Small Giants

Key takeaways:

- Value Disciplines:
1. Operations Excellence allows you to offer the best price by having the best operations.
2. Product Leadership allows you to provide the best product by constantly innovating.
3. Customer Intimacy allows you to give the best service and customer experience by knowing your customer and what they want.
- Marketing: don't try to sell your company. Just present it. Make something worth buying and trust the consumers will notice.
- Bo talked about one company that had birthday lunches. Everyone with a birthday in the current month got together for a lunch provided by the company.
- Good people resent it when other employees show up late.
- A company needs three things:
1. Steady gross margins that you protect
2. A healthy balance sheet, as shown current cash-to-debt and debt to equity ratios.
3. A sound business model governing how the company delivers value and earns a profit while doing it.
- Protect your Gross Financial Margin. Just because you have sales, doesn't mean you are making money.
- There is an interesting look at Umpqua Bank around 7:41:00 in the audiobook. The bank would be extremely cautious about who was allowed to open accounts the provided exceptional service. It came at a premium, but their clients would happily pay for it.
- “Profits are the by product of a well run business, not end goals by themselves.”