"Find the right job and you’ll never really work again" is one of Jack Welch’s better maxims from his best-selling management book Winning. In a career spanning 45 years, the formula helped the legendary chief executive of General Electric bring new dynamism and vast returns to a sleepy industrial giant – and enjoy himself in the process.

But while there’s a vast difference between one of the world’s biggest companies and the sort of niche enterprises described over the next pages of this book, Welch’s aphorism is equally applicable and relevant.

One common thread shared by all successful niche enterprises is the enthusiasm of their founders and the joy they take in going to work every day. Even into his seventies and after four decades at the helm of ECCO, the shoe company he founded, the late Karl Toosbuy was as passionate about his business as he was the day it started.

Toosbuy was the right man in the right job and it showed. From the way he kept on innovating to the way he enhanced the working environment of employees with exceptional artwork and great canteen facilities, Toosbuy’s unwavering commitment played an inestimable role in the development of his company.

One definition of "niche" companies is enterprises that serve specialised markets with specialised products. In several respects, ECCO doesn’t really fit this bill any more – just about everybody wears shoes and ECCO’s range now includes golf and fashion footwear as well as the casual loafers it began with. But therein lies a point because the original range of comfortable shoes was a dramatic departure from what was otherwise available at the time: Toosbuy spotted a gap in the market and he went for it.

That’s the second common denominator of the successful niche business – satisfying an unfulfilled need. Both Larsen Strings and Cryos International Sperm Bank are prime examples of this.
      Larsen Strings came to prominence by supplying cello strings of such superior quality that market domination was almost a foregone conclusion. And although Ole Schou, the Cryos founder didn’t have a medical background and originally established his business to serve the needs of vasectomy and cancer patients, he was savvy enough to spot the potential of an underserved market – helping childless couples.

Keeping a tight focus and not trying to be all things to all people – at least in the early stages of the venture – is another important success criterion for niche operators. Keeping the focus on the core is advantageous in that marketing and branding can be concentrated on one discrete customer segment that is easily identifiable and easily managed.
      Another benefit is that bigger companies is related fields are less likely to see a newcomer as a potential threat – established companies are not always able to recognise the growth potential of a new niche business.

Of course there’s nothing peculiarly Danish about niche businesses. Every country on earth can provide examples of great business ideas that reached fruition in clearly defined markets.

But this is a book about Danish business. And, just as in services, shipping, engineering and the other sectors examined in this book, the niche segment in Denmark contains stories and companies that deserve a wider audience by dint of their originality.

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