The Growth Discovery Process is the product of my experience in helping global corporations, famous brands, and entrepreneurial firms in a wide variety of industries capitalize on their Inside Advantage. This is not academic theory from a university professor. It's not complex methodology from a high-priced consultant.

It's certainly not a lesson in leadership from a motivational expert. It is a practical, systematic approach to business growth that's demonstrated on page after page of this book. It's an easy-touse and simple-to-apply process that will enable you to discover and leverage your Inside Advantage -- and grow.

It's important to understand that all growth is not created equal. Sales growth is essential to assure that revenue exceeds the company's ever-increasing cost of doing business. And, to ensure the company's enduring health and prosperity, profits must grow in step with or even faster than revenue. Sacrificing profits with excessively ambitious plans -- such as unrealistic expansion, expensive acquisitions, extravagant marketing, and unrelated new products or services -- often ends up killing the company instead.

Even worse, some business leaders can't resist the seductive exhortation to “reinvent” their businesses -- to turn them into something that they do not have the potential to be. This often unrealistic promise of “profound transformation” consumes precious time and resources -- and it usually fails because it destroys the heart and soul of the original enterprise.

My approach to growth, as you've probably figured out already, is very different. It begins with this simple principle: The best way to expand the size, scope, and profit of your business is to grow it from the inside, capitalizing on hidden strengths that already exist within the company or brand.

Why do I have such faith in this approach? And why should you believe me? The answer is that it has worked for me throughout my career, and I know it will work for you.

It worked for me as I built the small advertising firm in Dallas, Texas, that my dad and mentor Sam R. Bloom founded, into a large, successful national agency. Instead of apologizing for our then out-of-the-mainstream location, we celebrated it and turned it into our Inside Advantage.