Such favored business must have two characteristics: (1) an ability to increase prices rather easily (even when product demand is flat and capacity is not fully utilized) without fear of significant loss of either market share or unit volume, and (2) an ability to accommodate large dollar volume increases in business (often produced more by inflation than by real growth) with only minor additional investment of capital. Managers of ordinary ability, focusing solely on acquisition possibilities meeting these tests, have achieved excellent results in recent decades. However, very few enterprises possess both characteristics, and competition to buy those that do has now become fierce to the point of being self-defeating.

这种受青睐的企业必须具备两个特点：

(1) 有能力相当容易地提高价（即使在产品需求平平、生产能力没有得到充分利用的情况下），而不必担心市场份额或单位销售量的重大损失；

(2) 有能力在只增加少量资本投资的情况下，适应业务量的大幅美元增长（通常是由通货膨胀而不是实际增长引起的）。 近几十年来，能力一般的管理者只关注符合这些检验标准的收购可能性，取得了出色的业绩。 然而，只有极少数企业同时具备这两个特点，而现在收购具备这两个特点的企业的竞争已经激烈到了不攻自破的地步。