dispatches from the new world of work

Excellence! Everywhere!

I am in a daze!

Crawl Space Science book cover

I received a gorgeous book, Crawl Space Science: What to Have Done ... And Why, by Larry Janesky. The book has sold 115, 000 copies! Larry runs Basement Systems Inc., of Seymour, CT. The book is graphically brilliant (he gives credit to Re-imagine!), easy to use, astoundingly informative—and I got it just as Susan and I were in the midst of discussing a new use for our moldy basement.

Professionally, there is simply nothing I love ... LOVE ... more than Excellence in "impossible" places!!!

(Recall my recent riff on Jim Penman's Jim's Group—2,600 franchisees in Australia, NZ, UK. Cleaning. Dog washing. Handyman. Fencing. Paving. Pool care. Etc. Etc.)

Why, why, why do the likes of me and Jim Collins and Ram Charan keep using, almost exclusively, large, publicly traded companies as exemplars? Laziness? (Exception, touted here before: Small Giants: Companies That Choose To Be Great Instead Of Big—by Bo Burlingham.)

Go, Larry!
Go, Jim!
Go, Bo!

[NB: Did I mention that Larry's business has grown like Topsy, with revenue now topping $50,000,000!]

Tom Peters posted this on 04/11/07.

Comments

Now if only I could get my landlord to call Basement Systems....THAT would be excellent!

You are right Tom, Larry is great. He is the epitome of a passionate leader, always striving for excellence ... everywhere!!

Keep up the good work Larry!

Posted by Rachel at April 11, 2007 6:19 PM

Only two days ago has a client asked me why were we looking at branding examples like IBM, Nike, and Coca-Cola. I told him that brands of companies like his (small giants) haven't been nurtured, deconstructed, and evaluated as much as the big ones. Why? Why isn't all that just as handy and public a knowledge?

Posted by gorgeoux at April 11, 2007 11:52 PM

We are working hard to paint a picture of what future winners look like today. My colleague Chris Nel despaired at the prospect of his three year old son coming home and saying he had a job with a large company. Here's the antidote to the worst of the corporate cubical lifer's lot. Basement Systems give us all a glimpse of what future excellence will look like. All I can say as a "Go Larry!"

Posted by Richard King at April 14, 2007 3:24 PM

Hey Tom, how about doing a 'walk-on' video like the one on Larry's site? A great design element for a blog site!

Posted by Brian Ward at April 22, 2007 12:48 AM

I am in the UK and joined the Basement Systems network ten years ago, now using the name Trace Basement Systems over here.
What you will not know in the USA is that Larry's main ground breaking invention, WaterGuard, has totally transformed the waterproofing market in the UK, and for companies such as mine, has resulted in some of that magic rubbing off, and while our turnover is nothing like Larry's is, it has tripled in that time - and not just the turnover - Way to go, as he would say!

Posted by George Hockey at January 18, 2008 11:10 AM