Anyone Want to Help Me Make a $1B?

In Search of...$1 Billion in Revenue - New York Times: "BOOKSTORE shelves are crowded with how-to books for business leaders striving toward excellence. David G. Thomson's recently published book, 'Blueprint to a Billion: Seven Essentials to Achieve Exponential Growth,' takes a different approach. Mr. Thomson evaluates patterns shared by what he calls 'blueprint companies' — the 387 businesses that have gone public since 1980 and have reached $1 billion in revenue.

These star businesses represent just 5 percent of the companies that have gone public in that time frame, yet they accounted for more than half of their employment and two-thirds of their market value in 2005. Many of them are household names: Microsoft, Starbucks, Google, Nike, Genentech and Staples. Mr. Thomson notes that of the 4,000 publicly traded companies with $30 million to $1 billion in annual revenue, only 30 become billion-dollar businesses each year. 'We must improve our hit rate,' he said. 'If we could make that 60, we'd be a different nation.'"

posted by Dan Flies @ 5/01/2006 11:00:00 PM