Google, Taser, Carnival Among Sales Gainers; These firms used different strategies to grow revenue despite bad press and some adverse market conditions.(MANAGING FOR SUCCESS)

Byline: DOUG TSURUOKA

Managing a successful company involves more than administration.

It also covers moves having to do with technology, innovation or business strategy that ramps up sales.

By this yardstick, 2004 had plenty of winners.

Among them: Internet search engine company Google, stun gun maker Taser International and cruise ship operator Carnival.

** Google. Investors focused for most of the year on this Mountain View, Calif.-based firm's $1.7 billion initial public offering in August. It was the high point for a firm that in five years morphed from a flea-sized business based in a Stanford University dorm room into a $2.7 billion company that's changing how people get information off the Web.

Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin pulled off more than an IPO. Sales jumped 135% in the past four quarters.