In his recently published book, Small Giants (1), Bo Burlingham (who is also an Editor-at Large for Inc. Magazine) identifies seven characteristics which gave smaller, entrepreneurial companies the energy, drive and enthusiasm that attracts customers, vendors and employees alike in order to create sustainable business success. The combination of factors that he identified in his extensive research that gave companies these characteristics (what he termed "Mojo") was:

1. Unlike most entrepreneurs, these business founders and leaders had recognized the full range of choices they had about the type of company they could create. They hadn't accepted the standard menu of options as a given. They had allowed themselves to question the usual definitions of success in business and to imagine possibilities other than the ones all of us are familiar with.

2. The leaders of these companies had overcome the enormous pressures on successful companies (like a relentless need to grow revenue) to take paths they had not chosen and did not necessarily want to follow. The people in charge had remained in control, or had regained control, by doing a lot of soul searching, rejecting a lot of well intentioned advice, charting their own course, and building the kind of business they wanted to live in, rather than accommodating themselves to a business shaped by outside forces.

3. Each company had an extraordinarily intimate relationship with the local city, town, or county in which it did business--a relationship that went well beyond the usual concept of "giving back". And all of these companies were model corporate citizens, but the relationship was very much a two-way street. The community helped mold the character of the business, just as the companies played an important role in the life of the community.

4. They cultivated exceptionally intimate relationships with customers and suppliers. These relationships were based on personal contact, one-on-one interaction, and mutual commitment to delivering on promises. The leaders themselves took the lead in this regard. They were highly accessible and absolutely committed to retaining the human dimension of the relationships. Customers responded by sending fan mail. Suppliers responded by providing extraordinary service of their own. The effect was to create a sense of community and common purpose between the companies, their suppliers, and their customers. The kind of intimacy that is difficult for large companies to achieve, if only because of their size.

5. These companies also had what came across as unusually intimate workplaces. They were, in effect, functional little societies that strove to address a broad range of their employees' needs as human beings--creative, emotional, spiritual, and social needs as well as economic ones. They believed that their company's vibrant culture was built around the principle of "caring for people in the totality of their lives". They were places where employees felt cared for, where they were treated in the way that the founders and leaders thought people ought to be treated--with respect, dignity, integrity, fairness, kindness, and generosity. In that sense, the companies seemed to represent the ultimate expression of a business as a social institution.

6. There was a variety of corporate structures and modes of governance that these companies had come up with. Because they were private and closely held, they had the freedom to develop their own management systems and practices, and several had done so. Some built their own training companies and taught their way of doing business. Others invented an accordion structure, expanding with each new project, contracting when it was finished. Even others had developed a corporate democracy, complete with two CEOs. Several other companies had turned themselves into educational institutions, teaching their employees about finance, service, leadership, and everything else involved in building a successful company.

7. Each company had a passion that the leaders brought to what the company did. They loved the subject matter, whether it be music, safety lighting, food, special effects, constant torque hinges, beer, records storage, construction, dining, or fashion. Though they were consummate business people, they were anything but professional managers. Indeed, they were the opposite of professional managers. They had deep emotional attachments to the business, to the people who worked in it, and to its customers and suppliers--the sort of feelings that are the bane of professional management.

Burlingham's book is organized around these various factors, and he gives many real-life examples of the companies he has observed that have "Mojo". He examines the choices that the companies' founders and owners have made, how they made it, and how they have dealt with the forces pushing them to go in another direction. Then, he looks at the characteristics these companies share, three of which involve creating a level of intimacy--with the community, with customers and suppliers, and with employees--which is difficult, if not impossible, to achieve when a business grows too fast, gets too big, or spreads out too much geographically. He also looks at some of the corporate structures and practices these companies use to achieve their goals. Then, he focuses on the issue of succession and sustainability: Can these companies last beyond one generation and, if so, how? Finally, Burlingham considers how the founders, leaders, and owners of these companies approach business and what that says about the possibilities of business in general.

I do highly recommend that any entrepreneur read Burlingham's book and get filled with inspiration and possibilities for their business.

(1) Adapted from Bo Burlingham's introduction to "Small Giants: Companies that Chose to Be Great Instead of Big", 2007 by Portfolio.