High Performance Companies: Successful Strategies from the World's Top Achievers -- Contents -- Foreword -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- 1: My Motivations -- Introduction and Positioning -- Seven Concerns Raised by the Content and Approach of Other Books -- A Book on Strategic Principles: The Idea -- Approach of the Book -- Organization of the Book -- The Final Word -- 2: Discover Diamonds among Coals -- Resources, Firm Strategy, and Performance -- Acquisitions Fitting the "Discover-Diamonds-among-Coals" Adage -- Mittal Steel: Discovering Diamonds among Coals-Consistently! -- Building a Global Empire through Acquisitions -- The Recipe for Success -- How Mittal Polishes Raw Diamonds -- The Final Word -- 3: Build Durable Assets -- Durable Assets and Performance -- Tiger Balm: Durable Assets Withstand Twenty Years of Neglect -- Pawning the Family Heirloom -- Restoring the Tiger Balm's Roar through Investments in Durable Assets -- The Recipe for Success -- The Tiger Balm Case and Its Implications for a Strategy Based on Durable Assets -- The Final Word -- 4: Focus on Small Wins -- Big Hits, Big Flops, and Their Performance Implications -- Small Wins: An Alternative Route to Superior Performance? -- YKK's Small Wins Lead to Market Dominance -- The Lincoln Electric Company's Small-Wins-Based Strategy -- Illinois Tool Works: Scoring Big with Numerous Small Wins -- The Four Cornerstones of ITW's Strategy -- The Final Word -- 5: Integrate to Innovate -- The Importance of Innovation -- Innovation Strategies -- Innovation through Integration -- SAS Institute: The Consummate "Integrator" -- Fanuc: Industry Dominance through Integration and Innovation -- Integration of External Knowledge at Fanuc -- Internal Integration at Fanuc -- The Final Word -- 6: Advance (Strategically and Competitively) During a Crisis -- Crises as Common Events.

Top Managers and Crises -- The Tylenol Crisis and Johnson & Johnson -- Toyota Fumbles -- Singapore Airlines (SIA): Proactive Management of Crises -- SIA's Response to the East Asian Economic Crisis -- The SQ 006 Crash in Taiwan and SIA's Response -- The Final Word -- 7: Beware of the Incremental (Strategic Change)! -- Importance of Strategic Change and Its Performance Implications -- Mixed Performance Outcomes of Strategic Changes at Starbucks and McDonald's -- Strategic Changes and Their Performance Implications at Tupperware -- Tupperware's Social Impact and Performance -- The Beginnings -- The Growth Years -- Innovative Business Model -- Strategic Changes -- Putting the Strategic Changes and Their Performance Impacts in Perspective -- The Final Word -- 8: Strategic Principles in a Nutshell -- Strategic Principles and Their Relevance -- Simple yet Powerful -- Applicability Beyond Large Companies -- Applicability Across Geographies -- Some Common Themes (and Factors) Across the Examples -- CEOs and Top Managers Set the Correct Example -- A Clearly Conceived Strategy That Often Defies Conventional Wisdom -- Long View -- Managing Risks -- Careful Attention to Execution or Implementation Issues and Management of People Resources -- In Conclusion -- Index.