Amazon.com Reviews
How would you classify a book that begins with the salutation, "People of Earth..."? While the captains of industry might dismiss it as mere science fiction, The Cluetrain Manifesto is definitely of this day and age. Aiming squarely at the solar plexus of corporate America, authors Christopher Locke, Rick Levine, Doc Searls, and David Weinberger show how the Internet is turning business upside down. They proclaim that, thanks to conversations taking place on Web sites and message boards, and in e-mail and chat rooms, employees and customers alike have found voices that undermine the traditional command-and-control hierarchy that organizes most corporate marketing groups. "Markets are conversations," the authors write, and those conversations are "getting smarter faster than most companies." In their view, the lowly customer service rep wields far more power and influence in today's marketplace than the well-oiled front office PR machine.
The Cluetrain Manifesto began as a Web site (www.cluetrain.com) in 1999 when the authors, who have worked variously at IBM, Sun Microsystems, the Linux Journal, and NPR, posted 95 theses that pronounced what they felt was the new reality of the networked marketplace. For example, thesis no. 2: "Markets consist of human beings, not demographic sectors"; thesis no. 20: "Companies need to realize their markets are often laughing. At them"; thesis no. 62: "Markets do not want to talk to flacks and hucksters. They want to participate in the conversations going on behind the corporate firewall"; thesis no. 74: "We are immune to advertising. Just forget it." The book enlarges on these themes through seven essays filled with dozens of stories and observations about how business gets done in America and how the Internet will change it all. While Cluetrain will strike many as loud and over the top, the message itself remains quite relevant and unique. This book is for anyone interested in the Internet and e-commerce, and is especially important for those businesses struggling to navigate the topography of the wired marketplace. All aboard! --Harry C. Edwards
Book Description
From four of the liveliest personalities on the Web comes a provocative, outrageous, and wickedly smart account of what it will take to prosper in the fast-forward world on the wire. This nationally acclaimed best seller is a spirited, original, and wonderfully irreverent conversation that will challenge, provoke, and forever change your outlook on the digital economy. A rich tapestry of anecdotes, object lessons, parodies, insights, and predictions, The Cluetrain Manifesto illustrates how the Internet has radically reframed the seemingly immutable laws of business--and what business needs to know to weather the seismic aftershocks.
"An earnest plea for a new kind of language and new expectations for the Web.... While others work on turning the Internet into the perfect medium for reaching traditional business goals, these four Net-philes hope cyberspace will give commerce a 'human voice.'" -Harvard Business Review
"For every retail or consumer-products company wondering why its Internet marketing doesn't seem to be working, The Cluetrain Manifesto...offers fresh and sound advice, expressed in entertaining prose. Its oft-repeated premise--that markets are conversations--should be pounded into the collective brain of corporate executives." -Business Week
Customer Reviews:
A for ideas, D- for persuasion.......2007-09-27
This influential book lays out the reasons why companies need to replace corporate speak and marketing puff with online conversations. The reasons are compelling, but the way the authors make their case won't win them many converts. They go on the attack with scathing gusto, dismissing "Fort Business" as a bunch of obsolete buffoons and/or swindlers. Strangely, these buffoons and swindlers are the very people Cluetrain hopes to convert to an entirely new way of thinking.
Looking past the rhetoric, Cluetrain really does make some crucial points. Here are a few that stood out to me -
1. The control mentality of management doesn't work in a wired world where people and information are easily and instantly connected.
2. Companies pay too much attention to competitors and not enough to customers.
3. If companies did pay attention to customers, they'd discover that customers want "Authenticity, honesty, and personal voice ..." (p. 51) Companies mistakenly view customers as consumers instead of people. We don't exist to consume (hopefully).
4. "Positioning should help a company become what it is, not something it's not (no matter how cool it would be)." (p. 99)
5. You can't bluff about your company or products online. People will find you out.
6. The Web challenges formal corporate organizational structures. People can connect and collaborate with whomever they need to in order to get the job done. The Web values competence over position.
Of course, all of this was just as true before the Web. However, the Web has magnified their importance. Today, the penalties for ignoring the Cluetrain principles are stiff, and the rewards are huge, and in the years ahead - even more so.
For a gentler and more balanced assessment of conversations in business and the new marketing rules, try Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers and The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly.
A little dated now, but still right on.......2007-09-07
Cluetrain is an odd and irreverent book. The tone of the time was probably a shock to most readers back when originally published in 2001, and even still it upholds some wry quirkiness the authors were going for as they wrote about the future of the Web. Much has changed in the world of Web since the manifesto was released, and I'm certain, not all of it to the authors liking. The web has become much more corporatized, ecommerce much more like traditional commerce and online marketing shows some vast similarities to off-line marketing. The current web isn't quite what the authors anticipated!
But much of what the authors preach about the web being a conversation is still so very true. And amazingly, many businesses still have not figured that out. While business on the web may bear some resemblance to the off-line world, it's still a very different place. That's what Cluetrain is all about.
Cluetrain will help you understand that the same old processes and strategies that worked off-line for some many years, need not apply here. While there are many similarities, online and offline marketing operate very differently. The book will put you in the mindset to realize that marketing on the web can be done with new ideas, fresh strategies, and most importantly, on a person-to-person level. Throw the corporate play book away. It's time to build a new playbook entirely.
Markets are conversations.......2007-04-27
Having grown up with high-speed internet as an expected must have, this book serves as an interesting reminder of the days I have missed. Multiplayer games, cross-referencing product review on web forums, asking other internet users for advice on products, all the things that seem natural today are in many ways changing the rules of the marketing game, and Cluetrain is all about this dynamic: markets are conversations. Broadcast media is once again being replaced by an older strategy of person-to-person contact, instead of a one way marketing stream.
Some of the information is slightly outdated, some of the sections are plain wacky, but it's an interesting work nonetheless, especially if you're into marketing.
A manifesto for corporate communication in the Internet age.......2007-02-25
Reading the "Cluetrain Manifesto" today is like reading an historic document. The book fuses the countercultural ethos of the 1960s with the go-go business dynamics of the 1990s. Written during the height of the Internet boom, the authors forecast the end not only of corporate marketing, but of traditional corporations altogether. They predicted a transition to an Internet-enabled marketplace of bartering and bantering individuals. The book's pages contain a wealth of overstatement, hyperbole, and provocation (as many have already noted). The flurry of lawsuits based on offhand email (`evidence mail') which emerged after the Internet crash have reemphasized the need for the caution and disclaimers to which the authors so passionately objected.
The basic message of the book remains fresh and contemporary, however. "Markets are conversations." Corporations should encourage those conversations, not inhibit them. It's clear that many corporations still haven't gotten the point. Some companies still require that customers sign pointless non-disclosure agreements to talk with their representatives and other customers about their products. Other companies treat their websites like big, glossy advertising brochures instead of centers of community. Still others issue the bland and senseless press releases derided by the Cluetrain Manifesto to their customers, leaving bloggers to read between the lines and to speculate about what's really going on inside the company.
But some of the largest corporations have clearly gotten the message--or at least a tempered form of it. The best way to cultivate loyalty and confidence among consumers is to become more transparent by allowing conversations to take place not simply between consumers and public relations representatives, but between people working with products and people designing those products. Microsoft's Channel 9 is a good example of a corporation sponsoring an online community that connects individuals to individuals. While this kind of marketing will doubtlessly always be somewhat messy and make some P.R. folk uneasy, it's far more effective than the business-as-usual approach of issuing sanitized press releases to an anonymous group of `consumers.' For the wakeup call that communications between human beings should take place in human voices we are still in these authors' debt.
outdated .......2007-01-03
Good Overview of where things are coming from and a good couple insights. Concepts are not outdated but some of the information is.
Book Description
In the worldwide bestseller The Innovator's Dilemma, Clayton M. Christensen exposed a crushing paradox behind the failure of many industry leaders. By doing what good companies were supposed to do-focus on pleasing their most profitable customers-leaders were paving the way for their own demise. How? By ignoring "disruptive technologies"-new, cheaper innovations that initially target small customer segments but evolve to displace the reigning product.
Now, Christensen and coauthor Michael E. Raynor cut the Gordian knot of the "innovator's dilemma" with The Innovator's Solution. This groundbreaking book reveals that innovation is not as unpredictable as most managers have come to believe. While the outcomes of past innovations seem random, the process by which innovations are packaged and shaped within companies is very predictable. By understanding and managing the forces that influence this process, companies can shape high-octane business plans that create truly disruptive growth.
Drawing on years of in-depth research and using new theories tested in hundreds of companies across many industries, the authors identify the processes that create successful innovations, and show managers how to tailor their strategies to the changing circumstances of a dynamic world.
Comprehensive yet practical, The Innovator's Solution is an actionable prescription for innovation-driven, profitable growth.
"A good business book makes managers stop and think. A great business book teaches managers how to stop and think. This is a great book. It is hard to imagine an executive team that would not benefit from devoting an entire day to discussing it."
-Geoffrey Moore, Chairman and Founder, TCG Advisors, and author, Crossing the Chasm and Living on the Fault Line
"In The Innovator's Solution, Christensen and Raynor address the holy grail of all organizations: how to generate growth and sustain it over long periods. Avoiding the temptation to provide simplistic formulas, they guide the reader through carefully constructed frameworks that teach how to think about the issues that limit-and provide-growth to organizations."
-Dr. Andrew S. Grove, Chairman of the Board, Intel
"Christensen and Raynor have done a superb job of creating a framework for helping to understand the industry dynamics and for planning your own growth alternatives."
-Pekka Ala-Pietilä, President, Nokia Corporation
"Singapore, as a small nation, needs to be innovative and sensitive to disruptive changes more than other countries. Christensen and Raynor have provided an excellent framework to reduce the randomness of the innovation process. This framework will help in our effort to nurture an environment conducive for enterprises to create and capitalize on disruptive innovations."
-Teo Ming Kian, Chairman, Singapore Economic Development Board
"The Innovator's Solution goes directly to the heart of why large companies have failed to sustain innovation. Christensen and Raynor have a deep insight into the challenges that innovative companies face, and they propose practical, realistic solutions to the dilemmas of innovation. This book will be extremely useful to all managers who are committed to using innovation to sustain their growth."
-Bill George, former Chairman and CEO, Medtronic, Inc.
Customer Reviews:
Disruptive Innovations Key to Spicing Up Competition.......2007-10-01
Clayton Christensen and Michael Raynor set the tone immediately by showing that most companies cannot sustain growth and by explaining to readers how stock markets factor in growth in the price of any publicly-traded stock. Growing faster than what stock markets see now and expect in the future is essential to move up a stock price.
The resource allocation process is the key culprit in humbling many market leaders when dealing with disruptive innovations. That process typically invites up-market flight rather than head-to-head fight with new market entrants. That flight mechanism is applicable not only to product/service makers, but also to their distributors and retailers. Unlike a sustaining innovation, a disruptive innovation is not compatible with the business model of market leaders. Christensen and Raynor call this behavioral pattern asymmetric motivation.
The way out of asymmetric motivation is for the leadership of an established player 1) to frame the disruptive innovation as a threat during the resource allocation process and 2) to shift responsibility for the project to an autonomous organization that has the relevant experience to frame it as an opportunity. The leadership needs to have a clear understanding of the respective impact of resources, processes, and values on what an organization can or cannot accomplish. Resources and processes are often enablers while values often represent constraints. Unlike deliberate processes, emergent processes should dominate when the future is hard to predict and the right strategy is not yet clear. That is especially true at the beginning of a company's existence. Once the winning strategy becomes clear, deliberate processes become a must to maximize the changes of success.
Christensen and Raynor continue their analysis by sub-dividing disruptive innovations into two categories: new-market disruptions competing with "non-consumption" and low-end disruptions that go after the proverbial "low-hanging fruit." Charting the upward path for a new-market disruption is more daunting because nobody has ever walked the walk. In practice, the distinction between the two types of disruptive innovations is not always clear-cut due to the existence of hybrid disruptions that combine new-market and low-end approaches. Christensen and Raynor also point out that an innovation that passes the new-market or low-end test must be disruptive to all of the significant established players to deserve the label of disruptive innovation.
Christensen and Raynor clearly show that new entrants in turn do not escape from the up-market urge. After driving out the last established market player competing in a certain market segment, cut-throat competition forces new entrants to also move up market for greener pastures.
Christensen and Raynor also reflect on why an overwhelming majority of new products fail miserably in the market-place. Attribute-based segmentation for which data are often available is the lead explanation for these failures. That type of market segmentation too often ignores the jobs that people and companies need to get done and how a product or service can be "hired" for that purpose. Targeting a product or service at the circumstances in which the target audience finds itself, rather than at the target itself is the key to success. Christensen and Raynor drive that point home very well with their story about the milkshake doing a different job for a bored commuter and his/her child at different times of the day. Christensen and Raynor blame the counterproductive attribute-based segmentation to 1) fear of focus, 2) senior executives' demand for quantification of opportunities, 3) the structure of channels, and 4) advertising economics and brand strategies.
Christensen and Raynor pursue their analysis by looking at the traditional distinction between core and non-core competences. Unlike competitiveness that is focused on what a customer values, core competence, as it is usually practiced by managers, is ominously inward looking. The rigidity of that categorization results in downplaying the evolving product architectures and integration over time. Christensen and Raynor highlight the respective impact of interdependent architectures that optimize performance in terms of functionality and reliability and modular architectures that optimize flexibility on industry structures.
Dis-integration that modularity makes possible does not preclude re-integration down the road if market circumstances change or vice versa. Savvy managers anticipate where the money will be instead of solely focusing their companies on the profitable businesses of the past. Developing this intuition is essential to avoid the process of commoditization. If commoditization already happens, de-commoditization can be achieved as well. Christensen and Raynor describe both processes in much detail. For example, the integrated American automakers are evolving toward modular architectures for their mainstream models in order to compete on speed and flexibility. This has in turn led to a significant consolidation of their suppliers.
Christensen and Raynor also clearly demonstrate that none of the attribute-based categorizations of funding such as venture capital vs. corporate capital and public versus private capital are a reliable predictor of a new venture success. Christensen and Raynor correctly point out that the best money is patient for growth but impatient for profit in the first years of a new business. The deal spiral from inadequate growth as Christensen and Raynor call it, results from impatience for growth and patience for profit.
Finally, Christensen and Raynor highlight the three roles that senior executives have to play in leading new growth:
1) Short-Term: To be at the juncture between disruptive growth businesses and the mainstream businesses to decide on the allocation of the company's resources and processes
2) Longer-Term: To lead what Christensen and Raynor call a "disruptive growth engine" to repeatedly launch successful growth businesses
3) Perpetual: To anticipate when the circumstances are changing, and to pass on their know-how to others to identify these signals.
To summarize, Christensen and Raynor made with The Innovator's Solution an important contribution to the better understanding and harnessing of disruptive innovations that are an essential ingredient of what Joseph Schumpeter called "creative destruction."
Motivation assymetries.......2007-06-11
Already a business classic, this book does not disappoint. Picking up from where the 'Innovator's Dilemma' left off, Christensen and Raynor examine in detail the barriers towards innovation and growth. Perhaps surprisingly, the concepts discussed are as applicable to large enterprises as they are to one man startups. The problem is one and the same - enterprise readers will learn about the pitfalls of institutionalized processes and sustaining innovation; startup teams will learn how to position their products for future success. Whether you are an aspiring entrepreneur, or a high-ranked executive, 'Innovator's Solution' should be at the top of your reading list.
The Purpose of Your Product.......2007-04-05
Exceptional. Who wants their customers to rave about their products and services? Who wants to know "exactly" what your customers need? Who wants to experience revenue growth for their company? If you answered yes to these then the "Innovator's Solution" is a MUST READ. Clayton Christensen and Michael Raynor have taken us back to the fundamental issue facing a company... that being "what job does my product or service satisfy?" Moving away from features, advantages and benefits and back to the basics of so-what-can-you-do-for-me will bring value to anyone tasked with the duty of using innovation to drive revenue growth. CEO's... read on!
Interesting theory for big company innovations.......2007-02-23
This is a well researched and informative book that I read after reading "The Innovator's Dilemma" by Christensen. This book answers the questions raised in the first book. I therefore strongly recommend reading the "The Innovator's Dilemma". The books are complementary and outstanding. Christensen and Raynor explains so eloquently and compellingly, the problem of managing and sustaining growth as large companies suffer from the problem of "stalling" since innovations that address small markets get eliminated in the resource allocation process. Conventional market research methodologies are often unable to reveal the potential for markets that do not exist. Disruptive innovations are targeted at exploiting the markets of products that are "good enough" or are competing against "non consumption".
The book provides solution frameworks for design, manufacturing, distribution, organizing and financing of successful strategies of disruption. This book identifies the processes that create winning innovations and the strategies that can be applied in your own project. References at the end of each chapter provide you with useful and insightful sources for further reading should you wish to pursue this subject further. The researcher made good use of these references in piecing together their theories. The authors reinforce their arguments, claims and solutions with real-life examples from many different companies including IBM, Sony, AT&T, Microsoft, and others.
This book focuses on new product ideas at big enterprises and how they should be effectively pursued. When there is no current market for these innovative products and hence no customer base, these technologies are called disruptive. The authors explain how innovation can be a predictable process that can result in sustainable and lucrative growth. They identify the factors that result in poor judgment by managers and present their ideas and a new framework to help product developers to timely create viable and profitable disrupting-technology that meets the needs of the market.
I recommend this book to managers who are interested in cutting edge innovative solutions. This book should be helpful to define a strategy to form the idea into a commercially viable product or service. This book is excellent reading if you wish to understand the forces that can drive or hinder a firm's growth with numerous real-life examples throughout the book.
Excellent Insights and Ideas.......2007-02-20
A key point in "The Innovator's Solution" is that financial markets relentlessly pressure companies to grow, and to keep growing faster and faster. Yet, considerable evidence exists that once a company's core business has matured, the pursuit of new platforms for growth entails daunting risk - roughly only 10% succeed over more than a few years - thus providing an above average increase in shareholder returns, and often the effort causes the entire corporation to crash. (Twenty-eight percent of those that stall lose 78% of their market capitalization; most of the rest also incur significant, though lesser, losses.)
AT&T is used as an example of what can go wrong. After the '84 mandated divestiture of local phone services, its first attempt at growth was based on the widely shared view that computer systems and phone networks were going to converge. AT&T first tried building its own computer division, achieving at best, losses of at least $200 million/year. It then acquired NCR, but sold it in '96 for a loss of over $6 billion alone, and $10 billion for the total computer venture. AT&T then tried wireless (lost another $5 billion), and broadband (lost another $40 billion).
Incremental innovations are likely to be used by established, leading firms to reinforce their dominance. In computers, G.E., Honeywell, RCA, and AT&T could not muscle in on IBM - that required the disruptive innovation of PCs brought by others. Likewise, IBM and Kodak couldn't beat Xerox at copying - Canon did that via its disruptive table-top.
In disruptive circumstances, the entrants are likely to defeat the incumbents because industry leaders are always motivated to go up-market and almost never motivated to defend small new/low-end markets that new entrants find attractive.
"The Innovator's Solution" uses minimills to illustrate the point. Minimills worked their way up from rebar in several cycles (angle iron, structural steel, sheet steel) that each ended with price/profit collapse after the last integrated producer left the market. The integrated mills were motivated to flee, and the minimills were forced to go up-market to escape their own fierce competition. Toyota et al vs. G.M., Ford, and Chrysler provides another example.
Finally, Christensen and Raynor offer organizational suggestions for nurturing successful disruptive technology development within large firms.
An excellent and insightful book.
Average customer rating:
- DOUG MILLSTIEN IS OUT OF THIS WORLD
- Setting your brand on fire.
- my review
- Not Hype! A System for Reality...and innovation.
- Beyond the Frontiers - A genetic approach to the Brand
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Firebrands: Building Brand Loyalty in the Internet Age
Doug Millison , and
Michael Moon
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
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Marketing by the Dashboard Light
ASIN: 0072124490 |
Book Description
This book explains digital branding and how to implement it in the current marketplace.
Download Description
This book explains digital branding and how to implement it in the current marketplace.
Customer Reviews:
DOUG MILLSTIEN IS OUT OF THIS WORLD .......2007-08-07
This person cant write if his life depended on it, i read it and now used it for a door stop. I wouldnt recommend this to anyone. I might use it if hes lucky for my son to sit on at the dinner table.
Setting your brand on fire........2001-06-09
There are so many books on the market that discuss the concept of 'brand' from so many different points of view, that it's difficult to sort out the good from the bad. This is one of the good ones.
Moon and Millison define the basic concepts around brand. They explain in clear buzzword-light language what influences the growth and positioning of a brand. Finally, they provide ample and well-explained pointers to further reading to help understand some of their basic ideas more clearly.
As a consultant working for a systems integrator, one of the things that impressed me the most was the focus on execution. Many books about branding seem to imply that the technical details are irrelevant to brand success, but _Firebrands_ makes the point that a relationship with a customer only has brand value when supported by appropriate policies, training, and technical infrastructure. This is a message that can't be, IMO, repeated often enough.
Well worth the time to read.
my review.......2001-03-08
I have read Firebrands and found it extremely useful. As a systems integrator in St. Louis, I have used this book to help my clients understand the importance of a technical infrastructure in building a vibrant brand.... Mind you, this is not a 60 second brand manager book.
Not Hype! A System for Reality...and innovation........2001-03-05
Firebr@nds is not a bedside book, it's a cookbook, a tool for being AT CAUSE when it comes to building successful, powerful communications for the internet.
As a Technology Interface Architect , the building of brand into the interaction of the product is vital to it's success.
My clients over the past 12 years have been besieged by what appears to them this mysterious thing out there that will grow over some process, that we will somehow invoke, and it will be successful if the powers that be are on our side.
This book makes it all very clear, while eliciting sympathy for all of us who have built brands. A genuine appreciation for its complexity is gained as you read a systemization of brandbuilding in Firebr@ands.
Moon has given us a thorough and deep taxonomy for building the brand from many different pragmatic angles. The dramatic distinctions in language make it easy to use the language as a tool in any company when it comes to educating organizations in building brand.
This is a book that I will return to over and over again as I help my clients grow their products into the future. It was a very brave, and necessary book to write. BRAVO!!!!
Beyond the Frontiers - A genetic approach to the Brand.......2001-03-01
As the Chief Technical Officer of a Texas based e-services and print communication firm, I live in this interactive brandspace on a daily basis. The problem with this brave new world of pixels is simply that much is said and much is written but little intelligent communication occurs. I find the innovative and far reaching approach taken by Michael Moon to be the de facto foundation for the next "big thing".
The approach that one must take to these new media spaces and channels is not readily discernible from the clearly defined trails blazed in the more traditional areas of branding. This new territory is as different as the Earth is from the Moon [no pun intended]. The book travels beyond the areas marked as "unknown - there be dragons here" and opens a clear and understandable path into formerly mysterious areas.
What we need out here in the field is less hype and more substance. Firebrands is a rational, ground breaking treatise on the evolution of Branding. This is a pivotal work that serves as a wonderful deskside companion, as indispensible to me as my spell checker or my browser.
Michaels' best practices mental evolution from the time of the Jeff Martin led Digital Brand Building Seminars of the mid-90's to this opus show an extraordinary depth and breadth of thought and research . The Firebrands book is the Gray's Anatomy of Brand "science".
As my company moves forward with ground breaking, market defining services in the area of brand guaranty we will continue to consult the Firebrands roadmap. We anxiously await any follow-up materials that might come from this mind trust.
Be warned - this is not a shallow pop-business, executive book of the hour read. This is a genetic level approach to a new mindset. It must be read slowly, deliberately, and with a totally open mind. The graphics are not simply illustrative they are literally a book unto themselves. Read this brandspace atlas one chapter at a time, review the graphics, and with time and reflection you will understand.
Book Description
Once every decade a book comes along that becomes the standard in a field of study, the indispensable reference that every thoughtful practitioner must have on the shelf. Like Samuelson in Economics, Drucker in Management, and Porter in Strategy, Rayport and Jaworski have written what leaders in the New Economy are calling the standard in e-commerce strategy formulation.
e-Commerce presents managers and strategists with road-tested frameworks for competing in the New Economy. This presentation is organized to facilitate the decision-making process for formulating e-commerce enterprise strategy. The text progresses from framing market opportunities to a discussion of New Economy business models, customer interfaces, and communication and branding issues through to implementation, evaluation, and valuation of the online enterprise.
The textbook and companion casebook, E-Commerce and Cases in E-Commerce, are the first volumes produced for the McGraw-Hill/MarketspaceU learning series on e-commerce. McGraw-Hill/MarketspaceU have formed an alliance to develop and deliver exceptional higher education teaching materials on the latest business practices and theories by leading thinkers in the field of e-commerce. McGraw-Hill/MarketspaceU aim to equip present and future executives, managers, and strategists in becoming successful creators of value in the new economy. To accomplish this goal the alliance offers a multi-media suite of cutting-edge tools to help navigate the world of e-commerce. These tools include E-Commerce and Cases in E-Commerce, MarketspaceU.com, the McGraw-Hill Online Learning Center (OLC), and the McGraw-Hill E-Business Power Web.
MarketspaceU is part of Marketspace, a Monitor Group company. Monitor Group is a family of professional services firms linked by shared ownership, management philosophy and assets. Monitor’s roots can be traced back to the Harvard Business School – where a number of its founders studied and taught in the 1980s. Marketspace was founded in 1998. Jeffrey Rayport and Bernie Jaworski (two of its founders) are the principal authors of the first books produced by the McGraw-Hill/MarketspaceU alliance.
e-Commerce has already received early critical acclaim from academic and Internet business leaders:
“Rayport and Jaworski have defined the ‘space’. e-Commerce is a primary weapon in the e-business frontier. Do not let your competitors read this book--buy every copy…” Jeff Taylor, Founder and CEO, Monster.com
“Finally someone has put it all together! These leading thinkers have put in one place a brilliant and comprehensive framework for thinking through, planning, teaching and managing e-Business. And – beyond that – this book is a portal to a stream of the most complete set of online, video, and other resources for e-Business learning to date. Great insights. Powerful tools.” Ralph Oliva, Executive Director of the Institute for the Study of Business Markets and Professor of Marketing, Pennsylvania State University
“e-Commerce is the first textbook to show how firms gain competitive advantage in the New Economy. The authors introduce a number of new and innovative concepts, frameworks, and tools that benefit both students and managers. This book is destined to become the standard New Economy text in leading MBA programs.” John Quelch, Dean, London Business School
“This is a wonderfully designed pedagogical device. The chapters build foundationally, so as to empower the student to deal with unique New Economy concepts, like the DCF approach to valuation etc., towards the end. The chapters are filled with case vignettes, viewpoints, and thought bytes that draws the self-selected reader in, and engages them in a sophisticated debate regarding the Internet economy. The highlight of the book, for me, was the way linkages were provided to existing management concepts. Thus the reader is not left wondering what the connection to the old paradigm is, in fact the reader gets a working dose of those ideas in the book chapters. This makes the book a stand-alone, comprehensive text with a cutting-edge tone and content.” Kastori Rangan, Eliot I. Snider and Family Professor of Business Administration Harvard Business School
Customer Reviews:
Obscure and too expensive.......2002-12-27
As a professor of ecommerce I think that the authors have unnecesarily obscured a subject that deserves a better prose and a more logical thread of reasoning.Theirs is a text written for other academicians and contributors to the HBR, not for students, unless they are candidates to a very high academic degree. ...
Much more than eCommerce.......2001-08-16
This book is about much more than eCommerce. It is the handbook for doing business in the "New Economy". I have taught ecommerce courses in several universities and am familair with most of the titles avialable on this subject: none of them even come close. Read and study this book now before the competiton does.
The Bible of E-Commerce Strategy.......2000-12-22
Comprehensive and clear. A must read for anyone serious about winning in the E-Commerce space.
Book Description
Great companies consistently meet and exceed customer desires. Superior Customer Value in the New Economy: Concepts and Cases, Second Edition offers a blueprint for responding effectively to customer demands and for creating the benchmarks common to world-class service companies. The Second Edition elaborates on the latest perspectives of the business and academic communities, exploring leading marketing and managing developments in the crucial area of customer value (CV). It delivers expert guidance on designing, implementing, and evaluating a CV strategy that benefits e-service and information-based organizations. Building upon concepts, cases, and in-chapter applications, the book addresses best practices, organizational responsiveness, market orientation, and the planning and strategy issues that result in high rates of customer satisfaction in e-service and information-based organizations. It concludes with 18 detailed, "hands-on" examples of companies attempting to create customer value. Each case study delivers an in-depth look at major CV themes such as responding to change, being customer oriented, customer loyalty, and more. Each of these real-world examples provides excellent learning opportunities to model effective customer value behavior and practices.
Customer Reviews:
Superior Customer Value in the New Economy: Concepts and Cases, Second Edition.......2007-06-09
Very nice book :)
Excellent reference book for customer service and how this creates value .......2007-05-09
I purchased this book as a classroom requirement for my MBA program. I found this book extremely easy to read with a wealth of information. Offering many examples, it is easy to see how the companies listed incorporated different strategies and policies to improve customer service and ultimately add value for the customer, the company and other shareholders. I found myself using this book as a reference source for research papers written for other classes taken later on in the program. This book is an excellent resource for any future business manager.
Book Description
With more than 250,000 copies sold, the classic text on direct marketing is now even better!
This thoroughly revised edition of Successful Direct Marketing Methods --the "bible" of direct marketing-- includes expanded material on the Internet and other digital media and brand new information on E-business (including E-communications, banners, buttons, E-mail, permission marketing). Also includes E-commerce (online merchandising and usability and navigation of websites) and E-services (online customer service, live operators, online chats, linking with call centers); up-to-the minute coverage of database marketing including data mining and online databases; expanded coverage of consumer privacy issues; new information on customer relationship marketing and teleservices-- and more!
- Completely rewritten and modernized from the last edition to include cutting-edge information on the latest E-tools available to direct marketers
- Now includes real-life business case studies from well known companies like Ford Motor Company, Dell Computer, NutraSweet, and more!
Customer Reviews:
A Must Read for All Direct Marketers.......2007-10-03
No Direct Marketer's library is complete without Bob Stone's book. While I have been in the industry for some time, I often think to myself "What would Bob do?" This book has had major influence on my career. The concepts apply to my field (Internet marketing) and they also could be applied to traditional marketers as well. Great book!
Ideally Should be Updated Annually.......2006-01-11
I expected it to be much more current, I expected less paragraghs and quite a bit more job descriptions (that did not exist in 2001) AND print-outs of the day-to-day life of Direct Marketing.
What I had was a SOLID, YET dated introduction to the field as it entered the new millenia vs. the primer that I could hold on to that I was seeking.
Don't get me wrong, these authors are legendary and some of the most qualified to write a text for academia on Direct Marketing.
It is just between the 2001 and 2006 editions I wished that someone else
wrote a equally qualified text that would have been assigned instead of or in addition to this text.
Good entry-level Direct-Marketing Overview.......2004-11-24
If you have never been involved in Direct Marketing this is a great overview of most of the relevant issues and opportunities. The text is accurate and concise. Maybe the only (small) flaw with this text book is that it looks at too broad a spectrum of media and is a little too shallow on the core of all direct marketing: database setup and modelling. But then again that may just be too tedious for someone just wanting a quick overview of the field.
Don't reinvent the wheel.......2002-02-28
This edition is one of the best texts on direct marketing. A classic text that everyone involved in direct marketing should read, this edition includes a lot more material on digital forms of direct marketing than the previous versions. These digital forms include marketing via the Internet; from banners and buttons to e-mail, online merchandising and website navigation and many other concerns. The text covers every form of direct marketing in detail as well as many case studies to show how they were used or are being used successfully.
Book Description
Strategies for binding customers to an organization--by determining the information they want and giving it to them
In 1993, Don Schultz showed marketers how to coordinate their organizations' entire communications programs with the seminalIntegrated Marketing Communications. InIMC--The Next Generation, Schultz offers a refined and updated approach to the IMC model, one that goes beyond the messages an organization chooses to send to encompass the information that the customer wishes to receive or have access to.
IMC--The Next Generation shows marketers how to build sustainable competitive advantage and ROI by combining and coordinating all methods through which buyers and sellers come together. Numerous cases and real-world examples reveal how to use today’s IMC model to:
- Integrate internal and external communications programs
- Influence customers at every contact point
- Build long-term brand relationships
Download Description
Strategies for binding customers to an organization--by determining the information they want and giving it to them In 1993, Don Schultz showed marketers how to coordinate their organizations' entire communications programs with the seminalIntegrated Marketing Communications. InIMC--The Next Generation, Schultz offers a refined and updated approach to the IMC model, one that goes beyond the messages an organization chooses to send to encompass the information that the customer wishes to receive or have access to. IMC--The Next Generation shows marketers how to build sustainable competitive advantage and ROI by combining and coordinating all methods through which buyers and sellers come together. Numerous cases and real-world examples reveal how to use today's IMC model to: Integrate internal and external communications programs Influence customers at every contact point Build long-term brand relationships
Customer Reviews:
quick delivery.......2006-02-23
pretty new book, and it arrived much quicker than what I thought, and it was shipped for free!
Book Description
Companies worldwide continue to seek new growth opportunities by establishing professional services to complement their current company portfolio. These professional service organizations are being chartered to secure high margin streams of revenue, improve customer satisfaction, and solidify customer loyalty. However, many of these companies have little experience building and managing a professional services organization. This lack of experience is creating incredible organizational pain. Not just product companies are struggling in their attempts to create profitable and effective professional service organizations. System integrators and value added resellers that must incorporate complicated technologies into their service offerings are struggling to scale service capabilities. Outsourcing and managed service providers that now want to provide consultative support are learning there are significant differences in these service lines. Many times, the current professional service strategy for these companies is simply not sustainable. Mastering Professional Services is the first book to guide acompany through the process of designing a viable services strategy that complements a broader company portfolio. From the author of Building Professional Services: The Siren’s Song, this book continues the tradition of providing practical tools and techniques to manage professional services when it is not the core offering of the company.
Customer Reviews:
If you're new to the PS management ranks, the book is a MUST.......2007-04-07
All I can say is that this book covers absolutely all the bases. If you've been in PS for 17 yrs like me, there is nothing earth shattering about the book, but what astounds is how completely the book explains the planning and organization. It was a terrific refresher. If you're new to the PS management ranks, the book is a MUST and will really help you be more successful, and avoid some common landmines. The book did gloss over the partner questions, and the natural conflicts inherit in the partner channel. But that's what channel managers are for. :)
A great read for anyone managing Professional Services.......2007-01-16
I felt that Thomas Lah really nailed this subject. As someone responsible for a Professional Services organization, Thomas provides some clear concepts and practical information for helping to build a PS strategy. The use of frameworks to help mentally model a solution was great for someone that grew up in a structured programming mindset. I think every manager of Professional Services should read this book.
Book Description
Written by an in-the-trenches practitioner, this step-by-step guide shows you how to implement a successful Web analytics strategy. Web analytics expert Avinash Kaushik, in his thought-provoking style, debunks leading myths and leads you on a path to gaining actionable insights from your analytics efforts. Discover how to move beyond clickstream analysis, why qualitative data should be your focus, and more insights and techniques that will help you develop a customer-centric mindset without sacrificing your company’s bottom line.
Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.
Customer Reviews:
A lifesaver!.......2007-10-23
As a project manager for several small to medium websites, I'm faced with lots of responsibilities, like content and design strategy, online media planning, and site stats reporting. I've been using a robust stats program since 2004, but was literally drowning in data. Avinash's book saved me. I finally have a good, solid understanding of web analytics and how I can get the most from my stats program to really understand what's happening with my sites.
I am not a math guy by any stretch, but Avinash actually makes this stuff fun, and he breaks down what's important beautifully, by outlining different core metrics and concepts in plain english, then following up with the REASON the reader should care about those metrics and WHAT SPECIFICALLY they should care about.
I'm a little over halfway through the book and it's already dog-eared and marked up with notes and highlighter streaks - I don't think I've delved into a book repeatedly this much, ever. And I'll definitely continue to rely on it as an incredible reference tool for the next several years.
Finally, Avinash takes all this to the next level by encouraging dialogue from readers via his active, informative blog, Occam's Razor, as an excellent living companion to the book. If you've ever wanted to get a good handle on how to interpret your website traffic and have a good time doing it, I can't recommend this book highly enough.
Thanks Avinash!
Great Book!.......2007-10-18
This is an excellent book and has become the backbone of our marketing plan for the next year.
Eric Garrison
Unitek
Insightful look at the world of Web Analytics.......2007-10-18
This is absolutely a marvelous book. Avinash does a wonderful job of taking a very confusing, and sometime mundane, topic and breaking it down to its most important parts. Very well done with lots of excellent, real-world examples.
Plus it's a fun read to boot!
An Excellent Read to Understand the 'What', 'How', and 'Why' of Webnalytics.......2007-09-12
'Web Analytics: An Hour a Day' is one of the most insightful and deligtful books I have read in recent times on any topic. It is an indispensable read to those who want to understand not only the "hows" of webanalytics but also the "whys" of executing a task or implementing a webanalytics strategy.
Being a practitioner myself, the first thing I would say is that Avinash's passion for Webanalytics and his depth of knowledge and perspective comes out very clearly as one goes through the book. Avinash has done a remarkable job in taking a complex subject and making it fun and in a style that is easy to read.
And then there is the Trinity approach, a framework that is simple in its outlook and yet is robust enough to encapsulate all the key components for a successful Webanalytics program -- from density analysis & segmentation to conversion rates to A/B testing and VOC.
I also enjoyed reading all the titbits about the different technologies, data capture mechanisms etc. Another thing that makes this book unique are the "Why should you care" sections - which I thought was very cool since many folks spend too much time getting something executed without understanding the "so what" aspect of it.
And lastly for those folks deep into TQM, zero defects etc, Avinash has a section applying the Six-Sigma DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) process to continuously improve the WA program.
In summary, an excellent book that is a must read for someone in the Webanalytics space -- and recommended without any reservations.
Avinash - Priest, Bartender and Storyteller for Marketing Techies.......2007-09-06
A few days after I became unemployed, I spotted this book, picked it up and started reading, and reading, AND READING. Bells and whistles and lightbulbs went off in my head, and I met my NEW CAREER path face-to-face...
I opened my wallet to look at the last remaining dollars, put the book back, and spent the next half hour talking myself out of spending precious food and gas dollars for another book.
Well, I just finished reading the book I ended up buying that day. It was probably one of the best acquisitions I ever made. Avinash is a gifted technical storyteller with fire in his belly and charm in his delivery; I'd like to thank him here, publicly, for sharing his gift and helping me to launch what I hope will be a new livelihood.
Books:
- The Copywriter's Handbook, Third Edition: A Step-By-Step Guide To Writing Copy That Sells
- The Experience Economy: Work is Theater and Every Business a Stage
- The Infinite Asset: Managing Brands to Build New Value
- The New PR Toolkit: Strategies for Successful Media Relations
- The Simplest Path to Personal and Planetary Awakening, Step One: FREE YOUR MIND: 10 Keys for Unlocking Your Personal Potential, Achieving Spiritual Awakening, ... of Humanity's Ultimate Cosmic Destiny
- The SPIN Selling Fieldbook
- The SPIN Selling Fieldbook
- The SPIN Selling Fieldbook
- The SPIN Selling Fieldbook
- The Strategic Bond Investor : Strategies and Tools to Unlock the Power of the Bond Market
Books Index
Books Home
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