Book Description
Winning by not competing: a fresh approach to strategy Since the dawn of the industrial age, companies have engaged in head-to-head competition in search of sustained, profitable growth. They have fought for competitive advantage, battled over market share, and struggled for differentiation. Yet these hallmarks of competitive strategy are not the way to create profitable growth in the future. In a book that challenges everything you thought you knew about the requirements for strategic success, W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne argue that cutthroat competition results in nothing but a bloody red ocean of rivals fighting over a shrinking profit pool. Based on a study of 150 strategic moves spanning more than a hundred years and thirty industries, the authors argue that lasting success comes not from battling competitors, but from creating “blue oceans”: untapped new market spaces ripe for growth. Such strategic moves—which the authors call “value innovation”—create powerful leaps in value that often render rivals obsolete for more than a decade. Blue Ocean Strategy presents a systematic approach to making the competition irrelevant and outlines principles and tools any company can use to create and capture blue oceans. A landmark work that upends traditional thinking about strategy, this book charts a bold new path to winning the future.
Customer Reviews:
Question the status quo.......2007-09-25
The book forced me to rethink the way I normally would look at business developments for my companies: either value based or feature based. The idea of a creating new space in a crowded market and making a leap in growth through the blue ocean strategy stirred up my thinking juices. Personally, I don't like how to books with "three simple steps" This book was great; a must read.
Good Book.......2007-09-24
1. This is NOT a marketing book
2. There is no such thing as a fail safe strategy
3. This is a tool and is only as good as the user
4. Applicable in different situations
5. Good companion to Competitive Strategy written in the 80's by Mike Porter which is THE industry book
6. The book is NOT a pioneer and is NOT proported to be. It is a study in those companies who seemed to have created new markets such as Cirque De Soleil. The authors did NOT set out to create a new "theory" and then retroactively "fit" companies but rather study an emerging pheonom. and try to locate patterns.
I think that pretty much covers all the gripes of the previous entries. I first came across this book in a competitive strategy class in a business organizational change degree. It is an excellent text and gives another viewpoint to the old study of competitive strategy. I have used the strategy canvas tool located in chapter two AS A TOOL to assist me in both departmental and industry situations to locate existing patterns of competition.
Worth the money.
But then, I am just a "mere" academic (albeit with many years of industry experience) so if you truly do not like the book I suggest returning it. :)
What is your greatest challenge?.......2007-09-13
The greatest struggle for most business people is to come up with a truly original and valuable idea. Close behind that is how to get employees to work together. This book makes me want to cry, because it actually, simply, lays out how to do both. Beautiful.
Academics rarely demonstrate how to do it!.......2007-09-11
I bought this book. Their identifications are valid enough. Great companies have always created uncontested market space while making their competitors irrelevant. This is not in dispute. However...
The authors Chan Kim & Renee Mauborgne are just mere academics. And what is annoying is that they haven't battle tested their Blue Ocean model from hard knocks in the trenches business wars to find out what works and what doesn't for themselves! Again, this is what I find annoying with academics. They say a lot but never prove it themselves! Remember Merton & Scholes and LTCM?
For an example...in the book, the authors have an interesting strategic canvass graph approach that supposes to prove how Blue Ocean events come about. That's fine, but how do you prove it? Moreover, the 'values' are different for each company, so there is nothing consistent to glean from this.
What I'd like to have seen is a Dash Board type matrix template that allows any company or budding entrepreneur to carry out Blue Ocean due diligence on any industry or market niches...proofing these Blue Ocean catchments from a zero learning curve application! The book does have important points but lacks the cutting edge tools to unify Blue Ocean diligence and proofs for any company!
Thus, what this book lacks is a more honed processing of enquiry from the authors. And I suspect this to be the case because like many academics they haven't proven the unifying dynamics that goes into capturing Blue Ocean strategies for themselves with businesses they have built through their own mindset!
Again, this book is a case of 'do what I say, because I don't have to prove what I say'.
There are great industry shapers out there who can shift and move whole industries and markets in their favour...but the authors of this book are not one of them.
However, there are great positives the authors have identified. The book contains a very interesting 'Strategic Grid' technique. From this simple grid technique any one can mentally survey how to change one's industry or market from a macro-vantage point. But shifting and moving your new found Blue Ocean grid at a tactical level to rule your competition making them irrelevant is another matter entirely. The chapters that explain this grid are worth the book, but don't expect any thing else.
What you really want is a knowledge base that allows you to dig out Blue Ocean criteria from a template of enquiring tools STACKED PROCESS BY PROCESS UNTIL YOU PROOF YOUR OWN BLUE OCEAN POWER. This book fails on this!
I would suggest that any one buying this book should read 'Blue Print to a Billion by David Thomson to understand how real Blue Ocean executions are carried out correctly. In addition, Chet Holmes' Ultimate Sales Machine' gets you to understand how to carry out big frame strategies at the tactical level.
Both these books will plug the holes lacking with Kim & Mauborgne's work.
Blue Ocean Strategy.......2007-09-10
I like the non text book clear presentation. You do not have to have an MBA to enjoy and learn from this book.
Book Description
Companies must innovate to grow, but they often forget to look beyond their own brands. Take Sony, for example. Its success with consumer innovations like the Walkman blinded it to obvious changes in how, when, and where people wanted their music. Apple capitalized on those changes in demand with the iPod, providing a new way of listening to music and of managing one’s entire music library.
This book explains how you can spot these opportunities that are hidden in plain sight. It introduces the demand-first innovation and growth model that will show you how to become an unbiased observer of people’s consumption and usage behaviors. Refining this skill helps companies generate organic growth through new products, services, solutions, and experiences that truly enhance peoples’ lives. Revealing the innovative processes of such organizations as BMW, Proctor and Gamble, GE Healthcare, and Frito-Lay, Hidden in Plain Sight offers you a new approach to identifying and executing your company’s growth strategy.
Customer Reviews:
A growth strategy from the outside in.......2007-10-15
Erich Joachimsthaler's book Hidden in Plain Sight challenges conventional wisdom on marketing and marketing strategy. There are a number of books advocating this 'outside in' view on strategy and growth.
Joachimsthaler's approach of DIG for Demand-first Integration and Growth Model provides a comprehensive set of tools and methods for defining growth opportunities based on an understanding of the external environment rather than trying to change the world to fit your products and services.
Joachimsthaler provides a full description of the processes and tools including a number of case studies that describe companies that have grown through innovation and an outside in view. These are the strengths of the book.
These strengths are also the books weakness. By talking extensively about companies like BMW, GE, PepsiCo, etc, the book's main messages get bogged down in the text. Many of these cases have not used Joachimsthaler's DIG methodology, so there is little to connect the case to the argument he is advancing. This makes the book drag in some places and confuses Joachimsthaler's argument.
Overall the book is recommended as the combination of tools and methodology provides a valuable resource for companies looking to change their marketing approach and results. Other resources to consider include Chris Zook's "Unstoppable" and Davenport and Harris's "Competing on Analytics."
The Formula for Innovation and Growth.......2007-07-14
Erich Joachimsthaler provides a systematic approach to make marketing accountable for innovation and growth of BtoC and BtoB companies. We have seen the innovative business concept of share of customer evolve and being executed over the last years. Hidden in Plain Sight pushes that practice further to the concept of customer advantage, which means consequently managing impact and relevance, products and services have on customers daily lifes - on customers share of the day.
Erich Joachimsthaler formulates an explicit model, the demand-first innovation and growth model (DIG-Model), that illuminates the advantages of creating the demand landscape and sets a plan for action to specify the necessary effort to capture the relevant parts of the ecosystem of customer demand, reframes the specific business opportunity space, aligns business processes across all functions and sets the foundation for sustainable innovations and predictable growth.
As one reads the carefully selected international cases (e.g. Procter & Gamble, BMW, Apple, Deutsche Telekom, Volkswagen, NetFlix, Starbucks, General Electric, Sony, Allianz) reference is made to all parts of the DIG model and how all pieces have to work together to execute in business practice. Based on his deep insight and understanding of many industries, Erich Joachimsthaler proves his approach carefully and outlines, how innovation and growth can be systematically and replicable managed. That is why this book is relevant for people from many business functions and a variety of industries.
Thanks for this outstanding business book.
Kevin Frantz
Excellent.......2007-06-28
This is an excellent book, an eye opener for any professional in marketing, particularly those fighting the dog war of private labels and commoditization.
A popular, inspirational pick........2007-06-17
Business managers and executives who want keys to locating the potential for a company's expansion will want to consult HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT: HOW TO FIND AND EXECUTE YOUR COMPANY'S NEXT BIG GROWTH STRATEGY. It pinpoints changing consumer needs and usage patterns and tells how to use the DIG model to help companies understand the hidden opportunities for innovation, using the author's 20+ years studying company connections to help pinpoint customer-driven ideas. Business libraries catering to executives will find it a popular, inspirational pick.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
The Invisibility of the Obvious.......2007-05-23
Erich Joachimsthaler offers what he claims is a "new model of strategic innovation for achieving profitable business growth" by abandoning "some of the tried and proven conventions of innovation, marketing, and strategy formulation" and by discarding "some of today's common assumptions and management practices and adopt a fresh way of planning an executing your strategies today and your innovation and growth strategies of tomorrow." The key word is "some" as he explains how.
After discussing "hidden opportunities to innovate and grow" in Part I, he focuses in Part II on several companies which exemplify a demand-first innovation and growth model (e.g. Frito-Lay, Allianz, GE Healthcare, and State Street) and then shifts his attention, in Part III, to various strategies by which to realize customer advantage.
As the title of this book suggests, Joachimsthaler asserts - and I agree - that many senior-level executives lack the ability to see - really see - "the opportunities presented by the changing consumption or usage behaviors of people [their organizations are] trying to serve. [They] cannot spot or recognize and pursue the abundant opportunities that exist in plain sight." Why? Joachimsthaler suggests several reasons which include routine but disparate processes which fragment a company's view of its customers, perpetuation of the status quo which limits a company's perspective on its competitive marketplace, a mistaken belief that "the key to growth lies in identifying customers' needs and wants [and/or] providing solutions for the tasks or jobs it knows customers must take on and get done," and an "inside-out" perspective which results in what Theodore Levitt once characterized as "marketing myopia."
Joachimsthaler suggests three lessons that can be learned from companies such as NetFlix, Sony, and Starbucks:
1. Position existing or new products or services at natural intersections of customers' consumption and use behaviors;
2. Change or enhance customers' daily routines and create transformative experiences around activities, projects, and tasks in new and welcome ways; and
3. Deliver on previously unleashed or unarticulated desires, dreams, fantasies, and urges in the social-cultural context of people's lives.
The demand-first innovation (DIG) model can be of substantial benefit to any organization (regardless of size or nature) but it would be a fool's errand to attempt to apply all of the ideas that Joachimsthaler presents. Rather, It would be a fool's errand for anyone who reads this book to attempt to apply all of the ideas that Joachimsthaler presents. Rather, he suggests that those who read this book clearly identify their organization's key demand-relevant assets and make full use of them, rigorously evaluate and develop their organization's distinctive capabilities deployed to manage those assets, choose only those major strategic initiatives that force the integration of all demand-facing processes, and "build the culture" with innovation initiatives at all levels and within all areas throughout what should be a demand-driven enterprise.
Joachimsthaler calls for nothing less than "the activation of demand-first growth platforms by whatever means [to] help customers absorb or assimilate an innovation, or retool old ways of doing things, into their daily life or work experiences." Only then can an organization find and execute its next big growth strategy.
Book Description
Featuring a foreword by George GilderThe Qualcomm Equation provides readers with a fascinating inside look at how a small company stormed the burgeoning wireless industry and grew into a global multibillion-dollar powerhouse in less than a decade. This book examines how Qualcomm became so successful, chronicling the early history of the company, then provides an in-depth analysis of Qualcomm's business model. Through this eye-opening, real-life case study, readers will learn:* how the company pioneered and commercialized a new technology in record time...and made it an industry standard* how Qualcomm's revolutionary business model relied on licensing this technology * key business strategies that enabled Qualcomm to leapfrog the competition* how companies can encourage and use innovation to dominate their marketsIn addition to describing the development of the wireless industry over the last few decades, The Qualcomm Equation is a riveting look at a one-of-a-kind company.
Customer Reviews:
History of CDMA .......2007-02-09
Good general overview of how CDMA was born and the history that has lead the company up to this point. Needed more detail around the complexities of licensing CDMA technology and the behind the door events than transformed the industry. Too general in some senses but a good read for someone looking to understand the wireless business.
Story of how the Telecom Industry was Revolutionized.......2005-05-06
Dave Mock did an excellent job of giving a good, accurate telling story of how a small start-up company in San Diego revolutionized the telecom industry. The book does not talk so much about the company, the technology, or the business model that made it successful, but rather describes in more narrative manner of the story behind the scenes, its history dating back from decades ago. The book describes in details the numerous technical and business challenges that Qualcomm encountered during the early stages of the endeavor and how the company managed to overcome these obstacles.
Although Qualcomm's story is about how CDMA came about, the book is suitable for both the technical and non-technical audiences as it circumspect more about the entrepreneurship side and what made it work for a group of renowned academic individuals in becoming businessmen. The book is suitable for readers in the wireless industry as well as entrepreneurs trying to look for key ingredients in starting a successful company.
An important work on IS-95.......2005-04-24
In The Qualcomm Equation Dave Mock does an excellent job of reporting the company's technological and financial history. The first half of the book,"The Radical Technology Solution", interweaves different story lines as well as Brooks did when he presented AT&T's complicated history in Telephone. Mock handles well the difficult job of keeping a cogent narrative flowing while discussing different elements: the founders, their funding, the competition, and the technology itself.
As with Brooks, Mock is not an employee of the company he writes about, nor is this a corporate sponsored biography. Still, having been granted special access to Qualcomm people and papers, he seems at times too favorable to Qualcomm, jeopardizing the validity of conclusions he draws. Never-the-less, the factual reporting he presents is quite strong; there is information here on CDMA development in mobile telephony not found anywhere else.
Part Two: The Intellectual Property Business, explores how IP promotion and control helped Qualcomm become a worldwide company. It's fascinating, to a degree, but I am a technology historian, not a business manager. I feel unable to comment on Part Two's validity but it is obviously well researched.
Gripes? A bizarre Foreword from George Gilder. You'll see :-) And a one-sided approach to covering Qualcomm which is perhaps a structural problem; this book wasn't meant to be a comparative history or to tell the story of another company. Q's decision to withhold payment to Korea's ETRI, later overturned in arbitration to the cost of $80 million, for example, could be viewed as a smart decision by Q to save their stockholders money, or a robber-baron like action intent on defrauding a group that had a legitimate right to be paid. A reader of this book can't tell because we don't have ETRI's position. Nor Qualcomm's legal department. The success of Qualcomm may indeed be based on all the positive things Mock tells us, but it also could be founded, in part, on aggressive lawyers and a bankroll big enough to buy out or shut down competition when threatened.
Positives? An excellent index. Nice, bright paper. A good bibliography and a detailed time-line. 231 pages of good information. Most important, the arrival of Dave Mock as a first class technology historian.
While the history of TDMA based GSM and IS-54/IS-136 is documented in hardcopy and on the web, CDMA based IS-95 has not been covered well until now. This book should be considered an essential title for anyone working in or investigating cellular radio.
If you want to know how Qualcomm became Qualcomm, this is it.......2005-04-08
Qualcomm is the Microsoft of the telecoms industry, for better and for worse. You either love the company or you hate the company; I'm leaning toward the latter, so please keep this in mind.
First, you have to give the company credit for getting to where it is today. Dave Mock does an excellent and meticulous job of documenting Qualcomm's against-all-odds rise to the top of the telecoms industry. I did not realize the degree to which Qualcomm relied on government business in the early days and also did not realize just how close the company came to missing the cellular boat completely. Back when Europe set in place one standard and many in the US wanted to follow suit, Qualcomm stuck to its guns.
And I think that the US is better off for it.
By and large, the mixed-standards "mess" that we have in the US has turned out to be a pretty good thing. Because of competing standards, we have EV-DO, which is a much-faster technology than single-standard Europe has to offer. Competing technologies keeps everyone on their toes, and Qualcomm has certainly kept the GPRS vendors on their toes. Dave Mock does a great job of documenting this drama and making sense of the very complex technical standards and jargon.
Mock is perhaps too kind to Qualcomm, particularly in the latter years, as the vendor transforms from David to Goliath. For example, the company has been in an all-out war with Wi-Fi and WiMAX over the past three years, and it is only recently that we now see the company starting to co-opt some of the same technology underlying WiMAX. Qualcomm recently ditched its much-hyped EVDV technology when it became brutally apparent that carriers want IP and big pipes, something WiMAX was designed to address from the ground up. I find Qualcomm to be a little lost these days, as if it is searching for another big bully to take on again; the trouble is, Qualcomm is now the big bully and it's taking on the types of innovators that it once was.
That said, anyone in the telecoms industry who wants to know how Qualcomm got to be Qualcomm should read this book.
Amazon.com
Most books that predict a sky-high stock market make their forecast either by extrapolating the trend line of the market's recent past or by looking at the demographics of the baby boom and the vast amounts of retirement funds chasing stocks. In Dow 36,000, James Glassman and Kevin Hassett see a bright future for stocks, but rather than looking at external factors, the two base their prediction on the intrinsic value of equities and their ability to generate cash.
At the heart of Glassman and Hassett's argument is the idea that stocks have been undervalued for decades and that, for the next few years, investors can expect a dramatic one-time upward adjustment in stock prices. Why? While Wall Street has focused on valuation measures such as P/E ratios, it has virtually ignored how stocks can work as cash engines (the good ones, at least). The authors cite example after example of the growth in dividend income for stocks and how it has consistently beaten the annual payouts of long-term Treasury bonds. One example they cite is Exxon, which you could have bought in 1977 for about $6 when it was paying a dividend of 37 cents, or about 6 percent a share. Twenty years later, the dividend had grown to $1.63 or 27 percent of your initial $6 investment. Compare two $1,000 investments over 20 years in Exxon and 7.5 percent Treasury bonds: payments from the T-bonds would amount to $1,500; the Exxon dividends would add up to $3,585--not to mention that shares in Exxon went from $6 to $61 during that same period. To get to their target of 36,000, the authors project dividend growth of the 30 stocks that make up the Dow and apply a valuation measure that they call PRP ("perfectly reasonable price"). Many will dismiss this kind of thinking as wishful, but they're probably the same Chicken Littles who have been calling the market overpriced for years (think back to January 1993, when the Dow was hovering around 3,300).
In addition to making their case for undervalued stocks, the authors toss off some good investment advice about stock picking, portfolio allocation, and buying mutual funds, and they go to great pains not to bulldoze readers with investing and economic jargon. As you might expect, Glassman, an investing columnist for the Washington Post, and Hassett, a former senior economist with the Federal Reserve, are firmly in the buy-and-hold camp, and make the case for working with a full-service broker as a check against churning, something that's all too easy to do when trading over the Internet. This book is sure to rile some, but no matter where you think stock prices are headed, Dow 36,000 is a provocative read that belongs on the bookshelf of any thoughtful investor. Who knows? We may come to think of these guys as value investors on steroids. --Harry C. Edwards
Book Description
"Every stock owner should read this book."
-- Allan H. Meltzer, professor of political economy, Carnegie Mellon University
* A radically new way to determine what stocks are really worth
* Why the Dow is still poised to zoom
* Why the financial establishment is wrong
* Why stocks are actually less risky than bonds
* How to build a maximizing portfolio and invest without fear
"One of the hottest business books around. . . . It has wonderfully clear explanations of financial theory [and] excellent advice on general investing approaches."
-- Allan Sloan, Newsweek
"It may sound like headline-grabbing sensationalism, but the scholarly and punctilious authors make a persuasive case . . . the book is highly readable and witty."
-- Arthur M. Louis, San Francisco Chronicle
"Dow 36,000 is a provocative and well-written treatise that cannot be dismissed. . . ."
-- Burton G. Malkiel, Wall Street Journal
"Dow 36,000: Everything you know about stocks is wrong."
-- Jim Jubak, Worth magazine
Customer Reviews:
Second only to Blodget and the South Sea Bubble.......2007-10-15
Glassman. What a maroon. At the height of the market bubble, Glassman tells people that stocks should be 3 times higher because everyone in investing history is an idiot and Glassman is the only one who knows what stocks should really be worth.
This guy is a disgrace.
Worthless Gilder-Laffer-Wanniski supplyside nonsense.......2005-09-07
The major prediction made by Glassman and Hassett in this book,written in 1999,was that"A sensible target date for Dow 36,000 is early 2005,but it could be reached much earlier"(1999,p.140).This fantastic science fiction forecast,like the similar 1999 fiction forecasts of Abby Joseph Cohen, Elias(1999)and Kadlec(1999),was mathematically and economically impossible since the single best predictor of future stock market values is the rate of growth in gdp(gross domestic product).To obtain a Dow of 36,000 by 2005 at the latest would have required continuous quarterly gdp growth rates of 7%-8% from 1999 through 2005.Starting in late 1999(Sept.,1999) through March,2000,the 3 wisemen,Warren Buffett,George Soros,and Peter Lynch,liquidated all of the stocks in their portfolios and exited the market.They transferred their cash to other assets.Unfortunately,far too many financial investors failed to follow them out of all of the stock markets and ended up losing about 8 trillion dollars.The best long treatment of stock market behavior is the 3
rd edition of C.P.Kindleberger's Manias,Panics,and Crashes(1996).His major point was that you automatically have a bubble once you start hearing claims that there is a new economy that represents a complete break with all past market fundamentals.This was precisely the claim made by Gilder,Laffer,Wanniski,Glassman and Hassett,Elias,Kadlec,etc. Paul Samuelson's 1996 prediction-"Sometime in the next five years you may kick yourself for not reading and re-reading Kindleberger's Manias,Panics,and Crashes"-hit the nail on the head.The best short treatment is still chapter 12 of John Maynard Keynes's 1936 The General Theory of Employment,Interest and Money.
Absurd.......2005-04-28
James Glassman should apologize for his stupidity, his arrogance, and this book, which lured in a whole lot of amateur investors just as the stock market was about to go bust.
Paradigm Shifting? Not Yet........2004-01-16
The Dow 36,000 Theory is all about predicting a paradigm shift in current investors' perceptions. Tomorrow's investors are expected to forsake the old paradigm and embrace a new one. Authors James K. Glassman and Kevin A. Hassett present the "discounted dividend" model of the stock market as their reason why stock prices will soar, eventually. In 1999, they said it could happen anytime but put a window on it of 3-5 years. Hasn't happened yet. But this book is important as a look-see into how academic constructs originate and work their way into "commonly accepted stock market wisdom." The P/E was once a kernel of an idea in someone's head. Now, it's the basic way to value stocks. So, conceptions do change over time.
Dividends, say Glassman and Hassett, whether paid out quarterly or totally retained in the company, are the only important way to determine a company's true worth. They call it the PRP (perfectly reasonable price).
To justify lofty expectations, the words "assume" and "assumption" are used dozens of times and lie at the bottom of what, so far, is wrong with this concept. Just because they calculate something as being worth many times what it's selling for today doesn't mean prices will skyrocket tomorrow. It requires acknowledgement and action by investors. We're back to the old high school conundrum of whether a tree makes any noise if it falls in a forest without anybody hearing it. It this case, the question is whether a stock will ever sell at its "true value" if nobody ever bids the price up that far? Obviously not.
Their credo, "Buy anytime, hold forever," as well as the recommended use of index funds is a recipe for never having to admit you're wrong regardless of what happens to your investment account. You never have to confront performance because that far away goal just hasn't been reached yet. Continue to hold. It's an enviable position, if you can get people to take you seriously. But Dow 36,000...is it possible? Sure, anything is possible if the paradigm shifts. It's shifted before and will shift again. The trouble with paradigm shifts is like Greenspan's recognition of a bubble. You won't know about it until it's already happened...and then it's too late,,,
waiting ............2002-11-08
As an addendum to my previous review, where I wrote that one reason I got out of the market was this book, let me add that before I get back into the market I'm waiting for "Dow 36" by Glassman and Hassett.
Book Description
For decades, advertisers have pitched their ads toward Baby Boomers, the great demographic bubble of affluent individuals born between 1946 and 1964. As Boomers became advertising and media executives themselves, this trend was reinforced. But this emphasis on Baby Boomers to the exclusion of all others marginalized a group whos purchasing dollar is becoming more powerful every year -- Generation X. Advertisers and marketers can no longer afford to ignore this group, nor to appeal to Xers with warmed-over Boomer campaigns.
Sixty-five million adult "Xers" came of age in a world radically different from the one that Boomers inherited. The decline of the economy and upsurge of divorce have made Xers more sober and cynical, yet more flexible and less ideological, about the definition of "family." Although jaded by the materialistic '80's, they are on the whole much more comfortable with interactivity and other sophisticated technology than Boomers. Although disillusioned by the Boomer swing from activism in the '60's to status in the '80's, they are more tolerant of diversity and experiment than their forebears.
Karen Ritchie, a pioneer in marketing to Xers, has produced the first serious introduction to Generation X for the advertiser. Ritchie begins by showing the significant statistical and demographic differences between Xers and Boomers in income, education, occupation, and rates of marriage and divorce. Next, she shows how the unprecedented ethnic diversity of Generation X shapes the attitudes and expectations of the group as a whole. Ritchie then takes us on a guided tour of the cultural influences that have brought Xers into adulthood, from MTV and infotainment to E-mail. Finally, Ritchie examines the buying tastes and habits of Generation X, noting that they are above all savvy, cost-conscious, and skeptical of "hype."
Advertisers should embrace Generation X -- indeed they must, if they hope to survive into the next century. But in so doing, Ritchie suggests, they must modify existing advertising strategies to move away from Boomer fantasies and from the intrusive stereotypes that dominate current attempts to reach Generation X. They need to develop more realistic strategies that recognize both that generation's economic clout and its impact on marketing today.
Customer Reviews:
Eye opening.......2000-11-30
As a marketer, I was hoping to actually get some data and marketing insights out of this book. Very little of that was found, however, the book was geared towards explaining the psychology of Gen Xers and that actually made for more interesting reading...
Book Falls Into Trap Familiar to Baby Boomers.......1999-06-07
This book was a major disapointment and waste of time. Instead of providing interesting insights and data on young adults (25-35), the author instead decides to talk about her own generation, the Baby Boomers. As a child of Baby Boomers, I'm quite aware of the impact their perceptions had on me; however, this book focuses too heavily on the my parent's generation and how they influenced my generation. In my opinion, the author has fallen into a problem many Boomers have - a tendency for self-absorption and selfishness. When she does get to talking about the subject we are all interested in, the talk becomes a familiar litany of divorce rate statistics, overexposure to television and my generation's supposed cynical outlook on life. Skip the book and use the money to buy a meal for your favorite "Generation X'er" so that you can ask them the questions you're looking for. The results will be more accurate than anything in this book.
Book Description
Companies worldwide are discovering the enormous potential of the Latin markets. Succeeding in the new Latin markets is challenging because of the dramatic changes affecting every aspect of life throughout the region. Winning Strategies for the New Latin Markets systematically reviews those changes—and offers guidelines for effective strategies that meet the changing market needs.
The authors—each a long-time expert in Latin and global business—challenge popular views of the Latin markets. Powerful transformations ranging from privatizations and economic reform to rapid adoption of the Internet are allowing major companies to create powerful business networks from New York to São Paulo—but success in the region also requires an understanding of consumer variations across countries.
The book unlocks the opportunities that emerge from a golden triangle of the Brazilian, Mexican, and U.S. Latin markets, which represent two thirds of the region's market power. A detailed account of integrators and specialists in consumer, retail, telecommunications, energy, health, and financial markets reveals how firms are crafting strategies through the value chain from manufacturing to finance and marketing.
* Over 100 interviews and several case studies Insights of corporate leaders from the United States, Europe, and Latin America
* Reaching the new Latin consumers Changing demographics, changing economics, changing consumption patterns
* A projected $1 trillion U.S. Latin market by 2010: 34 million Latin consumers Connecting with the United States' fastest growing market segment
* Leveraging the Internet throughout the Latin value chain How technology is transforming planning, control, marketing, distribution, and customer service throughout the Latin world
* A golden triangle of U.S. Latin, Mexican, and Brazilian markets: pivotal for success—but very different Choosing the right platform is the key for success throughout the hemisphere
* Understanding the unique Latin healthcare marketplace An inside look at the challenge of healthcare marketing in Latin America
* Future growth scenarios Challenges and opportunities for the next decade
Download Description
Global corporations are rapidly discovering an emerging market of nearly 600 million Latin consumers in the United States and Latin America. In Winning Strategies for the New Latin Markets, three experts analyze the Latin market's unique dynamics and offe
Customer Reviews:
Winning Strategies is a Winner.......2003-02-27
The book is a must read for anyone serious about strategy in Latin America, or anyone
interested in the Hispanic segment of the U.S. market. The authors have a deep understanding of Latin culture and business and are able to explain clearly and objectively the risks involved in Latin America, while at the same time presenting an unbiased picture of the unlimited opportunities in the region. They also provide the reader a road map for avoiding common mistakes when doing business in the region and present some innovative tools to develop sound strategies in the market. The book?s content definitely lives up to its title. Winning Strategies for the New Latin Markets is a clear, thorough, and convincing state-of-the-art volume that will prove indispensable to executives, business students, and others interested in the Latin American and U.S. Hispanic markets.
Eugenio Sevilla-Sacasa
A Must Read Before Investing In Latin America.......2002-11-25
This timely book is a must for anyone contemplating investing or trading in Latin America. It offers the most complete insight of the region's business/economic climate. Moreover, it serves as an excellent guide to avoid the many stumbling blocks often encountered by many U.S. businessmen in formulating a business case or strategy. The chapter on 'Reaching the New Latin Consumers' is most instructive. Here the authors' thorough analysis on identifying and reaching the consumer is vital to any business case. Too often U.S. companies fail to fully understand the Latin consumer in terms of demand and purchasing power. The Mexican and Brazilian case studies presented are outstanding. Again this gem of a book is indispensable to anyone interested or planning to go after the 600 million population south of the border.
corporate executive.......2002-11-21
For anyone interested in business in Latin America, this book is an instant classic--a seminal strategy book, in the mold of Porter, Ohmae, Hamel, and Prahalad. It's original and innovative conceptual framework, comprehensive statistical data, and rich and insightful cases will prove invaluable to executives, consultants, professors and students. Although the Latin American region is currently experiencing a "rough patch", scores of firms continue to implement winning strategies and reap huge benefits. Robles, Simon, and Haar illustrate these strategies with tremendous insight and depth of analysis.As Latin America recovers economically and growth takes off, as it eventually will, this book will serve as an indispensable road map for companies doing business (or considering business) in the region.
Keyes to Understanding Latin American Business Strategies.......2002-11-09
Many neophytes think of Latin America as a large, undifferentiated arena in which to sell. Robles, Simon, and Haar show otherwise. Based on more than 100 interviews with key decision makers, they talk about how to reach tens of millions of customers and clients across Latin American. They delve into the impact of technology on the value chain in Latin America and show likely growth scenarios. But, their major contribution is showing how strategic thinkers approach Latin America and the differing strategic approaches they use to win in one of the world's most important and fastest growning makets. Not just a good read, but informative to anyone wanting to do business in Latin America. Highly recommended.
A Must Buy.......2002-10-09
Winning Strategies for the New Latin Markets is a "must buy". It is an extremely well-written, thorough and up-to-date presentation and assessment of the new dynamics at play in Latin American markets--including the U.S. Hispanic market--and, through case examples, shows how companies can boost both profits and market share in this challenging environment.
Book Description
Discover why being a "fast second" is often more financially rewarding than being at the cutting edge.
If you get there first, you'll lead the pack, right? Not necessarily! The skill-sets of most established companies, say strategy experts Constantinos Markides and Paul Geroski, are far better suited to scaling up newly created markets pioneered by others (in other words, being "fast seconds") than to creating these markets from scratch. In
Fast Second, they explore the characteristics of new markets, describe the skills needed to create and compete in them, and show how these skills match up with different types of companies. Drawing on examples of successful fast-second firms such as Microsoft, Amazon, Canon, JVC, Heinz, and many others, they illustrate how to determine which new markets have the potential to be successful and how to move into them before the competition does, when to make a move into a new market, how to scale up a market, where to position a company in the market, and whether to be a colonizer or a consolidator.
Order your copy today!
Download Description
Why being a "fast second" is often more financially rewarding than being at the cutting edge
If you get there first, you'll lead the pack, right? Not necessarily! The skill-sets of most established companies, say strategy experts Constantinos Markides and Paul Geroski, are far better suited to scaling up newly created markets pioneered by others (in other words, being "fast seconds") than to creating these markets from scratch. In Fast Second, they explore the characteristics of new markets, describe the skills needed to create and compete in them, and show how these skills match up with different types of companies. Drawing on examples of successful fast-second firms such as Microsoft, Amazon, Canon, JVC, Heinz, and many others, they illustrate how to determine which new markets have the potential to be successful and how to move into them before the competition does, when to make a move into a new market, how to scale up a market, where to position a company in the market, and whether to be a colonizer or a consolidator.
Constantinos Markides (London, UK) is author of the bestselling strategy book All the Right Moves (23,000 copies sold) and Professor of Strategic and International Management at London Business School and Harvard Business School. Paul A. Geroski (London, UK) is Professor of Economics at London Business School whose specialties include competitive strategy and market structure.
Customer Reviews:
Easy read for someone who want to get into new markets.......2007-09-16
This book primarily focuses on the concept of Radical Innovation. As mentioned in the book, the questions that get answered are:
- should the companies create these radical markets or get them created
- when to enter radical new market
- how to scale it and how to position.
Chapter about where do radical innovations come from is quite interesting.
Another concept that I come to learn is the difference between Colonists and Consolidators.
The section "Further Reading" is a good chapter-by-chapter breakdown of various sources that the authors tapped into. Lot of good stuff in here.
It is one of the required readings for MBA capstone project at Babson College.
In short, recommend this book.
Analytical. Good academic support for the relevant strategy.......2007-07-04
The main theme of the book is:- "Established corporations should subcontract the creation of new, radical products to start up firms and concentrate their efforts on consolidating the markets because the skills, mindsets, and attitudes required for creating a radically new market not only differ from those needed to grow and consolidate the market but also conflict with one another." If you buy in the above, you will be satisfied with the tons of well written samples and analysis which can be helpful to support any relevant strategic proposals to the board in real life. However, I am obliged to warn passionate readers of the need to remain skeptical of the suggestions of the authors to put their strategy into real practice. No matter what, recommended as a good business read!
Fast Second Review.......2007-05-08
I believed this book was excellent. Anyone that is in the business industry should read this book especially finance career bound individuals. The author breaks down and analyzes what pioneers of certain products have done wrong to lose the market to a "fast second" company. Some reviews of this book claim the author has gone into way to much detail on his examples. In fact, the details will help you further understand the point. One chapter is devoted to what characteristics firms have that are the inventors of the product and what character tics firms have that dominant the market. Additionally, the author lists several companies that have the substantial market share of everyday products we use and you will be shocked to find out who the actual creator is. However, he claims that very rarely do companies become both the inventor and the dominant producer of the product. After reading the book I do believe it would be difficult to do both, but with research ahead of time, as many of the companies discussed in book have failed to do, companies can invent and become the dominant producer of the product.
Demythologizing Radical Innovation.......2006-08-29
In his previously published All the Right Moves (1999), Constantinos Markides asserts that "superior strategy is all about finding and exploiting a unique strategy in the company's business while at the same time searching for new strategic positions on a continuing basis." First he explains how to create and execute such a strategy and then locate its most favorable position; then he explains how to prepare for strategic innovation which will strengthen that position. In the final chapter, he concedes that "designing a successful strategy is a never-ending quest. Even the most successful companies must continually question the basis of their business and the assumptions underlying their 'formula for success.' (In fact, in one way or another, this is what most successful companies have done to get where they are.) New who/what/how positions are constantly popping up around the mass market, and established companies must be on the lookout for them. Like a modern-day Christopher Columbus, each company must set out to explore its industry's evolving terrain, searching for new and unexploited strategic positions."
In this his newest book, Markides and co-author Paul Geroski explain what a "fast second" strategy is and how to formulate it as well as how "smart companies" using that strategy have been able to bypass radical innovation to enter and dominate new markets. They identify and then examine four quite different types of innovation: Major, Radical, Incremental, and Strategic. "Our thesis is that it is impossible to offer proper advice on how to create or colonize new markets without first understanding where new markets come from, what they look like, and what it takes to succeed in them." They focus on demand and supply-side influences, arguing that, in the main, "most radical new technologies are pushed onto the market from the supply side." Therefore, radical innovations are by nature disruptive. For both customers and producers. Moreover, radical new markets are rarely created because of demand or customer needs. "Instead, they are created in a haphazard manner when a new technology gets pushed onto the market."
Others have their own reasons for why they admire this book so much. Here are two of mine. First, Markides and Geroski (in effect) call for a "Time Out!" on initiatives to create or respond to disruptive technologies, suggesting that less heat and more light are needed insofar as assumptions about such technologies are concerned. In this book, as noted, they identify four types of innovation and explain the significant differences between and among them. Each requires different strategies and tactics. This is especially important before decision-makers "set sail" in search of what Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne characterize as "blue oceans" (i.e. uncontested market space). Without really understanding the nature of the given technology and market, decision-makers will be victimized by what Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton characterize as the Doing-Knowing Gap." This book will be invaluable to those who struggle to get appropriate align of strategy and market.
I also admire what Markides and Geroski share because their insights challenge another durable but questionable assertion: that larger, established organizations can become more "entrepreneurial" by developing cultures and structures of much smaller, start-up firms. This challenge will, I hope, require decision-makers to re-evaluate their own assumptions about pioneering, creating new products and/or services for new markets, the proper role of internal R&D, etc. With all due respect to Markides and Geroski's material, however, I think it would be a fool's errand to implement, without rigorous scrutiny, all of their opinions and recommendations.
It remains for each reader and her or his associates to formulate what Markides and Geroski refer to as a "dominant design," one which lays the groundwork for the rapid expansion of the given market and which not only shapes the nature of the near-term competition in that market but will be a significant influence on market competition thereafter.
Being 1st Guarantees Nothing!.......2006-04-03
Advanced Technology is not the only road to innovation. In fact, technology alone often leads to failure for a couple of reasons: 1) Even with a patent, your concept will be worked around - especially by those with deep pockets, and 2) Technology is highly overrated, it's much more important to serve genuine needs without all the bells and whistles that simply confuse consumers.
Fast Second shows time and time again that you don't need to be the first horse out of the gate to win the race. From a strategic viewpoint, being second gives you the distinct advantage of seeing what works and what doesn't - before committing scarce resources. Also, it's been said that The Second Mouse Gets the Cheese!
Markides and Geroski point out significant advantages for larger enterprises. For example, most big companies find it difficult to create radical innovations. However, large enterprises excel at scaling up markets.
Fast Second is segmented into eight compelling chapters that will definitely stimulate your creative mind:
1) Spotting the real innovators
2) Where do radical innovations come from?
3) From new technologies to new markets
4) Colonists and consolidators
5) From colonization to consolidation
6) Racing to be second: when to enter new markets
7) The changing basis of competition
8) Creating the markets of the twenty-first century
While not concisely set out in the test, you may want to consider acting as a fast second by looking at the competition for sources of inspiration. Observing what works and what doesn't in the marketplace sets up the opportunity for real-time strategic experiments.
"The ability to learn faster than your competitors may be only sustainable competitive advantage." - Arie de Geus
------------------
Michael Davis, Editor - Byvation
"Business Success through Innovation"
Book Description
How to be the very best kind of leader
In the fifth century B.C., the Chinese sage Lao Tzu set down the laws of effective leadership that he had discovered after years of meditation and careful observation. He called his invaluable teaching Tao Te Ching, which translates as 'The Book of How Things Happen', and addressed it to the wisest, most powerful leaders of his day.
Knowing how things happen gives the leader more power and ability than all the degrees and titles the world can offer. This program -- featuring comments and anecdotes by bestselling author
Dr. Denis Waitley -- will help you learn how things happen.
The principles within this program are for anyone who aspires to leadership, whether in business, politics, government, school, church or family. Through a combination of excerpts from the Tao Te Ching, juxtaposed with contemporary examples that illuminate the quotations, The Tao of Leadership instructs listeners in the art of governing through the skillful management of human resources.
Customer Reviews:
A must read for every leader and those aspiring to lead!.......2006-10-10
I have read this book countless times since purchasing it in the late 1980's. Its pages are worn but its content remains fresh, profound and useful. I have worked with Global 500 Leaders throughout the world for nearly 20 years and find this book reaches them at a core level and has created an impetus for real change in many. This is on my required reading list for every leadership retreat and has been a treasured gift to many clients.
No preaching, just ageless wisdom applied to leadership, and life. I would dare any reader not to get something out of this book. The lessons are only a page long so you can easily pick it up to read one at a time or devour the entire book in short order, as so many do.
Wisdom That Transcends Time.......2006-05-30
To think that this little gem of a book was required reading by one of my professors in college amazes me. The messages inside are simply profound! - as I just found out by rereading this book almost 15 years later. In college, I got it to some degree but not nearly to the degree that it clicked with me now. For some reason I held onto this book and while I was browsing my bookshelf it kind of jumped off at me.
It also amazes me that the wisdom in the book the Tao Te Ching written by Chinese sage Lao Tzu around the year 600 BC - the one in which John Heider's adaptation was derived - transcends time and is as relevant today as it was then.
I say this is a must read for all since we are all leaders of our own lives. Additionally I recommend that you sit with and think about the message in each chapter a bit to give each concept time to soak in a bit. You'll be glad you did!
50% Great, 50% Awful.......2005-07-29
John Heider's translation is simple, direct and poignant.
Dr. Waitley's interjections are inane, pointless and almost insultingly asinine.
I have actually made a copy of the tape and edited out all of Dr. Denis' babbling. I just can't tell you how ridiculous and offensive this idiot is.
Changed My Life!.......2003-08-23
This book changed my whole outlook on life, work and parenting. I came to realize that "leadership" is simply the art of observing, reflecting, understanding, and helping others to understand. Snippets of wisdom like "The wise leader is invisible" and "only push where there is no resistance" will have you contemplating the true meaning of leadership. I've read this book many times over (it's a short book and brisk read, the time is spent absorbing and reflecting) and it refreshes me each time. Wonderful!
More understandable version of the Tao Te Ching.......2000-08-01
I have listened to a good translation of the Tao Te Ching along with some commentary about it, which was very interesting, but some ideas from China before Christ do not translate do today's world directly. This audio book makes the Tao more useful in today's world, especially for leading groups, including therapy groups such as I do. Especially helpful are the anecdotes by a leading expert in leadership which follow each passage. I would recommend this to anyone who has read or listened to the Tao and wants to understand it better. It is especially easy to listen to in the car.
Average customer rating:
- Must read book for New Products looking for a market
- Useful marketing outlook for breakthrough products
- Poorly translated and lacking in substance
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Marketing the Unknown: Developing Market Strategies for Technical Innovations
Paul Millier
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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| Business & Investing
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| Management & Leadership
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| Marketing & Sales
| Business & Investing
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| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
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ASIN: 0471986216 |
Book Description
Marketing the Unknown Developing Market Strategies for Technical Innovations Paul Millier, Professor of Industrial Marketing at E.M. Lyon, Visiting Professor at Cranfield School of Management ". the most detailed, accurate and pragmatic approach to emergent markets that I know. It should be of interest to anyone who is in charge of transforming research investments into products with a secured market. To me, it is not just a book: it is a reference manual." Jean Robert Passemard, Executive Vice President, Product and Marketing, Renault Automation, France "Professor Paul Millier brings a pragmatic and systematic approach to launching technological innovations. His book represents a major marketing contribution with a profusion of valuable ideas." Marc Fermont, Dow Europe Vice President "Placing considerable emphasis on practical tools, this book provides an original methodology and essential guidelines to further the commercial success of innovative industrial products." Kazuya Matsumoto, President of Canon Research Centre, France "Filled with innovative concepts and dynamic examples, Paul Millier brings concrete solutions to a challenge that many companies have yet to resolve. Those who apply these concepts may never launch another 'failure'." Agathe Massat, Manager, Corporate Risk Management, Motorola, USA 700f the costs of R&D lead to failure - between 20% and 400f these failures is due to technical reasons, the remainder can be attributed to the shortcomings of marketing strategy. In a world of ever-increasing technological innovation the questions on any industry's minds are:
* How do you make a product successful?
* What is the process to follow?
* How do you chose or transform markets in order to have a successful launch?
In this book, Paul Millier demonstrates that products have a 'life' before their 'life cycle'. He has developed the techniques of a marketing strategy which can be applied to products which do not yet exist on the market place and for markets which themselves do not exist - in essence a marketing strategy for technical innovations. This practical book will pave the way for marketing managers, R&D managers and project managers in industrial organizations to successfully launch and market innovations in a very competitive field and will enable the reader to outline strategies for further development. Marketing
Customer Reviews:
Must read book for New Products looking for a market.......2000-11-16
This book is a must read book for whose who are willing to launch a new technological product that does not have a market yet. This book is full of practical & realistic insights. It is a very important area that almost no other books that I know address. When ressources are limited, 'marketing the unknown' will drive you to a fundemental , structured & highly defendable (to your organisation) plan. Experiences proved it works and lead to results.
Useful marketing outlook for breakthrough products.......2000-06-29
Most marketing books in the high tech area assume that the company putting new, high tech products into the market are large and with an established presence and reputation in the market place - this gives them a good start in commercialising and marketing. Some even say that marketing high tech products is no different than for consumer products and can essentially follow the steps of 'finding out what the customers want and then giving it to them'. Millier challenges this and states that there are many circumstances where the technology has to be 'pushed' or 'sold' into a market that may be uninterested at best or negative. The book seems to be written from experience and his recommendations and explanations are backed up with case histories mostly from Europe, where he lives and works. I found his approach to this difficult area more down to earth and realistic than many others that only draw from one industry or are 'converted' consumer textbooks.For people with new technology but not in big multi-nationals I think that this book has something useful to offer.
Poorly translated and lacking in substance.......2000-02-13
The book promises a lot but delivers very little. In the final analysis it is a book in the typical management science genre. The conclusions are based on anecdotal observations. The book offers little for the hands-on manager looking for guidance in forming a commercialization strategy for new technologies.
Customer Reviews:
Marketing & Disruptive Technologies.......2003-09-16
Very good book that explains how to market technology products. Buy this book and "Crossing the Chasm" by Geoffrey Moore to get a good understanding of the specifics of technology marketing.
"The Regis Touch" is a book from the eighties but is still very interesting and insightful, with lessons you can use today.
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