Success Here's the Inside Story

There seems to be a predictable arc to business success today: Launch a company; make a splash; do an IPO; write a book. It's the last part that almost always disappoints. How many books by or about big-name company founders can you name that really capture the drama, the heartache -- and the lessons -- behind their success? All too often, smart business leaders write dumb books.

But not always. The best books about companies tell great stories. They are packed with experience, rather than absolutes. They offer an honest look at awkward beginnings, botched decisions, magic meetings, bursts of genius, improvised solutions, and moments of truth. And in most cases, they're not stories of invention; they're stories of reinvention. They tell of leaders and companies that transform what it means to be in business.

Fast Company thumbed through a stack of recently published company stories that have been spun in this spirit. Here are the secrets of success that these books yield.

The High-Concept Company

As narrated by Swedish journalist Bertil Torekull, "Leading by Design: The IKEA Story" (Harper Business, $26) reads at first like a standard tale of the mythic boyhood and intellectual development of the "legendary founder." The front end of Torekull's book is packed with details from the early life of Ingvar Kamprad (the "I" and the "K" in IKEA): his German grandparents' immigration to the dark woods of Slammed; the dyslexic farm boy who, at the age of five, became an enterprising peddler -- setting up shop at a roadside "churn stand" (a country store) that evolved into a $7 billion business, with 150 stores in 30 countries.

Once Torekull gives up this ponderous layer of psychological commentary and lets Kamprad speak, the book tells a very different story -- the story of IKEA's "business idea." The core of the idea is "democratic design": the trinity of attractive form, inexpensive production, and high function. That idea, combined with what Kamprad calls "the underdog's obsession with always doing the opposite of what others were doing," propelled him and his young, unconventional, risk-taking comrades along a path of constant innovation and experimentation.

The real secret of IKEA's success? "We are a concept company," answers Kamprad. IKEA's concept is articulated in a document drafted by Kamprad in 1976: "a furniture dealer's testament." It outlines a set of nine commandments -- including perpetuation of the "IKEA spirit" of enthusiasm, thrift, responsibility, humbleness, and simplicity; and "always asking why we are doing this or that . . . refusing to accept a pattern simply because it is well established."

Tom Chappell doesn't make furniture, but he agrees with the IKEA philosophy. In his new book, "Managing Upside Down: The Seven Intentions of Values-Centered Leadership" (William Morrow, $25), Chappell says that the winning concept behind his company is as basic -- and as profound -- as encouraging people to know who they are. The founder and CEO of the natural-products company Tom's of Maine (and the author of "The Soul of a Business" [Bantam, 1993]), Chappell has been a leading proponent of the philosophy that doing good is good for business.

That sounds nice. But it also sounds just a little trite. How do you create a successful business on the basis of values? What it comes down to, says Chappell, is asking the right questions -- not, "Where do we want to go?" or "How do we get there?" but "Who are we?" and "What do we believe in?"

According to Chappell, a company finds its destiny by answering three questions: "Who are we?," "What do we stand for?," and "How do we serve?" At Tom's of Maine, those questions triggered the creation of a core document, "Reason for Being," that everyone in the company has to digest. They also set off a product-development streak. Chappell and his wife (and partner), Kate, created "acorns" -- teams of product "champions," which have organized various product lines. The results have been stunning: The teams not only came up with a now much-copied baking-soda toothpaste but also took the company out of a three-year dry spell by creating 26 products in less than 18 months.

Organized Disorganization

While Tom Chappell's manifesto for upside-down management gives off a pious air, Andy Law's new book - "Creative Company: How St. Luke's Became 'the Ad Agency to End All Ad Agencies'" (Wiley, $29.95) -- crackles with rebellious and creative energy.

Back in 1995, at the pinnacle of a brilliant career as an ad executive at the best of London's creative shops, Andy Law had a moment of truth: Then the managing director of the London office of Chiat/ Day, Law learned that Chairman Jay Chiat was planning to sell the agency to the ad giant Omnicom. Law was asked to join the new organization as a senior executive, but the merger went against his every instinct. So Law and 35 of his colleagues from Chiat/Day London set out not only to build their own agency but also to rethink the nature of the ad agency -- from the ground up.