Outsmart!: How to Do What Your Competitors Can't [Hardcover]

Jim Champy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 7, 2008 | ISBN-10: 0132357771 | ISBN-13: 978-0132357777 | Edition: 1

“Champy’s engaging prose, fascinating success stories, penetrating reflections, and provocative challenges to the status quo capture your full attention from the first page to the last and leave your mind swirling with new thoughts about how to exploit opportunities in a very different world.”
– Ray Stata, Founder and Chairman of the Board, Analog Devices, Inc.

 

“To outsmart or be outsmarted, that is the question in modern business. Jim Champy has found the answer, in fact many answers, by looking inside amazingly successful companies. And he tells their simple stories in this book that is so delightfully short it can be read on one flight.”

– Dr. Robert “Bob” Metcalfe, General Partner, Polaris Venture Partners

 

“In this remarkably readable and incisive book, Jim Champy provides case studies of fast growing, innovative companies that have created and implemented successful strategies that are practical, market tested, and reproducible in today’s global marketplace.”

– Denis A. Bovin, Vice Chairman, Investment Banking, Bear Stearns & Co., Inc .

 

“This book shows how to spot opportunities in a world that looks, at times,
like everything is done. Jim has strung together nine pearls that reveal the essence of entrepreneurship.”
– Gururaj “Desh” Deshpande, Founder and Chairman, Sycamore Networks, Inc.

 

Author of ReEngineering the Corporation
A New York Times Best Seller & More than 3 Million Copies Sold

 

Jim Champy revolutionized business with Reengineering the Corporation. Now, in Outsmart! he’s doing it again. This concise, fast-paced book shows how you can achieve breakthrough growth by consistently outsmarting your competition. Champy reveals the surprising, counterintuitive lessons learned by companies that have achieved super-high growth for at least three straight years. Drawing on the strategies of some of today’s best “high velocity” companies, he identifies eight powerful ways to compete in even the roughest marketplace. You’ll discover how to find distinctive market positions and sustainable advantages in products, services, delivery methods, and unexpected customers with unexpected needs.

 

How to reignite growth by…

•   Seeing what others don’t

•   Breaking free of mental legacies

•   Using all you know

•   Changing your frame of reference

•   Tapping others’ successes

•   Creating order out of chaos

•   Simplifying complexity

•   Doing everything yourself

 

there is not much new in management.

but there is a lot new in business.

 

Want more? Check out the e-book collection, Jim Champy on What's Really Working in Business.  This brand new collection contains state-of-the-art business insights from world-renowned expert Jim Champy…now in a convenient e-format, at a great price!

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Champy provides case studies of eight exemplary companies, each highlighting a valuable insight for discovering opportunities. Each vignette describes a different business environment, making the book widely applicable. It differs from most innovation books (e.g., the highly regarded The Game-Changer, by A. G. Lafley and Ram Charan, 2008) by its external orientation. Champy recommends studying the environment first, then changing the firm to address newly discovered opportunities, which is opposite to the strategy presented in The Game-Changer." Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduate and graduate students as well as practitioners. --  J.J. Janney, University of Dayton (Reviewed in 9/2008 CHOICE)

About the Author

Jim Champy is one of the leading management and business thinkers of our time. His first best seller, Reengineering the Corporation, remains the bible for executing process change. His second book, Reengineering Management, another best seller, was recognized by Business Week as one of the most important books of its time. But Champy is also an experienced manager and advisor. He is the Chairman of Consulting for Perot Systems. He speaks and writes with the authority of real business experience and brings pragmatism to the world of business. In this new series of books, Champy looks at what’s working today for high-growth businesses. Champy observes that there is not much new in management, but there is a lot new in business–and a lot to learn from what’s new.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: FT Press; 1 edition (March 7, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0132357771
• ISBN-13: 978-0132357777
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.9 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,137,511 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jim Champy is one of the leading thinkers in business. His first book, Reengineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution, a New York Times Bestseller with more than 3 million copies sold, helped transform the corporate world. His global bestsellers also include X-Engineering the Corporation: Reinventing Your Business in the Digital Age; Reengineering Management; and The Arc of Ambition. Champy's most recent books, OUTSMART! and INSPIRE!, examine the future of business in the digital age. Champy is an advisor to multiple health care organizations on issues of strategy and operations. He continues to work in the corporate world and serves on the boards of several public and private institutions.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The new 'Good to Great' March 6, 2008

By Charles Decker

Format:Hardcover

I got an early copy of this book because I write reviews for a couple of the major business journals. I think it is absolutely terrific. Often missing from otherwise good books are real-world case studies to help illustrate the points in the narrative. This book is chock-full of them, and they are often eye-opening. Champy has spent a good deal of time researching some of the businesses that have reinvented themselves [Smith & Wesson is a fascinating example] as well as creating whole new models for the online world [Sonicbids]. And don't think it's all a Pollyanna approach, as the author also dissects several major business failures, including Swiss Air.

The thread that runs through this book is its focus on people who see opportunities where others don't, and it's a great one. Books about creativity and innovation are often a little thin when it comes to practical storytelling. Not this one. Some of my readers e-mail me every so often asking for suggestions on what they should pick up after 'Good to Great.' It has been a while since 'The Great Red Book'. This book, in my opinion, is a truly worthy successor.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Uncovering Opportunity by Identifying Asymmetry & Complexity April 22, 2008

By Wm. Caleb McCann

Format:Hardcover

OutSmart! provides clear and useful examples of companies that have successfully uncovered business opportunities by identifying asymmetry and complexity. It also provides a gentle reminder that astute thinking and swift execution are major advantages in our "complex, volatile and demanding" business world. Mr. Champy does this through a series of readable studies of eight exemplary companies. Each study is concluded with actionable thinking exercises and questions that can be applied across industries and business opportunities.

A primary reason why OutSmart! is a worthy business book is its distinct avoidance of prescriptive modeling. Each business success profiled is unique to that company. The book's examples are of companies that thought differently when confronted with unique business circumstances and uncovered monetizable opportunities. Champy reminds us that true competitiveness is uniqueness and this uniqueness is not discovered or established once, but must be continually updated and adapted to meet ever-changing customer needs. There is no way of fixing, modeling or formalizing uniqueness in such a way that will ensure competitiveness. What Mr. Champy demonstrates in OutSmart! is that companies who operate outside tradition, and remain flexible enough to not become tradition, will dominate the future.

Some of the topics covered by Mr. Champy in OutSmart! may seem obvious, especially immediately after reading it. However, it is important to read the book with a healthy skepticism of your own hindsight bias. For example, all of the companies profiled in OutSmart! have a strong relationship with their customers and focus relentlessly on improving customer service. Most companies today habitually tout that staying attuned with customers (customer service) is their strength, a source of competitive advantage. If customer service is so apparent, why do so many companies fail at the obvious? OutSmart! provides an apt reminder that just knowing something intellectually is not enough; we need to successfully execute and continually improve on this knowledge for it to be a source of competitive advantage.

I look forward to the next volume; this book is the first of a four volume series.

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars That Smarts May 1, 2008

By Bill Wood

Format:Hardcover

I admit it; I am a business book junkie. I read dozens of books on the most unusual facets of business. It is often the case that I finish a book and I wonder what it was that drew me to make the purchase. OUTSMART was a classic draw. Who wouldn't want to be smarter than everyone else, certainly I would. So once again I made another purchase much to the chagrin of my family who are being crowded out of our home by my books.

I suppose I found the book challenging from the very beginning of the book. One statement that practically slapped me down was Champy's statement that, "...if it works it must be right." How many business leaders profiled by leading business magazines followed the principle of pragmatism during the 80's and 90's,and were hailed as the second coming of a leadership revolution, only to be dismissed from the organizations that they plunged into ruin. But I pressed on; I had after all made the investment.

I was then treated to a biology 101 overview of Darwin's great contribution to business thinking. Personally, I found this supposition tenuous at best. At the very least it was an honest opportunity to understand Champy's intellectual foundation which no doubt colors his approach to business. I am probably in a minority here, but I find this presupposition to be somewhat antithetical to what it means to be a good business person.

Notwithstanding the early disconnect with the author and his philosophical point of view, I plowed on through the book and as is often the case, I found some things of interest. How can one not be intrigued by the creativity displayed in the book, of people who by the sheer force of their imagination or perception of an unserved need bring to market a product or service that improves the quality of life for others? You got to love that.

I suppose we have three other volumes to look forward to in this series, I may be hard pressed to complete my set of four. I will just have to see. However, if it has a catchy title and appealing cover, I could easily be drawn in and make yet another purchase.