Reviews (93)

Beyond expectations for firms searching for answers
I admit I was skeptical of the promises this book made.The book went beyond my expectations.It gives a structured framework for culling newness out of tired competition.
Profound Insights into Marketing and into Life!
The authors show us examples of companies who were not satisfied with the socially accepted business paradigms of their industry and were eventive enough to create a whole new market for themselves with their intuition, grit and determination. Exciting! May even change your life!

If you do not own your own business, his could be fun reading
I have never made the time to review a book, but this book came highly reccommended by other reviewers.Since I cant know their business backgrounds, I'd like to help someone else in making the decision of reading this book.
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Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Investments & Securities - General    5. Market segmentation    6. Marketing - General    7. Marketing Management    8. New products    9. Product Management    10. Strategic Planning    11. Business strategy   

Editorial Review

Sometime during the last 30 years, the service economy emerged as the dominant engine of economic activity. At first, critics who were uncomfortable with the intangible nature of services bemoaned the decline of the goods-based economy, which, thanks to many factors, had increasingly become commoditized. Successful companies, such as Nordstrom, Starbucks, Saturn, and IBM, discovered that the best way to differentiate one product from another--clothes, food, cars, computers--was to add service.Read more

Reviews (32)

How to Sell the Sizzle
Authors B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore look at the ways that corporations create engaging experiences for their customers to boost sales. They amass examples that confirm the developing trend toward an "Experience Economy." Their premise is that the post-industrial economy has evolved beyond delivering commodities and services, and is now poised to deliver "experiences." These experiences can include everything from a meal at a theme restaurant to a Disneyland vacation. The premise is interesting, but before you hit the trend button, realize that this is not the first time marketers have courted customers with powerful retail experiences. However, it may be the first time sellers have used virtual reality and Hollywood-style animated props. This intellectually interesting book dares to be far out and to pursue the concept of engaging customers to its extremes. We recommend this book to business owners or marketers more as a theoretical introduction to the "Experience Economy" than as a marketing manual. If you feel intrigued and engaged, that's the point. For more information, please refer to Disney World.

Curtain-Call Economics
Wow!I was so fascinated with this insightful book that I coined the above phrase.Curtain-call economics is the thrust of this book.How would your customer describe his experience with your company?How entertaining, how engaging, how educational and how beautiful was his experience?This book is chock-full of real-life examples of how to capitalize in this new arena comprising our economy.First there arose an industrial era, then a service era, now, an experiential era.With all types of services abounding and ubiquitous, your differentiation will be in providing the superior experience.This book categorically and metaphorically allies you with the absolute fundamentals for positioning your establishment for success.So, in keeping with one of the teachings of this book on building suspense, I will just say that there is an era immediately following this 'experience' economy that is delineated with much delight at the conclusion of the book.

More Exciting Than it Sounds
With a title like "The Experience Economy" and a tagline that reads "Work is Theatre and Every Business a Stage," one would think this would be an exciting and daring book on innovative business strategies. Daring it most certainly is; the metaphor comparing work to theatre is adventurous and eye-opening. But it is also overdrawn, and is rooted too much in theory and not so much in practical example. A particular disappointment was that the book did not really address how online businesses can create experiences for their clients; it is geared primarily towards offline busineses. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Customer services    5. Development - Business Development    6. Diversification in industry    7. Entrepreneurship    8. Marketing - Product Management    9. Product Management    10. Business strategy    11. Sales & marketing   

Reviews (8)

Great read
I loved this book. Fun & entertaining while providing meaningful, salient and actionable suggestions in (re)focusing one's activities and priorities in business development and management. I'm a recovering business executive just starting my own entrepreneurial business and this work has been enormously helpful. I can't recommend this enough. Get this book.
This orange looked good but was flavorless inside
I was thrilled to get this book and was looking forward to getting real step by step insights on how to create better advertising or move audiences. Instead what I got was a cursory overview of watered down ideas and then an agency review of their big name campaigns. The good ideas in this book would have made a good magazine article.
Story after story...
There are a few interesting nuggest in the first few pages and then story, after story, after story.There's no doubt that their agency is successful but please present some principles and not story, after story, after story... ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Advertising & Promotion    2. Business & Economics    3. Business / Economics / Finance    4. Business/Economics    5. Creative Ability    6. Creative ability in business    7. Creativity    8. Marketing    9. Marketing - General    10. Product management    11. Sales & marketing   

Reviews (5)

Definitely worth exploring but first be aware of your perceptual sensitivity to the world!
Peripheral Vision: Detecting the Weak Signals That Will Make or Break Your Company
Blindsided
Sometimes the numbers don't tell the story, the noise on the peripheral does.Often that noise is small - a blog post, an irate customer, a competitor changing thier business.These small signs can indicate bigger changes to come.It involves not only knowing where to look but how to deal with it (the book is a bit weaker on some of the how to deal with it stuff)
Seeing and Doing Directions for the Adaptive Enterprise
For a number of years, business books have been extolling the virtues of responding sooner and more appropriately to what stakeholders (employees, customers, users, distributors, partners, suppliers, investors, lenders and the community) require or would benefit from.Such books are filled with great anecdotes about organizations that don't pay attention . . . and far fewer anecdotes about organizations that succeed.
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Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Management    5. Marketing    6. Marketing Management    7. New Product Development    8. New products    9. Strategic Planning    10. Business strategy   

Reviews (13)

Future of marketing...
Caveat - I see most things from a marketer's prospective, hence, I read this book in that context. I think the ideas of Prahalad and Ramaswamy are the future of marketing.If you take a look at a few of today's successful companies, including Amazon.com and eBay for instance, you will see that one of the reasons they have been so successful is because they worked with their customers.I think the book should be required reading for anyone going into the marketing field.

Nothing insightful that is worth the onerous read
The authors have created a massive text that does not add much to the earlier paper they had published. The book has mainly two messages - maximizing customer experience is the basis of value creation and firms have to be experience-driven rather than product-centric. (BTW, these are the author's buzz words not mine Breakthrough Thinking for higher IQ managers
The concepts presented in the book are deceptively easy to gloss over. I do not blame the reviewers at this site who did not 'get it'.
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Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Competition    5. Customer Service    6. Customer relations    7. Customer services    8. Economic value added    9. Forecasting    10. Leadership    11. Marketing - Research    12. Strategic planning    13. Business strategy    14. Sales & marketing   

Reviews (19)

The title says it all
The author uses a narrative and graphical approach to illustrate his point. It's indeed a common sense approach
Highly informative! For professional analysts, researchers, economists, strategists but not investors/traders
Actually my review title says it all. It might be the most comphrehensive book on economic data analysis. As a pro, I have no hesitation to recommend it to any pro as a tool book or reference book, in particular those who take the FA Macro Top down long term investment approach, but not others who spend less than at least 2 hours a day for economic data collection, compilation, analysis.....The workload is just impossible for amateurs.
Making Sense of All of Those Economic Indicators.
Joseph H. Ellis' ability to see ahead of the curve served his clients so well that he was ranked the #1 retail analyst by "Institutional Investor" for 18 years. In "Ahead of the Curve", Ellis presents his method for forecasting market cycles, learned and tested over 24 years at Goldman Sachs & Co., clearly and concisely so that we all might benefit. He tells us how to find meaning in the myriad of abstruse and contradictory economic indicators that we puzzle over in order to "demystify the economic cycle and the stock market's historically consistent relationship to it". Ellis doesn't ask us to believe anything that we cannot see for ourselves. All of the economic data series that he discusses are clearly charted against bear markets, recessions, and other data series, typically from 1960 to 2004. "Ahead of the Curve" offers a new, simpler, and hopefully more accurate means for business managers, analysts, and investors to predict overall market trends that can also be applied to a particular sector or company.
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Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Economic Forecasting    5. Forecasting    6. Management - General    7. Marketing - General    8. Business & Management    9. Economics, Finance, Business and Industry   

Reviews (6)

Dissapointment
I am very surprised with the rave reviews of this book here. I decided to purchase it for two reasons. First, I trusted the reviews here and decided it would be important to own this book. Second, I am familiar with Douglas Holt's academic work, and have read his articles in academic journals. I thought this book will be very interesting to read.
Surprisingly Important Book
I'm no business-head.I find modern consumerism more disturbing than exciting.But I read this book as part of a study on public relations and I must say Holt's passion for the subject is contagious.
Great - even the most successful iconic brands have emerged more by intuition than by design.
This is an excellent book! Douglas B. Holt gives a cultural perspective to branding which is not that trivial to all managers. The book also presents historical analyses on brands like Mountain Dew, Corona, Volkswagen, and many others. The clear message is that iconic brands can't be created through conventional branding strategies, instead there is a need for a cultural perspectice to branding. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Advertising & Promotion    2. Brand name products    3. Business & Economics    4. Business / Economics / Finance    5. Business names    6. Business/Economics    7. Marketing - General    8. Popular culture    9. Sales & marketing   

Reviews (12)

Practical and Insightful
What is especially useful about this book is that it is practical. It gives advice for every stage of an adjacency expansion, from strategy development to execution, on how to increase the likelihood that it will be successful. The case studies are interesting and the analysis is insightful.
An Outstanding Growth Guide for Global Business Leaders
As a second year MBA student at the Kellogg School of Management and a future corporate strategist for a global financial services firm, I found reading Beyond the Core to be one of the best time investments that I've made over the last few years.Chris Zook seems to have a knack for writing great books that not only stand the test of time but that are also highly relevant to the current business and economic environments.Specifically, his first book, Profits from the Core, which focused on maximizing the value of the core business, was launched when businesses needed it most - during the economic downturn.Now, Beyond the Core is perfectly timed since, from what I and other MBA's are observing in the market, most businesses are remobilizing for growth. Questionable Choice of Examples and Lack of Definitions!
Many people who have been burned by going into new areas will grade this as five-stars for encouraging caution in expanding a company's scope.If that's all you want from a book, this is a five-star book.If you want to learn what the exact lesson is, and why that lesson is true, you'll have to look elsewhere however.If you want to learn how to beat the odds in this area, you will also have to look elsewhere.Read more

Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Corporate profits    5. Corporations    6. Forecasting    7. Growth    8. Industrial management    9. Marketing - General    10. Strategic planning    11. Structural Adjustment    12. Business strategy   

Reviews (10)

Outdated
This book is truly outdated, don't bother to read it. Today it does not add anything to brand management. Most articles concentrate on arguments against line extensions but do it in a superficial way. It is easy to read but very light and almost totally commonsensical. The only part that I like in the book was the case of a shampoo that lagged appeal over time on which a couple of experts offered different solutions. This demonstrates what students often don't understand about case teaching: That there is no single "solution".

Pass on this... trust me (practicing Brand Manager)
Really disappointed in this offering from HBR.I was tempted to give a single star rating, but feel that someone just looking for a few cases to amuse themself may find this book suitable.While I often purchase cases and articles from HBS, these selections are outdated and lack in shedding light on contemporary branding issues; you can get a better cross-section of cases by going directly to the case site.I guess HBR just wanted to cash in on the 'branding' buzz- unfortunately this is no way to steward their own brand.

Great book for reading.
Writing style of book is good. Topics are covered quite nice. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Advertising & Promotion    2. Brand name products    3. Business & Economics    4. Business / Economics / Finance    5. Business/Economics    6. Management - General    7. Marketing - General    8. Product Management    9. Business strategy    10. Management & management techniques    11. Sales & marketing   

Reviews (7)

One of the Best
I've been in the entertainment public relations business for 30 years and this book is one of the best I've encountered.It's accurate, up to date, well-written and thorough.

Extraordinary Compendium
If you want to run an arts organization or run one now, or run part of one: have a long visit with this book.As an MBA who has interviewed many performing arts managers and worked as a performing arts funder and on various boards over decades, I commend this to all people in the business except my competitors. A worthwhile read
Kotler touches on many subjects from customer loyalty, changing audiences to data analysis. Theories are enhanced by using various arts companies as examples. Read more

Subjects:  1. Advertising & Promotion    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business Aspects    4. General    5. Marketing    6. Marketing - General    7. Performing Arts    8. Performing Arts (Specific Aspects)    9. Performing Arts/Dance    10. Sales & marketing   

Reviews (12)

a great book
A very down-to-earth and very practical handbook for any strategical formulation endeavours. Better than those metaphorical ones, like "blue ocean strategy". Would get five stars if it did not mistakenly treat "People's Republic of China" as "Republic of China" in the case on p. 129. There is only one province of ROC, i.e. Taiwan.

Immediate tools for driving organic growth
There are a number of books on the market focused on innovation, and this one is by far the best. McGrath and MacMillan have built upon concepts introduced in The Entrepreneurial Mindset, and have yet again provided actionable strategies for driving extraordinary growth.
Awful Title & Cover----Great Book
The title (and jacket cover) smack of pop management drivel.
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Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Customer relations    5. Handbooks, manuals, etc    6. Management    7. Marketing - General    8. Strategic Planning    9. Business & Management   

Reviews (3)

Customer service, not CRM
This Harvard Business Review title is not about Customer Relationship Management, but about customer service. If you are interested in Customer Service I must say there are at least 3 articles very useful and interesting.If you are searching for CRM, this is not going to fulfill your expetations

Brilliant and Eloquent Delineation of Basics
This is one in a series of several dozen volumes which comprise the "Harvard Business Review Paperback Series." Each offers direct, convenient, and inexpensive access to the best thinking on the given subject in articles originally published by the Harvard Business School Review. I strongly recommend all of the volumes in the series. The individual titles are listed at this Web site: www.hbsp.harvard.edu. The authors of various articles are among the world's most highly regarded experts on the given subject. Each volume has been carefully edited. An Executive Summary introduces each selection.Supplementary commentaries are also provided in most of the volumes, as is an "About the Contributors" section which usually includes suggestions of other sources which some readers may wish to explore.
CRM or customer service?
I bought this book willing to find essentials about CRM as a Philosophy as a System not by pieces. I cannot qualify this as a coherent book about CRM but as a compilation of eight articles of eight valuable authors writing about Relations with Customers not CRM as an integrated system of Human Resources, Technology and Philosophy into an organization's life. If you see this book as a group of articles gathered to give you different points of view about customers and service (not CRM) this is a good book, if you buy it considering the title "Customer Relationship Management" and "Harvard Business Review" it will not full your expectations.Read more

Subjects:  1. Business / Economics / Finance    2. Business/Economics    3. Customer Service    4. Customer relations    5. Entrepreneurship    6. Management    7. Customer services    8. Management & management techniques    9. Public relations    10. Marketing   

Reviews (7)

Marketing as Strategy: Not Necessarily
Marketing as Strategy follows the assumption that marketers have lost their seat at the big table because they no longer address the heavy strategic lifting in their respective companies. This may or may not be true. A good bit of the financial bent in most publicly held companies may have to do with the extreme pressures provided by SOX and related corporate governance issues in the post-Enron business landscape. As a result, most CEO's aren't marketers outside of marketing-driven industries.
Obtuse
This is so buzzword laden, I really couldn't make out what the guy was driving at. I abandoned it midway through the first chapter.

Marketing & Value
We live in a service economy but pump our own gas.Customer Service keeps us on hold, is rude, clueless.
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Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Marketing    5. Marketing - General    6. Strategic planning    7. Sales & marketing   

Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business logistics    4. Business/Economics    5. Distribution    6. Industries - Retailing    7. Management    8. Management - General    9. Marketing - General    10. Marketing Management    11. Marketing channels    12. Materials Management    13. Physical distribution of goods    14. Business strategy   

Reviews (13)

very good book
I am reading 'Juice - The creative fuel that drives world class inventors' by Evan Schwartz. The book gives insights into how creative people come up with inventions by creating possibilities, pinpointing problems, detecting barriers, applying analogies and embracing failures. The stories about how some of the inventions came about are really interesting. Schwartz goes inside the minds of some of the greatest inventors, delves into their stories and explores how they thought up their inventions

Page turner!
This book was a sheer delight to read.I am very interested in the process of inventing.I have read a lot about innovation strategies and the creative process so I thought this book would bore me.Anything but.I found it enlightening, exciting, fun, .... I loved it.

Inspirational and instructional
A great read. I found myself constantly jotting notes in the margins as I read it because it caused me to think of new ideas in my business.
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Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Creative ability in business    5. Creative ability in technology    6. General    7. Inventions    8. Marketing - Product Management    9. New products    10. Technological innovations    11. Inventions & inventors    12. Research & development management   

Reviews (7)

Great book withreal life application
I bought this book with not much idea of what it has got for me.
Great book. If you liked the HBR article, you'll love this!
Frequently organizations face the challange of what not to do. They tend to believe in the person presenting the idea, rather then creating a rigorous process for evaluating the options before them. Companies adoptingbest practices in managing their investment options realize substantialgains in their long term bottem line. This book quantifies this performancedifference, and what the best practices are across a range ofindustries. Ideas in the book come to life!
Thank you very much for sending me a copy of The Smart Organization.I have completed only two chapters, but find the book to be thoroughly engaging. Especially, the six dimensions of decision quality.Read more

Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Busine