????隨著經濟不確定性的迷霧最終散去，許多公司都到達了關鍵的轉折點。不幸的是，為了在這次經濟大衰退中生存下來，太多太多的董事會都出了下策。這些公司削減了成本，也裁減了人員。新人手和新設備投資變得斷斷續續，甚至蕩然無存。“靈活策略”和“動態彈性”成了新的熱門詞匯，人們把它們解釋為：把策略拋諸腦后，同時采取任何你覺得有希望奏效的辦法。

????任何種類的經濟、政治或企業危機都有亟待解決的燃眉之急，抑制這種沖動難上加難。然而，實際情況是，面向短期的管理從來都不能成就大事。而且這種行為已經讓許多公司陷入了困境。它們在危機中生存了下來，但它們沒有了推動長期增長的空間或者資源。我們對全球近4000名公司高管的最新調查表明，他們中間有60%的人不相信自己的經營策略真的能取得成功。這樣的信心匱乏程度讓人吃驚——難怪過去幾年的表現像坐了過山車一樣。

????那么，現在該怎么辦呢？有一點很確定——人們經常談到的靈活性并不是答案。成功不是迅速采取行動，而是從策略上決定前進的方向。這樣就能在一片混亂的市場中成為贏家。一些傳奇性的公司，比如蘋果公司（Apple）、美國制造商Danaher公司、宜家（Ikea）、海爾（Haier）、巴西化妝品生產商Natura和豐田汽車公司（Toyota），無論在什么情況下它們似乎都能立于不敗之地。我們的研究發現，所有這些具備超級競爭力的企業一直致力于五個方面的工作。下面就是實現持久“優質增長”的訣竅：

????堅持自我，抑制跟隨別人的沖動

????讓公司變得真正偉大的事物都有一個緩慢的建立過程，無法一蹴而就。如果可以，它們也就不會具有非常大的價值，因為任何人都能復制。最有能力的公司知道自己是誰，也知道市場中有哪些事只有自己才有資格去做。它們清晰地詮釋自己怎樣給顧客帶來增加值，而且用自己的特性來推動長期的增長。看看沃爾瑪（Wal-Mart）在打造一條成功的供應鏈時對下面四個問題的關注：積極管理供應商，以便保持低價；分析店鋪層面的銷售數據，以便掌握哪些商品暢銷，哪些商品不暢銷及其所在地區；通過卓越的物流完美地把商品運進店鋪；嚴格的運營資金管理。接下來，沃爾瑪遇到的“問題”是收入在2500億美元封了頂。為了解決這個問題，他們重新審視了那些自己已經做得很好的工作，也就是他們出色的供應鏈能力，看看還能怎樣對這些工作進行改進。舉例來說，他們通過分析發現，靠近淡水水域的店鋪售出的商品和靠近鹽水水域的店鋪有相當大的差別。因此，他們改變了貨架上的商品搭配，以適應這些地區的情況。像這樣高明而有的放矢的調整讓沃爾瑪的收入超過了4000億美元。

????不要等顧客告訴你他們想要什么——要主動對他們施加影響

????不要等到顧客說出他們想要或者需要什么以后才迅速做出反應，靠這種方式來實現增長。相反，要改變游戲規則。要走在前面，影響人們的欲望，重新定義顧客的需要，進而前瞻性地創造需求。想一想宜家是如何出色地完成了這方面的工作——它把注意力集中在怎樣提高人們的生活質量，最終在全球范圍內為自己具有斯堪的納維亞風格的平價設計創造出了需求。宜家堅持讓管理人員到人們的家中拜訪，目的是了解人們在家里的生活，了解他們面臨著哪些問題，遇到了什么樣的挫折（比如大多數人的電視和DVD機旁邊亂作一團的電線）。宜家創始人英瓦爾?坎普拉德還有一點很出名，那就是他在宜家商場里用大量時間來問顧客：“今天我們給你帶來了怎樣的失望情緒？”和其他幾家公司一樣，這種接觸顧客的專門渠道使得宜家能左右顧客的期望，重新定義他們的需求。

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????As the fog of economic uncertainty is finally lifting, many companies are approaching a critical turning point. Unfortunately, the fight to survive the Great Recession brought out the worst in far too many boardrooms. Companies slashed costs and cut head count. Investments in new employees and equipment slowed to a trickle or stopped altogether. "Agile strategy" and "dynamic resilience" became the new buzzwords, and they were code for: Throw out your strategy and chase whatever you think might work.

????In any kind of economic, political, or corporate crisis, it's doubly difficult to resist the urge to fight fires. But the reality is that managing for the short-term never breeds greatness. And doing so has left a lot of companies in a tough spot. They survived the crisis, but they don't have the headroom or resources to fuel long-term growth. Our most recent global survey of almost 4,000 executives found that 60% don't believe their own business strategy will actually succeed. That's an astounding lack of confidence—no doubt colored by the roller-coaster ride of the past several years.

????So what now? One thing is certain—the much-talked-about agility is not the answer. Succeeding is not moving rapidly. It's strategically deciding where to move. That's how you win in a chaotic market. And there are some legendary companies—Apple (AAPL), Danaher (DHR), Ikea, Haier, Natura, and Toyota (TM) —that seem to win no matter what. Our research found that all of these super-competitors consistently made five particular choices. Here's a formula to fuel "good growth" that lasts:

????Stay true to who you are and resist the urge to chase others

????The things that make companies truly great are slow to develop; they can't be built overnight. If they could, they wouldn't be worth very much, because anyone could copy them. The most capable companies know who they are and understand the job they are uniquely qualified to do in the market. They clearly define how they add value to their customers and use their identity to drive growth over the long-term. Look at how Wal-Mart (WMT) built a winning supply chain focused on four things: Aggressively managing vendors to keep prices low; analyzing sales data at the store level to understand what sells, what doesn't and where; superior logistics to get products to the stores seamlessly; and rigorous working-capital management. The company then faced the "problem" of maxing out at $250 billion in revenue. To fix it, they took a fresh look at what they already did well—their superior supply chain capability—and how they could refine it. For example, their analytics found that the items that sold at stores near freshwater were quite different than what sold at stores near saltwater. So they changed the assortment of products on the shelves to suit these geographies. Smart and targeted changes like these helped them grow revenues to more than $400 billion.

????Don't wait for customers to tell you what they want—influence them

????Instead of chasing growth by responding rapidly to what consumers say they want or need, change the game. Proactively create demand by getting out in front, shaping the wants and redefining the needs of your customers. Think about how brilliantly Ikea does this by focusing on how to make a better life for people, ultimately creating global demand for its affordable Scandinavian design. Ikea insists on managers conducting home visits to understand how people live at home, what challenges they're facing, and what frustrates them (like the tangles of wires that surround most people's TVs and DVD players). Their founder, Ingvar Kamprad, is also famous for having spent a lot of time in the store asking customers "how did we disappoint you today?" This privileged access to customers allows Ikea, like few other companies, to shape what their customers want and to redefine their needs.

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