Founder's Mentality

<b>A <i>Washington Post</i> Bestseller</b> <p/>Three Principles for Managing--and Avoiding--the Problems of Growth <p/>Why is profitable growth so hard to achieve and sustain? Most executives manage their companies as if the solution to that problem lies in the external environment: find an attractive market formulate the right strategy win new customers. <p/>But when Bain & Company's Chris Zook and James Allen authors of the bestselling <i>Profit from the Core</i> researched this question they found that when companies fail to achieve their growth targets 90 percent of the time the root causes are internal not external--increasing distance from the front lines loss of accountability proliferating processes and bureaucracy to name only a few. What's more companies experience a set of predictable internal crises at predictable stages as they grow. Even for healthy companies these crises if not managed properly stifle the ability to grow further--and can actively lead to decline. <p/>The key insight from Zook and Allen's research is that managing these choke points requires a founder's mentality--behaviors typically embodied by a bold ambitious founder--to restore speed focus and connection to customers: <p/>- An insurgent's clear mission and purpose<br>- An unambiguous owner mindset<br>- A relentless obsession with the front line <p/>Based on the authors' decade-long study of companies in more than forty countries <i>The Founder's Mentality</i> demonstrates the strong relationship between these three traits in companies of all kinds--not just start-ups--and their ability to sustain performance. Through rich analysis and inspiring examples this book shows how any leader--not only a founder--can instill and leverage a founder's mentality throughout their organization and find lasting profitable growth.<br>