Movin' On Up
Want to grow like the pros? This book shows you what to do--and what not to do.
Incremental growth is fine, but many entrepreneurs want powerful
moves that can deliver huge successes. Small-business experts Rita
Gunther McGrath and Ian C. MacMillan identify scores of such
strategies in MarketBusters (Harvard Business School
Press, $26.95).
The 40 strategies they identify fall into five categories:
transform customer experience, transform product offerings,
redefine profit drivers, exploit industry shifts and enter new
markets. Within each are more finely tuned strategies. For
instance, in the section on profit drivers, the authors describe
how redefining key metrics can spur whole new approaches to
business.
In a move more authors should follow, Gunther McGrath and
MacMillan include negative case studies as well as success stories.
So in addition to telling how a cement company redefined metrics to
become a global competitor, they recount how a publisher spent
millions but still failed to unseat its established competition
because its new magazine lacked clear advantages. The book's
primary shortcoming is the brevity with which it treats complex
ideas, but entrepreneurs can use it as a guide in their search for
detailed solutions.
Mommy Dearest
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Mothers control $1.7 trillion in annual purchases of products
and services, making them America's most muscular consumer
group. Yet, according to maternal-marketing experts Maria T. Bailey
and Bonnie W. Ulman, most marketers use outdated approaches when
selling to moms. In Trillion-Dollar Moms (Dearborn Trade,
$23), they show entrepreneurs how to mine today's mother lode
with the help of original consumer research, experiential insights
and case studies. Among the takeaways: Segment mothers by their
children's ages, not the mothers' ages. Hence, treat a
toddler's boomer mom more like a Gen X toddler mom than another
boomer with older kids.
Mark Henricks is Entrepreneur's "Staff
Smarts" columnist.