Bain Book

Beyond the Core

Beyond the Core

Expand Your Market Without Abandoning Your Roots

By Chris Zook

Beyond the Core

All companies must grow to survive—but only one in five growth initiatives succeed. In his best-selling book Profit from the Core, strategy expert Chris Zook revealed how to grow profitably by focusing on and achieving full potential in the core business. But what happens when your core business provides insufficient new growth, or even hits the wall?

In Beyond the Core, Chris outlines an expansion strategy based on putting together combinations of adjacency moves into areas related to, but not part of, the core business, such as new product lines or new channels of distribution. These sequences of moves carry less risk than diversification, yet they can create enormous competitive advantage, because they stem directly from what the company already knows and does best.

Based on extensive research on the growth patterns of thousands of companies worldwide, including CEO interviews with 25 top performers in adjacency growth, Beyond the Core demonstrates how powerful, repeatable methods for moving into new adjacencies can dramatically increase the odds of success. The best companies hone a systematic approach to choose among a range of possible adjacency moves and carefully time their efforts.

Beyond the Core shows how to find and leverage the best avenues for growth—without damaging the heart of the firm.

About the Author

About the Author

Chris Zook

Chris Zook is an advisory partner in Bain & Company's Boston office. As coleader of the firm’s Global Strategy practice for 20 years, Chris specialized in helping companies find new sources of profitable growth. He is the best-selling author of multiple business books, including The Founder’s Mentality, Repeatability, Profit from the Core and Unstoppable.

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What Others Are Saying

What Others Are Saying

Beyond the Core is a classic that will be praised and read by business leaders who are serious about growing their companies. It picks up where Profit from the Core exits with both real and useful discoveries. One of the best business books in the past decade.

Tom Meredith, CEO, MFI Capital

Chris Zook offers solid ideas and concepts about creating and delivering value by building on what your organization already does well. He offers many useful real-life examples and thoughtful insights in this cutting-edge guide to maximizing opportunities for profitable and sustainable growth.

James M. Kilts, Former Chairman and CEO, The Gillette Company

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