Customer Reviews

The Impossible Advantage: Winning the Competitive Game by Changing the Rules

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Combining many years of successful business and consulting experiences, the three authors offer a novel perspective on thinking "outside the box" of marketplace dogma. They have devised a disciplined approach to identifying and instituting winning competitive strategies, easily applied by knowledgeable marketplace participants, and have described many compelling real life case studies illustrating their approach. As noted by Maurice Levy, CEO of Publicis Groupe, the book is a "must read for all marketing and advertising people." Indeed, it should be absorbed by managers in all types of business and professional pursuits.

I don't usually like business books, especially since I've retired from corporate life. But this one is pretty good.

It offers a practical method to generate fresh thinking to break free from the conventional wisdom and see a business from an entirely new perspective. I've read a lot of books and was exposed to many trendy techniques for doing that which were utter garbage. The most robotic conformity I ever saw was at "think outside the box" meetings at IBM. This book is not one of those.

The paradigm is that of a game, like baseball, which is played on two levels. A game itself is played according to rules on the baseball diamond -- nine innings, three outs, etc. That is the first level. The second is that there exist league organizations that rewrite the rules. Clearly rewriting the rules can completely change outcomes of games. Subtract one run for every five errors and a different kind of team might win the pennant. Applying this to business, the existing competitive practices and players are the first level. They are playing a game according to the existing rules. A player, or a new entrant, can change those rules. This is a key insight, that players can change the rules during the game and don't need anyone's permission to do it. There is no "league" management.

Red Bull could never succeed as another soda pop against Coke and Pepsi. But as the originator of a new market -- "energy drink"-- not only does it succeed but Coke and Pepsi, despite their great resources cannot overcome being the "copy" to Red Bull's "original" and cannot overtake it. So Red Bull changed the game from "soda pop", where Coke was the Yankees, to "energy drink" where Red Bull is the Yankees and Coke is the Cubs.

This and other examples, drawn from the consulting experience of the authors, are interesting and support the thesis well. I also think that the game playing perspective has application outside of business. The book has sparked off a firecracker string of ideas for me having to do with how I see my life and goals outside of financial issues. Redefining problems leads to different solutions.

Five stars. Buy this one.

Full disclosure: One of the authors is my boss. But boy, after reading this book do I have an idea why he became the boss. It's the way brilliant marketing minds think. Big. Radical. Game-changing.

Like Red Bull who took on Coke. Their soda tasted horrible. They called it "energy drink" and by that changed the rules. Coca-Cola looked almost wimpy. Game, set and match.

Apple's Steve Jobs took geeky, complex MP3 players and turned them into overpriced lifestyle must-haves. Game changed, competition dwarfed.

This book has dozens of such examples, all from the real world. Some big (like the iPod and Red Bull) some from small and medium-sized businesses that the authors advise about strategic marketing, branding, positioning, growth, competitive strategy and innovation. From technology to pharmaceuticals, they cover a wide range of industries.

And I have to say: Once you get into their mindset after reading the first chapter or two, your brain works differently. This book should need a prescription for its mind-altering properties!

The next day, you go to work and question everything about your market. Your product, your position, your distribution, your brand, your pricing - and most importantly your competition.

You now think like Steve Jobs and the guy with the unspellable name who founded Red Bull (Dietrich Mateschitz). Your competitors don't because they have not read this book.

Now it's your turn. You can crush them. Because you know how to change the rules of the game. They still simply play along.

Wimps.

By the way: Two of the authers also wrote What Makes Winning Brands Different: The Hidden Method Behind the World's Most Successful Brands - a veritable Financial Times bestseller.