Book Description
Learn the simple secrets that turn ordinary banks into top-performing banks. The secrets lie within the answers of one profound question asked by author, Roxanne Emmerich: "What are you doing consistently to make your bank a top performer?"
This book gives you:
§ Answers in simple-to-follow steps
§ A proven sales system for sales and marketing that produces outstanding results every time
§ A blueprint for creating breakthroughs that turn ordinary banks into top performers
§ A way to double cross-sales results
§ No-fail, practical tactics that can significantly increase both your top and bottom lines
§ A method to triple the effectiveness of your marketing efforts and your salespeople
§ Means to craft customer retention into all you do
Customer Reviews:
Nicely outlined.......2004-06-01
While Roxanne does not introduce anything new to how to help a bank grow, she does bring many good ideas together, and express them in a straight forward and simple manner. It was interesting to read throught he book and identify things that we could be doing quite easily, but for reason we are not. Well written, simple, not revolutionary, but worth the time reading and using in planning sessions.
Book Description
Today, when your fortunes can literally change overnight, the new strategic imperative is making your moment of maximum risk your moment of maximum opportunity. In
The Upside, Adrian Slywotzky provides bold and original ideas for growth breakthroughs as well as the practical tools to use Monday morning, such as
•How to change the odds for your next major initiative and create potential industry breakthroughs, as Toyota did with its expanding universe of Prius vehicles.
•Shape and exploit risk, don’t be shaped by it. Become a knowledge-intensive business and continuallyincrease the knowledge gap between yourself and rivals, as Coach and Tsutaya of Japan have convincingly done.
•A category killer can’t kill what’s not in its category. When basketball legend Bill Russell faced a taller, stronger Wilt Chamberlain, he led the Celtics to victory by inventing a different game. The same thinking lets Target prosper in a Wal-Mart world—and can help you outcompete the “unbeatable” rival in your own industry.
•When you come to a fork in the road—take it! Only a fraction of companies survive when industries experience technological or strategic transitions. To be a survivor, learn the secret that enabled Microsoft to weather the advent of the Internet—the art of the double bet.
•Stuckinabusinessbox? Findthebiggerbox—and then the biggest.When growth stagnates, capture more of your customer’s dollars through demand innovation and big-box thinking, as companies from Continental AG and Ikea to Procter & Gamble have done.
•Your competitors can also be your greatest enablers of profit. Stop competing yourself to death! The key is knowing when to compete and when to collaborate, as Apple has shown with its revolutionary approach to the music business.
In the 1980s conventional wisdom was that you could have high quality or low cost, but not both—until Japanese makers of cars and electronics showed otherwise. Now, high quality and low cost are required just to enter the marketplace. Today, we face a similar paradox when it comes to risk and reward. Rather than shrink from the high risk so integral to the tumultuous global economy, Adrian Slywotzky shows how it can be your greatest source of growth and future reward.
Customer Reviews:
Slywotzky Delivers Another Winner.......2007-06-25
According to Slywotzky, the success of any business comes down to a series of well-thought out and bold moves, which allow the company to seize an opportunity or neutralize some threat. Often, when successful, these moves are counter-intuitive and fly in the face of traditional business doctrine. Slywotzky challenges the widely-accepted doctrine that risk and reward are inextricably linked. According to this author, such unconventional and proactive moves are exactly why some of these companies have had the monumental successes they've had, while their peer companies have faltered. Slywotzky's Upside is a well-researched, well-written and easy read.
Upside presents a small history of the companies that we grew up with, that are currently battling it out in the marketplace and with which we interact on a daily basis. We know these companies well and this book gives us an insider's view of what's happening with them before the products hit our store shelves. Battle plans exposed! Slywotzky also highlights some corporate, brand and product strategies that have failed, leading to the devaluation or extinction of other companies that we've known and loved over the generations. In the process, Upside takes a good look at the following questions, among others:
1. Which companies develop a diversified portfolio of products, frequently rolling out new ones and which companies put all of their eggs (and the very best of their resources) into one basket, launching one behemoth?
2. Which companies have survived and thrived through myriad iterations by gathering and using data better than others? What does that mean for how your company uses its data?
3. Which major retailer strategically chose to redefine its market, making itself the dominant player in the process?
4. Which competitors combine resources as a cost-saving, survival tactic? How can you turn a competitor into an ally?
5. What are the bold moves these companies make to de-risk each strategy?
Slywotzky ends each chapter with a summary of each company's strategy and ends the book with a two-chapter workbook for readers to use to assess their own companies, industries and battle plans. I would stress that much of his work is also applicable to both small businesses and to individuals navigating their ways through their own strategic environments.
Readers of his earlier works know that Slywotzky's books tend to have an innovative delivery, and this book doesn't disappoint. In addition to using sports analogies in Upside, Slywotzky keeps a running tally of each endeavor's odds of success. This is innovative because it allows him to quantify that success is really the sum of many small decisions, none of which alone guarantees success, but taken together can add up quickly to very strong odds of success.
A great book, written by a management guru, student and teacher of business and corporate strategy, Upside makes a great addition to any business library.
Upside: A Broad systematic look at risk : CEOs, Boards must read.......2007-06-25
As a CEO, strategic advisor, and Board member for enterprises from emerging to Fortune 100, I continue to treasure the intellectual capital Adrian Slywotzky creates.
This latest contribution, Upside, builds on his previous work as he challenges us to think and act differently about risk. He urges us to break out of the traditional thinking of risk ( disaster management- the computers blew up, compliance---someone broke the law( How did Jones afford that Mazaratti?) and put it in the framework of value creation, profitable growth, and the ultimate leadership challenge,...creating sustainability.
He does so with a compelling combination of analysis, story telling, and framework building. Ever the pragmatist, Mr. Slywotzky gives the reader helpful tools to think through our own situation.
There are attractive and proactive ideas throughout the book, ranging from the "7 types of risk", to `de-risking", and "risk shaping".
In classic Slywotzky fashion, his analytics underscore the growing importance of risk management and engagement: "...during the last 12 years 170 of the Fortune 500 lost 50% or more of their value in a 12 month period"
...For those scoring at home, the odds of taking a BIG hit are more than one in 3!!!...Now you have my attention.
Most useful was the focus on risk as an offensive as well as defensive concept. While the `defensive" posture has value, it is the offensive or "risking shaping" path that offers "game changing" possibilities, and significant "Upside'
On the defensive side, Slywotzky highlights that avoiding the `big downside' matters. Recovering from one of those performance craters sets organizations back years. If one loses 50% of "market cap" in one year, it takes two and half times as long at a 50% recovery rate just to get back to even......A strong argument for " risk" management on the downside.
But perhaps the true value of the work is a systematic way of looking through a multi-dimensional risk lens across critical strategic areas, (financial, brand, industry, competitor, customer etc.). This urges management thinking not only about the set of risks to consider, but also to become activists-- look at risk as "opportunity"......Its in this "think differently" vein that Slywotzky excels.
Using systematic analysis, he continually challenges leaders to look at the foreboding or even "unthinkable" situation and ask what move(s) can be made to derive sustainable advantage.
The simple concept of " risk shaping" underscores that successful leaders can, do, and have engaged ` risk' in a successful search for advantage .
The work is rich with examples and simple tools, questions and frameworks to use in thinking and working through these issues.
It's economic as well. He covers a great deal of ground in less than 250 pages, (with helpful footnotes for the curious among us). He goes beyond the Toyota, Apple, Coach, and IBM examples, and finds "risk shapers" in unexpected places:Colonel Joshua Chamberlain, a Medal of Honor winner at the battle of Gettysburg and Boston Celtic great, Bill Russell.
Those familiar with Slywotzky's work, (6 other books over the last dozen years,) may recognize familiar thinking (value migration, profitless industries, strategic customer development, strategic control), but most useful is his pulling ideas together in a "risk management system".....very helpful for CEOs, senior execs and, perhaps most importantly, Boards of Directors.
Upside provides a well thought-out approach for thoughtful business leaders to challenge themselves and their colleagues to create value and sustainable growth.
Robert G. Romasco
Bryn Mawr, Pa.
Strategic Risk Shaping Drivers Superior Performance.......2007-06-12
I have been reading and applying Adrian Slywotzky's works on the broad topic of profitable growth for over fourteen years. What I find striking about all of his work is that the concepts presented are always clear, accessible, and market-hardened. I find reassurance knowing that as a management consultant, the insights or "business truths" that Slywotzky presents are distilled out of observing and analyzing a multitude of clients and their fiercest competitors in a global theater.
In The Upside, the concept of a "strategic risk management system" brings the topic of risk back into the strategy conversation in a positive and opportunistic way. Being prepared and turning threats into growth opportunities is the heart of this book. The notion that active and ongoing "risk-shaping" as a source of advantage and superior performance is missing concept in most corporate strategy conversations and a needed one. Private equity and other financial market leaders are masters of re-shaping risk to maximize returns and have been quietly doing so for years. The application of risk management to corporate strategy is a new and important dimension. My sense is that the merger of Mercer Management Consulting and Oliver Wyman provided the stimulus for deeper thought about the intersection of growth strategy and risk management.
As a corporate practitioner of growth acceleration I find Slywotzky to be core reading along with Harvard Business Review, and Sloan Management Review. These are the three best sources of distilled, market tested, high impact growth strategies that can be customized and deployed tomorrow. If you haven't read Value Migration, The Profit Zone, Profit Patterns, The Art of Profitability, and How To Grow When Market's Don't, you should absolutely add them to your reading list and business library. The Upside stands by itself, but the collection as a whole is an overwhelming arsenal of competitive moves that I have applied over and over again with striking results.
Perhaps the most important act you can perform is not just to read The Upside, but to use it, experiment with it, adapt it to your business situation, and put it into practice.
Dayton Semerjian
Senior Vice President, Strategy and Development Operations
CA, Inc.
Dimensions of "a new strategic imperative".......2007-05-15
I have read all of Adrian Slywotzky's previously published books and reviewed most of them. In my opinion, he is one of the most important business thinkers of the last several decades. What we have in Upside is a continuation of Slywotzky's emphasis on the importance of measuring what really matters, especially insofar as value migration during paradigm shifts within competitive markets are concerned, but I think there are some intriguing differences between this book and those which precede it. For example, Slywotzky establishes and then sustains throughout his narrative a conversational, at times almost (not quite) playful tone...certainly his tone is much less formal than in earlier works. Also, and more to the point, he devotes less attention to the "what" (i.e. seven strategies), preferring to focus primarily on the "why" and "how" of strategic risk management which enables just about any organization (regardless of size or nature) to "turn big threats into growth breakthroughs."
More specifically, a major initiative fails or at least falls far short of high hopes and great expectations; there is a significant loss of customer revenue; there is an paradigm, shift within the given industry; a seeming unbeatable competitor appears; loss of brand power and leverage; the given industry has become a no-profit zone; zero or insignificant organizational growth. "The first two jobs of strategic management are to sidestep the unnecessary blows [i.e. self-inflicted wounds] and mitigate the blows you can't avoid. You can avoid the biggest hits to your company's value through as strategic risk management system that uses the principles and techniques described in the rest of this book." Slywotzky then goes on to suggest: "Remember Warren Buffett's first rule: Preserve your capital. And also his second rule: See the first rule."
According to Slywotzky, "The first step in de-risking your product is to recognize the true odds of success; the second is to change them." He explains how in the first chapter, citing Toyota as an exemplary company and its development of the Prius as a case in point. I especially appreciate that, on page 32 and throughout the book, Slywotzky includes a checklist of key points within the given context. These are action steps for his reader to consider. "How many of these types of moves can you adapt for your next big project?" (The key words are "moves" and "adapt.") In fact, later in the same chapter and throughout his subsequent narrative, Slywotzky makes brilliant use of a reader-friendly device, "[name of company's] Moves to [name of initiative]."H e uses a variation of it (e.g. "Toyota's Further Moves to Change the Odds") to indicate that effective strategic risk management, responding effectively to "big threats," is an on-going process.
At least for me, some of Slywotzky's most valuable material is provided in Chapter Seven, "When Your Business Stops Growing." Although the first two jobs of a strategic management system are to sidestep the unnecessary blows and mitigate the blows that cannot be avoided, it can do much more than defend. "It is also an incredibly efficient means to find some of the biggest growth opportunities your business faces." Slywotzky first focuses on demand innovation (i.e. looking at customers differently in terms of their economic needs and other, higher order needs) and cites 12 examples which include Netflix, Crest Whitestrips, Harley-Davidson, and Swiffer. For example, Harley-Davidson uses a brand extension as the basis of a consumer lifestyle on which a host of activities and purchases can be centered. Purchase a product and you also buy into an entire lifestyle (Harley Owners Group or HOG) that celebrates the freedom of the open road.
In the same chapter, Slywotzky also has much of value to say about the second major vector, creating or discovering just one Big Idea for your business. For examples, he cites and discusses Ikea ("from home furnishings to the home itself"), NTT DoCoMo ("the phone as universal gatekeeper"), and Nike ("making fitness cool"). For those readers who do not know how to create or discover a Big New Idea for their own company, Slywotzky observes that "the company that is constantly generating testing, and discarding new business ideas will be in a better position to find, recognize, and capitalize on the big new idea when it comes along than its more slow-moving competitors." However different they may be in other respects, the most innovative companies (e.g. Apple, Google, Toyota, GE, and Microsoft) are guided and informed by the same conviction that it takes lots of bad ideas to get one good idea, lots of good ideas to get one excellent idea, and lots of excellent ideas to get one (as Steve Jobs characterizes it) "insanely great" idea.
Those who share my high regard for this brilliant book are urged to check out Adrian Slywotzky's earlier works (notably How to Grow When Markets Don't co-authored with Richard Wise and Karl Weber) as well Thomas Kelley's The Ten Faces of Innovation, Jeanne Ross's Enterprise Architecture as Strategy, Dean Spitzer's Transforming Performance Measurement, and From Resource Allocation to Strategy co-edited by Joseph Bower and Clark Gilbert.
Average customer rating:
- This book is more informative than getting an MBA.
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Breakthrough Inc.: High Growth Strategies for Entrepreneurial Organizations
Herbert R Rubenstein , and
Herbert, R Rubenstein
Manufacturer: Financial Times/Prentice Hall
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 General
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Management
| Management & Leadership
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Systems & Planning
| Management & Leadership
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Entrepreneurship
| Small Business & Entrepreneurship
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Small Business & Entrepreneurship
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0273638858 |
Book Description
Explores and advises on the various route to high growth and the best tactics to utilize.
Customer Reviews:
This book is more informative than getting an MBA........1999-10-23
Breakthrough Inc. was terrific. It was not another recipe book, rehashing old ideas. Instead, this book kept on asking me to stretch my goals, and suggested courses of action I could take that were designed at an MBA level. At times I actually did feel I was taking an MBA course as I visited such technologies as gap analysis, competitive analysis, and innovation analysis. Yet unlike an MBA course, everything was easily understandable and could be immediately applied. This book has already given me specific strategies for making my business more relevant in my market, and more profitable in my pocket.
Amazon.com
As most CEOs eventually discover, the process of maintaining long-term corporate growth may be the most difficult professional task they ever face--and one that is far more complicated than almost any other aspect of running their businesses. After studying hundreds of real-life efforts of this type over much of the past decade as director of Inc. magazine's Business Resources Growth Strategy Consulting Group, James B. Wood has developed a systematic approach to implementing successful growth in companies of all types--large or small, public or private, for-profit or non-profit. In The Next Level: Essential Strategies for Achieving Breakthrough Growth, written with Larry Rothstein, Wood reviews the common stages of corporate growth, and presents an interactive Growth Strategy Analysis so readers can assess their companies' own strengths and weaknesses. He then details his five so-called critical Growth Drivers (market intelligence, strategic leadership, clarity of purpose, strategic planning, and internal infrastructure) that just about any company can follow. --Howard Rothman
Book Description
A practical guide to anticipating and managing the stages of your company's growth-featuring Inc.'s Growth Strategy Analysis
Most organizations-whether large or small, public or private, profit or non-profit-have one thing in common: they want to grow. But why do some companies experience phenomenal growth year after year, regardless of changes in the marketplace, new technologies, fierce competition, and demands from shareholders, while others seem to hit a plateau or find themselves scrambling to keep up with the pack? Employing a powerful, field-tested diagnostic tool-the Inc. Growth Strategy Analysis -and showcasing dozens of colorful case examples, James Wood shows entrepreneurs and established business leaders alike how to analyze their organization's growth potential, identify the internal constraints to future growth, and put into practice the strategies that will enable them to break through to new levels of expansion and profit generation.
Customer Reviews:
Good Road Map........2005-07-11
This book aims straight at the roots of growth. In the beginning of the book, the author first helps you determine at what stage of the cycle your company is in, then he tells you what your focus should be, such as sales for a start-up, and establishing systems once sales are stable. Very sensible.
The author then goes on to explore general strategy themes, but each chapter has at least a few gems.
I recommend the book for your library shelf. Each re-read will provide you with helpful wisdom.
The most practical approach to achieving growth........1999-05-10
Jim Wood's book is for every person who has considered, is considering, or should consider taking themselves and their business above and beyond. Wood approaches the topic of "how to grow" as if he and you were sitting next to one another on an airplane. Casually talking about his experiences, all the while drawing you in to details only someone who has "been there, done that" can do. Read this book and expand your business and personal horizons. -- C.H. Mackey
Hits the nail on the head........1999-03-15
From startup to INC 500 to FORTUNE 500, this book is a good first step in identifying what other pieces of information are needed to move up the ladder. Feels like a bird checking out the economic landscape. When you need to descend to the ground, this book will help you find which spot you have missed. Quite valuable as an entrepreneurial roadmap!
Book Description
This guide will explain the crucial importance of sales and marketing alignment. Business executives must ensure that their corporate positioning, product positioning, value propositions, sales channel strategies, messaging, and targeting are all in true alignment with each other, as well as the expectations of your target market. Marketing inconsistencies result in expenses most businesses cannot afford. Every executive, from CEOs to the senior VPs, should read this book and implement a marketing alignment program if they expect to succeed and achieve some level of market leadership. Advertising legend Leo Burnett once said, "It is essential for a brand to maintain a consistent face in every aspect of the media: in classical advertising, at point of purchase, through mailings, or even touch-screen interactive shopping." This book expands on that philosophy and threads it into every company message broadcast, written or spoken, from inside or outside the organization.
Customer Reviews:
Review of "Marketing Alignment" by Mac McKinley.......2003-02-05
Review of Marketing Alignment
Breakthrough Strategies for Growth and Profitability
By Mac McKiney
If you appreciate a smart, powerful, entertaining message geared to new millennium business success, Mac McKinley has written it. Marketing Alignment serves up high performance tips and pragmatic insights on fine tuning sales and marketing programs. In his book, he explains that "marketing alignment is simply about the aligning of all of a company's sales and marketing efforts with customers, influencers, and marketing expectations and requirements."
Marketing Alignment is an important book and is definitely must reading for executives looking for an edge. Very positive and easy to follow. Sales + Marketing = profitability + harmony. I especially liked the book's "Read Me First" practical guidelines.
Since, Mr. McKinley speaks so effectively about "harmony" in marketing alignment, perhaps he should have titled his clever book Zen and the Art of Corporate Success. Buy this book. It will transform your thinking:
Reviewed by Barbara Robie
Review of "Marketing Alignment" by Mac McKinley.......2003-02-05
If you appreciate a smart, powerful, entertaining message geared to new millennium business success, Mac McKinley has written it. Marketing Alginment serves up high performance tips and pragmatic insights on fine tuning sales and marketing programs. In his book, he explains that "marketing alignment is simply about the aligning of all of a company's sales and marketing efforts with customers, influencers, and marketing expectations and requirements."
Marketing Alignment is an important book and is definitely must reading for executives looking for an edge. Very positive and easy to follow. Sales + Marketing = profitability + harmony. I especially liked the book's "Read Me First" practical guidelines.
Since, Mr. McKinley speaks so effectively about "harmony" in marketing alignment, perhaps he should have titled his clever book Zen and the Art of Corporate Success. Buy this book. It will transform your thinking:
Reviewed by Barbara Robie
Average customer rating:
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Breakthrough Strategies for Growth ("Financial Times")
Tony Grundy
Manufacturer: Financial Times/Prentice Hall
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Strategy & Competition
| Management & Leadership
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Management
| Management & Leadership
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Systems & Planning
| Management & Leadership
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0273620460 |
Book Description
Explores the key routes to sustainable corporate growth.
Book Description
From boardrooms to locker rooms, classrooms to living rooms, Dr. Denis Waitley has taught the principles of thought and behavior that his listeners can use in their organizations, their careers and their personal lives. His word pictures of optimism, core values, motivation, and resiliency, have become indelible and legendary in their positive impact on society. He has counseled Apollo Astronauts, Fortune 500 executives and Heads of State. Most recently, he was elected Chairman of Psychology on the United States Olympic Committee's Sports Medicine Council, responsible for performance enhancement of Olympic athletes. Waitley quickly wins over his audiences regardless of their socioeconomic makeup, male and female alike, with his humor, unassuming sincerity and step-by-step approach to professional and personal excellence. In this life changing program his listener will learn to:Ride the Wave of ChangeStrategize for SuccessTake His Innovation InventoryBecome His Own Trend-SpottersPut Aside PrejudicesWork with His Own IdeasUse His IntuitionDiscern Opportunities in ChangeTake Risks to WinTeam Up with Talent
Customer Reviews:
Great delivery time........2007-10-16
I was impressed at the time it took to get here. I ordered three things at once and this was the first to show up in the matter of a day or two. The cd's were in good shape.
Book Description
This tax guide provides three basic tax-saving strategies for families. One strategy focuses on the primary filer in a family situation, such as a single parent or both parents when filing jointly. The second strategy focuses on multiple filings in order to maximize the number of tax returns filed. The greater the number of tax returns filed, the more diluted the total family tax becomes. The final strategy focuses on gratuitous transfers-gifts and inheritances-from grandparents and other elderly members in a family.
Books:
- Profits with Principles
- Promises to Keep (The Amway Phenomenon and How it Works)
- Proposal Preparation (New Dimensions In Engineering Series)
- Raising Your Spirited Child: A Guide for Parents Whose Child Is More Intense, Sensitive, Perceptive, Persistent, Energetic
- Reengineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution (Collins Business Essentials)
- Resilient Practitioner, The: Burnout Prevention and Self-Care Strategies for Counselors, Therapists, Teachers, and Health Professionals
- Running The Corporate Rapids: Creating Agile Organizations
- Saving Our Teen Drivers: Using Aviation Safety Skills on the Roadways
- Six-Figure Freelancing
- Smart Speaking: 60-Second Strategies for More than 100 Speaking Problems and Fears
Books Index
Books Home
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Modern Banking
