Customer Reviews

When Growth Stalls: How It Happens, Why You're Stuck, and What to Do About It

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Finally, a business book that's actually worth your money, but also your time. When Growth Stalls is one of those rare business books that's actually about your challenges and not the ego of the author. It's been a long time since I read a book that had this many "ah-ha" moments. For example, McKee talks about the big danger of losing your nerve, even when your company is well established and you're a proven CEO. What those of us who are much lower on the food chain need to understand is that even big business titans can (and often do) lose their nerve when faced with rapidly changing market tectonics. Too often they delay making innovations to keep pace with a mutating environment and become driven by fear. This is a nasty cycle that feeds on itself and will crush the best of us. Remember when Southwest Airlines changed its seating system? As a frequent flyer of Southwest I remember thinking, "Why are they doing this?" Then, after I had taken a few more flights I thought, "Southwest has its act together. This new system works much better." I didn't give it any more thought until McKee used this as an excellent example of how growing companies are the ones who are bold enough to keep pushing the innovation button even when things are still going well. If you wait for sales growth to stall before making strategic market adaptations, you're guaranteeing a future loss in revenue and rough sledding for your company.

The best part of McKee's book is his constant use of real-world examples that demonstrate the concept he's teaching. The second best part is that his concepts are not complicated. They're just easy to forget when you're in the midst of dealing with personnel issues, new technology, finicky clients and any one of another dozen problems that come up on a typical day.

McKee has obviously suffered and succeeded himself. What makes his book a valuable read is that he has had the strength to study and analyze the "why of it all" in good times and bad. It is this quality that has given him some timeless insights that make this book one of the few resources that I will go back to again and again.

I recently read when growth stalls...and found it to be very useful. I've shared excerpts with my senior management team to help them understand that NOW is the time to invest in marketing, not the time to cut it. It's a good mix of reinforcing stuff you should already know and providing valuable insights on stuff you didn't. I'd highly recommend this book.

Steve McKee's book is more than the latest effort on business advice; it's an asset in good times and bad. Full of revealing truths and concrete steps for addressing the core problems that plague companies, this is - simply put - a can't miss read.

After four years of solid growth, we saw sales slow down back in August, 2007. To raise local awareness, we moved our store inside a major shopping mall. December was a blockbuster month, then sales fell off. We couldn't sell enough products to offset the extra expense of being in a mall, so we pulled out after 8 months. We cut expenses so we could survive, but I wasn't satisfied with just surviving. The growth phase is much more fun! By then, I was most anxious to read Steve McKee's book. He style is thoughtful, his information pertinent. It helped us focus on what really matters, and Steve deserves some of the credit for the strong comeback that Banjo.com is now enjoying.

Steve McKee has certainly done his homework in a volume that is a true treasure to any manager or executive pondering the business climate in our current economic situation. Having read a large number of leadership books in the last several months, I found this work to be truly the best of the best. The illustrations and examples are extremely effective. No matter what enterprise one is engaged in, for profit or non-profit, this book is a must read for the leader who has limited time to do their own research. A real jewel.

McKee's book draws on relevant experience and offers a straight forward approach to focus the business' energy back on the growth path. Very timely in this economy where even the strongest businesses are being tested as never before. His case examples add value. He's been there in the trenches and this quick read conveys sound advice. While written by a seasoned marketing professional, the book is about leadership. It's for business owners and organization leaders who have to fit all the pieces together.

I read this book thinking that I knew everything there was to know about marketing, advertising and operations. But this book really makes you think not only about the how - but the why of a stalling organization. It cites great examples and data, but it goes a cut deeper into experiential instinct and wisdom that are difficult to illustrate. Mr. McKee has done a great job keeping this book simple and relvant. A definate must read- especially for small business owners that are lost in the tyranny of the urgent when their business stalls-

I found Steve's book both informative and thought provoking, and overall a solid read. Being a marketing/strategy person myself, Steve's insights are along those lines, so if you are not of these disciplines you may not appreciate where he is coming from or his advice. The book does a nice job of case studies (like Kodak), and Steve's insights come from research of 700 firms, not just his experience. Worth the read especially in the current economy. Also check out Steve's blog which is also nicely done

Excellent read for executives, managers, and entrepreneurs that want to avoid the pitfalls of stalled growth or that have experienced stalled growth and want to know what to do about it.

Steve has a style that is both easy to grasp and entertaining.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend it.

There are two great American business start-up storylines. In one boy or girl meets idea, acquires funding and achieves rapid, huge and unbroken success. In the other the start-up times are hard, but after persevering, the business takes off on a long unbroken growth curve.

But it usually doesn't happen that way. As Matthew Olson and Derek van Bever pointed out in Stall Points, published last year, 87 percent of companies hit stall points, only 13 percent experience unbroken growth in revenue. The scary part of their findings was that almost 90 percent of the companies that stall never restart.

Stall Points is a great book, with a lot of depth and richness. But it's for the executive management of Fortune 100 companies. In other words, it's for the hired managers of very, very, very big companies.

That's probably not you. You can probably relate more to Steve McKee when he shows up in the first part of When Growth Stalls.

McKee tells us about going to "take a bow on behalf" of his company which had been named to the Inc. 500 list. He also tells us that he had this odd feeling that something was amiss, and things were starting to go bad, even when he was being lauded as CEO of a high growth company.

It turns out that his gut was right. His company was stalling, even though everything still looked good from the outside.

He describes the feeling. He describes what happened next. He describes how he and others at the company reacted to the stall and how they worked to turn the problem into good through research.

Been there. I've felt the early shivers of my own company stalling. I've watched clients who "knew" that something was wrong, even when the stats said, "No."

Steve McKee, the author, brings three things to this project that make it worth reading. First, he's been there. This is not a researcher scanning part of the universe of companies and rendering a dispassionate judgment. This is a businessman who has felt the problem as well as analyzed it.

Luckily for us, McKee himself and his company are comfortable with conducting and analyzing research. You get the results of their research and analysis of their surveys.

And, third, the man can write. He describes his own angst, puzzlement and analysis. He tells us the stories of other companies that he uses as examples of various points. The book is easy to read.

Alas, it doesn't always make sense. I'll hit a few of the instances as we move through the outline of the book. I've divided the book into sections.

The Introduction and the chapters titled "It's not Just Business, It's Personal" and "Growth Stalls" make up the first section. We learn about Steve McKee and his company's stall. We get a sense of his "street cred."

The next five chapters lay out McKee's reasons why growth stalls. For me, this was the strongest part of the book. McKee illustrates his points with vignettes that are well chosen and well told.

McKee sees business through the lens of marketing. Occasionally that causes a problem as distinctions between company strategy and marketing strategy get lost in a good story. By the end of the book it winds up being the only lens used.

The lynchpin between the first part of the book and the second is the chapter titled, "Vicious Cycle." For me, that term means a reinforcing feedback loop of causes. The diagram McKee chooses to illustrate his point about different causes interacting is a circle that illustrates something quite different.

The second part of the book begins with an excellent chapter, "Take a Deep Breath." Then the book moves to the chapters "Set Your Sights," "Find Your Target," "Sharpen Your Arrow" and let it fly. There's value here, but it's the weakest part of the book, more like a bunch of points in search of a metaphor than a coherent argument.

Which brings us to the last chapter, "It Works." McKee is explicit. "The marketing equation rules the day." Sorry. The marketing equation is important, but it's not the whole business. It doesn't address critical issues in sourcing, offshore competition, and human resource management that have a say in whether you profit or don't.

There are a lot of problems with this book, but they're all in the second half. If all you read is the first half, you'll get more than your money's worth. And even with the problems in the second half, there are still good ideas and observations there.

Bottom line: if the stuff that bothers me would bother you, buy When Growth Stalls for the first half and mine the second half for valuable insights. If the stuff that bothered me isn't important you, you'll get an even better deal.