Blueprint to a Billion:7 Essentials to Achieve Exponential Growth

Everyone is looking for innovation and growth. And yet, until now, no one has succeeded in pinning down precisely what's involved in turning small companies into the biggest of winners. Wouldn't it be useful if there were a blueprint that could spell out, in detail, how a good idea gets turned into a billion-dollar enterprise?

That's just what David G. Thomson set out to do in his landmark study of the 387 companies that have grown exponentially. Each of these companies went public since 1980 and achieved $1 billion in revenue. Selecting from among the 250 companies that had less than $170 million at the time of their IPOs, Thomson created a template that identified the seven essentials that go into creating that level of growth. He calls those elite firms the Blueprint Companies.

Our summary of Blueprint to a Billion: Seven Essentials to Achieve Exponential Growth, details the key essentials of the Blueprint Companies so that you can apply them to any business to improve its performance.

Thompson has been leading business growth for 20 years in general management and executive sales and marketing at Nortel Networks and Hewlett-Packard. He also served as an associate principal during his five years at McKinsey & Company. His research is the first of its kind to identify and thoroughly analyze the mechanics of growth, from modest beginnings to billion-dollar companies like Microsoft, Google, Starbucks, and Nike.