How to Drive Your Competition Crazy: Creating Disruption for Fun and Profit (Paperback)

by Guy Kawasaki (Author) "Our dream was simple: send IBM back to the typewriter business holding its Selectric typewriter balls..." (more)
Key Phrases: driving your competition, substitute positioning, lousy boss, New York, Home Depot, British Airways (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Marketing advice from Apple Computer Fellow and Macworld columnist Kawasaki.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Description
Renegade business strategist, charismatic Macintosh evangelist, and religiously read columnist for Macworld magazine, Kawasaki has written the first and only take-no-prisoners battle plan to help companies get and keep the upper hand. Foreword by "Dilbert" creator, Scott Adams. Line drawings & photos.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion (August 2, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786881631
• ISBN-13: 978-0786881635
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #92,767 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Agile, Mobile, and Hostile, January 11, 2000

By	Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

In How to Drive Your Competition Crazy, Kawasaki urges his reader to create disruption for "fun and profit." The book is organized into four parts: Lay the Groundwork, Do the Right Things, Do Things Right, and Push the Envelope. Within each of the four parts, Kawasaki includes interviews with various corporate executives who share their real-world experiences. He offers hundreds of examples to illustrate his ideas about non-conformist strategies which will help achieve a competitive advantage.

In his more recent book, Rules for Revolutionaries, Kawasaki asserts that, inorder to break down the barriers to innovation, one must "command like a king." That is to say, have steadfast convictions and then communicate those convictions to others with the power of faith and self-assurance. When asked to explain what a champion is, Jack Dempsey replied that a champion "gets up when he can't." Such determination is admirable, of course, but not always prudent. (What if David had decided to wrestle Goliath?) Agreeing with Jeffrey Gitomer, Kawasaki insists that customers must become "evangelists", not merely buyers of whatever one sells. Sustainable customer loyalty is the objective, not satisfaction with a single transaction. The same is true when one must generate support to overcome resistance to change. Two mistakes must be avoided: in Barbara Tuchman's words, "assessing a situation in terms of preconceived fixed notions while ignoring or rejecting contrary signs", and, "the refusal to benefit from experience." Only by being alert to "contrary signs" while benefiting from experience can anyone hope to prevail.

Kawasaki has sometimes been described as "controversial", usually by those who feel obliged to defend the status quo. Kawasaki challenges all assumptions and premises (including his own), convinced that agility, mobility, and hostility are essential to success in the competitive marketplace. His is a pyrotechnical mind combined with street smarts and unlimited energy. He enjoys creating "disruption"...especially when it creates profits. Read his books, follow (if you can) the way his mind works, and then go have some profitable fun yourself.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars how a designer can drive the competition crazy, June 8, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: How to Drive Your Competition Crazy: Creating Disruption for Fun and Profit (Hardcover)

I laughed my way through this book. I am designer who was constantly frustrated with the back biting that goes on between myself and other designers. This wonderful book helped me utilize simple techniques to step out of that circle of ego and become the positive, constructive colleague I wanted to be. It could really be called 'How to Make Friends With the Competition and Still Influence the Right People" because it has a bit of Dale Carnegie mixed in with Depak Chopra!! or maybe "Zen in the Art of Sharing the Cash Flow" (There really is room for everyone who wants it!)

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A bit inconsistent for Kawasaki's normal levels..., June 26, 2000

By	Marque Pierre Sondergaard "World's Best Textu... (Liverpool, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Although I am a big fan of Guy, this one was a disappointment compared to the standards I have come to expect from him. The title of book indicates a vast area to cover. But to my disappointment it seemed a bit inconsistent or out focus/unfocused. Maybe like the title.

When all is said and done it has a multitude of cases, quotes and points in the usual Kawasaki style that can prove beneficial, but still not a clear classic.