Consistently delivering net profits and real top-line growth is tough. In fact, only 10% of companies manage to do it 8 out of 10 years, and a mere 0.4% achieve it 10 years in a row. The good news: Those that do pull this off deliver, on average, three times the total shareholder returns of other top revenue leaders. What do these sustained value creators get right? Our research finds that their growth strategies effectively address several key elements: markets, assets, leadership, and a repeatable model. We break it down in more detail.

Almost 40% of respondents to our January survey expect tariffs to increase product input costs by double digits. We also asked respondents how tariffs are affecting their forecasts and priorities and how they plan to fund tariff mitigation initiatives.

Times change, but the fundamentals of strategy don’t. Companies that outgrow and outearn their competitors live by five rules:

• You can’t win unless you master the rules of the game.
• Leadership economics are worth fighting for.
• Profit pools don’t stand still, and neither should you.
• When in doubt, focus on the customer.
• Strategy is about making things happen.

Hiding within each lesson, however, is a host of cliches, misconceptions, and tired assumptions. We walk you through each one, clarifying the key takeaways and clearing away the nonsense. What happens when you move beyond conventional ways of thinking? You vault from an also-ran to a global leader.

Am I moving fast enough? How might AI change the future of my industry? How should I lead the organization on this journey? These are just some of the essential questions CEOs should be asking themselves as AI continues to remake the business world. We explain why speed matters, quantify the current faster/better/cheaper impacts of AI, and much more in this essential leadership primer.   

That was the question—simple on the face of it—that a senior executive posed to the leadership team at a prominent S&P 500 company. It touched off a lively debate that revealed that this company, like so many others, doesn’t really know what winning means. What’s the right scorecard to measure and manage progress? Which strategic factors are constraining success? We’ll explain how to move beyond “spreadsheet strategy” and identify seven factors to help unleash the organization’s full potential.