The Breakthrough Company: How Everyday Companies Become Extraordinary Performers
by Keith R. Mcfarland
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Publisher: Crown Business
Salesrank: 1379
Released: 2008-01-15List Price: $27.50
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Errors and Omissions Abound (2008-04-12)
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 (2008-03-16)
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.Rudimentary and lacking (2008-03-15)
An oversimplification of the multitude of factors that determine success.
interestingly, one of the author’s predominant case studies is Polaris, which, according to the author is a good example of a breakthrough company. They built a new product and entered into a bigger and emerging market. Not exactly a revolutionary concept. In you start to think that this might be a good example to follow then you should look at the value of their share value over time. Considering this book is published in 2008, if you were to have bought shares in Polaris in 2005 you would now have lost 50% of your money by 2008. Not a great example of a “sustainable growth” company. It would appear there are flaws in the research methodology.A True Differentiator (2008-03-02)
Keith is a man who can tell a story. Unlike other books which seem to lecture, The Breakthrough Company moves with the ease of an easy tale. Keith paints pictures and uses concrete examples which put one in the shoes of the entrepreneur and make us empathetic to their challanges.
An interesting and wonderful read. You will find yourself paraphrasing or quoting from this book in the future.Going to the next level (2008-02-24)
The book gives very detailed information on how and when to get to the next level in your bunines. A lot of good links for your information gathering process.
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