The global financial crisis and the rough road to recovery have brought the power of a company's core business back into sharp focus. Like a collective commercial death wish, global market values rose in 2007 by a staggering 20 percent (denominated in dollars), reaching $61 trillion by year end. In just five years, $38 trillion had apparently been created in the stock markets-more value in terms of market capitalization than the global stock markets had recorded in their entire history.

Our analysis and case examples show that most companies with truly sustainable performance share four characteristics: an extraordinary focus on the core, leadership economics to reinvest in the core, a uniquely loyal core customer base and a well-defined repeatable model to extend the core. These insights are as relevant today as they were in the last period of turbulence.

Over the last few years, we began to encounter more and more companies asking the same questions-and occasionally disagreeing-about whether their core had shifted as a result of turbulence in their industries. That shared concern accelerated dramatically as management teams recognized the need for a more focused platform to use as a foundation for growth coming out of the financial crisis.

Turbulent conditions create confusion, blurred boundaries, less time to react, less tolerance for error and often fewer resources. Yet they also create unique opportunities to strengthen and expand strong cores, and even to invest to reshape the structure of your industry ahead of competitors. As many companies have come to learn, focusing on the core delivers results.

Find out more at www.profitfromthecore.com.