From the Inside Flap
Microsoft, Google, eBay, Staples, Genentech, Starbucks, Nike, and Harley-Davidson . . . these are just a few examples of an elite group of companies that have managed to turn billion-dollar ideas into billion-dollar businesses. What did these and other high-growth companies do to achieve such a goal? What blueprint do they follow to produce such results? Based on three years of in-depth research, David Thomson's Blueprint to a Billion approach provides the first quantitative assessment of the success pattern common across a distinct group of 387 "blueprint companies"—the 5% that have IPO'd since 1980 and grown to $1 billion in revenue. They represent America's highest growth companies; they uniquely achieved exponential revenue growth and returns.
This book is not about one unique company, its innovation, and the financial returns it achieved; it's about the quantifiable, success-based pattern—independent of economic cycles or industries—shared across this group of 387 elite companies. It's about how you can use seven common essentials to better your business, organization, team, or yourself and produce exponential growth. It's about executing the essentials and linking them. It's about taking the actions that matter while avoiding pitfalls. The 7 essentials explored are:
Essential #1: Create and Sustain a Breakthrough Value Proposition
Essential#2: Exploit a High-Growth Market Segment
Essential #3: Marquee Customers Shape the Revenue Powerhouse
Essential #4: Leverage Big Brother Alliances for Breaking into New Markets
Essential #5: Become the Masters of Exponential Returns
Essential #6: The Management Team: Inside-Outside Leadership
Essential #7: The Board: Comprised of Essentials Experts
Divided into three comprehensive sections, Blueprint to a Billion will show you how to formulate a breakthrough value proposition, create exponential revenue growth—the most valuable and unique kind of growth—and seize the opportunity to garner exponential returns. More importantly, it provides practical guidelines that you, as a business leader at any level, can use to improve company performance from one year to the next. While the book is based on quantitative evidence, it provides insightful analysis and very personal stories from many blueprint company leaders.
Both fact-based and actionable, Blueprint to a Billion contains fresh research that provides valuable insights into success-based business building. Adopting and executing one or more essentials will maximize your growth—both personally and corporately. Executing all 7 essentials will enable your company to achieve unprecedented exponential growth.
From the Back Cover
Praise for BLUEPRINT TO A BILLION
"A wonderful, well thought out analysis of entrepreneurship and leadership of a growth company."
—Howard Lester, Chairman, Williams-Sonoma, Inc.
"If you dream about growing your business to a billion, this is a fascinating down-to-earth study that you must read. Apply the seven essential principles to your business and you are off and running. Learn about strategy, growth, leadership, team building, and a whole lot more."
—Joe Scarlett, Chairman of the Board, Tractor Supply Company
"Blueprint to a Billion is a well-researched and thoughtfully written book that quantifies the growth pattern of America's highest growth companies."
—Professor John Quelch, Senior Associate Dean, Harvard Business School
"Eighty percent of the top-performing stocks in the last twenty years were small entrepreneurial companies that had an IPO in the prior eight years. Blueprint to a Billion tells you the seven key things these innovators did in common to become America's greatest growth companies."
—William J. O'Neil, Chairman and Founder Investor's Business Daily, www.investors.com
"Thomson has written a masterful work that will catalyze, empower, inspire, motivate, and illuminate entrepreneurs, investors, and policymakers. The world needs this book and will profit from it in manifold ways."
—David M. Darst, Managing Director, Individual Investor Group Chief Investment Strategist, Morgan Stanley
