Blueprint to a Billion: 7 Essentials to Achieve Exponential Growth [Kindle Edition]

David G. Thomson (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

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

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.

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Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 3005 KB
• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (December 7, 2005)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B001C3593W
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #141,031 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

More About the Author

David G. Thomson is a bestselling author, advisor and speaker. He is the founder and Chairman of the Blueprint Growth Institute, a specialized management consulting firm focused on helping companies develop growth strategies. His insights on the success patterns of America's highest growth companies - which he wrote about in his bestseller Blueprint to a Billion - have been embraced globally. Thomson has been studying and leading business growth for 20 years in general management and executive sales/marketing at Nortel Networks and Hewlett-Packard and as an associate principal during his five years at McKinsey & Company.
His newest book, "Mastering the 7 Essentials of High-Growth Companies" is on its way to becoming widely embraced by management teams worldwide. Thomson continues to identify actionable insights that teams can apply to grow their business even through the most challenging of times.
Following Thomson's first book, Investor's Business Daily has named Thomson a "Guru for uncovering the blueprints behind sizzling growth firms". Thomson has been recognized for his unique perspective that identifies the success pattern of America's highest revenue growth companies. Over the past two years, he has presented his 7 Essentials to over 25,000 management leaders worldwide. His articles appear on Businessweek.com and he has been featured on CNBC, ABCNews.com, MSNBC, SKYTV, Leader to Leader, NY Times, and the Korean Economic Daily.
Thomson is continuing his research that will identify "The Next 800 Companies to Lead America's Growth". He applies the quantitative "Blueprint" success pattern to identify the next companies, industries and states that will lead the next growth cycle through 2016. These companies will generate 3.4 million new jobs through 2016.
Visiting Thomson's website, readers can utilize tools to help grow their business. The 7 Essentials Scorecard can help companies measure performance against each essential (it is free!). The 7 Essentials Workshop will help teams define an actionable roadmap.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Overrated and frustrating, September 15, 2006

By 

RJF in Illinois - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Blueprint to a Billion: 7 Essentials to Achieve Exponential Growth (Hardcover)

I read some stellar reviews on this book and expected it to be a milestone business guide. I was even enthusiastic through the first couple of chapters. However, if you have any business training and have been within 10 miles of a start-up or growth-stage company in your life, this book is pretty elementary. A value proposition, decent leadership, a Board that can open any door in the universe, a couple of mammoth customers - how can a company fail? Those accomplishments alone will get almost any company to a decent liquidity event unless it was all dumb luck. The most frustrating thing about the book is that it's all about "what." This is what makes it seem, as one reviewer put it, as if it were a PowerPoint presentation. It lists out the "whats" that, in retrospect, some very successful companies did. But it leaves out the "hows." Any company would give a lot to have their industry's equivalent of Tom Siebel on the Board. But Tom's number is not exactly in the phone book. So the question is, *how* does a company get those people on the Board? How does a company identify and even get in the door of those marquee companies? While the book gives a few snippets and a case comparison at the end, it really left my practical appetite unsatisfied. Maybe the whole book was a consulting proposal - if you want the "hows" you pay the piper.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A superb book. Move over Good to Great., January 10, 2006

By 

Stradivari and Amati Fan "Teach a child music... (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blueprint to a Billion: 7 Essentials to Achieve Exponential Growth (Hardcover)

I wish I had the knowledge imparted through this book when we started Lycos in 1995. Things might be very different today.

Blueprint to a Billion is filled with millions (no...billions) of dollars worth of information. Thomson has created a comprehensive and practical book that truly provides a blueprint for how to make your company a success.
Unlike the hundreds of "how to" and "get rich quick" books on the market, I found Blueprint to a Billion to back up its statements with hard facts and also to structure itself in such a manner that I would not hesitate to have every employee in one of my companies read it.

I highly recommend Blueprint to a Billion. To me, it is the "Good to Great" of 2006 and beyond.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Billion Made Easy!, March 7, 2006

By 

Brian Scudamore "Founder & CEO, 1-800-GOT-JUNK?" (Vancouver, BC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Blueprint to a Billion: 7 Essentials to Achieve Exponential Growth (Hardcover)

This book could have been called 'A Billion Dollars Made Easy'. What an awesome book! This book fills a much needed niche. As a CEO of a company on it's way to $1B, I am incredibly grateful that David has mapped out the 7 Essentials -- making our job of building a globally admired, billon brand much easier. Thank you David!!