Customer Reviews

Marketbusters: 40 Strategic Moves That Drive Exceptional Business Growth

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Ignore the glitzy title and concentrate on the solid material which is provided. As the subtitle of this volume correctly indicates, McGrath and MacMillan identify and then explain "40 strategic moves that drive exceptional business growth." Decision-makers in many organizations still do not understand that strategies resemble hammers in that they "drive" tactics which are comparable with nails. Of course, both strategies and tactics must be selected with meticulous care, then implemented effectively. The core of this book involves five strategies to create "marketbusters": Transform the customers' experience, transform your offerings, redefine profit drivers, exploit industry shifts, and consider entering (for you) new markets. No news there. The value of this book is derived from McGrath and MacMillan's explanations of (a) HOW to select the strategies which are most appropriate to your organization's current and imminent needs and (b) WHAT to do when coordinating those strategies with tactics (or "moves") during the implementation process.

To assist that process, they provide "Preparing Yourself: Audit Your Strategy and Clarify Your Process," a self-dianostic which poses most (if not all) of the key questions to be answered and most (if not all) of the key issues to be addressed. Of special interest to me is the provision, also, of a set of "Action Steps" at the conclusion of each chapter. With regard to the "40 Moves," they are organized as follows, accompanied by specific examples: Numbers 1-5 which involve changing the consumption chain (pages 25-39), Numbers 6-12 which various companies have used to shift the attribute maps for their offerings and create marketbusters (pages 54-76, Numbers 13-20 which suggest potential alternatives to a current unit of business (pages 92-113), Numbers 21-32 which can help to structure (or restructure) consideration of possible industrywide shifts (pages 119-148), and Numbers 33-40 which can assist the formulation of a typology of potential opportunity types and an understanding of what achieving success with each may require (pages 156-179).

McGrath and MacMillan then provide a "MarketBuster Case Study" of Royal Insurance Italy in which they demonstrate at least some of the potentialities of the cohesive and comprehensive process previously discussed, followed by an Appendix in which all 40 "Moves" are briefly but thoughtfully reiterated. I strongly recommend to those who read this book that they re-read the Appendix at least monthly so as to be prepared to recognize whichever new growth options and opportunities may emerge since first reading this book.

When concluding this brief commentary, I presume to offer a few caveats. First, beware of what Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton characterize as "The Knowing-Doing Gap" in the book which bears that title. More often than not, decision-makers fail to convert knowledge into action to achieve the desired results. In this context, I am reminded of Coach Darrell Royal's assertion that "potential" means "you ain't done it yet." Also, expect to encounter substantial resistance to change initiatives. For example, what Jim O'Toole characterizes in his book, Leading Change, as "the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom." Moreover, once you have selected the most appropriate strategies, you must obtain buy-in and then maintain a steadfast commitment to them but be prepared to change tactics. Hence the importance of having an early-warning system as you rigorously measure organizational and individual performance. Finally, have a contingency plan in place so that you can respond immediately and effectively whenever new or revised tactics are required.

Better than "Ghostbusters!", this book is most valuable due to its sharp questions and pointed advice to chase away the ghost of slow growth. I'm professionally involved in Private Equity and Venture Capital investing in Germany and internationally. For an investor it is crucial to understand growth drivers and the future growth potential of portfolio companies. The 40 strategic moves and the framework for MarketBusters offer practical guidelines - far more helpful in the day to day business than for example the rather conceptional books of Clayton Christensen. I would highly recommend this book not only to top executives for structuring their companies' growth efforts, but also for investors as guidelines for due diligence questions and better comprehension of growth potentials. Clearly 5 Stars!

If business growth or commercial development is in your job description, then you will want to keep this book at hand. In the first place, it has been written for the practitioner (a point which is deeply appreciated by those of us who hate to wade through heavily footnoted academic works in order to ferret out what might be of practical use). In fact, it almost reminds me of a cookbook - a list of tested recipes you might use to prepare some business growth depending on what materials you have on hand. That is why I keep the book on my desk - it allows me to make a quick assessment of just what I am dealing with along with ways to go about it. The book does assume a certain familiarity with the activities/scenarios that surround growing a business. For a rookie, I'd recommend reading "The Entrepreneurial Mindset" first. Finally, there is a real nugget in this book, which, in my opinion, should not have been relegated to the second-to-the-last chapter. However, starting on page 181, there is a discussion on what it is really like to try to implement these market-busting moves inside a company. Having spent 17 years in industry, most of it in early stage development, I find the organizational difficulties of executing outside the normal parameters to be much harder than any technical or market challenge. This book is one of the few that even begins to address that difficulty and provides strategies to deal with it. This chapter proves that the authors know about the workings of large companies beyond the conceptual level.
In summary, this is a readable, practical, useful, and insightful book - you will not get tired of it.

There are a number of books on the market focused on innovation, and this one is by far the best. McGrath and MacMillan have built upon concepts introduced in The Entrepreneurial Mindset, and have yet again provided actionable strategies for driving extraordinary growth.

MarketBusters provides a disciplined approach toward examining "profit drivers" within a company and developing straight forward strategies for redefining products, processes and business models. Through models and prospecting questions, the book provides a hands-on tool that can be put to use immediately in virtually any business.

For example, identifying what you charge customers for and how you measure profitablity, and changing the game to match customer needs, is an example of a simple, but effective technique for redefining your offerings and developing a defensible competitive position.

I have seen the results of using the concepts in MarketBusters. A must read!

Market Busters, which purports to offer "40 strategic moves that drive exceptional business growth," follows through well on that promise and does exactly that. It's not a book of fluff or platitudes, and every single strategic move in the book is built upon a foundation of time-tested theories and actual, real-world examples. This isn't a motivational book that tells you "you can do it" but rather an extensive study into what has worked (and also what has NOT worked) written for educated people in straight-forward, albeit not "dumbed down" terms.

Here's how the process works for these 40 moves and for this WHOLE book; in my humble opinion, it's a good process, and I learned a lot. It will suggest a business strategy as follows. I'll take one as an example. Move #11: Eliminate Complexity: "...opportunity for what we call radical surgery, a move to dramatically eliminate complexity. Radical surgery is made possible, ironically, by the very efforts of companies to be responsive and to invest in improving their offerings. [...]" Two examples are then provided, one of a stripped-down hotel experience and another of an overly-complicated oven. Finally, prospecting questions are provided for eliminating complexity or executing the strategy move first proposed.

WHO THIS BOOK IS FOR: This book is for serious business people, and people who want to study business as a science and a strategy and not simply as an array of promises and platitudes. I think it is best for someone in a LARGER company or with ABOVE-AVERAGE resources, because a lot of the moves suggest using teams or collections of people, so it is most suitable for corporations and large entities, although for me, it was a pleasure brainstorming experience even as a small business.

Overall, the book is great. It provides a strategic move, talks about it, gives examples, and then asks you prospecting questions or thinking questions to force you to think about the strategy as it applies to your own business. The examples are all real-world and don't always involve success (some show what caused failure). I'd recommend this not only to people already in business but also those planning new ventures.

These 40 moves are practical. With each one I saw ways to get closer to our clients and achieve our objectives. As I read the book, I become anxious to meet with our management team to put several of the strategies in place immediately. One of the best aspects of the book is that it tells you what to do and not to do. The examples punctuate the message. I highly recommend it for teams who run companies!

Linda Richardson
President
Richardson

I had Mac and Rita in class at Wharton. This book is a great example of there commitment to drive market improvements. I have used some of these techniques and they have worked.

This book addresses the challenge of growth through marketing strategy; it focuses on specific types of opportunities and ways to capture them. Based on their research and experience, the authors have distilled forty tactical moves (e.g., eliminate complexity), each of which is presented with a brief set of questions to consider its use. The moves are clustered into five strategies, each having a lens and tool: 1. transform the customer's experience (Lens: customers; Tool: consumption chain analysis); 2. transform your offerings (Lens: products and offerings; Tool: attribute mapping); 3. redefine profit drivers (Lens: key metrics; Tool: unit of business analysis); 4. exploit industry shifts (Lens: industry shifts; Tool: industry shift framework); and 5. enter new markets (Lens: emerging opportunities; Tool: tectonic triggers framework). Each of these is explored in depth, with examples and numerous, detailed guidelines and insights, and much attention to execution (a chapter is devoted to making it happen). A self-audit to assess your strategy and clarify your process is presented at the outset. A chapter devoted to a case study further enriches this excellent book. This book is strong on meaty content. Very highly recommended.

Ian MacMillan was my outstanding professor at Columbia Business School, and his keen insights into what comprises entrepreneurship combined deep, practical expertise and common sense. He hasn't lost his touch with "Market Busters". In a book category dominated by jargon and fads, it is refreshing to find a business text that dispenses wisdom and useful analysis in a manner that reflects today's real business issues and competitive concerns. The case studies and mini case studies format is highly useful. The 40 Market Busting Moves is an excellent and unique analylic resource. A must read!

This book hits the nail on the head in many areas, but its greatest quality is that it is thought provoking. Perhaps your company is stuck in a rut and you need to create ways to get it growing again--this book will help get the thought process going. This could also serve as a team building book in that you could buy a copy for each of your key employees (possibly directors and VPs) and assign them each a chapter to discuss at an upcoming meeting. Then brainstorm after each meeting to implement the best ideas from the brainstorming session.

This is truly a great book that should help any executive or company to stimulate the creative juices. Highly recommended.