Taking a page from the little guys’ playbook

For years, top executives, aspiring managers and small business owners have followed the business news to track the corporate elite. The goings-on at Inco, Canadian Pacific and the big banks set the pace for the economy, the stock market and most Canadians’ careers.

Today, the captains of industry aren’t so much running the ship as manning the pumps, trying to stay afloat in the global marketplace. And I would argue that it’s more important today for corporate CEOs to follow small business leaders.

Smaller enterprises, long considered the shallow end of the business pool, now lead the way in Canada. Not just in economic terms (although start-ups create most net new jobs), but in all the categories that count: leadership, innovation, leveraging technology, finding new ways to build global sales and mastering social media — crucial to reaching niche audiences.

This is not to diss the big guys: they have their hands full holding on to what they have. Governance and risk management suck up nearly all the time and energy of the executive suite. How can they compete with single-minded startups running on youthful energy over the hot coals of continuous innovation?

If they’re smart, however, the CEOs of the FP500 (and those who would like to be there) will closely watch Canada’s top entrepreneurs. Here are a few of the things they can learn from small business owners I have interviewed in recent months:

Admitting mistakes In Januar y, I wrote about Jeremy Potvin, whose webbased service Shifthub helps companies manage employees’ work schedules. Twice he had to fire his development team and start again. How many CEOs have the courage to burn their ships and start over? “I look for humbling moments,” Potvin noted. “I always learn something from them.” Creating a learning organization There’s no question doing business is more complicated than ever. But in my experience at big organizations, many managers operate in a process vacuum. Most companies have better documentation on how to manage a customer complaint than on how individual decision-makers should deal with common challenges. I recently met an entrepreneur who gives his management team checklists for everything: what questions to ask new hires; how to decide what new products to develop; how to select a distributor. Having a database of best practices can help even the best managers make better decisions and avoid common mistakes. Institutionalizing innovation Toronto-based Algood Casters is a gritty manufacturer of swivelling wheels for office furniture, mechanics’ tool boxes and other heavy things. It’s the sort of commodity product you wouldn’ t think Canada makes any more. Algood adds value by creating innovations customers didn’ t know they wanted, such as casters with hand brakes and casters with scales, to avoid overloading mobile platforms. They also produce a line of casters with plastic hubcaps that serve no purpose. They just look cool. Algood has one product line and a catalogue with 188 pages. Change up your business model Vancouver decathlete Dan Mezheritsky runs a personal-training company called Fitness on the Go. After building the company to 50 employees, he reinvented it as a home-based business with just one employee — himself. He contracts for the business services he needs, and now works with fitness coaches on a franchise model, taking a small monthly fee for his system, marketing services and management support. By letting go and transforming his trainers from employees to entrepreneurs he has built a more resilient organization that is expanding across the country.

Refresh your product line Just before Valentine’s Day, I wrote about Ganong Bros Ltd., the 140-year-old New Brunswick candy company still in the hands of its founding family. Even a century ago, Ganong had a robust view of innovation: To keep children coming back for penny candy, “It was an article of faith that three new penny pieces had to be introduced every month and three older ones retired.” Today Ganong is selling online and encouraging customer conversations on Facebook. And next month it’s holding a week-long Chocolate Fest in its hometown of St. Stephen.

Continuous learning Many corporate executives think their MBAs prepared them to run big organizations. But there is more to leadership than school can teach. Small-business owners are snapping up The Five-Minute Journal, produced by two Toronto entrepreneurs, because it offers an accessible path to personal growth. Every morning they fill in statements such as “I am grateful for …” and “What would make today great?” Every evening, they record “Three amazing things that happened today” and “How could I have made today better?” Co-founder UJ Ramdas noted that in developing the marketing plan, he and partner Alex Ikonn borrowed heavily from the playbook of the

Chicken Soup for the Soul series, which has now sold 110 million copies. Note how entrepreneurs learn from small businesses and big ones alike. It’s a lesson more big-company CEOs should learn.