When Profit from the Core was published in 2001, it became an international best seller, helping hundreds of companies find their way back to profitable growth after the Internet bubble burst. The 2007 global financial meltdown reaffirmed the perils of pursuing heady growth through untested strategies, as firms in industries from finance to retailing to automobiles strayed too far from their core businesses and suffered the consequences.

In this updated edition, authors Chris Zook and James Allen show that a renewed focus on the core is more critical than ever. Only 11% of companies manage to grow profits and revenues by 5.5% or more over a 10-year period, and earn back their cost of capital. While current business wisdom calls for "new rules" for strategy and organization, Profit from the Core argues that most growth strategies fail to deliver value—or even destroy it—primarily because they wrongly diversify from the core business. The authors contend that this timeless strategic precept—building market power in a well-defined core—remains the key source of competitive advantage and the most viable platform for successful expansion.

"Profit from the Core provides original and actionable tools to attack the difficult issues around profitable growth."

Based on a sweeping 10-year study and fresh in-depth case studies, the book outlines what today’s executives and managers need to do now to revitalize their core, identify the next wave of profitable growth and build on it successfully.

Profit from the Core is the back-to-basics strategy field guide no manager should be without.