Secrets of Success from Canada's Fastest-Growing Companies

Robert W. Sexty is a professor of commerce and business administration
at Memorial University of Newfoundland and the author of Canadian
Business: Issues and Stakeholders.

Ever since 1982, when Tom Peters and Bob Waterman published In Search of
Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best-Run Companies, copycat authors
have been writing anecdotal accounts of successful businesses, and
formulating a few key principles of excellent performance.

This book derives its profiles from corporations in The Profit 100, a
listing of Canada’s fastest-growing companies that appears annually in
Profit. (Rick Spence is editor and associate publisher of the magazine).
The first chapter reviews the selection process (the main criterion used
is sales growth—not profitability, which is a more accurate barometer
of business success); describes the characteristics of the enterprises;
and identifies the factors that led to their success, such as
technology, consumer awareness, and value-added distribution. The
remaining chapters describe various aspects of marketing, human resource
management, production systems, and financing as performed in the Profit
100 companies. Inserted throughout the chapters are anecdotes of varying
lengths.

As the author says himself in the last chapter, “Clearly, much of
this [book] is not new.”