A little voice suggests being wary of books that offer more than a dozen key elements, let alone 40. But the "moves" are integrated nicely into the narrative, and the authors aren't suggesting anyone commit them to memory.

In a central definition, McGrath and MacMillan - business professors at Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, respectively- call a market-busting move "an action taken by your firm that changes the game to deliver markedly superior performance." Working from a three-year proprietary study, the authors structure the 40 moves around five core strategies: transform the customers' experience; transform your offerings; redefine profit drivers; exploit industry shifts; and enter new markets.

Few companies will succeed at most, if any, of these initiatives; in fact, the book includes examples of companies that failed, as well as those that succeeded. Yet the authors conclude that "companies in industries that were being written off as hopelessly mature, hopelessly competitive or doomed were able to quickly identify new ways to look at their markets, new ways to serve customers and new ways to create solutions for which they could be paid."

The meat of the book is a very readable narrative that segues from each core strategy to its component moves; each move is stated, then buttressed with examples from companies around the world, many of them relatively unknown. Provocative, well-written and succinct, Market Busters offers compelling ideas about forwardlooking strategies.