7 Paths Blog

First published on 2/6/09.

In The Breakthrough Company: How Everyday Companies Become Extraordinary Performers, Keith R. McFarland says that small companies that breakthrough to become large and successful have in common several principles including:

Don’t look for extraordinary people; build a place where ordinary people can do extraordinary things.

Evergreen Leaders’ mission is to give ordinary people the tools to help their groups thrive.

McFarland discovered in his study of breakthrough companies that each “focused on creating systems that helped people to grow along with the business.”

I’m still at the beginning of the book. I’m eager to read the section on how companies create systems that help their people grow with the company. I’ll post more about how this principle can be adopted by nonprofits when I read the section.

I was tipped off the book through an article in Inc. The article grabbed my attention because my brother works for Polaris, one of the nine companies studied in detail for the book.