Be a Sequoia, Not a Bonsai: The Seven Growth Secrets of the World’s Most Successful Companies

Whether you work at a Fortune 500 giant, a startup, or a nonprofit, Be a Sequoia, Not a Bonsai gives you the playbook to grow profits (or donations) much faster, while delighting customers.

Nicolas Darveau-Garneau, Google’s former Chief Evangelist, has advised senior executives at more than a thousand companies. He discovered that the fastest-growing 5% all followed the same seven principles. And he saw that the executives who mastered these principles rapidly advanced their careers.

This book contains a step-by-step guide and hundreds of case studies. For example, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital increased online fundraising 46% in a single year, expanding lifesaving cancer treatments to sixty countries. Invisalign added $7 billion in market value while competitors faltered. Surex Insurance quadrupled profits by acquiring more valuable customers. Asbury Automotive Group became the first dealership group to sell cars entirely online, driving a 33% jump in profits and a 30% rise in customer satisfaction at a time when competitors were stagnant. Pandora Jewelry increased advertising-driven in-store sales by 200% and total sales 77% simply by shifting how it measured marketing success.

The best part? These breakthroughs don’t require acquisitions, billion-dollar tech investments, or years of product development. They come from simple, low-risk experiments you can test right now, moves that cost little but pay off big.

In Be a Sequoia, Not a Bonsai, you’ll learn how to:

• Maximize profitable growth by tracking the right metrics, not vanity metrics • Acquire the most valuable customers, not just the most customers • Dramatically increase customer lifetime value with practical, scalable strategies • Strengthen your brand with modern, profit-driven branding approaches • Deliver a customer experience your competitors can’t match • Build a culture of rapid testing and innovation that keeps you ahead

“Be a Sequoia, Not a Bonsai is a groundbreaking book. Nicolas Darveau-Garneau has distilled thousands of CEO and CMO meetings into a playbook every ambitious leader needs to read—and, more importantly, put into practice every day.” — Jasper Malcolmson, Head of Growth at Gusto and Robinhood

© 2026 HarperCollins Leadership (Audiobook): 9781400254262

Release date

Audiobook: 27 January 2026