Customer Reviews

How to Grow When Markets Don't

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I am a fan of Slywotzky. I believe he is one of the best in the area of Strategy. This book, however, has been a real disappointment for me.

The argument in the book is that, in mature economies/markets, many firms have come to a point where growth by traditional means is no longer feasible. That is, firms have to think of means other than new product innovation, M&A, international expansion and pricing. The most clever route to growth, the authors say, is "demand innovation", i.e. to find out new revenue generation areas which were not thought of by your company or by your customers before. In order to do that, i.e. to create a new-generation demand, you must first consider your hidden assets and second analyze your customers. When you find areas of friction in your customers' processes and when you can use your hiden assets to improve those processes, you are into next-generation demand.

The idea sounds excellent. In fact, it is excellent. However the method suggested for working out new demand areas is not new at all. First of all, the hidden assets concepts is ver much like the "core competencies" as put forward by Hamel&Prahalad in "Competing for the Future". It is exactly the same theme. Moreover, eliminating the customers'/clients' frictions is also not a very new idea. You can find a much more elaborate and admirable version of this idea in McGrath&MacMillan's "The Entrepreneurial Mindset". This latter work is a million times better as regards the robustness of the methodology.

So, the whole book, in a nutshell, boils down to two suggestions:

1. Study your B2B client's internal processes and see if you can make them outsource some of their sub-processes to your company so that you "innovate" a revenue area which was not thought before (at least by you). So, "demand innovation" reduces to finding new areas for outsourcing, but from a sub-contractors' point of view.
2. Develop some of your core competencies to such levels of efficiency that you can conduct those services much more efficiently for your client than if they did it themselves.

The book has "few" detailed case studies for supporting these ideas. But only one or two are thought-provoking (Cardinal Health especially).

A good portion of the book is devoted to suggestions regarding corporate-culture for promoting next-generation demand thinking. What kind of a corporate culture, management approach and leadership structure are conducive to transforming your company into a demand-innovator? This portion is also about stating what is already known. There isn't anything novel and interesting.

There is a reference to a web-site of the book, claiming that there is considerable support stuff in there. However the material in the web-site is terribly shallow and looks more like a marketing gimmick to attract readers to MERCER web-site. In any case, if there is more useful stuff which is necessary, why not put them in the book in the first place?

In conclusion, I thought the book was not worth reading. It could be written in four or five pages, including the case studies. I could have read the above editorails and suffice with what was explained there. That is all you need. I wasted my time, you don't waste yours.

I am very cynical about business books. I typically read two or three chapters and then put them down. Frankly, I think most of them are junk. They state the obvious about age-old management problems. They also tend to be obsessively focused on the internal dynamics and structure of a company.

I took a chance with this book after hearing Mr. Slywotzky on the radio and realizing that I still had a decent balance on an Amazon gift certificate. As the owner/operator of a small wire manufacturing company, the messages about the problems of commoditization and global overcapacity hit home with me. My company has always focused on staying in niche businesses that were not quite large enough to be of interest to larger manufacturers. It worked well for literally decades until about a year and a half ago when we found that a certain "small" product line was not too small to escape the attention of some mainland Chinese businesses. After taking a 60% gross margin haircut (Ouch!!!) to retain the business, I started to become very scared.

At this same time in another product line, we began manufacturing some equipment to more easily dispense an oscillated wire product. We luckily decided to lease this machine rather than sell it, and it has become a lynchpin in our ability to establish and maintain a dominant position in this market. As this machinery has evolved, it also became the rough outline of a business model that I continue to try to pursue. This book is a very good refinement of my rough idea plus a lot more. I intend to try to use the authors' ideas to think about a new product line that has some disruptive elements to it(yes, I think that Clayton Chritensen is worthwhile, too).

I may just like this book because they are preaching to the choir, and I feel that I have arrived at a lot of the same conclusions, albeit in much rougher form, on my own. One thing that I do know is that all the games of incremental, internal change are not enough when mainland China shows up in your backyard.

P.S. - One thing the authors' don't touch on much, but that should be noted is that the ones who are most responsible for commoditizing your products are your own customers. You can be sure that the bigger they are, the more sophisticated the sourcing organization that they have in Asia.

Given that the US economy continues to sputter along and the
opportunities for growth in many industries remain scarce, I think that
this book is should be on every manager's "to read" list for its fresh
point of view on the issue of how to grow a large, mature business.
Slywotzky and Wise' argument that in today's economic climate
traditional product innovation supported by global expansion and
acquisitions will no longer be sufficient for most companies runs
against traditional growth thinking but struck a chord with me.

They go on to offer valuable guidance, supported by a variety of
compelling and fresh examples, on how companies in mature industries can
find new growth by identifying customer "higher order needs" that
represent new opportunities and then using their "hidden assets" to meet
these needs profitably.

The book also departs from many other management/strategy books in
addressing head-on the organizational challenges associated with making
new growth concepts work in large companies. I found the description of
organizational barriers to growth hauntingly familiar and the
prescriptions on how to work around them practical and well-grounded in
the real world experiences of the companies profiled.

If I have any criticism of the book, it is that I would have liked to
have seen more discussion around shorter-term growth tactics. The
authors do devote a chapter to this topic, with some interesting
examples of ways to pursue higher order growth right now, but in today's
environment, the importance of short-term improvement can't be
overstated.

All in all, Slywotzky and Wise have come up with thought-provoking
manifesto for finding a path to growth amid a stagnant economy.

I frequently refer to Adrian Slywotzky's previous books as we respond to a rapidly changing market environment among our software customers, and found How to Grow to be a very useful source of new ideas. Slywotzky and co-author Rick Wise concisely frame the growth challenge faced in many industries today, and help the reader in identifying several tangible options for driving revenue and profitability, even in the current market.

The overall format is familiar to readers of Slywotzky's Profit Zone: The first chapter describes the challenge and suggests a response. The middle chapters provide fresh case studies that illustrate how companies across a range of industries have successfully overcome declining growth trends in their traditional business model. The final chapters bring together the common themes from the case examples, and construct an initial set of tools that a leadership team can use can use to identify tangible new opportunities in their own business.

The factors driving the growth challenge--- maturity and commoditization of many key product lines, decreasing returns to new product and line extension investment, increasing saturation of new geographic markets, limited remaining industry consolidation opportunity in many markets, to name a few-are becoming well understood. Forbes publisher Rich Karlgaard frequently writes that even the tech industry is waking up to find that many more customers care about products being cheaper than being faster. Slywotzky and Wise don't dwell on this topic, but encourage the reader to ask which drivers may be slowing growth in their own industry.

I found the examples of "demand innovation" to be particularly helpful. These are drawn from a range of industries, presumably including several of Slywotzky's and Wise's consulting clients. Many examples are industries seldom used as case studies on the business speaker circuit, including check printing, lawn care equipment, and automobiles. The fresh material is very instructive. It is quite likely that the reader will find a case example that provides a close analogy to his or her own business.

As with the Profit Zone, the book concludes by providing an outline and set of tools of how to engage an organization in a process to define their own growth challenge and identify actionable responses. It doesn't try to be a recipe book, but it's a very helpful "preflight check list", which increases the likelihood that a valuable opportunity isn't overlooked. The menu of options emphasizes the importance of understanding the customer structure, the customer's activity chain around the product, and the value of the information created in the interaction with the customers. Even companies that have implemented effective downstream business models are likely to find ideas that help extend the creativity in identifying new opportunities.

I read through the book quickly to understand the major themes and keep it handy as a reference when developing new initiatives.

This book is very good, filled with useful ideas.

The authors analyze companies from a variety of industries, many of which faced low growth or no growth markets, and identify the innovations in thought and practices that laid the foundation for future, sustained growth.

They provide the kind of ideas, grounded in real-world examples, that will help you to find and apply new approaches to trigger growth in your business. In the tradition of other good books, this book prompts you to ask the right questions, ending each chapter with a series of questions to help you to capitalize on your business' unique strengths and hidden assets.

A worthwhile read.

After reading a number of books on business growth, this book turns out to be the one that resonates with me. While some argue that the content isn't original, it is well presented and that's what's important. The book offers a lot of value, regardless of the maturity of markets.

The book focuses specifically on an organization's offerings. It doesn't attempt to address growth avenues based on other business facets - like distribution, etc. It helps avoid the bells-and-whistles trap. By looking around an offering in multiple directions, it is possible to find new business opportunities. It is obvious, beyond the examples in the book, that many organizations have successfully applied this method.

I used this book more like a work book. It did two things: 1) affirmed existing ideas and 2) unearthed new ideas. I now have a concrete and viable plan for growth.

Mr Slywotzky is a business consultant, who has written some books related to value creation and growth. In this case he gives alternative growth recipies.

According to the author after a certain time companies reach a limit of growth since they have exhausted all the obviuos moves: expand geographically, innovate products and make acquisitions. The solution is creating new offerings along the value chain of the existing customer base (the idea up to here not very innovative). To do so companies should concentrate in what Mr Slywotzky calls the hidden assets which is probably the best idea of the book. Hidden assets are not related to the accounting term but to things that a company does or owns during its normal business activity. An example are customer relationships that can be leveraged to create new growth if there are other companies that are interested in your existing customer base. The cooking list of hidden assets is quite comprehensive, you have to put some life in it. Later examples follow of companies using these concepts to create new growth are among others: GM, Air Liquide or John Deere.

The second part of the book deals with the hidden liabilities (all those things that impede growth) which sound more familiar, and how to implement new ideas in an existing organisation, probably the main reason for innovation failure. The author exposes some ideas on how a possible structure in the company might look like and showing the key role of the middle manager in implementation or a monday morning laundry list to make start easy.

As many business books it relies strongly in the personal experience of the author. Not the best, but the ideas of hidden assets and the how-to part have some value. Whether you think it might be workable in your organization is another issue.

Leaders of established companies are now finding it harder to earn additional revenue. Authors Adrian Slywotzky and Richard Wise say managers must realize that the old reliable revenue sources - brand extensions, mergers, international growth - just aren't panaceas any more. The answer, they say, is "demand innovation." That means proactively making business more efficient for your suppliers upstream and your customers downstream. The authors bolster their argument with detailed, relevant case studies involving the likes of Cardinal Health, GM's OnStar, Virgin, Johnson Controls and many more. The case studies mostly manage to avoid the breathy, laudatory treatment that is virtually de rigueur when consultants write about their corporate subjects. The authors' "invisible balance sheet" concept is useful. They also provide seven immediate steps companies can take to improve earnings, even if they can't create fresh revenue streams. Because this book offers practical applications, as well as theoretical strategic insights, we recommends it to managers in established companies.

I've read three of Adrian Slywotzky's books during the last twelve months and I'm deeply inspired by his bright ideas on the art of profitability. This book focuses on how to profit via growth.

The key chapters are those that lay out the concepts behind "hidden assets" (that can be exploited to create value in new markets) and "demand innovation" (how to explore new ways to solve unmet customer needs via external analysis).

This is the universe of HIDDEN ASSETS that may be leveraged in a growth strategy:
1) Traditional Intellectual assets (intellectual property, competency/skills, and brand).
2) Customer relationships (reach/many, interaction/deep or frequent contact, insight/knowledge, authority/reputation).
3) Strategic real estate (unique value chain position, competitive market position, portal/gateway).
4) Networks (third-party relationships/partners, installed base/post-sale owners, user community, and deal flow/preferential access to potential transactions/M&As).
5) Information (market window/superior insight, technical know-how, software and systems, by-product information).

I found many of the case stories very inspiring, although the well-explained out-of-the-box story of "Cardinal Health" stood out as the most exciting.

The book draws on Slywotzky's previous books. It pursues the eternal theme ... that the path to profitability lies in truly understanding your current and future customers.

Being a business development manager, I search for relevant tools to apply the growth ideas to my own business. The cases in the book are very good and on the website for this book - demandinnovation.com -, you'll find the core ideas in a graphical form as well as an excellent 32-page companion workbook on "Getting Started".

I also highly recommend Slywotzky's "Profit Zone" (1997/2002) and "Art of Profitability" (2002). Note that these books present the same 23 profit models, first as a standard business strategy book, then as an easy-to-read novel.

If you're interested in other strategy books on Growth, let me draw your attention to "Blue Ocean Strategy" by Kim & Mauborgne (2005), "Profitable Growth" by Charan (2004), and "Beyond the Core" by Zook (2004).

Peter Leerskov,
MSc in International Business (Marketing & Management) and Graduate Diploma in E-business

I've read three of Adrian Slywotzky's books during the last twelve months and I'm deeply inspired by his bright ideas on the art of profitability. This book focuses on how to profit via growth.

The key chapters are those that lay out the concepts behind "hidden assets" (that can be exploited to create value in new markets) and "demand innovation" (how to explore new ways to solve customer problems via external analysis).

This is the universe of HIDDEN ASSETS that may be leveraged in a growth strategy:
1) Traditional Intellectual assets (intellectual property, competency/skills, and brand).
2) Customer relationships (reach/many, interaction/deep or frequent contact, insight/knowledge, authority/reputation).
3) Strategic real estate (unique value chain position, competitive market position, portal/gateway).
4) Networks (third-party relationships/partners, installed base/post-sale owners, user community, and deal flow/preferential access to potential transactions/M&As).
5) Information (market window, technical know-how, software and systems, by-product information).

I found many of the case stories very inspiring, although the well-explained out-of-the-box story of "Cardinal Health" stood out as the most exciting.

The book draws on Slywotzky's previous books. It pursues the eternal theme ... that the path to profitability lies in truly understanding your current and future customers.

Being a business development manager, I search for relevant tools to apply the growth ideas to my own business. The cases in the book are very good and on the website for this book - demandinnovation.com -, you'll find the core ideas in a graphical form as well as an excellent 32-page companion workbook on "Getting Started".

I also highly recommend Slywotzky's "Profit Zone" (1997/2002) and "Art of Profitability" (2002). Note that these books present the same 23 profit models, first as a standard business strategy book, then as an easy-to-read novel.

If you're interested in other strategy books on Growth, let me draw your attention to "Blue Ocean Strategy" by Kim & Mauborgne (2005), "Profitable Growth" by Charan (2004), and "Beyond the Core" by Zook (2004).

Peter Leerskov,
MSc in International Business (Marketing & Management) and Graduate Diploma in E-business