Stretch!: How Great Companies Grow in Good Times and Bad

Front Cover
John Wiley & Sons, 2004 - 243 pages
Stretch! shows business leaders how to achieve sustained business growth even in the toughest economic times. A.T. Kearney surveyed some 29,000 global companies over fourteen years and studied more than eighty companies in depth, in order to determine how the best companies continue to grow in good times and bad. Based on this extensive research and on the best practices of the most successful companies, this book presents a practical, step-by-step plan for positive organic growth.

Stretch! offers a four-stage framework for growth, then outlines the precise steps for implementing each stage. Contrary to accepted wisdom, research shows that growth has little or nothing to do with industry maturity, geography, or business cycles. Strong and successful growth is possible in any industry, in any region, at any time–growth isn’t dependent on outside factors, but on the internal actions a company takes.

The book begins by describing the current predicament for companies that find their growth has flatlined, then uses intriguing case studies to illustrate the four stages of growth:

  • Operations: dramatically improve internal processes such as product development, sourcing, quality, delivery, customer service, sales, and pricing
  • Organization: find the organizational structure that best suits the company, determine opportunities for value chain reconfiguration, evaluate and adjust compensation, reward, and incentive programs
  • Strategy: reinvent the core strategy, stretch brands, and extend lines, focusing on the value proposition offered to the customer
  • Stretch: expand the business frontier, venture into new territory, break down barriers to create new products and reach new customers, markets, and geographic regions

Truly great companies find ways to grow no matter the current state of the economy or the business climate. They focus on innovation and calculated risk, continuously improving products and jumping into new opportunities to secure future sales. They understand that growth should be accomplished through a combination of mergers and acquisitions, product innovation, organizational efficiency, and new markets. Stretch! lets you follow the lead of the most consistently successful companies in the world with a proven, step-by-step plan for sustainable growth.

For more information go to stretchbook.atkearney.com.

 

Contents

55
4
CHAPTER 2
15
CHAPTER 3
31
The Growth Objective
55
CHAPTER 5
75
CHAPTER 6
91
CHAPTER 7
109
CHAPTER 8
123
CHAPTER 9
141
CHAPTER 10
159
CHAPTER 11
179
CHAPTER 12
193
CHAPTER 13
209
APPENDIX
221
NOTES
231
Copyright

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