A couple of years back, David G.
Thomson†, Chairman, Blue
Print Growth Institute, carried out a multi-year study on American businesses to
understand "how exceptional growth businesses
are built"—in other words, to identify
the success pattern of America's highest growth companies. The study revealed that out
of the 7500 companies that went public between 1985 and 2007, only 5%
companies recorded a revenue of $1bn—which
means hardly 387 companies. Nonetheless, they have accounted for 56% of employment
and 64% of market value created by all the IPO companies. Their disproportionate
successes made them the very core of America's innovation and growth. They are
considered to be companies `to work for and invest
in'. Such examples are many: Microsoft, Cisco, Google, Starbucks, etc. These
companies are considered to be the architects of America's future.
No wonder, these companies are unique by themselves. But behind their success
there is an underlying commonality: their
leadership teams. According to the study of David
G. Thomson, most of the star performers are managed by dynamic duos—two individuals working together in close association
built these firms from dreams to billion dollar revenue companies. Some such
striking examples of `dynamic duos' are: Hewlett
and Packard, Sears and Roebuck, and Walt and Roy Disney. The study also revealed that
the duo, like that of Bill Gates and Jon Shirley of Microsoft in 1983, are required to
be dynamic and complementary in their strengths to build such dream growth companies. It
is also found that one of the duo must excel in the `public' part of the business just as
Gates focusing on market, shaping technologies for various products, and establishing
leadership standards, while the other had to be
the `insider'—just as Shirley, stay focused
on internal production and management of finances for ensuring
uninterrupted maintenance of production cycle. |
