The Breakthrough Company: How Everyday Companies Become Extraordinary Performers

In The Breakthrough Company, Keith McFarland pinpoints how everyday companies become extraordinary, showing that luck is a negligible factor.

Rather, breakthrough success turns out to be associated with a clearly identifiable set of strategies and skills that anyone in any business can emulate - from small startup to industry paragon. Encouraged by experts such as business legend Peter Drucker and Good to Great author Jim Collins to identify the drivers that enable a company to push past the entrepreneurial phase, McFarland spent five years building and analyzing the world's largest growth-company performance database and interviewing more than 1,500 growth-company executives on four continents. His goal was simple: to identify the secrets of breakthrough. This book is the result. Winnowing a study pool of more than 7,000 companies down to nine that have made the transition to major-player status, McFarland highlights real-world tools and myth-busting insights that can be used by anyone wanting his or her business to join this exclusive circle.

"Keith McFarland is about to be added to the list of the top business thinkers - Tom Peters, Jim Collins, Ken Blanchard and Stephen Covey. If you buy only one business book in 2008, this one should be it." — Harvey Maclay, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive

"Has the makings of a classic ... McFarland successfully tackles the ever-present question for ambitious entrepreneurs: Just how do you go from small to big - and prosper?" — Steve Forbes, president, CEO and editor in chief, Forbes