Zoom: How 12 Exceptional Companies Are Navigating the Road to the Next Economy.

• Author: Marshall, Jeffrey
• Position: Book Shelf

Zoom: How 12 Exceptional Companies Are Navigating the Road to the Next Economy. By James IV, Citrin. Currency/Doubleday 255 pages. $24.95.

The book's title implies speed, and speed is one of the attributes that author James Cirtin believes is essential for success in today's economy. But he serves up other winning strategies that rely on old-fashioned verities, and holds up as winners several companies from the Old Economy, as well as the New.

Citrin effectively uses the dozen companies to illuminate his fundamental drivers of success, which he summarizes early on: go for speed, create a learning organization, obsess [over] the customer; reward appropriate risk-taking and failure; absorb uncertainty; and master deal-making and partnering skills. Many successful organizations do just one well, but General Electric Co., he writes, "pull(s) all the strategies together."

Citrin, a co-author of last year's...