I just finished reading "Profit from the Core" and found it to be a powerful contribution to my thinking. The central concept is simple: Most effective companies build on their core strategic strengths to drive and sustain their growth. Zook illustrates how companies that stray too far from their core either lose their way or get into territory where they don't have any sustainable advantage. While many management texts are poorly written, with key points often being lost in oceans of minutia, this one avoids that problem. Key points are made , supported by clear evidence and examples. Reading it was a pleasure.

I would have preferred to see fewer examples from the consulting practice at Bain. I realize this is the basis for most of his experience, but more examples from outside that sphere would have been helpful. But this is quibbling. The book really delivers.

I would recommend it highly. It will cause even the most experienced of leaders to rethink their growth strategies. It is well worth your time.

First, this is an excellent book to read. Well researched, edited, and from experts active in the field.

Second, the author makes many important recommendations about how you should manage your company... strategically. Again, these recommendations are based largely on research done by the author or his peers mostly at Bain & Co. regarding maintaining competitive advantage.

With the exception of Jack Welch (and previously Geneen at IT&T, I'm sure), large conglomerates can not maintain growth rates over long periods of time (ten years was the period used in the book).

So, the recommendations that your company stick to its knitting ("the core") is the foundation of the book. But many people already know this. So, most interesting, are the recommendations and research that show the nuances.

For example, the author shows how the areas around your core business offer the most profitable opportunities for fast growth... yet also contain the most dangers from encroaching competitors, or bad fitting investments. He calls this area your adjacency.

The author suggests that how you manage your adjacency largely determines your success at long term business growth.

There are too many concepts and details to summarize here. There is a lot of meat to the book (although it is not a huge book). Still it is fairly easy to read. You will not whiz through the book because you will often pause to consider the ramifications of the author's points. But it is not a difficult read.

The books major points are well illustrated with many examples (Dell, Microsoft, Starbucks, W.W. Grainger, etc.).

This book is most appropriate for management involved in strategy, and investors trying to figure out the appropriateness of acquisitions by companies.

Most of the pages in my book are underlined. The stories fit the observations and recommedations well. The research presented was most interesting, and was often summarized into easily read charts and tables.

I highly recommend this book. There are lots of implementable ideas in this book. As an investor you will be able to spot an inappropriate acquisition much more easily. ...

Chris Zook thinks it's time for corporate leaders to get a big fat reality check on their dreams of continual, double-digit growth. He argues that the mindset that has developed around growth projections is totally unrealistic for most companies -- even considering the past decade of strong, economic expansion -- and he has numbers to prove it.

After examining the performance of close to 2,000 companies betweem 1988 and 1998, Mr. Zook found that only one in eight, or 13 per cent, managed to meet even modest growth targets.

If you don't understand and protect your core, you can't possibly select the right growth initiatives. If you select wrong, you face a double-whammy of wasting resources and leaving the true core undefended. This happens to start-ups and large corporations, to the weak and even more to the strong. Looking at the odds, it is probably happening to your business.

An excellent book!