This is the story of how ten of New Zealand's finest companies became world-class competitors. It is a significant story: New Zealanders look to business enterprises for wealth, jobs and the products and services to live and to trade. In exploring the behaviour of ten carefully chosen firms the book shows how they overcame the disadvantages of size and distance to make an impact in world markets and to sustain it. This is not only a narrative of each firm's path to success, it is also an empirical analysis of the factors which assured that success. It discusses, for example, innovation, operations strategy, human resource management, the impact of national culture, the role of government.