Product Description

The vast majority of small businesses stay small—and not by choice. Only the most savvy and persistent—a tiny one tenth of one percent—break through to annual sales above $250 million. 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 leader.

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.

The Breakthrough Company 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. Among the book’s takeaways:

• Common wisdom holds that the founders and core entrepreneurial leaders of a company must step aside for the business to reach the next level. Not true—as long as founders “crown the company” instead of themselves.
• It’s not reckless to make ever-escalating bets on your company’s future, even going nose to nose with competitors many times your size. In fact, it turns out that the only safety comes in constantly upping the ante in exactly this way.
• A Business Bermuda Triangle does exist, gobbling up companies on the verge of breakthrough. Presented here are three ways to navigate this potentially deadly hazard successfully.
• However good you are—or think you are—you can’t do it alone. Learn how to surround your company with networks of outside resources, aka “scaffolding,” and how to enlist the aid of “insultants”—people who are willing to question a firm’s existing assumptions and ways of doing business.

With powerful and specific action steps concluding each chapter—and invaluable advice on virtually every page from business leaders who’ve taken their companies to extraordinary levels of growth and profitability—The Breakthrough Company is one of the most provocative, inspiring, and instructive business books you’ll ever read.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1837 in Books
• Published on: 2008-01-15
• Released on: 2008-01-15
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

Review
"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 Mackay, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive

"Greatly needed! Features marvelous analysis of the principles that enable entrepreneurial enterprises to survive and thrive. It will inspire those in charge to become true leaders by rejecting 'small' goals rooted in ego and embracing visionary values that impart moral authority up and down the organizational ladder. I urge you to read this book: it's impressively researched, beautifully illustrated, and clearly written."
—Stephen R. Covey, author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

“McFarland successfully tackles the ever-present question for ambitious entrepreneurs: just how do you go from small to big–and prosper?  This book has the makings of a classic.”
—Steve Forbes, President & CEO, Editor-in-Chief, Forbes

“THE BREAKTHROUGH COMPANY is a book that refreshingly and persuasively backs up -- with a wealth of hard evidence -- its contrarian claims regarding how to elevate a growing business to undreamt of levels…Think GOOD TO GREAT for those still small enough to think big.”
—Bob Eckert, Chairman & CEO, Mattel, Inc

"Disdainful of  too-easily-accepted 'common wisdom,' zealous at getting to the real facts of what makes some companies stall out and others thrive, Keith McFarland's THE BREAKTHROUGH COMPANY offers a goldmine of insight to anyone who's ever dreamed that the business they lead can become a 'player.'"
—The Honorable Jack Kemp, Former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Former Vice-Presidential Candidate, Former US Congressman.

"A seriously great book…Drawing from an unusually detailed and careful study of both excellent and average performers, McFarland offers a set of powerful insights into building a breakthrough organization. Managers and employees alike will find his conclusions at once provocative and useful, since they focus on the ways that ordinary people combine to do extraordinary things.”
—William Barnett, Thomas M. Siebel Professor in Business, Leadership, Strategy & Organizations, Graduate Business School, Stanford University

“The Breakthrough Company rocks!  Start this book and you’ll find yourself looking forward to evenings, weekends and plane flights so you can read more!  More than even the iconic books in this category, this look at the key issues for growing companies provides a deep dive in terms of substance and real-world examples.  The margins of my own copy are quite literally covered with notes on ideas inspired by what McFarland has to say.”
—Brad Duea, President, Napster

“This book is unique.  Every paragraph has tucked within it one jewel of insight—- and sometimes more. Fair warning to anyone who immerses himself in this analysis: you’ll find yourself underlining every page!”
—Bob Galvin, formerly, CEO Motorola

“THE BREAKTHROUGH COMPANY is in-your-gut persuasive. The best books, like this one, change your mind about something important–and with each rereading prove freshly inspirational.  McFarland's insightful drill-down doesn't just answer the questions that keep growth-company leaders up at night, it’s an invaluable compass pointing the way to best-in-class performance."
—Bob Geiman, Partner, Polaris Venture Partners

“In THE BREAKTHROUGH COMPANY Keith McFarland gives us the clever metaphor of the Business Bermuda Triangle. The book provides insightful observations and advice that will help guide a business leader through pivotal times of a company’s growth. McFarland’s focus on the realities of managing costs, listening to customers and responding with agility to external factors makes this book a compelling “how to” on thriving in today's business world.” 
—Shantanu Narayen, President and COO, Adobe Systems

“I loved THE BREAKTHROUGH COMPANY…it’s a cornerstone business book and a must read for any senior executive.  McFarland, backed by considerable research, describes the characteristics that allow a small to medium size company to grow into a breathrough company --one that’s significant, lasting and influences the market.”
—Caroline Little, CEO & Publisher, Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive (WPNI)

“Most business books really should really be articles–THE BREAKTHROUGH COMPANY is different.  As a CEO of a company approaching a billion in revenues, I can tell you that his book passes the ‘Monday Morning Test’–you’ll finish it with a list of things you’ll do differently on Monday morning.  I only wish Keith had published the book years ago!”
—Scott Olivet, CEO, Oakley Inc.

"In an increasingly entrepreneurial economy, fast-growing, innovative firms will be absolutely central to future economic success. With keen insight and extensive analysis, McFarland helps to fill a gap in our
—Carl J. Schramm, President and CEO, Kauffman Foundation, and author of The International Imperative

About the Author
At the age of twenty-six, KEITH R. McFARLAND was named associate dean of one of the nation’s leading business schools. He went on to serve as CEO of two top technology firms prior to establishing McFarland Strategy Partners, where he has advised hundreds of growth companies as well as industry leaders such as Microsoft, Motorola, and Morgan Stanley. Currently, McFarland is a columnist for BusinessWeek. He and and his family live just downhill from the ski lifts at Snowbird, Utah. For more information about Keith and this book go to breakthroughcompany.com.

Customer Reviews

Excellent book for startups and young companies
One of the toughest things to do as a leader of a startup is find others who understand your unique predicaments and can help give you solid (read executable, detailed, thoughtful) advice. Bankers, consultants, lawyers are all helpful in the general advice category, but finding those who have been there and truly understand the pain points is very difficult. Mcfarland succeeds, in no small part because (a) he has been there and (b) his careful company analysis yields truly relevant themes. A smart man to find AdTran from among the multitude of public companies.

Errors and Omissions Abound
Mr. McFarland's premise is that a careful screen of a large universe of companies produces evidence of superior performance characteristics and therefore industry leading performance. It just so happens that as an industry veteran of commercial real estate it was much easier for me to see the complete inaccuracy of one of the case studies he constructs. A company he identifies as a Breakthrough Company , the Staubach Comapny, is an incomplete and outrageous portrayal of not only the subject company but also the comparison company. Roger Staubach is a superb leader, that is undisputed in the commercial real estate services industry. What the author does not tell you is that during the study period and the time his research takes place Staubach's organization is actually a franchise. It only converted to a non-franchise model in late 2007. This is, for several reasons, an enormous omission in light of his description of the ownership structure of the company at that time. It is quite surprising as well that if you actually read the notes the sources the author points to related to the comparison company in this field are Crain's New York as well as individuals he fails to identify. Mr. McFarland never spoke to the comparison company Studley nor did he apparently consult reliable industry sources for information on industry productivity. If Mr. McFarland or his research team actually looked at the websites of the companies he points to he could have found evidence that his theories about productivity required additional scrutiny as well as the negative toned description of the comparison company. What he and his research team would have found by performing simple mathematical equations is that the comparison company has per professional employee productivity of triple the Breakthrough Company he is featuring. In addition his portrayal of the comparison company Studley, Inc. is 90% inaccurate. His description of the current and past ownership are completely incorrect, the sources of the firm's buisiness and the description of the firm's founder could not be more inaccurate. The author has been contacted and in the face of being made aware of his errors has failed to take steps to correct them. The multitude of factual errors in this one case makes it questionable that the balance of the research and "Screens" have produced the results he proposes. His general idea is a good one, his execution is shockingly off base in this particular case erodes the credibility of the overall concept. If he is this wrong about one of the case studies he must be equally off course on the others.

GREAT, GOOD & BAD
GREAT; as a betting man myself, i loved Chapter 4 'Upping the Ante'. It covers the psychology of betting, why gambling gives betting a bad name and physics of bets, types of bets (i.e. market bets, process bets) and the art of linking bets together to build reald advantage over your competitors.

GOOD; The author chose companies from the Inc 500 list in order to analyze the key features of success, i.e. becoming a breakthrough company. Here the author chose well since most of the books concentrate either on very small companies or very large companies while neglecting the Inc 500.

BAD; Examples of successful companies/case studies suffer from two BIG problems. One, the selection problem. Do you want to find a business case where betting big and capturing market share, despite losing money was successful? Sure, no problem. We can find causes to support our theory. Do you want to find a business case where betting big and capturing market share while losing money leads to failure? Again, we can find it. No matter what business philosophy, we can select companies supporting our theory. Two, the attribution problem. What we attribute success may not be correct at all. The very same attribute might lead to failure in an another company.

If you enjoy case studies, this might me a good read for you. I don't. Chapter 4 on betting saved the book my four star rating.