Books on Market Strategy

Rating

“Blue Ocean Strategy”, by W. Chan Kim & Renee’ Mauborgne, HBS Press

Kim and Mauborgne present an excellent approach to developing market strategy in a way that minimizes competition, changes the competitive rules, creates market-unique value propositions  and takes competitive pricing out of the sales equation. The bonus in this book is the last third, what most books on strategy completely miss, i.e. the critical importance of the execution component. Both parts, the strategy formulation front end and the execution back-end, are spot-on. Read and think!

“The 33 Strategies of War”, by Robert Greene, Viking

A combination of history, philosophy, psychology and Machiavellian politics, Greene does an amazing job in compiling evidence, examples and classifying the 33 Strategies. This compendium is a joy to read for the strategist. A businessman, sitting with this book, and using it again and again, to consider strategic alternatives would prove invaluable. The one realization that immediately strikes the reader is that a few hours (yes hours, not minutes) of sound thought before committing to a strategy, with a book like this as a guide, would increase the probability of success enormously.

“The PIMS Principles”, by Robert D. Buzzell & Bradley Gale, Free Press

Based on research data from the Profit Impact of Market Strategy (PIMS) data base, which houses 40+ years of data on the relationship between strategy and financial success of all kinds of business (now housed at the Strategic Planning Institute) this book provides one immutable lesson. That is, “the single largest factor affecting the economic success of an organization is the relative perceived quality of its products and services compared to its competitors”. This fundamental rule is the foundation: the rest of the book highlights the subtleties regarding characteristics of specific markets drawn from the research. This is a great book for building a strong foundational understanding of market strategy.

“Value-Based Marketing”, by Peter Doyle, John Wyle & Sons, Ltd

“The Breakthrough Company”, Keith McFarland, Crown Business

“The Pebble and the Avalanche”, Moshe Yudkowski, Berrett Koehler Publishers

“Breakout Strategy”, Sidney Finklestein, Charles Harvey & Thomas Lawton, McGraw Hill

“Counter-Intuitive Marketing” by Kevin Clancy & Peter Kreig, Free Press

Books on Business Development

“The Diffusion of Innovation”, Everett Rogers

“The New Rules of Marketing & PR”, by David Meerman Scott, John Wiley & Sons

Books on Sales

“Hope is Not a Strategy”, Rick Page, McGraw Hill

“The New Science of Selling and Persuasion”, William T. Brooks, Wiley