Deep down, executives know that achieving strong and sustained top-line growth is getting tougher. They may be able to temporarily boost earnings by slashing costs. They may be able to inflate their companies’ share prices with the promise of future profits. But steady sales gains remain elusive. Even during the boom years of the past decade, consistently strong revenue growth—the foundation of steady earnings and share price growth—was the exception: From 1990 to 2000, just 10% of publicly traded companies enjoyed eight or more years of double-digit growth in their top line.