Zoom: How 12 Exceptional Companies Are Navigating the Road to the Next Economy. (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 Lessons from the Top, a study of business leaders, writes smoothly and persuasively; and the companies he chooses effectively capsulize his arguments. In "create a learning organization," for instance, he mentions Internet investment site The Motley Fool and auction Web star eBay, which constantly sample customers and implement changes as a result. For deal-making and partnering, he cites Cisco Systems, a deal-maker par excellence, and BEA Systems, which has prospered by partnering with its customers.

Lists, occasional tables, black-and-white drawings and a layout that doesn't cram text on the page all help give Zoom a reader-friendly approach to a v vital subject.