Breakthough Company, the: How Everyday Companies Become Extraordinary Book

The vast majority of small businesses stay smallâ??and not by choice. Only the most savvy and persistentâ??a tiny one tenth of one percentâ??break through to annual sales above $250 million. In The Breakthrough Company, Keith McFarland pinpoints how everyday companies become extraordinary, showing that luck is a negligible factor. Rather, breakthrough success turns out to be associated with a clearly identifiable set of strategies and skills that anyone in any business can emulateâ??from small startup to industry leader.Encouraged by experts such as business legend Peter Drucker and Good to Great author Jim Collins to identify the drivers that enable a company to push past the entrepreneurial phase, McFarland spent five years building and analyzing the worldâ??s largest growth-company performance database and interviewing more than 1,500 growth-company executives on four continents. His goal was simple: to identify the secrets of breakthrough.The Breakthrough Company is the result. Winnowing a study pool of more than 7,000 companies down to nine that have made the transition to major-player status, McFarland highlights real-world tools and myth-busting insights that can be used by anyone wanting his or her business to join this exclusive circle. Among the bookâ??s takeaways:â?¢ Common wisdom holds that the founders and core entrepreneurial leaders of a company must step aside for the business to reach the next level. Not trueâ??as long as founders â??crown the companyâ? instead of themselves.â?¢ Itâ??s not reckless to make ever-escalating bets on your companyâ??s future, even going nose to nose with competitors many times your size. In fact, it turns out that the only safety comes in constantly upping the ante in exactly this way.â?¢ A Business Bermuda Triangle does exist, gobbling up companies on the verge of breakthrough. Presented here are three ways to navigate this potentially deadly hazard successfully.â?¢ However good you areâ??or think you areâ??you canâ??t do it alone. Learn how to surround your company with networks of outside resources, aka â??scaffolding,â? and how to enlist the aid of â??insultantsâ?â??people who are willing to question a firmâ??s existing assumptions and ways of doing business.With powerful and specific action steps concluding each chapterâ??and invaluable advice on virtually every page from business leaders whoâ??ve taken their companies to extraordinary levels of growth and profitabilityâ??The Breakthrough Company is one of the most provocative, inspiring, and instructive business books youâ??ll ever read.Read More