■ The Big Idea
Truly enlightening is the discovery that while these companies belong to diverse industries, their brand of gutsy leadership, culture and philosophy share a common thread and are the very reasons for their remarkable success despite a very challenging business environment.

The Freibergs unravel seven gutsy secrets that is nothing too complex that cannot be replicated by other companies. Nevertheless these qualities require lots of guts to copy and hence, can only be role-modeled by truly gutsy organizations.

■ About the Author
Kevin and Jackie Freiberg profile the secrets to success of ten highly successful but unconventional organizations and their leaders, among them ? Roy Spence, President of GSD&M Advertising (named by Adweek as Southwest Advertising agency of the year seven times; James Blanchard, CEO of Synovus Financial (a financial services giant with more than $21 billion in assets and named as Fortune’s best company to work for); Bob Davis, CEO of USAA (ranked one of the most integrated financial services firm in the world with a market share of 95 percent and a customer retention rate of 96%); Jim Goodnight of SAS Institute (a leader in highly sophisticated business analytics software for business and government with savings of over $60M in employee recruitment and retention; the late Harry V. Quadracci, Founder and President of Quad/Graphics (a world leader in printing services); Colleen Barrett, President and COO of Southwest Airlines (the United States’ only major short-haul , low-fare, high frequency, point to point carrier; Frederick Holzberger, President and CEO ofFrederick’s Corporation (exclusive distributor of Aveda environmental beauty products); Timothy Ciasulli, President and CEO of Planet Honda (an auto dealership with annual revenues of nearly $100M); Dan Edelman, Chairman and CEO of Bon Marche’ (a clothing chain belonging to Federated Department Sores that also owns Bloomingdale and Macys); and John Mackey, founder of Whole Foods Market (world’s largest retailer of organic and natural products).