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The Alchemy of Growth: Practical Insights for Building the Enduring Enterprise
Mehrdad Baghai, Stephen Coley, David White
Perseus Books, Reading Mass.
Authors' Credentials: All are McKinsey consultants. Thesis: Growth is the secret to business success.
Scope: Mostly 1980s to 1996.
File Under: Growth, a noble pursuit.
Reason to Buy/Read: The book was born from a 2.5-year McKinsey study by full-time teams in Sydney, Chicago, and Toronto (offices where the authors are based). It provides an astonishingly clear look at 39 business (30 that grew and 9 older companies that "kick-started" growth) in various time frames, usually starting in the 1980s (one starts in 1970), through the time when the study ended, 1996. On the down side, this means the book's examples come screeching to a halt in 1996 and therefore it doesn't have a particularly "contemporary" feel.
The book quickly gets to its point that what underpins sustained growth is maintaining a continuous pipeline...