The Alpha Dogs Blog

The most common question that people ask me about Alpha Dogs is "what do all of the companies in the book have in common?" I've been thinking about that a lot lately, and I'm consistently drawn back to something very flattering that George Gendron wrote in his foreword: "Alpha Dogs has that alluring quality that's just so damned scarce these days: authenticity." If the book is authentic, it's because every company in it is also authentic -- that's one of their most important shared qualities. So what is an authentic company? It's a company that lives by its values, that keeps the promises it makes to its employees, its customers, its vendors, and its partners, and that looks the same whether you are on the inside looking out, or on the outside looking in. Some examples: the incredible guarantees that Chris Zane makes and keeps to Zane's Cycles customers, even when it's expensive and difficult to do so; the commitment that Trish Karter makes to putting only all natural ingredients in Dancing Deer's baked goods, even when compromising could result in huge revenue increases; the promise that Norman Mayne makes to sharing information with Dorothy Lane's employees in good times and bad. Being authentic isn't always convenient, but I think it's something that the American public recognizes and appreciates more and more.