The Breakthrough Company: How Everyday Companies Become Extraordinary Performers

Several books have analyzed the common denominators among Fortune 500 industry dominators such as Exxon, Microsoft, Philip Morris, etc. But for two-time tech CEO Keith McFarland, who years ago was trying to shepherd his small company to "player" status, the information available on how to leap from tiny to titanic was paltry. So, encouraged by both Peter Drucker and Jim Collins himself, McFarland undertook a comprehensive analysis of the fast-growing company universe to identify the factors that enable small companies to shake off their growing pains and become permanent members of the "Above $100 Million in Sales" Club.McFarland brought to his task not only a massive amount of data crunching, winnowing nearly 9,000 companies down to 40 breakthrough firms worthy of deep analysis, but he also squared his conclusions with his own experience guiding Collectech through a "near-death experience" to "breakthrough." And as further validation, he field-tested his ideas in dozens of...