THINK BIG ACT SMALL

THINK BIG ACT SMALL
_How America’s Best Performing Companies Keep the Start-up Spirit Alive

First time reading this book, it reminds me "Good to Great", my favorite business strategy book. The approach the author employed here is a little similar to that one: with systematic approach to discover what and why contribute to company’s consistent high performance.

Jason Jennings, who is also the author for best selling books "Less Is More" and "It's Not the Big Eat the Small... It's the Fast That Eat the Slow", has well done by highlighting the key findings using the title “Think Big, Act Small”, and summarizing how these companies think big but act small with 10 key building blocks, including

1. Down To Earth (about the leadership and the culture)
2. Keep Your Hands Dirty
3. Make Short-Term Goals And Long Term Horizons
4. Let Go
5. Have Everyone Think And Act Like An Owner
6. Invent New Businesses
7. Create Win-Win Solutions
8. Choose Your Competitors
9. Build Communities
10. Grow Future Leaders

I particularly like “Let Go” and “Choose Your Competitors” sections.

Letting go could be harder than creating your competitive advantage or sustaining your success. Letting go of what you’ve always been, and knowing when to let it go or stick it out won’t be an easy one. Be able to face the brutal reality, going for best result, rather than pursuing egos.

For “Choose Your Competitors”, I think it belongs to “Think Big” part based on Jason’s point. More precisely, I would say “Think STRATEGICALLY”. With all the hard work (“Act Small”), you still won’t be able to succeed without the right choice of competition. YOU should smart CHOOSE the competition you want to go up against. Think and ask: what can make you own your space, while preventing someone from coming directly after you?

Third but not the last to take away is the reminder from Charles Darwin, in On the Origin of the Species by Means of Natural Selection: “…. It is NOT the strongest of species that survive, or the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change”. Yes, the most adaptable one beats! Even though it has been quoted so many times anywhere, it really touches me every time when I read it.