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Title: The Ultimate Competitive Advantage: Secrets of Continually Developing a More Profitable Business Model by Donald Mitchell, Carol Coles, B. Thomas Golisano, Robert B. Knutson ISBN: 1-57675-167-8 Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Pub Pub. Date: March, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $36.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.76 (124 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Innovative thinking backed up with a coherent approach
Comment: This book does two things - (1) it describes how to achieve and sustain competitive advantage by examining your current business model and refactoring it to take advantage of emergent opportunities or changing business climates, and (2) it teaches you how to think out of the box.
Thinking out of the box is a prerequisite for refactoring your business model, and unlike the plethora of books on this seemingly ineffable topic, this book will provide you with the knowledge and skills to do just that. Excellent example of thinking out of the box are immediately given in the introduction - each mini study set in text boxes is anchored to one of more factors in business model innovation, and illustrate how thinking out of the box by individuals led to radically new ways of viewing their business, and the successes that came from acting on these insights. Everyone will find at least one inspiring case study in this book that elicits an Eureka! Mine was the GoldCorp case.
However, case studies--no matter how inspiring--are nothing more than interesting reading without knowing the common critical success factors in detail. This is where the book shines, because these details are exposed, analyzed and the reasons why they are important are given in a compelling way. Part One, which addresses value, cost and price is by far the most influential 114 pages I have read in any book. Most of the techniques can be found in any college-level text book, but the manner in which it's presented, and especially the chapter on eliminating costs that reduce customer and end user benefits, will inspire you to think broadly and deeply about these issues. Part Two covers how to provide sustained benefits to all stakeholders. In theory this seems easy, but too many organizations acknowledge the benefits without acting. The authors show you how to transform the theory into action and results. They also tackle the messages in Parts Three (Expand Business Model Innovation) and Four (Pursue Higher-Potential Business Model Improvement) with the same painstaking detail as in the first two parts.
This book has clear, lively writing that will hold your interest from the first page. In fact, it is so well written that you may easily overlook the experience, knowledge and skill that is woven into this excellent book through carefully chosen case studies, key questions that cause you to think, and copious use of text boxes to highlight key points or impart quick pieces of essential information. In that respect not only is this book a valuable addition to any executive's reading list, but it's a masterpiece. It deserves a place alongside the works of Michael Porter, Kaplan & Norton, and Drucker.
Rating: 5
Summary: 10 star winner
Comment: You do NOT have to be in business to glean wisdom from this awesome book. Chapter 9 Expand The Benefits Your Provide And Share is worth the price of the book, simply because it gets to the heart of what makes a company survive and thrive thru good as well as bad times. This chapter also touches on one of our hands on as well as financial causes, namely Habitat For Humanity. In this chapter the authors give numerous examples of the positives that come when a business no matter how small or big, gives back, rather than simply take take take.
I also call your attention to the subtitle of the book which is "Secrets of Continually Developing a More Profitable Business Model". As the authors show throughout the book, businesses that fear change, become stagnant and die. Whereas the successes are those who never lose their vision and wonder of what could be and then take goals and dreams and make them a reality.
Buy a copy of this book for your local library!
Rating: 3
Summary: Doubts
Comment: On an attentive reading of this book I must say it does not live to its rich promise as far as I am concerned. And it promises a lot which even transpires from its elaborate and frankly immodest format of introductions to introductions and forewords to forewords. No assurances of authors that the reader is dealing with a break-through knowledge can - though - replace the hard earned content. And the content shows surprisingly little home work done on the promised in-depth analysis of a hundred successful business entities. Instead one gets a series of real life business stories related. Not a very creative thing to write if you read business press today. Comparing this book to those of Mr.Collins who so meticuosly presents results of his research of the best companies or to such a thorough job on business models as that done by Mr. Slywotzky in his rich and clear "The Profit Zone : How Strategic Business Design Will Lead You to Tomorrow's Profits" leaves one truly unsatisfied.
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Title: The Innovator's Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth by Clayton M. Christensen, Michael E. Raynor ISBN: 1578518520 Publisher: Harvard Business School Press Pub. Date: September, 2003 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: Strategy Maps: Converting Intangible Assets into Tangible Outcomes by Robert S. Kaplan, David P. Norton ISBN: 1591391342 Publisher: Harvard Business School Press Pub. Date: 02 February, 2004 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: Successful Business Models: Surefire Ways to Build a Profitable Business (Entrepreneur Mentor Series) by Don Debelak ISBN: 1891984454 Publisher: Entrepreneur Media Inc. Pub. Date: October, 2003 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: The 2,000 Percent Solution: Free Your Organization from "Stalled" Thinking to Achieve Exponential Success by Donald Mitchell, Carol Coles, Robert Metz ISBN: 0814404766 Publisher: AMACOM Pub. Date: January, 1999 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Beyond the Core: Expand Your Market Without Abandoning Your Roots by Chris Zook ISBN: 1578519519 Publisher: Harvard Business School Press Pub. Date: 02 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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