Breakthrough: How Great Companies Set Outrageous Objectives—and Achieve Them

Everyone wants his or her company to find a way to suddenly and dramatically rise above the pack. How can your company not only make such a breakthrough but also sustain it? While some readers may raise an eyebrow at a few points in the bold approach outlined here—principles such as "Place primary emphasis on customer knowledge, care, and relationships, and secondary emphasis on cost reduction" may sound too idealistic in tense economic times, for instance—the overall thrust of this guide may inspire you. The author, a consultant, is a former tenured professor of management at the Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California. Peppered with true examples from companies famous and obscure, his chapters address strategy, leadership, the mindset of the market leader, and so on. Very helpful are the "breakthrough profiles" outlined in the appendices: fifty organizations from an auto-repair claims database management firm to the unstoppable Wal-Mart, describing what they did and how their stock price performance fared as a result.