Big Winners and Big Losers: The 4 Secrets of Long-Term Business Success and Failure

Chapter 3. Companies That Keep Winning

This chapter describes nine big winners. (See Table 2.3 in Chapter 2, “Companies That Hit and Missed The Mark.”) Their strategies will be analyzed in depth in chapters 4-7. These firms were selected based on the following criteria:

• As of January 1, 2002, the big winners' ten-year, five-year, three-year, and one-year average annual market returns exceeded that of their industry.

• Their five-year average annual market return was double or more than double their industry average.

• Their six-month average return, January 1 to June 1 of 2002, was greater than that of their industry.

I provide information about the industries in which these companies competed, the products they sold, and their competitors. The sweet ...