Customer Reviews

The Art of Profitability

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is focused on explaining 23 different models of profitability that different firms have followed. The author uses the realtionship between a wise mentor and an eager mentee to take the reader through the process of understanding the different models. The book is aimed at describing and giving the reader some insight into each model; it is not an in depth analysis of profitability. Given its aim, it is well written.

It is not a step by step process to apply at a business. This is a book to make a manager reflect, not follow. Each chapter is one story that describes a model; the style seems to follow the general outline of Harvard Business School cases, which, given the author's professorship there, is not so surprising.

I highly recommend it to someone looking for an entertaining read that will make one reflect. However, disregard the recommendation that you go through one chapter per week. It is too little, I think I would probably lose the book by the 3rd week. It is, instead, a book to be read in 3 days, and be referred back for ideas.

As a recent MBA graduate, I found this book to be far more valuable than most strategy texts I had read in school. While the focus is on explaining different profitability models, the lessons learned are easily applied to new ways to think about your enterprise. The book encourages the reader to read a chapter a week and suggests other books to read and thought exercises to do. While I'm sure this would be the ideal way to go through the material, I found the book suitable and enjoyable to read quickly. The writing is clear and to the point. And while comparisons to "The Goal" are unavoidable, I found the balance of storytelling and teaching in "Art of Profitability" to be skewed toward teaching. As a result, Slywotzky provides the reader more bang (quality insights) per page without compromising the books readability. Highly recommended.

The author weaves a story into his rundown of 23 profit models by having a young executive learn at the feet of a mystical guru over a year-long period. As the student gains insight, he grows in confidence and ability--good thing, too, since the company he works for is hopelessly messed up.

This highly accessible book is helpful on several levels.

First, it provides solid overviews of 23 important profit models: what they are, how they work, and why they work. Case studies and anecdotes provide illustration in case some of Master Zhao's explanations aren't sufficiently clear.

Second, it reminds us that profit is at the center of everything in business. The dialog between teacher and student illustrates how easy it is for business leadership to ignore that seemingly obvious principle.

Third, Mr. Slywotzky gives us a learning model we can apply to any problem, business or otherwise. He teaches the arts of listening, holding back, asking the right questions, analzying numbers, and extrapolating sound conclusions from particular facts, even small and seemingly unrelated ones. If you're interested in further study, he supplements his book with a reading list you won't see in an ordinary business book bibliography.

Probably the learning model is the most valuable aspect of the book: teach a man to fish, etc... Fascinating reading for entrepreneurs and executives in organizations of any size.

i am a big fan of Adrian Slywotzky. The Profit Zone and The Upside are two of the most powerful business books I have read. The art of Profitability was a waste of time. painful to dredge through. weak principles compared to the brilliance in prior work.

Easy to read (I read all the book in 2-3 hours doing all the exercises), but not worth to that price.

The book just include several graphs on profits, and how to think in a profit manner.

Let me propose you an alternative; read "Mind of Strategist" from Ohmae, then look to different industries in DowJones, and think of how to make more profit in each industry.. I think that you can draw at least 50% of all those charts..

The issue is not drawing the charts.. but how to execute the pricing strategy.. are all the world businessman dumb that they can not apply the pricing charts that can be developed in a minute???

This book is best for just practice of thinking, not worth more than 2-3 USD.

Executing business strategy is always more challenging than formulating one; 'The Art of Profitability' provides good insights to guide readers to align formulation & execution of business strategy, & focus on generating & sustaining profitability. Slywotzky's humorous storytelling style has made the book a unique & higly enjoyable read. This is certainly one of the most humorous yet practical business strategy books in the market.

this is one of the best books on strategy I have seen and read. QUite frankly it is comparable to Goldratts "The Goal". This should be a required reading for every executive, business owner and marketing strategist.
I have purchased 10 copies of this book to distribute among my friends, BUY IT and READ IT and you will know why it can be ESSENTIAL FOR SUCCESS as you move from CHAOS TO CONFUSION in the world of how PROFITS CAN BE MADE

The Good -

A few of the main concepts of the book are sound and time proven, and it has some interesting and novel ideas. Unfortunately, this only fills about 20% of the book...

The Bad -

What was meant to be an entertaining fictional side plot, in the fashion of The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement or The Max Strategy: How a Businessman Got Stuck at an Airport and Learned to Make His Career Take Off, doesn't work. It ends up being both corny and antiquated. Basically, the main character of the book is a 20 something trying to save the large conglomerate which employs him. Give me a break - this just isn't realistic in the modern world. The vast majority of my peers including myself (in that age group) could care less about the slow and large, uncaring bureaucracies we work for. If anything we're dreaming up of escape plans to start our own businesses. Throughout the book I just kept wondering whether Steve (the main character) was a complete moron or whether the story took place 30 years ago (when my parents were that age).

A bigger flaw is how the book's concepts are delivered. Hearing the mentor character, Zhiao, give lessons is akin to listening to Bill Cosby's or Grandpa Simpson's random rambling for hours. It's very difficult to differentiate the useless/nonsensical stuff from the decent pieces of data, Zhiao keeps jumping from here and there. Sadly I could go on and on about how horrible the plot and side dialogue are...

An example of the dialog:

Zhiao, "What kind of fish do you think you are?

Steve, "I am a light fish."

- enough said.

Another problem is that the author doesn't go into more detail with some of his concepts, so what you're left with is some vague idea of them...

Conclusion

This is largely a waste of time.

I originally purchased this book as I've been looking into starting my own company (on my spare time), and wanted to learn more about profitability, how to actually make profits, and what the different strategies involved are.

Adrian Slywotzky's book really impressed me. It is written in a relaxed, conversational tone (as a dialog between a famous economist and a dedicated young businessman), and discusses a slew of profit models, how they work, and what their strengths and weaknesses are.

While I think this book is geared (mostly) towards professional businessmen whose job is to increase company profitability, the lessons learned in each chapter can be broadly applied to any sort of entrepreneurial interest (like in my case), and any sort of employee interest as well (for guys who just want to help their company be a success).

The book was a pleasure to read, and is very thought provoking and interesting. I'd highly recommend it to anyone who is genuinely interested in how businesses generate profits, and what techniques can be used to increase profitability without changing the product / service / whatever your company is selling.

While I have been involved in business, (both large and small) for a number of years now and am not a total novice in the area of profit generation, a lot of what the book was illustrating struck me as as....well not exactly new, at least novel in it's approach. I did not graduate with a degree in economics or business, (theoretical linguistics actually,) so for those of you that DID, the 23 profit models portrayed may have been old-hat. I had only really thought of one or two of them as being somewhat distinct before reading the book. I too, like one of the other reviewers, thought that the injunction to "read only one chapter a week..." to be be a little pendantic. I read the whole thing in a couple of days on a business trip, but have referred back to it on numerous occasions to re-read passages and chapters as new thoughts and ideas arose that seemed applicable to me. I think the author's advice was meant to be used as if YOU the reader were Steve, and to go away and read the same materials Zhiao encouraged Steve to read, and to think about the same things as Steve was encouraged to ponder. I suppose if I had the time to do that, (or felt the energy to go find all of the articles and books mentioned, (at least two per chapter, so amost 50 books or articles in all some of which seem to me to be pretty obsure or hard to locate.) then I might have done so. As it was, I didn't, and am probably worse off for not having done so, but there it is anyway.

On the whole, I enjoyed both the material and the writing style. I thought it refreshing to see what could be rather esoteric material put into a format that was a little more attainable for someone like myself. If you haven't thought about HOW a company can make money, (I mean, the mechanics of where and how profit is generated, not just what is sold,) then this is a good book to start with. I am sure there are others out there that look in detail at each of the models shown in this book, (as well as others,) and give mathematical proofs and all sorts of other background detail, but all I was looking for was some good gut-feel overview information and this book delivered that. Enjoy!