High Performance Companies: Successful Strategies from the World's Top Achievers

High Performance Companies complements the approach adopted by many of the existing books on strategy. The author proposes a number of thumb rules (or principles) that companies can consider while making their day-to-day decisions which, in turn, will determine their actual strategy. These principles traverse a wide spectrum of scenarios, such as strategic changes implemented by companies, resource allocation decisions especially towards building durable assets, and resource acquisition through inorganic means.

The book adopts a reader-friendly approach by teasing out the lessons from detailed cases studies of interesting companies. The writing minimizes jargon while maintaining rigor especially with regard to the applicability and relevance of the strategic principles to different business contexts. Nitin also cites extensive evidence in support of the proposed arguments (e.g., about performance achieved, resources deployed) and achieves this without making the material intimidating (in other words, without sacrificing readability) for a typical business student or manager.

The combination of both short and long case studies in each chapter demonstrate the general applicability of the principles and also improve the relevance to a typical reader by introducing diversity in contexts. A variety of examples are included ranging from well-known companies such Coca Cola, Singapore Airlines and Starbucks to relatively lesser known companies such as Illinois Tool Work, SAS Institute and Heng Long Leather.