Are you a small business owner looking to prosper? If so, The Breakthrough Company is a must read.

I heard author Keith McFarland speak at last year’s Inc. 500 conference, and he has a number of valuable insights as to what helps a company survive and thrive. (Funny how that conference creates such a reading list for me!)

This book is like “Good to Great” by Jim Collins, only focused on smaller companies. As McFarland says, the median size of the companies profiled in GTG is $32 billion, which most entrepreneurs who I know — hell, all of the ones I know! — will never see as revenue for their companies. So McFarland decided to focus on smaller companies, and he took the Inc 500 list as a starting point.

He takes an in-depth look at both highly successful and average small businesses to draw valuable conclusions. And while those conclusions are similar to those of Good to Great, the scale is somewhat different.

For example, one of the myths that McFarland shatters is that of the risk-taking entrepreneur. It isn’t that we entrepreneurs are so prone to risk taking. In fact he argues the opposite, that most successful entrepreneurs are fairly risk averse. However, what the successful entrepreneurs do is take a chance by betting big on a few huge chances. The trick is to focus and bet on a few big chances and not pursue every opportunity that comes along.

Do you have a business plan set for this year? I’ve already identified one of my big bets for 2009 — now we have to see if it will pay off.

The fruit of the cacao tree, a cacao pod, is roughly the shape of a quince; it can be from 6 to 12 inches long and 3 to 4 inches wide.

In the food world, GM’s aren’t heavy, oversized, uninspiring American cars.  Rather, they refer to genetically modified organisms (GMO).  Essentially, GMO crops are grown from seeds stock that has been genetically altered in a lab to either contain or not produce certain inherent characteristics.

One advantage to doing this is that a seed can be genetically modified to be resistant to certain types of bugs or diseases. That trait can be useful because it means farmers can have greater yields from their crops with fewer applications of herbicides and pesticides.

The disadvantage is that there are potential issues to the ecosphere that have not been fully studied. In one study, monarch butterflies that feed on a certain plant died when they ate genetically modified plants.

Much research is being done to look at the positive and negative ramifications of modifying crops.

For example, seeds can be modified to contain many positive traits. A significant one is the addition of Vitamin A to crops that normally don’t have it.  By splicing this gene onto rice, it is estimated that childhood blindness could be significantly eliminated in Third World countries because children would receive the necessary vitamin requirements in their daily food.

Since the advent of GMO’s, there has been a raging debate over whether crops grown from these genetically modified seeds are safe for human consumption.

Cries of “Frankenfood” and charges that scientists should not be altering the seeds from which human food is grown are widespread, and Europe has taken a very strong stance against allowing any foods grown from genetically modified seeds into the food supply without having sufficient labeling on the packages.

United States regulations are less strict and today, almost all of the soybeans and much of the corn planted in the U.S. comes from genetically modified seed.

Which brings us to Mont Blanc and thousands of other manufacturers that use a sweetener derived from corn.

We received a request from a German customer to supply them with a product that is certified GMO free.  We were forced to respond that we cannot make it in the United States because of the issue around the corn syrup.

And so now Mont Blanc is considering producing in Europe, where we will be able to obtain raw materials certified as GMO free. Who knows? Perhaps there’s a market for this type of product beyond Europe as we look to accommodate a number of clients.

The best book I have read on the subject is “Dinner at the New Gene Café” by Bill Lambrecht, which gives a very fair, balanced portrayal of both sides of the issue.  I highly recommend it to anyone that wants to learn more about the issue.

Have you dealt with similar issues in your business, or had inquiries regarding GMOs? I’d like to hear your stories.

The Spanish ladies of the New World are madly addicted to chocolate, to such a point that, not content to drink it several times each day, they even have it served to them in church.

Cocoa pods are depicted in artwork dating back to the 15th century.