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Blueprints for beating the competition

Achieving exponential growth, improving business execution, and building leaders

Blueprint to a billion

There is an elite group of companies that have managed to turn billion-dollar ideas into billion-dollar businesses. Companies like Microsoft, Google, eBay, Staples and Starbucks stand out for their remarkable growth. But what is it that sets them apart? Are there particular traits that make them the success that they are?

David Thomson spent three years researching Blueprint to a Billion: 7 essentials to achieve exponential growth to try to understand what the blueprints for success were for these remarkable firms (and others). The book provides a quantitative assessment of the success pattern common across this distinct group of 387 companies — the 5% of companies that have had initial public offerings since 1980 and have grown to $1 billion in revenue since. They uniquely achieved exponential revenue growth and returns.

The book doesn’t concentrate on unique innovations of particular companies. Instead, it whittles success down to its essentials — the business decisions and approaches that are comparatively similar among these high achieving firms. Some of the points Thomson makes seem fairly self-explanatory — create and sustain a breakthrough value proposition, for instance. But other points he makes are interesting; they obviously make business sense but wouldn’t have necessarily made everyone’s top seven list — for instance, his fourth essential is to leverage alliances with larger firms for breaking into new markets.

By finding the common threads among these undeniably successful companies, Thomson creates a compelling business growth model.

By David Thomson. Published by John Wiley and Sons. For more information visit www.wiley.com.

Get It Done!

Organizations are quite often filled with great ideas and a surfeit of attractive looking plans that look great on paper — the challenge is getting those ideas realized. Whether it’s a restructuring, a brand expansion, an outsourcing effort, or any of a number of other changes, often the great intentions meet a brick wall. Why is it so difficult for successful companies filled with bright people to align objectives with activities?

This is what the authors of Get It Done! A blueprint for business execution ask. As they note: “Consider this statistic: more than 64% of C-level executives from 250 midsized to large companies in the U.S. and the E.U. have said that being able to execute, to react quickly to changing business opportunities and technologies, is critical for their success. Yet nearly 80% of them said that it is nearly impossible to achieve.”

These companies face an “execution gap,” and the authors have worked with clients to help them ferret out the common reasons for this gap, and have codified them into a common DNA of Execution that aims to allow everyone to align in pursuit of the same goal. In the course of their work, they have unearthed a wealth of reasons why so many companies have trouble getting it done. The book takes those challenges and explains how to manage them more effectively.

By Ralph Welborn and Vince Kasten. Published by John Wiley & Sons. For more information visit www.wiley.com.

Head, Heart & Guts

“Complex times require complete leaders.” So begins Head, Heart & Guts: How the world’s best companies develop complete leaders. The authors suggest that many of our modern leaders are only “partial” leaders who rely exclusively on a single quality — head, heart or guts. They suggest that our complex era demands a much more holistic approach to leadership; it requires leaders who set strategy, develop trusting relationships with others, and consistently do the right thing based on personal values. Partial leaders may be successful in the short term, they suggest, but their companies lose over time.

The authors draw on case studies of companies such as Bank of America, Johnson & Johnson, and UBS, to describe companies who are able to create leaders that go above and beyond their partial skills.

The book is based on research and coaching with thousands of leaders in Mercer Delta Executive Learning Center programs, and offers a roadmap for the creation of a new model of leadership.

By David L. Dotlich, Peter C. Cairo and Stephen Rhinesmith. Published by Jossey-Bass. For more information visit www.josseybass.com.  

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