Fine-tune your acquisition plan.

Don't buy companies — buy products. That strategy has helped Glenview-based Illinois Tool Works Inc., a manufacturer of products ranging from plastic packaging to construction fasteners, experience a 17% jump in revenues, to $5.7 billion, for the first half of 2004, compared with the year-ago period. Illinois Tool Works Inc., which made 18 acquisitions, representing $415 million in acquired revenue, in the first six months of 2004, believes in the 80/20 rule — that 80% of a business' sales come from 20% of its product offerings.