Over that span, the authors say, no company consistently outperformed the average of its industry.

One reason is that smaller companies often outperform their bigger peers, which have to work harder to show growth.

On a level playing field, American companies can outperform and out produce those in any other country.

Our Canadian companies again outperformed the market to produce a deficit of $5.4m ($0.7m loss).

Other companies have sometimes outperformed Berkshire and made investors wealthy.

"When companies have outperformed the market over three to five years, investors tend to extrapolate that performance out into the future," he said.

Usually, analysts say, smaller companies outperform bigger ones coming out of a recession, when growth is expected to be strongest.

Most agree, however, that these companies will outperform the broader market.

In fact, most companies selling to nobody outperform those that are trying to sell to everyone.

In this difficult economic environment, the company, the world's largest paper producer, has outperformed its competition.