Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
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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.

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.

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.

Previously, Champy argued in Reengineering the Corporation (1993) that "companies need to change radically and be managed from a process perspective," in Reengineering Management (1995) he contended that "leaders had to change their way of thinking before they could change their organizations," and then in X-Engineering (2002) he made the case that "process change must extend outside the company walls to suppliers, customers, and business partners." What we have in his newest book is a brilliant research-driven analysis of eight results-driven companies that he and his associates selected from among about 1,000 high-velocity businesses with growth rates about 15%. More specifically, they examine their revenue producing ideas that are "neither hypothetical nor based on esoteric technologies. They don't require hundreds of millions of venture capital dollars or the vast sums from stock offerings to implement. " Champy then makes an especially important point: "Rather, they are strategies that any business leader can easily and immediately understand."

These are the eight exemplary companies that have outsmarted their competition, not only surviving but growing, gaining more of the supply of their customers, forcing their rivals "to adapt or die": Sonicbids, MinuteClinic, Smith & Wesson, Shutterfly, S.A. Robotics, Jibbitz and Crocs, Partsearch, and SmartPak. Few of those who read this book will recognize most of them by name. (I recognized only Smith & Wesson and Crocs.) Champy devotes a separate chapter to each. All of them "have found the holy grail of strategy: an unmet customer need."

I especially appreciate Champy's use of several reader-friendly devices, notably a periodic insertion of what he believes are key points, with a larger font size and in bold face; also a "Get Smart" insights concerning each exemplary company, and then a "Questions to Ask Yourself" at the conclusion of each chapter. It would be a disservice to both Champy and to those who read this review to provide an example of the "Get Smart" and "Questions to Ask Yourself" material. They are best revealed with the narrative, in context. However, I have decided to provide a representative selection of key points, and do so for two reasons: They suggest the thrust and flavor of Champy's reasoning and writing skills, and because they are relevant to any company (regardless of size or nature) that now struggle to increase customer and market share by outsmarting their competitors, forcing them "to adapt or die."

"We tend to compartmentalize our knowledge, neglecting to apply a lesson we learned to a problem that comes up in another context." (Page 62)

"The ultimate proof of the value of a product or service is that someone is willing to pay for it." (Page 92)

Note: This point reminds me of what Warren Buffett once suggested, that "price is what is charged but value is what others think it is worth."

With regard to outsourcing, "The key is to know what you are really good at, what makes you distinctive, and therefore, what you need to keep in-house." (Page 108)

"The combination of ease of access, almost unlimited choice, and competitive pricing is hard to beat." (Page 143)

"Companies that outsmart the competition look for dramatic [but prudent] growth, while incumbent businesses are content with incremental growth." (Page 165)

Having read and then re-read this book, here are three reasons why I think it is Champy's most valuable contribution to knowledge leadership this far. First, unlike in his previous books, there is an almost total absence of theories, hypotheses, methodologies, and formulas. On the contrary, as he repeatedly stresses throughout his narrative, what "works" for each of the eight companies may not necessarily produce desired results for another, even if attempted by any of the other seven. One of his recurrent themes is "learn by doing." With all due respect to the entertaining as well as informative vignettes he provides, Champy notes that "each example in this book is unique, and none of these companies has a formula you can follow without changes to how you operate." Let's say that outsmarting the competition, forcing rivals "to adapt or die" is the given vision. Thomas Edison was right: "Vision without execution is hallucination."Champy helps his reader to understand how to learn more by doing more and doing it better. But first, businesses must know both who they are and who they aren't.

Also, Champy recalls Charles Darwin's three basic declarations: Species always breed beyond available resources; those with favorable variations have a greater chance of survival and pass along their variations to their offspring; and, adapted species force out weaker ones, producing whole new species. A comparable process of natural selection occurs in a business world that "has never been more complex, volatile, and demanding, yet so full of opportunity." Champy goes on to suggest that, in fact, "the business world has become a great dynamo of fascinating new practices that can sharpen any company's competitive edge." One of the greatest benefits to be gained from this book is the development of an adaptive mindset, one that enables those who possess it to respond quickly and effectively to sudden and often unexpected challenges.

Finally, Champy devotes most of his attention to the "what" and "why" of successful competition, then steps aside and allows the CEOs of the exemplary companies explain in their own words the "how" of what they did (and didn't do) to outperform their rivals. Their efforts were guided and informed by Peter Drucker's advice to know where you are, where you want to be, and how to get there. Advice such as this from a wide variety of sources (including the CEOs of the exemplary companies) is seamlessly integrated within Champy's narrative. Once readers absorb and digest that advice, they must then select whatever is most relevant their own organization and then it adapt to the formulation and execution of an appropriate strategy. Moreover, they need to keep in mind that today's "holy grail" (i.e. an unmet customer need) will soon become obvious to everyone else. Hence the importance of continuous and rigorous adaptation. This is not an operations manual; rather, a manifesto. Its central idea? Adapt or perish.

Those who share my high regard for this volume are urged to check out Champy's earlier works as well as Jason Jennings' Think Big, Act Small: How America's Best Performing Companies Keep the Start-Up Spirit Alive, two books by Henry Chesbrough (Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating And Profiting from Technology and his more recent Open Business Models: How to Thrive in the New Innovation Landscape), and Corporate Agility: A Revolutionary Model for Competing in a Flat World co-authored by Charles E. Grantham, James P. Ware, and Cory Williamson. Also Kevan Hall's Speed Lead: Faster, Simpler Ways to Manage People, Projects and Teams in Complex Companies, Dean R. Spitzer's Transforming Performance Measurement: Rethinking the Way We Measure and Drive Organizational Success, and Enterprise Architecture as Strategy: Creating a Foundation for Business Execution co-authored by Jeanne W. Ross, Peter Weill, and David Robertson.

Champy looks at several case studies and draws overarching lessons from them: never forget the value of a brand and make good use of it( the turnaround of Smith and Wesson); widen your frame to see posssibilites but focus your resulting efforts(MinuteClinic saw the need for people needing a quick medical fix but didn't try to be all things to all people); talk to what you may see as potential competitors and make them allies(MinuteClinic reached out to hospitals and doctors and educated them on what they did and more importantly did not do); look to piggy back on an exisitng phenom(a company that started a decorating service for those buying Crocs). He ends up with a good summary of points he has made and reminds us to be flexible, have a bias to action, and to value your gut. The book has easy to read type, lots of bullet points and checkmarks, and a clean and fresh look.

This book is completely different than previous books by Jim Champy. You could give a copy of it - and I have already given copies - to students, to entrepreneurs, and to anyone who is interested in business.
'Outsmart!' is filled with surprising, and somewhat counterintuitive, lessons learned from companies that have achieved super-high growth for at least 3 straight years. I was not disappointed by the amazing experience of the founders of new enterprises (such as Sonicbids and MinuteClinic), but I was stunned by what can be done in the context of 'incumbent' organizations (such as Smith & Wesson).
Jim Champy states his case clearly: there is not much new in management, but there sure is a lot that's new in business.

I read a TON of business books (you can see my reviews on [...]) every year. I don't remember how I got this on my WishList, but I went for it. Judging by Jim's credentials, I really thought this would be a great read, full of good stuff.

I hate to say it, I walked away quite disappointed. There were some kernels of good stuff and perhaps I am not savvy enough to appreciate the knowledge he dropped on us, but I didn't find this to be a smooth read, nor did I find this to be profound in the sense of "oh, awesome, I didn't think of that."

Usually, I dog ear, underline, and highlight. By the time I got to the middle, I was scanning and skimming, wondering if I should just call it quits.

Writing a book is really hard work and Mr. Champy is undoubtedly a super smart guy. Sometimes, however, that doesn't translate to the written word.

You often hear professional athletes and coaches say that the best game plan is ultimately the one that wins. Similarly within the business arena, the strategy that drives growth in a competitive environment usually comes out on top. Jim Champy's book Outsmart! is a diagnostic gem that dissects the best strategies of several of the most successful companies that have demonstrated rocketing growth for at least three consecutive years as they strive to "outsmart" the competition. But he doesn't stop there. From those proven strategies he outlines eight things that your organization can do to spark your own hyper growth trajectory. Additionally, the author offers original insights regarding positioning, sustainable advantages as well as how these companies attained their success. All of which further helps the reader chart their own path toward dizzying growth with the endgame of outsmarting competitors. That's the reason why Soundview gives a resounding recommendation for this book.

"Outsmart" is a series of short studies describing eight fast-growth companies. Readers can hopefully generalize from the thinking involved to create new ideas for themselves.

The first involved a new company called "Sonicbids," where music promoters (about 10,000) can list the events for which they need musicians, and the 120,000 musician-members can look over the list and make their contacts. The total market involved is estimated at $15 billion, with about 90% too small for the standard approach to the business. Yet, there is about $2.5 billion in wedding business/year alone. Musician-members pay an annual fee to Sonicbids, as well as a small per event fee to promoters who guarantee they will review the submitted material.

The second example is about "Minute Clinic" - kiosks staffed by nurse-practitioners to provide easily accessible basic medical care at low costs. Software directs strict protocols and screening procedures to confirm a diagnosis and rule out really serious conditions. Each kiosk also has a physician on-call for any doubts or special concerns. Most patients are treated within 15 minutes; those delayed receive pagers allowing them to shop in the surrounding store. CVS Pharmacy has since bought out the concept - obviously benefiting from the prescriptions written as an outcome of the process.

An interesting set of mini-case-studies involving new thinking in today's world.

Is your company an "incumbent" firm, stuck in the mud and going nowhere? Or is it a bold, visionary enterprise, able to see and exploit new business opportunities that incumbent firms miss or are too frightened to pursue? In his new book, business guru Jim Champy, co-author of Reengineering the Corporation, discusses how visionary "smart firms" seize the future while incumbent firms let it pass them by. Even while cautioning that surely some middle ground exists, getAbstract warmly recommends this book, and its fascinating case histories. You'll want to read it if you are responsible for strategy and growth at your firm.