Profit Patterns: 30 Ways to Anticipate and Profit from Strategic Forces Reshaping Your Business [Illustrated] [Hardcover]

Ted Moser (Author), Kevin Mundt (Author), James A. Quella (Author), Adrian J. Slywotzky (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 16, 1999

Picasso changed the way we look at art. Profit Patterns will change the way we look at business.Picasso's work reflected the social and technological changes that swept through the early twentieth century. Equally pronounced changes are sweeping through today's business landscape, often at breathtaking speed.
        
Profit Patterns provides a powerful discipline to see order beneath the surface chaos. Pattern thinking helps entrepreneurs, managers, investors, and key talent anticipate the likely direction of changes even before they happen. It reveals the economic meaning of these changes and provides the tools to capitalize on them.
        
Based on groundbreaking research into over two hundred companies in forty industries, from major industrial firms to upstart competitors, Profit Patterns contains a set of ideas and action steps that can be taken by you and your team. Here's a sampling of what you'll find:

Practical  STRATEGIC  ideas:
        
Strategic Anticipation--the ability to "get it," to spot an emerging opportunity and chart a path there before the competition does.
        
Polarization--the winner-takes-all game, and why it's spreading to more and more industries.
        
Mindshare--the importance of seizing and holding on to the attention of key customers, investors, and talent.

Thirty Patterns:
        
A repertoire of moves and countermoves to help you understand and exploit the forces changing your industry. This knowledge base of patterns will allow you to harness the strategic learning of the past two decades, eliminating the need to create strategies from scratch.

In-Depth Examples:

How Cisco Systems, Honeywell, Capital One, SAP, Staples, Nokia, Dell Computer, Amazon.com, and Bang & Olufsen detected patterns in their industries and put them to work and, in many cases, developed an almost insurmountable lead over their competitors.

A Workbook:

An aid to launching your own process of responding to change.

In today's turbulent and discontinuous business world, it's no longer useful to analyze your industry in static, conventional ways. Profit Patterns provides the means to act before the ground shifts beneath you once again. It is the mental operating system for winning when the rules of the game change with such great frequency.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Profit Patterns opens with a series of chaotic paintings by Pablo Picasso. Each piece is increasingly difficult to recognize; the final portrait is little more than a jumble of shapes and colors. But what does Picasso have to do with profitability? By recognizing industry patterns--by seeing the order beneath the surface chaos--managers, investors, and entrepreneurs can prepare for change before it even occurs. And while the Picasso-as-business-strategy metaphor may be a stretch, Slywotzky's theories are fundamentally sound, designed to spot and capitalize upon market trends in an ever-turbulent business world.

Adrian Slywotzky--whose bestselling The Profit Zone explained how profits happen--this time focuses on making sure profits happen. He begins by defining the types of changes common to modern businesses, explaining why polarization is spreading among industries, and emphasizing the importance of mindshare. He then lists the 30 most common patterns that businesses fall into, such as microsegmentation, where "growing customer heterogeneity and increasing customer sophistication change the fundamental nature of the market."

But even if a business is adept at seeing patterns, it's helpless if it can't mobilize its troops in time to capitalize upon pending change. Case studies of successful companies such as Cisco Systems, Nokia, and Dell Computer show how a company can detect industry trends, organize its workforce, and build giant leads over its competition. No wonder Picasso was a good businessman. --Rob McDonald

Review

"Know  the  Forces  Changing  Your  Business...and  How  to  Profit  FROM  Them "Microsoft uses the principles found in Value Migration, The Profit Zone, and now, Profit Patterns, to train our personnel in strategic business thinking. These concepts really generate radically different perspectives and increased creativity in planning for the future."--Bob Herbold, Executive Vice President and COO, Microsoft

"Profit Patterns crisply argues for a radically new approach to strategy. Start-ups and established players alike can harness these ideas to drive competitively superior performance."--Alex J. Mandl, Chairman and CEO, Teligent, Inc.

"Profit Patterns looks at the world of business with remarkable clarity. The authors help sort through the chaos of sensory overload and find patterns. They force you outside your comfort zone, but then take you into a structure of innovation. Profit Patterns can move you from complacency to curiosity, from discomfort to deliberation and purposeful action."--Daniel P. Burnham, President and CEO, Raytheon Company

"Here in the Wild West of the Internet, we will read Profit Patterns and remind ourselves . . . 'It's the customer, stupid!'"--Ted Leonsis, President and CEO, AOL Studios

"Once again, Adrian Slywotzky has struck gold. With Profit Patterns, he builds on his breakthrough thinking in Value Migration and The Profit Zone, which we have incorporated into our strategic planning process. Slywotzky has inspired us to take a fresh look at the way we do business, and has helped us sharpen our focus on delighting customers and creating value for Honeywell shareowners."--Michael R. Bonsignore, Chairman and CEO, Honeywell, Inc.

"Profit Patterns offers a powerful framework for making sense out of a complex and changing business landscape. I hope our managers read it and our competitors don't."--John W. Madigan, Chairman, President, and CEO, Tribune Company

"In consumer financial services, as in so many industries today, the sources of profit are shifting. Banks no longer compete exclusively with banks, as consumers view them as part of a portfolio of financing, cash management, and investing options. In this landscape, anticipating and capturing future sources of value are essential. The insights and examples in Profit Patterns will help management teams to see those opportunities and to make bold and decisive bets with both creativity and confidence."--Donald L. Boudreau, Vice Chairman, The Chase Manhattan Bank

"Success in today's marketplace requires not just anticipating change, but identifying patterns and strategies that move us ahead of change. Adrian Slywotzky and his Mercer colleagues provide an insightful look into that and other dynamics of profitability for the new millennium."--John Alden, Vice Chairman, UPS

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: Crown Business; 1st edition (March 16, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812931181
• ISBN-13: 978-0812931181
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.6 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #728,420 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Who's in Control?, January 5, 2000

By 

Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Profit Patterns: 30 Ways to Anticipate and Profit from Strategic Forces Reshaping Your Business (Hardcover)

As in The Profit Zone, the co-authors pose and then answer key questions. They also provide numerous checklists which enable the thoughtful reader to undertake a rigorous self-diagnosis. For example, in Part II, such questions and checklists direct and enrich understanding of Mega Patterns, Value Chain Patterns, Channel Patterns, Product Patterns, Knowledge Patterns, and Organizational Patterns. In effect, the authors create an infrastructure within which to organize and then correlate the most relevant experiences of dozens of corporations with the specific circumstances of the reader's own organization. Better yet, although most of the corporations discussed are among the "Fortune 100", this infrastructure is of substantial (if not even greater) value to small-to-midsize companies as well.

In Part III, Slywotsky & Morrison explain HOW "Strategic Anticipation" enables managers to anticipate and respond quickly to patterns as they unfold. Strategic Anticipation helps managers to "move where the value will be." Patterns "hint at the future strategic story of a company or industry, explain the past and describe the present."

Those who have not read Profit Patterns and do not plan to do so can only hope is that the same is true of their competitors. But don't bet on it.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reading "Profit Patterns" is A Profitable Use of Your Time, January 29, 2001

By 

Jill Clardy "So many books, so little time...." (Redwood City, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Profit Patterns: 30 Ways to Anticipate and Profit from Strategic Forces Reshaping Your Business (Hardcover)

"Profit Patterns" was an assigned book for the capstone course in the MBA program at Golden Gate University and was an appropriate recommendation for the depth and breadth of coverage it gave to the issue of strategic pattern thinking.

The premise of Profit Patterns by Adrian J. Slywotzky and David J. Morrison is that we learn from experience by studying patterns. Good managers are skilled at strategic pattern recognition and see the whole picture. Industries are reshaped by patterns, which may build slowly or move rapidly, and the ability to recognize and capitalize on these patterns allows an organization to create strategies that lead to sustained value and profitability. In his article titled "Crafting Strategy", Henry Mintzberg, another well known author on the subject of business strategy, indicates that a "key to managing strategy is the ability to detect emerging patterns and help them take shape. The job of the manager is not just to preconceive specific strategies but also to recognize their emergence."

Part I of the book is titled 'The New Game of Business' and describes the changes occurring in business which call for a new skill set. These changes are called Getting It, Polarization and Mindshare. Getting It refers to the ability of managers to become masters of pattern recognition. Instead of seeing chaos, these managers see the strategic pattern unfolding within the complexity, and discover the pattern behind it all. In short, they "get it". Polarization is the result of early recognition and exploitation of patterns in that the company that "got it" first realizes great momentum, its market value explodes and value is no longer proportional; it has polarized. Many examples are given such as Cisco vs. Bay Networks, Coca-Cola vs. Pepsi, and Nike vs. Reebok. Polarization means "winner takes all", and is spreading to other industries. The focus of competition in more and more industries is competition for mindshare, and is crafted as a three-part strategy: 1) mindshare with customers, 2) mindshare with investors and 3) mindshare with talent. Getting It, Polarization and Mindshare are critical skills in the war for dominance in an industry.

Part II of Profit Patterns describes thirty patterns that have affected business designs over the last two decades. The patterns are organized into the following categories:

o Mega - No Profit, Back to Profit, Convergence, Collapse of the Middle, De Factor Standard, Technology Shifts the Board

o Value Chain - Deintegration, Value Chain Squeeze, Strengthening the Weak Link, Reintegration

o Customer - Profit Shift, Microsegmentation, Power Shift, Redefinition

o Channel - Multiplication, Channel Concentration, Compression/ Disintermediation, Reintermediation

o Product - Product to Brand, Product to Blockbuster, Product to Profit Multiplier, Product to Pyramid, Product to Solution

o Knowledge - Product to Customer Knowledge, Operations to Knowledge, Knowledge to Product

o Organizational - Skill Shift, Pyramid to Network, Cornerstoning, Conventional to Digital Business Design

Numerous examples are given of the patterns, and case studies of successful companies such as Nokia, Dell, and Cisco Systems show how a company can detect patterns and trends, organize around them and create significant value, even polarization, from these patterns. The case studies, since all are well known companies, are very useful in understanding the patterns and comprehending how they can be applied in real-life business situations. This infrastructure of patterns can be used to organize and correlate the relevant experiences of well known corporations to your own organization. The patterns are equally applicable to large corporations or small-to-midsize companies.

Part III of Profit Patterns is called 'Putting Patterns to Work' and includes chapters on putting the patterns into action (company case studies), accelerated pattern detection, putting the patterns to work in your organization, and a patterns workbook. This is perhaps the most useful section of the book, in that it offers practical advice on applying the pattern thinking theories.

"Profit Patterns" is written in a practical, thorough, no-nonsense style and the theories are backed up with many real-world examples. I will definitely use the workbook section in the future to analyze business patterns and strategies. The authors are prolific, respected writers, and this book will become one of the staples of business literature. My only criticism is that the graphics are crude and unsophisticated and that a more professional approach to the graphics would lend more credibility and clarity to the concepts they illustrate.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Original Thought in Business Writing - How Unique!, March 24, 2000

By 

Richard I. Freedman "author, 'The IT Consultant" (Lenexa, KS United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Profit Patterns: 30 Ways to Anticipate and Profit from Strategic Forces Reshaping Your Business (Hardcover)

Slywotzky and Morrison have accomplished something with this book that regular readers of business books would have thought impossible - they've applied intelligence and creativity to strategic buisness thinking and created a materpiece of originality and insight. Their categorization of business models into patterns based on their effects on either customers, distribution channels, products, knowledge, or organization is one of those flashes of insight that seems obvious only after someone has articulated it as clearly as Slywotzky and Morrison have done here. The clarity of expression and organization, and the case studies of real-world examples that illustrate the use of these patterns of business strategy and competition, make this a central holding of any serious business reader's library. Every management consultant, business owner or manager, or executive, should understand the business strategies outlined here.