Go For Growth issues a challenge to business managers
to commit their companies to sustained measurable growth and
enduring success. This is not a "one-size-fits-all"
book. Noted business author and management consultant Robert
M. Tomasko details five distinct paths that can take any company,
large or small, to higher levels of productivity and prosperity.
Important points are fully illustrated with examples drawn from
a wide range of companies in a broad range of markets. These
five paths include:
Breaking the Rules: Destabilizing an industry to
create new markets describes how to expand your business
by violating rules or standards that are obsolete or so entrenched
that no one questions them anymore, leaving the market wide open
to astute individuals who can spot the telltale signs. Go
For Growth tells how to identify these markets and how to
seize the initiative, along the lines of Federal Express, Silicon
Graphics and Southwest Airlines.
Playing the Game: Excel by satisfying existing needs
in growing markets explains the inherent strengths and weaknesses
of market-driven companies that succeed by knowing and serving
an existing market better than anyone else. Go For Growth
tells you when and how to apply this game plan so effectively
used by Marriott, PepsiCo and Procter & Gamble.
Making the Rules: Dominate the market by controlling
its standards describes the strategies of a handful of companies
that have managed to control - through research, market share,
product positioning and dumb luck - the markets in which they
compete. This the path of Disney, Intel and Microsoft.
Specializing: thrive in niche markets details
the way companies such as General Electric, NordicTrack and Rolex
can seal off a portion of the market from other competitors by
focusing on meeting very specific customer needs better than
anyone else. Go For Growth shows the ways specialization
can restore growth to companies undergoing wrenching change.
Improvising: Profit from change by rolling with
the punches describes the role of improvising as a growth
path when no other good choices are available, and explains the
numerous ways improvisers like Apple, IBM, Kodak. and many regional
phone companies can capitalize on flexibility to achieve profitability.
Go For Growth drives home the point that there is no
single best approach to growth for everyone by including lively
first-person accounts from managers thriving, and stumbling,
in businesses following each path.
To get a quick feel for the book's perspective, start at its
conclusion and read the Epilogue.
