get a chance to ask questions of SRC employees during an employee panel, said Kristin Binford, marketing manager at Great Game of Business, an SRC Holdings company.
"Basically, we have 24 hours, so we're trying to give a broad spectrum," she said.
After Springfield, the group will travel to Dallas, where it will visit Beryl.
"(Beryl is) one of those companies, that if I'd known about them before I wrote 'Small Giants,' they would have been in the book," Burlingham said. "They're a call center like no other call center you've seen."
The philosophy at Beryl is that an investment in workers and the workplace will lead to a happier and higher-performing employee, said Glenn Burr, who manages Web content for the Small Giants Community at www.smallgiants.org.
Beryl's program that developed is called the Circle of Growth, and people on the tour will learn how it was implemented, he said.
There will be a lot for the attendees to take back to their own businesses. And that's something Burlingham said is important for all companies.
"Study companies like these, and steal as many ideas as you can," he said. "There's nothing wrong with taking things successful companies have done and adapting them to fit your company."
Follow the Safari Organizers will be providing real-time updates on each leg of the Small Giant Safari. Posts will be made on Facebook, Twitter or on the Small Giants Community Web site.
• www.smallgiants.org
• Facebook: Small Giants Buzz, Paul Spiegelman, Bo Burlingham
