Built for Growth: Expanding Your Business Around the Corner or Across the Globe [Hardcover]

Arthur Rubinfeld (Author), Collins Hemingway (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 17, 2005

If there's one thing that's consistent in today's business world, it's rapid change. So how do you not only stay steady but actually grow'and quickly enough to stay safely ahead of your competitors? Built for Growth delivers specific solutions to create a brand and presence that generates true customer passion, as you lay a solid foundation for long-term success. Author Arthur Rubinfeld was a major driver in Starbucks' unprecedented retail expansion from 100 stores to more than 4000-- and its transformation into one of the world's most recognized brands. Here he draws on his singular expertise to present a proven, holistic approach to conceiving, designing, and executing your business plan: creating exciting concepts, growing them to fruition in local markets, expanding rapidly, and keeping your brand fresh and relevant as it matures. His revolutionary approach to business strategy embodies strong personal values, promotes exceptional creativity, leverages scientific methodology in finance and market analysis, and brings it all together with 'old-time' customer service.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Ever walk into a Starbucks and wonder: why didn't I think of this? But, honestly, do you really understand the merchandising mechanics of getting a million people to line up for a tall vanilla latte, or of matching up a dark green mug and a Norah Jones CD with a drink order? Rubinfeld, Starbucks's former executive vice president of store development and an advisor to other well-known brands, has given it all quite a bit of thought, and with a writing assist from Hemingway-who also co-authored Bill Gates's book Business @ the Speed of Thought-he painstakingly shares his blueprint for creating financial and cultural retailing success. This is by no means a relaxing corporate history on the rise of a global coffeehouse. It's an intense examination of what goes into conceptualizing a viable retail plan. Whether it involves serving sushi on a conveyor belt or selling sunglasses, he explains how to grow a franchise into a powerful marketing presence. From the initial "ideation" and differentiation of the concept, to choosing the right location for the first store, making the design and merchandising decisions, and attracting venture capital-Rubinfeld walks anyone who wants, or needs, to understand retailing through the thought process at every decision-making opportunity. He does so while continuously drawing examples from the local mall, explaining concepts in terms of what retailers like Oakley, Chico, Potbelly Sandwiches and, of course, Starbucks have done right. He also shares his insights on what others, like the bankrupt candle company Illuminations, did wrong. Rubinfeld sidesteps jargon and avoids cute or memorable phrases... save one: "retail is detail." The phrase aptly summarizes the contents of this book-which in its latter chapters even delves into the minutia of real estate management. This is an intricately detailed game plan for becoming the retailing world's next Starbucks.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Online sales and the big-box stores have knocked down prices for consumer goods, essentially squeezing out the "general retailer"--everybody else. So is it crazy to open a bricks-and-mortar retail store now? Rubinfeld, who helped transform Starbucks into one of the world's most recognized retail brands, and Hemingway, best known as the coauthor with Bill Gates on the number-one best-seller Business @ the Speed of Thought (1999), present solid concepts for keeping a brand fresh and innovative. Their book is based on four fundamental principles of retail strategy but built on a holistic, integrative approach to designing and implementing a retail business plan. All national brands, they tell us, started out as small, family-owned enterprises. Borrowing from the football phrase "go long," they talk about how to plan big and prepare to expand quickly. The specifics they provide--such as merchandising, licensing, and actual site plans--are valuable tools to both existing retailers and start-ups. David Siegfried
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

chapter one of Built for Growth [PDF]

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Wharton School Publishing (March 17, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0131465740
• ISBN-13: 978-0131465749
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #321,649 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

49 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Solid And Straightforward, May 12, 2005

By 

John G. Hilliard (Toronto Canada) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Built for Growth: Expanding Your Business Around the Corner or Across the Globe (Hardcover)

Everything you ever wanted to know about success in retail in jammed into this one book. This author covers it all, not just by focusing on the brand or location, but real solid ideas on people management, property management, finance and long term strategy. Somehow the author covered both how an upstart company can get it done and how a big and bland organization can get back on the right track. The books main focus is helping a retail business expand into becoming the next Starbucks.

The author starts out by detailing some rather hard facts. Most new business owners jump into the enterprise. They do little planning and as a result over half fail within the first year. The author details that the real issues are not always a lack of cash, but that the entrepreneur had a lack of knowledge of how to avoid mistakes, how to efficiently operate a business, and how to think through business issues. The author believes that you need a holistic approach to conceiving, designing and carrying out a retail business plan. This book gives you real world examples on how to keep your brand fresh and relevant. On top of all this the book is also well written and easy to read. The pages fly by. Overall I thought the book was wonderful. It had a ton of insight and more good ideas then you can possibly use. This is one of those books that you keep handy and keep going back to.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Required reading for those in the retail industry, July 31, 2005

By 

Harold McFarland (Florida) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Built for Growth: Expanding Your Business Around the Corner or Across the Globe (Hardcover)

If you are working in the retail industry this book will be of interest to you. In it the authors detail how to start or buy a retail business as well as how to revive a failing one. This is not just another book on retail theories. Arthur Rubinfeld has worked with the likes of Starbucks, Oakley, Gateway, and many other highly successful retailers. Co-author Collins Hemmingway also co-authored Bill Gates' best selling book Business @ the Speed of Thought.

The authors provide a step-by-step process focusing on all aspects of a successful retail business including branding, location, employees, customers, finance, and business planning. The book is well organized and follows the normal business growth model from planning and implementing your first store through expansion to using innovation as a way to grow beyond the limits of your current product line or customer profile. Of course such a book would not be thorough if it didn't include information on pitfalls to avoid and the authors do not disappoint the reader in this area either. With solid advice in how to be a success in your retail business Built for Growth is a recommended read.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sound ideas for opening or expanding a business., August 12, 2005

By 

Charles Ashbacher (Marion, Iowa United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Built for Growth: Expanding Your Business Around the Corner or Across the Globe (Hardcover)

Arthur Rubinfeld is the person given the credit for managing the expansion of the Starbucks chain from 100 stores to almost 4,000 worldwide. Therefore, his ideas for how to successfully expand a business should be taken seriously on that basis alone. However, his ideas are so sound that they would be worth considering even if he did not have the track record of success.
One of the primary ideas is the obvious one that location matters. His examination of the value of location deviates from what most people would consider sensible. For some businesses, he points out that having competitors nearby is an asset. For example, if you have a coffeeshop, then having similar shops nearby can be an advantage. Your area can then be known as a place to hang out, so people will travel to that area and the increase in overall traffic will lead to more business for yourself.
Another idea is that the external and internal ambience of your business can make a big difference. The overall customer experience can be substantially altered by simple changes in design, so one must be very careful to do it right. Or if you do it wrong the first time, do not hesitate to correct your error. Rubinfeld puts forward some case studies of how businesses organized the presentation of their goods and the flow of their customers. Some business strategies that appear sound can be counter-productive. For example, having a cashier ask the customer that is checking out if they found everything they were looking for will often have negative consequences. If the customer replies in the negative and there is a long line, there is little the cashier can do to rectify the situation. Any attempt to aid the customer will only annoy the other customers standing in line to pay. By this time, the customer is also probably too frustrated to want to go back and find what they were looking for. Therefore, the time to aid the customer is when they are in the retail area and not in the check out line.
For many, success can be a curse, as the adjustments that need to be made when a business grows too rapidly can be very difficult to manage. There are many cases where a business was initially successful, only to struggle to manage the rapid growth. Most of these businesses are eventually purchased by larger organizations that have experience in managing growth or who are so large that the growth of the small business is tiny relative to their overall organization.
This is an excellent book on how to open a new business as well as how to expand the number of elements in a chain. If there is one thing that must be kept in mind when an additional store is opened, it is that each one is different. It is only by knowing that each one is in some sense a new business that it is possible to expand from 100 to nearly 4,000 stores. A well-known brand can get you started, but it is the quality of the product and the way it is delivered that will keep you going. Rubinfeld understood this and after reading the book, you will as well.