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Blog Header - What Great Leaders Know 8-28-13 120 percent enlarged

#2  Can You Imagine Success Without These?

Can you imagine a business being successful without these three factors being right? Read more or share… »

The Flywheel Effect by Jim Collins

 Flywheel Effect Video

The Flywheel Effect by Jim Collins

What drives success – the kind that increases the value of your company year after year?

There are no silver bullets.  Sustained revenue growth comes from focused, coordinated, correctly sequenced improvement in a very specific set of skills.

The summary of Jim Collin’s research, Good to Great — The Flywheel Effect,  is a great start to understanding those steps.

Read the Article: Good to Great – The Flywheel Effect by Jim Collins  (Published in Fast Company, October 2001)

Watch the Video (2:14)

Read more or share… »

Competitive Markets and the Rule of Three

Competitive Markets and the rule of three 8-19-13

 by Jagdish N. Sheth and Rajendra S. Sisodia

This research explains the relationship between profitability and market share.  The research studied 200 industries, finding consistent patterns in market share and profitability, regardless of industry.  In mature industries with many competitors, only three will eventually dominate through size and economies of scale.  The only others who will not wind up competing in “the ditch” are those who have strategic control of a niche. Read more or share… »

Harnessing Innovation to Jumpstart Growth: Lessons from Mid-Market Companies

 Forbes Insights 8-19-13

Copyright 2012 Forbes Insights.

This article summarizes research published in October, 2012.   Leaders of middle market companies see rapid, persistent change as a force in every aspect of their business.  Those who have the greatest optimism and success today are those who have embedded specific disciplines for challenging the status quo throughout every aspect of their business – from strategy to processes to people.   The research shows what these companies do differently than less successful companies. The results are based on a  survey of 313 executives of mid-market companies completed in July, 2012, and included companies of varying sizes and industries.

Read the article

Simplifying Complexity is Powerful

 

Beating the Commodity Trap

Beating the commodity Trap

 by Richard D’Aveni, Copyright 2010 Harvard Business School

If your business success is threatened by competitors who are lowering price, this is an excellent read. Research based, it is one of the better reads on price/value strategies.

D’Aveni defines three commodity traps and strategies to escape them. The first is deterioration (when low end firms enter with low-cost low-benefit offerings that attract the mass market); the second is proliferation (when competitors become locked into offering more benefits at the same or a lower price) and escalation (when new price-benefit positions proliferate, surround and erode a product’s value by targeting smaller segments of the customer base).

It is a bit of a technical read but has lots of examples which make the insights more understandable.  I think this book is probably more directly applicable to larger businesses and brands.  But if you like to have your thinking pushed about value and pricing, you’ll get your money’s worth.

 Simplifying Complexity is Powerful