Back in 2001, Jim Collins had a monster of a business bestseller with his book Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap. . . and Others Don't. In it, Collins explored companies that have become hugely successful and found that success generally comes as a result of focusing resources on things that you're good at instead of mindlessly diversifying.

Arkansas Business writer Jeff Hankins read the book again to see how the companies profiled have weathered the downturn. The companies profiled were Abbot Laboratories (NYSE: ABT), Kroger (NYSE: KR), Kimberly-Clark (NYSE: KMB), Walgreens (NYSE: WAG), Altria (NYSE: MO), Nucor (NYSE: NUE), Pitney Bowes (NYSE: PBI), Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) and tragically, Fannie Mae and Circuit City. Gilette was eliminated from contention because of a merger.

Jim Collins, editor of OTC Insight, uses a proprietary quantitative system to isolate high growth and momentum stocks trading at reasonable valuations relative to that growth.

His latest two featured stocks based on these criteria are both China-based companies: Internet search provider Baidu.com (NASDAQ: BIDU) and online gaming firm Shanda Interactive Entertainment Limited (NASDAQ: SNDA).

Collins notes that Baidu's search engine was the most frequently used in China in 2006. Last December, he adds, Baidu announced its intention to enter the Japanese search market, which is currently dominated by Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG).

In March, he adds, the company launched a limited beta trial of its Japanese language search services, which included web and image search.

For the quarter ended June 30, 2007, he reports, Baidu showed earnings of $0.61 a share, compared with $0.21 per share in the prior year. Revenues, he states, increased 121% to $53 million. The stock, he explains, has a relative strength rating of 99 (out of 100) and garners a B+ for accumulation and distribution.