Consider these three stories: At Enterprise Rent-A-Car you get a free bottle of chilled water when you pick up your car. That delights Enterprise's customers, and customer loyalty has contributed to the company's 11% annual organic growth over the past two decades. That's more than triple the rate of the market. IKEA originally designed its "Bang" mug to cost just 50 cents. Then it redesigned it — twice — so that almost three times as many mugs fit on a single pallet. That lowered logistical costs by more than half and enabled IKEA to reduce its prices, despite inflation. Today, the company's basic mug (now called "Färgrik") costs 39 cents. The U.S.-based conglomerate Danaher acquires a dozen companies in a typical year. Before closing any deal, Danaher's top executives visit the target company's plants to check the cost-saving potential of Danaher's proprietary lean tools. Through its acquire-and-improve model, Danaher has generate...