A Washington Post Bestseller Three Principles for Managing— and Avoiding— the
Problems of Growth 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. But when Bain &
Company’s Chris Zook and James Allen authors of the bestselling Profit from the Core
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. 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: • An insurgent’s clear mission and purpose • An
unambiguous owner mindset • A relentless obsession with the front line Based on the
authors’ decade-long study of companies in more than forty countries The Founder’s Mentality
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.
