Hidden Champions reveals the strategies and practices of hundreds of low-profile super-performers. While most of our role models for excellence are large or growing companies that create highly visible products and services, behind the headlines lies a group of global competitors-unknown even to the general business community-that have attained global market share of over 70 percent. These companies-small and mid-size niche firms that make products like buttons, harmonicas, and gummi bears-are all great innovators. Many have created their own markets. They avoid outsourcing, diversification, and strategic alliances. Instead, they have developed unmatchable internal competencies.

What do Tetra aquarium supplies, Elector-Nite sensors, and Nissha touch panels have in common? They are typical “hidden champions”, medium-sized, unknown companies that have quietly, under the radar, become world market leaders in their respective industries. Going deep inside more than a thousand hidden champions around the world, Hermann Simon reveals the common patterns, behaviors, and approaches that make these secretive companies successful by bucking today’s management fads, and pursuing such common-sense strategies as focusing on core capabilities, establishing long-term relationships with customers, innovating continuously, rewarding employees for performance, and developing a global presence. In turbulent economic times, the hidden champions represent an antidote to the short-sighted and excessive practices that have brought many corporate giants crashing down, and may well serve as the new role models for sustainable economic growth.