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Following the Leaders

As always, I really enjoyed the Inc. 500 issue. I read this year's issue cover to cover in one night. It was a great read, especially the story about Russell Straub's decision to take his online mortgage company downmarket [Case Study, September]. I wonder if professional athletes read Sports Illustrated the same way that I read Inc.

Michael Ortner
President
Capterra
Falls Church, Virginia

Russell Straub's decision to take Loan Bright downmarket was excellent. The company's demise was inevitable on its original path because losing one big client could have bankrupted the business. Now Straub needs to consider diversifying his products. Loan Bright also should stay focused on finding new customers. Eight hundred clients sounds good compared with the number Loan Bright had before, but it's still a small percentage of the hungry lenders and brokers.

Dale Collie
Principal
Courage Builders International
Vilas, North Carolina

All Together Now

In his column, David H. Freedman glosses over the benefits of collaboration, saying it doesn't work [What's Next, September]. One of the reasons companies lose their most productive employees is that they don't allow workers to give input on the decisions that affect them.

Kurtis G. Anderson
Partner
Pairadox Consulting
Grayslake, Illinois

Behind the Chocolate Soufflé

The article about Lori Daniel and Eliot Swartz, founders of Two Chefs on a Roll, really got inside their business, their relationship, and their heads ["Adjusting the Recipe," August]. Even though I'm not in the baking business, I found the article applicable to the types of decisions I'm making at my television company.

Gary Lico
President and CEO
CableReady
Norwalk, Connecticut

Anonymous Sources

Does Norm Brodsky believe he can find out what his employees think of him by handpicking a select group of managers and putting them on a panel at a national conference ["What Your Employees Think of You," August]? To really find out what your employees think, you should have a third party conduct an anonymous survey. If Brodsky tried one, he'd not only find out what his most loyal managers think of him, but also what the rest of the staff thinks about those loyal managers.

Brian D. Scanlan
President
Thieme Medical Publishers
Wyckoff, New Jersey

Talking to Strangers

Reed Thompson's struggle with networking mirrors my own ["Learning to Love Networking," August]. I eventually hired a business coach to help me. Three years later, almost all of my new clients can be traced back to my networking efforts. The process gets easier and more fun as the circle of clients grows.

T.J. Saotome Founder Raiko Systems Warren, Rhode Island

Corrections

In this year's Inc. 500 issue, the 2005 revenue of TGC Homes was overstated. The company had sales of $7.3 million in 2005 and three-year revenue growth of 836.1 percent. The company's correct ranking is No. 116. In the same issue, we incorrectly stated that Rave software by Medidata Solutions (No. 59) is used in about 10,000 clinical trials. We should have said that more than 10,000 clinicians use Rave.