Alfred Marcus is the Edison Spencer Chair of Strategic Management at the University of Minnesota, Carlson School of Management, where he has been on the faculty since 1984. He is the author or co-editor of eleven books, including Managing Management Strategy: Achieving Sustained Completive Advantage, Winning Moves: Cases in Strategic Management, and most recently Big Winners and Big Losers. Marcus and his research associates set out to determine which US companies have achieved long-term business success. Most of the “Big Winners” are probably unfamiliar to many executives (Amphenol, SPX, FiServ, Dreyer's, Forest Labs, Ball, Brown & Brown, Family Dollar, and Activision), which suggests one strategy for sustainable success: fly under the radar, hide in the weeds, stay out of harm’s way, etc. As for the “4 secrets,” they are best revealed within the flow of Marcus’ narrative. None is a head-snapper. Marcus uses a strategy which Jim Collins also used when writing Built to Last and then Good to Great: group companies in pairs within the same sector (e.g. Technology, Manufacturing/Appliance, Software, Food, Drugs/Chemicals, Manufacturing/ Industrial, Financial, Retail, and Entertainment/Toys) and examine the most striking similarities and, especially, dissimilarities between them. The great value of this book is derived from what Marcus and his associates reveal about “Big” winners and losers, more specifically, about the striking similarities among companies in both groups. It is imperative that decision-makers recognize what their company is not and what it should not attempt to become. Both success and failure feed on themselves. Companies committed to an inappropriate strategy will necessarily waste resources as well as opportunities, whatever the quality of the given products or services may be. Similarly, companies that continue to offer mediocre products or services will create comparable waste, however appropriate the given strategy may be. Many readers will be struck by what Marcus has to say about the “paradoxes of success”, for example, the need for a company to be flexible and resilient but also highly disciplined. The challenge for decision-makers is to think macro but execute micro. There is an abundance of valuable information in this book, carefully organized, and eloquently presented.
Alfred Marcus is the Edison Spencer Chair of Strategic Management at the University of Minnesota, Carlson School of Management, where he has been on the faculty since 1984. He is the author or co-editor of eleven books, including Managing Management Strategy: Achieving Sustained Completive Advantage, Winning Moves: Cases in Strategic Management, and most recently Big Winners and Big Losers.
Marcus and his research associates set out to determine which US companies have achieved long-term business success. Most of the “Big Winners” are probably unfamiliar to many executives (Amphenol, SPX, FiServ, Dreyer's, Forest Labs, Ball, Brown & Brown, Family Dollar, and Activision), which suggests one strategy for sustainable success: fly under the radar, hide in the weeds, stay out of harm’s way, etc. As for the “4 secrets,” they are best revealed within the flow of Marcus’ narrative. None is a head-snapper. Marcus uses a strategy which Jim Collins also used when writing Built to Last and then Good to Great: group companies in pairs within the same sector (e.g. Technology, Manufacturing/Appliance, Software, Food, Drugs/Chemicals, Manufacturing/ Industrial, Financial, Retail, and Entertainment/Toys) and examine the most striking similarities and, especially, dissimilarities between them. The great value of this book is derived from what Marcus and his associates reveal about “Big” winners and losers, more specifically, about the striking similarities among companies in both groups. It is imperative that decision-makers recognize what their company is not and what it should not attempt to become. Both success and failure feed on themselves. Companies committed to an inappropriate strategy will necessarily waste resources as well as opportunities, whatever the quality of the given products or services may be. Similarly, companies that continue to offer mediocre products or services will create comparable waste, however appropriate the given strategy may be. Many readers will be struck by what Marcus has to say about the “paradoxes of success”, for example, the need for a company to be flexible and resilient but also highly disciplined. The challenge for decision-makers is to think macro but execute micro. There is an abundance of valuable information in this book, carefully organized, and eloquently presented.
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