 | Strategy From The Outside In: Profiting From Customer Value By George Day, Christine Moorman
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Product Description
A winner of the American Marketing Association Foundation's Berry-AMA 2011 Book Prize for the best book in marketing!
Shareholder value . . . core competence . . .six sigma . . . right sizing . . . These influential strategy ideas have lured many companies into a dangerous internal focus, viewing the world from the inside out. As a result, companies lose sight of the market, which leads to poor results over the long run. Inside-out thinking distracts companies from the core purpose of a business: to create and serve customers.
Fulfilling that purpose can be done only by approaching strategy from the outside in. In this refreshing look at creating enduring business value, two business school professors from The Wharton School and The Fuqua School of Business, Duke University, challenge you to shift your perspective. They demonstrate that companies that adopt--and fight to keep--an outside-in view focused on customer value have grown revenue, profit, and shareholder value through both boom and bust business cycles.
Applying years of research, George S. Day and Christine Moorman illustrate that an outside-in view requires constant vigilance and focus on four customer value imperatives:
- Be a customer value leader
- Innovate new value for customers
- Capitalize on the customer as an asset
- Capitalize on the brand as an asset
Only companies that operate with an outside-in view from the C-suite to the front lines can expect to maximize and profit from customer value.
Strategy from the Outside In puts you ahead of the competition and, just as important, keeps you there.
Visit www.strategyfromtheoutsidein.com
Praise for Strategy from the Outside In
"Throughout P&G's long history, we have focused on the four customer value imperatives outlined in this excellent book—and are as committed to them today as ever. This is essential reading for leaders focused on making a positive difference in the world and, as a direct result, delivering growth for both the near and long term."
—Robert A. McDonald, Chairman, President, and CEO, The Procter & Gamble Company
"Strategy from the Outside In is thought-provoking, practical, and full of ideas on how to strengthen your company's customer value proposition."
—Tom Lynch, CEO, Tyco Electronics Corporation
"American Express's success has rested largely on our ability to focus on our customers and adapt to their changing needs over the past 160 years. Strategy from the Outside In is an insightful book with practical advice about how to do just that."
—Jud Linville, President and CEO Consumer Services, American Express
"An in-depth look into the basic premise of what, in my view, makes successful business. Certainly worth reading once and then once every year to remind all of us what keeps us in business. For marketers, a great benchmark to help focus on how to add value most effectively."
—Geert van Kuyck, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Royal Philips Electronics
"Sam Walton said 'there's only one boss--the customer'. At Walmart we try to stay focused on that every day. But how? Strategy from the Outside In provides a blueprint for how to build a trusted brand based on consistently providing superior value to customers."
—Stephen Quinn, Chief Marketing Officer, Walmart
"Getting your company to organize around what customers value most sounds easy in theory, but it's very hard to do consistently well. Day and Moorman provide a thoughtful, realistic, and actionable blueprint for delivering the most value to your most valuable customers."
—Beth Comstock, Chief Marketing Officer, GE
"Only a few books can really help marketing professionals make a difference in their organization. Strategy from the Outside In falls into this category. Creating superior customer value is or should be a priority of all marketers. Here, Day and Moorman provide a clear path for delivering on such value. Most important, their work is based on the real-world successes (and failures) of organizations which they have studied."
—Dennis Dunlap, CEO, American Marketing Association
"Strategy from the Outside In offers a refreshing reminder that answers to managers' most pressing questions always start by looking outside the organization and meeting consumer needs better than the other guys! It provides a combination of solid evidence and user-friendly frameworks that can be put to use immediately. A must-read not only for today's challenged CMO but for the rest of the C-suite as a guiding framework for the entire enterprise."
—Rob Malcolm, President, Global Marketing, Sales and Innovation, Diageo PLC
"Strategy from the Outside In provides a handbook to re-imagine a business through the eyes of customers. It is full of current case studies, research, and practical frameworks that senior marketers can use to refine their own thinking and influence their colleagues."
—Greg Gordon, SVP Consumer Marketing, Liberty Mutual
"Day and Moorman advise companies to leave their comfortable positions of controlling their businesses to the uncomfortable position of allowing their customers control. This is a book only for companies courageous enough to listen to their customers instead of themselves."
—Ron Nicol, Senior Partner and Managing Director, Boston Consulting Group
- Amazon Sales Rank: #346459 in Books
- Published on: 2010-07-02
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 1.03" h x 6.18" w x 9.22" l, 1.35 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 304 pages
About the Author
George S. Day is the Geoffrey T. Boisi Professor and codirector of the Mack Center for Technological Innovation at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Chairman of the board for the American Marketing Association, he is a former executive director of the Marketing Science Institute and has served as a consultant to GE, IBM, Metropolitan Life, Marriott, and other corporations. His books include Peripheral Vision, Wharton on Managing Emerging Technologies, and The Market Driven Organization. Day lives in Bryn Mawr, PA.
Christine Moorman is the T. Austin Finch, Sr. Professor and founder and director of The CMO Survey (www.cmosurvey.org) at The Fuqua School of Business, Duke University. Former member of the board of directors of the American Marketing Association and trustee for the Marketing Science Institute, she coedited the book Assessing Marketing Strategy Performance, authored more than 60 journal articles, reports, and conference proceedings, and speaks at universities and companies around the world. Moorman lives in Chapel Hill, NC.
Most helpful customer reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful.
Most important book on business strategy in over 30 years.
By Sean M. Gallagher
SUMMARY: Strategy from the Outside In is an exceptionally important and very readable new book. The authors have distilled and reconceptualized cutting-edge research into what separates consistently top performing firms from inferior performers. In the process they have greatly advanced the art and science of business strategy. The approach advocated by the authors may be subtle, but the improvement in business performance is significant. At the heart of the Outside-In strategy is what the authors call the four customer value imperatives: 1) Be a customer value leader, 2) Innovate new value for customers, 3) Capitalize on the customer as an asset, and 4) Capitalize on the brand as an asset. Of course, the devil is always in the details. Fortunately, the authors clearly explain these imperatives and provide numerous real-world examples that illustrate how to bring them to life. Strategy from the Outside In is the most important book on business strategy in over 30 years.
FULL REVIEW:
Is there really a need for another book on business strategy?
Michael Porter has been the preeminent thinker and writer on business strategy for the last three decades. His book, Competitive Strategy, is nearing its 60th printing in English. His book Competitive Advantage was described by Financial Times as "The most influential management book of the past quarter century."
According to the publisher of Competitive Strategy, "More than a million managers in both large and small companies, investment analysts, consultants, students, and scholars throughout the world have internalized Porter's ideas and applied them to assess industries, understand competitors, and choose competitive positions."
Unfortunately, as Porter's influence has grown, US business performance has steadily declined. Since Competitive Strategy was first published in 1980, US economy-wide Return on Assets (ROA) of publically traded firms have steadily declined more than 70%. (Source: "Shift Index: Industry Metrics and Perspectives," Deloitte LLP Center for the Edge, November 2009, p. 92). In another study, an international review of 1,854 large public companies, found that, between 1988 and 1998, 87% of them did not even earn back their cost of capital (Source: Chris Zook with James Allan, Profit from the Core: Growth Strategy in an Era of Turbulence
[Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2001], p. 11).
Clearly, there is a significant need for a new approach to how leaders think about business strategy. Many have tried and fallen short. Fortunately, George Day and Christine Moorman (the authors) of Strategy from the Outside In have written a powerful yet easy-to-read book that should influence business strategy for decades.
What makes Strategy from the Outside In different?
First, it is built on well established, peer reviewed, research into what separates consistently top performing firms from inferior performers. This research is made up of more than 3,500 journal articles and books that have come out in the past 15 years on market orientation. This research unfortunately has not migrated from academia to executive leadership because of its abstract nature and scholarly jargon. Day and Moorman do a great job translating the research into actionable strategic ideas for executives. And it is very enjoyable and easy to read.
The book also references contemporary business insights from great books like Blue Ocean Strategy and others. The authors distill the insights from these sources into a new, coherent, and easy to understand approach to strategy, with great examples.
What are the key points?
The authors' convincingly argue that popular strategy theories encourage executives to focus on the firm rather than customers. Six sigma, core competence, right sizing, re-engineering the corporation, and capabilities- or resource-based views of the firm are all internally focused management fads that have left corporations less profitable (on average) today than 20 years ago. In the authors' views, these are inside-out mental models that unconsciously shape the countless decisions made everyday in a company. Unfortunately, these mental models encourage decisions that paradoxically destroy both customer and shareholder value.
Day and Moorman's Strategy from the Outside In model requires executives to make subtle but important shifts in thinking. Inside-Out thinkers believe that customers buy performance features. Outside-In thinkers believe customers buy the expectation of value. Inside-Out thinkers believe that expanding the customer base is crucial. Outside-In thinkers believe customer loyalty is the key to profitability.
The authors' research reveals that consistently profitable firms deeply understand market dynamics. These include a deep understanding of customers, competitors and other elements of the outside world. It is this knowledge that drives all business decisions using what Day and Moorman call the Four Customer Value Imperatives. The imperatives are as follows:
1) Be a customer value leader with a distinct and compelling customer value proposition.
2) Innovate new value for customers.
3) Capitalize on the customer as an asset.
4) Capitalize on the brand as an asset.
Of course, the devil is always in the details. Fortunately, Day and Moorman clearly explain these imperatives and provide numerous real-world examples that illustrate how to bring them to life.
Who should read this book?
First and foremost CEOs must read this book and internalize its insights. Setting strategy and guiding a firm's culture are key responsibilities for all CEOs. Second, each member of the C-suite must read and internalize its insights. Either a firm is fully market-driven or its not. That means Operations, R&D, Finance, HR, Marketing, and all other functions must adopt the outside in mindset. Finally, all middle managers and individual contributors who wish to positively contribute to creating profitable growth. Employees make countless decisions everyday that either move the firm towards its goals or away from it. Reading this book will help them improve their firm's customer value offering and profitability.
Why should it be read?
Though Day and Moorman do not dwell on the metrics of how Outside-In companies outperform their rivals, I am familiar with what the academic research has revealed. Outside-In firms out perform their rivals across the board, including profit growth, innovation, stock price, ROA, ROE, ROCE, customer satisfaction and retention, employee satisfaction and engagement, cost efficiency, and on and on. Read this book because Porter's theory of business strategy has failed. Read it because you need and want to build a consistently top performing company. Read it because your employees and their families rely on your decisions regarding how to successfully run a business. Read it because your firm's shareholders will thank you for bringing the key ideas to life in your business.
Disagreements?
I have a couple of disagreements with the authors:
First, the authors suggest that the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) should be accountable for the Four Imperatives. I disagree. Though there are many brilliant CMOs, most are too tactical and short-term focused. By and large they lack the perspective and political clout to take on this role. In my opinion it must be the CEO's responsibility. The CEO can delegate, but if he/she is not the driver of the Four Imperatives, the strategy will flounder. The CEO must own it.
Second, the author's do not adequately address the critical role of organizational culture in bringing the Outside-In strategy to life. Its been said by others that organizational culture eats strategy for breakfast. I agree. The authors dedicate part of one chapter to this critical topic.
Neither of these short-comings materially effect the value of Strategy from the Outside In. It is a brilliant book that executives will be able to put to good use immediately. Buy it. Read it. Lead it.
Note: The author of this review has not and will not receive compensation for writing this review.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.the strategy book
By A&D
Throughout P&G's long history, we have focused on the four customer value imperatives outlined in this excellent book--and are as committed to them today as ever. This is essential reading for leaders focused on making a positive difference in the world and, as a direct result, delivering growth for both the near and long term."
--Robert A. McDonald, Chairman, President, and CEO, The Procter & Gamble Company
I think this quote describes well of what this book is all about. I first bought this book because it seemed to be an interesting combination of different views of the firm: the resource based view of the firm and the customer based view of the firm. The authors gave a refreshing point of view of how to consider the firm's success via its strategy and its strategy planning, how sometimes the chosen strategy is good and makes the company competitive, profitable and makes it gain marketshare, whereas in another market and economic situation, the same strategy choice can be wrong and make the company fail, loose its customers and market share.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.Finally, a practical guide to strategy for the practitioner
By Rangesh
"Strategy from the Outside In" is an outstanding book - I have been searching in vain for a book which actually helps a corporate strategist such as myself with a practical, useful framework for developing growth strategies. Most books on strategy stay at the high level, with little to no practical guidance on implementing plans for strategic growth. Moreover, traditional strategy authors have focused on the firm and industry structures as determinants of strategic success, while Day and Moorman offer a brilliant and insightful new perspective - relentless focus on customers is a surer path to success. It's this combination of customer focused innovation imperatives and practical steps to actually implementing such a strategy that makes this book unique.
The first few chapters develop the concept of the customer imperative - effectively providing examples and an intellectually satisfying case for having an "outside-in" approach to developing a market position. I was struck by the contrast with the firm-centric views espoused by Porter and the like. The customer imperative framework introduced in this book will, in my opinion, eventually be accepted as a third leg of analysis required to completely develop a successful strategy in any market.
My company relies heavily on Jim Collins' Hedgehog principle, and I find that this has often led to an inward looking perspective which has limited growth options. This book has finally given me the intellectual ammunition I need to start a conversation about changing the mindset within the company.
I would call out Chapter 6 of the book as the best step-by-step guide to developing a customer-driven innovation strategy for meaningful growth with the highest likelihood of success. I have personally used this framework to look at emerging markets, and have received multiple kudos for my work.
I strongly recommend this book for the practicing strategist - I am convinced it will make a huge difference!
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