Every Business Is a Growth Business: How Your Company Can Prosper Year After Year

Consultants Charan and Tichy systematically destroy one of the last crutches that weak managers lean on. There is, they argue persuasively, no such thing as a mature business; intriguingly, the best managers--many of whom the authors interviewed here--never thought there was. Citing such classic cases as Coca-Cola, Tichy (Control Your Destiny or Someone Else Will) and Charan (Boards at Work) point out that business's current fascination with ""core competencies"" is partly to blame for hindering growth. While there is something to be said for concentrating on what you do best, such a focus, they note, keeps companies looking inward at the very time they need to look outward to find opportunities for growth. For example, once Coke defined its competition as all beverages and not just soft drinks, its sales took off. The book is far longer than it needs to be, however, as the authors repeatedly cite multiple secondhand sources to make the same point instead of relying on their own interviews, and frequently quote their own previous work. An extensive ""handbook"" (the last of four parts) is perhaps the most useful section: it includes exercises showing readers how to apply the authors' ideas to their own businesses in a manner more lucid than most of the competition. (Oct.)