Miracle Growth

Many companies with tons of cash and solid franchises, like IBMand Procter & Gamble, can't seem to turn their advantagesinto steady, strong growth. Meanwhile, firms with no greater edge,like Dell and Paychex, rake in years of double-digit annualexpansion. Michael Treacy thinks he knows what's up. Theco-author of bestselling The Discipline of Market Leaders:Choose Your Customers, Narrow Your Focus, Dominate Your Market(Perseus Publishing, $15) compared 80 firms that had steadydouble-digit growth the last 15 years with 50 slower growers. Hefound fast growers did five things: retained their customer base,gained market share, exploited market position, penetrated adjacentmarkets and invested in new lines of business.

In Double-Digit Growth: How Great Companies AchieveIt-No Matter What (Portfolio, $27.95), Treacy proclaimsthat it's nothing but a cop-out to lay the blame for slowgrowth on a bad economy, weak markets, fickle consumers or anythingbut poor planning and execution. And he makes a good case for it,showing how companies in so-called mature industries manage to growrapidly by keeping what's theirs and stealing from competitors.Many of Treacy's tips will work well for entrepreneurs,especially his advice to carefully analyze the fastest-growingsegments of your market and then try to focus your efforts onthem.