2 Respectable Companies

1. PSS World Medical

from an interview with its CEO David Smith...

...when you dance with elephants you're either quick or you're dead...
...you can't just be a regular company, or you won't survive. You'll get out-resourced, out-priced, out-maneuvered and squashed...
...you really must have something unique that you bring to the table...
...You have to be able to do things differently from everyone else and do them in a way that really brings value to the customer...

...We...looked at the individual customer and his business and clinical issues...
...we looked at our core competencies--what we were really good at...
...We started rebuilding our business to be back to focusing on our customers...

...I set principles with my management team and team leaders, but I don't have preferences on how things are done....
...I ask a lot of questions. I give ideas. But I'm not wedded to any one of my ideas...I let them figure it out, because they're closer to the customer and to their people...

...give everybody a simple, understandable matrix to make decisions with...
...when I'm not there and people want to know how to make a decision, they don't have to call me. They know that I'm going to ask them how it fits into that matrix...
...We are all about not being comfortable with the way things are...


2. e-text editor

It recently decided to push beyond open source code...to become an Open Company...it's experimental, it's adventurous, it's curiosity with a spark of idealism...it's Huge. Check out the story here.