Book Picks and Articles
The Flywheel Effect by Jim Collins
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)
Competitive Markets and the Rule of Three
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
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.
Simplifying Complexity is Powerful
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
The Business of Belief
How the World’s Best Marketers, Designers, Salespeople, Coaches, Fundraisers, Educators, Entrepreneurs and Other Leaders Get Us to Believe.
By Tom Asacker
A deceptively simple, short read … about an hour. But then you read a bit again, and then another and another. “The very first thing leaders do is choose a particular audience and develop a visceral understanding of their beliefs and especially their desires.” Tom Asacker takes us an insightful journey of how beliefs shape what we do, who we follow, what we buy.
Strongly recommended for anyone who has to influence others, or wants to choose a new path for themselves.