Average Rating: 
Rating:  - A step further in Business Strategy
I read this book in one day...it went over my expectations! You don't stop to find new ideas and concepts about how to run and design a business to keep it in the "Profit Zone", that according to the authors, is the zone where sustainable profit happens. The author introduces the "strategic control" index, as a way to measure of the hability of the company to keep profits coming. Several novelty business designs are also presented, as a way to explain strategic controls and their link to profit.The book is very well structured. The first part (to my judge the most interesting part) develops and introduces the concepts, theory and models and the second part explains the success of real life companies such as Microsoft, Coca Cola, Charles Schwab, among others, under the light of theses concepts (which explain them great). The last part presents a strategic planning methodology, that threatens classical Balance Scorecard Approach. (I really don't know if any company has already applied this methodology). You won't regreat to buy it. It's a great purchase! Best business strategy book I have read this year. As Richard D'Aveni says in the praises... you will pray that competitors don't read it!
Rating: - GREAT CHECKLIST TO FIND YOUR P.Z. AND ACCELERATE SUCCESS
There are some wonderful ideas in the profit zone and many reminders of things we have heard about for years and often forget. For example, the real focus on the customer is critical to success and we must always identify which parts of the business generate the profits, or are THE PROFIT ZONE. I remember a study done in the 1970s which found that most of a brand's profit came from the smallest size can that the product could be purchased in. There are lots of other examples here. The author's are correct in that the most successful companies have been innovators in business design. Ten companies are profiled, althugh surprisingly, Dell Computer is not one of them, having innovated a new profitable business model based on their "Customer Initiative". The authors get into a little trouble when they try to get quantitative. The Value Growth Curves have too few points to draw useful long-term conclusions, but the Business Design Tables are interesting because they will make you think about your business structure. The two best parts of the book are the Pilot's Checklists of questions to ask yourself and Chapter 15, the "How To" section to get discussion and hopefully agreement going inside your company to find and grow THE PROFIT ZONE. For more ideas on how to develop new business models that allow you to achieve twenty times the usual benefits or get there twenty times as fast, I also recommend you read THE 2,000 PERCENT SOLUTION. THE PROFIT ZONE may just be one of your solutions.
Rating: - The Place to Be
In Part One, the authors argue that "market share is dead" as an overall strategy goal. Instead, to achieve sustained growth in profits and shareholder value, companies need a "customer-centric business design" which anticipates and addresses constantly shifting customer priorities. There is no single design which fits all circumstances. but the most effective designs will start with customer priorities. In Part Two, the co-authors shift their attention to several "reinventors" who have achieved extraordinary success. Most are familiar: Welch, Hayek, Goizueta, Schwab, Grove, Eisner, Hatsopoulos, Barnevik, and Gates. However, and this is an excellent example of the book's unique and substantial value, Slywotzy & Morrison note that "the principles and techniques of reinveniting a company's business design to get it into the industry's profit zone...apply with equal force to small companies, to divisions of larger companies, and to the middle managers who run them. In fact, the reinventors we will be reading about in the future are already honing their skills at innovative business designs today." The authors then examine several smaller firms such as Madden Communications, Cardboard Box, Inc., and Clozaril Patient Management System. In Part Three, the authors provide a "handbook" which explains in detail how innovation works.This book is relevant to all organizations (both for-profit and non-profit) which seek to increase their economic value. Non-profits must also make critically important decisions (such as those involving allocation of resources) if they are to achieve their objectives. The appendices provide additional guidance so that the reader can implement whichever of the book's ideas and suggestions are most relevant. If optimizing your organization's profits is your destination, here's a map to get there.
|
