Smart Growth

This book will challenge your basic assumptions about business and growth. It needs to be read and talked about in both companies and business schools. -- R. Edward Freeman, Darden Business School, and coauthor of Managing for Stakeholders: Survival, Reputation, and Success Smart Growth will bend your mind, challenge your assumptions, and set you on a new growth trajectory. If you want to understand how following advice from Wall Street can doom you to destruction, read this book. -- Richard D'Aveni, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, and author of Hypercompetition and Beating the Commodity Trap: How to Maximize Your Competitive Position and Increase Your Pricing Power Warning against the creeping corruption of 'managed earnings' and 'making the numbers,' Edward D. Hess wisely urges business manager-leaders to keep their focus on the real growth of getting better, not bigger, and creating true value, not short-term earnings per share. -- Charles Ellis, author of Winning the Loser's Game: Timeless Strategies for Successful Investing In this masterful work, Edward D. Hess shows us how companies can grow in a healthy and organic manner, one that is sustainable and beneficial for all stakeholders, including society as a whole. -- Raj Sisodia, Bentley University, and coauthor of Firms of Endearment: How World Class Companies Profit from Passion and Purpose Hess offers the reader a thoughtful critique of the assumptions underlying the prevailing logic for the growth imperative that is so widely accepted. -- Robert K. Kazanjian, Goizueta Business School, Emory University, and coeditor of The Search for Organic Growth Hess provides insight as well as prescriptions for how to lead effectively and how to grow intelligently. -- Kim Cameron, Ross School of Business and the School of Education, University of Michigan, and author of Positive Leadership: Strategies for Extraordinary Performance Hess's insight and research provide a navigational path that illuminates key success factors and models that drive exponential growth. -- Jeffrey S. Shuman, Harris Corporation Hess takes dead aim at one of the sacred shibboleths of business--the notion that companies must 'grow or die'--and scores a bull's-eye. He makes a devastating case and demonstrates how destructive the blind pursuit of growth can be, and has been, to businesses of all types, especially publicly-owned ones. Along the way, Hess maps an alternative approach to managing business growth that focuses on the long-term health of the enterprise. It's a powerful argument and one that should be taken to heart by corporate executives, entrepreneurs, and policymakers alike. -- Bo Burlingham, editor-at-large of Inc. magazine and author of Small Giants: Companies That Choose To Be Great Instead of Big Smart Growth is a provocative and useful evidence-based approach to understanding the principles of corporate growth. -- Mary Ann Glynn, Boston College A new and radical contribution to business thought... Hess provides a blueprint for building an enduring business that strives to be better, rather than simply bigger. -- Dominique James San Francisco Book Review Named one of Inc.'s Best Books for Business Owners 2010 Inc. Named one of the Toronto Globe & Mail's Top 10 Managing Books for 2010 Toronto Globe & Mail This book is easily read and provides keen advice for individuals and companies that are involved in company strategic planning. If you are thinking about growing your company in a smart way, this is a must-read. -- Yang Fan Asheville Citizen Times