What the Most Productive Companies Do Differently
Large productivity gaps between leading and lagging firms in each sector show that firm-level strategy choices drive productivity advantage.
Summary
Atkins, Padhi and White note that U.S. productivity growth has slowed to 1.4% a year, and restoring the long-term trend could add $10 trillion in GDP by 2030. Their research finds striking differences within sectors, with manufacturing leaders operating at 5.4 times the productivity of laggards and similar gaps in services. They identify four strategies the most productive companies share and argue that firms have a central role in reviving
Editor's opinion
Documents a real, large productivity dispersion within sectors (5.4x gap) and ties it to firm-level strategic choices -- a genuine industrial-economics finding.
Key concepts
Firm productivity gaps · Leaders versus laggards · Productivity strategies