"There's no such thing as a mature business," only a growth business, write leading business consultants Ram Charan and Noel M. Tichy. Every Business Is a Growth Business is a step-by-step manual for turning any company into an expanding company. The book is packed with real-world examples and key concepts for executives to get their businesses on an upward trajectory.

Charan and Tichy assert that growth requires sticking to two principles: "strategy from the outside in" and "changing the genetic code." The first means putting yourself in your customers' shoes and asking what are their needs and how are they changing. From this perspective, a company can redefine its market and come up with creative ways to expand demand. The second principle, changing the genetic code, means revamping the corporate culture so that a new mindset for growth can thrive. As anyone who has ever worked in a company knows, corporate culture is a hard thing to overhaul. The book gives concrete steps to make that happen; sometimes it requires whole new leadership.

Charan, who has been on the faculty of the Harvard Business School and Northwestern University, and Tichy, a professor at the University of Michigan Business School, speak from experience. They've advised companies such as Royal Dutch/Shell and Mercedes-Benz. One of their heroes is the late Roberto Goizueta of Coca-Cola. When Goizueta took over, the company was on cruise control. It dominated the U.S. soft- drink industry--a market that many experts believed was mature with nowhere to grow. Under conventional thinking, Coca-Cola was maxed out: it would do well just to defend each tenth of a percent of market share against archrival PepsiCo. But in the 1980s, Goizueta framed the question of market share in a different way. Goizueta got his top executives to see that globally, Coca-Cola accounted for less than 2 ounces of the 64 ounces of fluid that each of the world's 4.4 billion people drank on average every day. In one simple stroke, he redefined the market and opened vast new areas of opportunity for his company. Coca-Cola became an immensely successful growth company under his leadership. Similar stories about Compaq, Citibank, and other companies abound. Every Business Is a Growth Business is an inspiring and practical book for business leaders looking to grow their company. --Dan Ring Everyone wants growth, coauthor Noel Tichy explains on this audiocassette, but how many businesses are truly geared toward that end? At a time when the business cycle demands growth--or businesses risk death--but when so many businesses have already grown beyond anyone's wildest expectations, it's hard for companies not to circle the wagons and protect what they've already gained. If you can get past Tichy's somewhat droning delivery and his excessive use of "think-out-of-the-box"-level clichés and buzzwords, you'll find the secrets to continual growth for your company. Or, if you're an investor, you'll get insights into why some companies keep growing while others stagnate, and thus learn new ways to choose the best companies to stake your retirement funds on. (Running time: three hours, two cassettes) --Lou SchulerWhat's the number one item on every company's agenda?Profitable Growth.Every Business Is a Growth Business is your one-stop guide to making profitable growth happen. It's a radical and refreshing source of ideas, inspiration, and common sense, all based on the unparalleled experience and access of Ram Charan and Noel Tichy. Charan and Tichy have worked with some of the world's leading executives--people such as Jack Welch of GE, Eckhard Pfeiffer of Compaq, Larry Bossidy of Allied Signal, John Reed of Citigroup, Dick Brown of Cable & Wireless, Alex Trotman and Jacques Nasser of Ford, and the senior management of Coca-Cola--who have transformed their companies into profitable growth machines. Every Business Is a Growth Business is a distillation of what the authors and these unique leaders have learned about profitable growth:If your business isn't growing sustainably and profitably, it's dying.Any business can grow profitably. There is no such thing as a mature business.A company grows because growth is in the corporate mindset, created by the company's leaders.The mindset of growth starts at the top, but it must reach all the way to the bottom.Sustainable growth is profitable and capital-efficient."Broadening your pond," changing your company's genetic code, developing a growth strategy from the outside in, and other unique ideas.Every Business Is a Growth Business includes inside accounts of how GE Medical, Allied Signal, Compaq, Citibank, Reynolds and Reynolds, Praxair, and GE Capital developed profitable growth strategies. It includes "The Handbook for Growth," a highly practical guide that will be an immense help as you and your team develop your company's profitable growth strategy.