Every business is a growth business.

"Successful companies grow because growth is in the corporate mind-set, created by the company's leaders," say Ram Charan and Noel M. Tichy, authors of Every Business Is a Growth Business. "If this philosophy takes hold from top to bottom, any business can thrive," they believe. "There is no such thing as a mature business."

These authors and executive education consultants have kept a strong focus on new strategies for creating business value and the development of leadership skills.

In their book, the pair provide a common sense business approach that many major firms use. It can easily be translated to companies of any size.

Having worked with CEOs at Compaq, Citicorp, and Allied Signal, the authors have created an earnest guide to profitable, sustainable, and capital-efficient results.

According to Tichy and Charan, in the early '80s, Coca-Cola helmsman Roberto Goizueta transformed his company by simply redefining its market. Rather than battling PepsiCo for fractions of the U.S. soft drink market share, Goizueta asked: "What is Coke's worldwide marketshare of the average stomach, compared to other liquids? Might the competition include even water?" The CEO's radical question led to a new game plan that brought Coca-Cola to new heights of success.

Currently a professor at the University of Michigan Business School, Tichy co-authored The Leadership Machine (Harperbusiness, $27). Charan most recently taught at Harvard Business School, and Northwestern University.

Every Business Is a Growth Business: How Your Company Can Prosper Year After Year by Ram Charan and Noel M. Tichy (Times Business, $16)