Most of the CEOs in our sample share Erickson’s conviction that you can’t have outside shareholders if you want to build a small giant, and even Danny Meyer agrees that his investors don’t belong unless they buy completely into his particular vision and way of doing business. The reason is simple enough. These companies are searching for something indefinable and immeasurable, something that goes beyond the standard definitions of success in business, something that can easily be lost unless it’s protected against the homogenizing influences brought to bear on every company.
