>"Over the past 20 years, Morning Star’s volumes, revenues, and profits have grown at a double-digit clip, claims Rufer. Industry growth, by contrast, has avera

>"Over the past 20 years, Morning Star’s volumes, revenues, and profits have grown at a double-digit clip, claims Rufer. Industry growth, by contrast, has averaged 1% a year. As a private company, Morning Star doesn’t share its financial results, but I was told that the company has funded virtually all its growth from internal sources, which suggests it is robustly profitable. On the basis of its own benchmarking data, Morning Star believes it is the world’s most efficient tomato processor. Morning Star is a “positive deviant”; indeed, it’s one of the most delightfully unusual companies I’ve come across. Employees (“colleagues” in Morning Star argot) are ridiculously empowered yet work together like members of a carefully choreographed dance troupe. By digging into the principles and practices that underpin this company’s unique management model, we can learn how it might be possible to escape—or at least reduce—the management tax."