New Retail Power and Muscle : Remarkable weapon to win the war at the point of sale, beyond clicks-and-mortar - Softcover

Austin, Thomas E.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0966114450 ISBN 13: 9780966114454

Publisher: Brg Pub, 2000

Synopsis

New Retail Power & Muscle is about the future of retailing and the emergence of new approaches that go well beyond clicks and mortar. Traditional retailers (mortar) are integrating with online retailing(clicks) to create the so called "clicks-and-mortar." However, this is only the beginning of a new era in retailing. This book not only looks at the major problems facing traditional retailers and the limitations of today's "clicks and mortar," but proposes a forward looking solution that expands beyond what anybody is doing today.

About this title

About the Author:

About Tom Austin -- by Robert B. Pile

Over the past eight years, Tom Austin has worked as a business development strategist for several of the world's most admired Fortune 500 companies. He has been a key advisor in the development of over 21 new business and market opportunities now used by these companies.

Shortly, I'll tell you about Tom's background. But first you should know that he has climbed fast and far to what he is today - a thoroughly experienced business and marketing consultant.

After earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry and Finance, certainly a unique combination, he went to work for W.R. Grace in 1989 as a research chemist. Though chemistry was intellectually stimulating, it did not satisfy his rapidly growing appetite for solving business problems. This hunger, joined with the call of entrepreneurship, drove him back to the University of Wisconsin to enroll in the MBA Marketing program.

During his second year in the program, he found time to start a software company, Business Intelligence Inc. The objective of the business was to provide software tools to help executives understand and evaluate all the competitive dynamics that impact their company's strategic outlook. As the business grew, Tom moved to the nearby Twin Cities, Minneapolis and St. Paul, where he soon made key connections with several large companies. He sold his software to seven of the nine major companies that saw his presentation. These companies included some of the big hitters in the area - Medtronic, Toro, Valspar, H.B. Fuller, Ecolab and SciMed.

Interestingly, one of the companies that did not buy his software program was the marketing and manufacturing giant, 3M. During Tom's software demonstration to the head of strategic planning for one of 3M's largest industrial market divisions, the impressed executive said: "Tom, I'm not interested in your software, but I love the way you think. How'd you like to come work for me?"

Tom, sensing a unique opportunity, sold his software business and took a consulting position with 3M. His first major project for 3M was in 1992, and this put him on a fast track over the next eight years. Along the way, he was deeply involved in business research and analysis, plus the development of actual programs for more than a dozen of the company's divisions.

Although working as an independent consultant, Tom was offered the privilege of joining 3M's executive training program, nationally recognized for its excellence. There, he benefited from training by some of the world's best consulting firms in eight different areas: market planning, managing unusual risk and opportunity, strategic planning, distribution strategy for market leadership, advanced strategic planning, competitor analysis, product evaluation, strategic value pricing and advanced competitor analysis.

During the past two years, Tom has been the lead strategy advisor for 3M's multi-billion dollar Consumer SMC Group, which is responsible for aligning five 3M divisions to develop synergistic strategies to win retail markets.

Through his immersion in consumer markets, which is key to 3M's long-term growth, Tom has developed a clear understanding of retailing; this understanding includes not just retailing of the present, but also the dynamics facing retailers in the immediate and long-term future.

This book is Tom's vision of the future of retailing. Some of it is admittedly sharp-edged. His style is to tell it like it is.

About the Author written by Robert B. Pile. Mr. Pile is a retired Senior Vice President of Campbell-Mithun-Esty, the country's 10th largest advertising agency. Over a period of nearly 40 years, he worked with some of the largest retailers in the U.S. His many clients include some of the most well-known brand names in all of consumer marketing. Pile is now a writer and marketing consultant, and has worked with many emerging companies. He has know Tom Austin since 1997, and has worked on several projects with him.

Review:

New Retail Power & Muscle presents an idea whose time has come! It will surely solve many of the operational problems of major retailers. -- Don Beeler, Chairman and CEO (retired) - Synder's Drug Stores, Inc.

The real power of the Internet is its one-to-one marketing that enables the consumer to control how deep they are engaged in the buying process. The problem with traditional retailers is that we often alienate our customers either by failing to serve them or by smoothering them with too much salesmanship. New Retail Power & Muscle proposes a solution worth reading. -- David Rubin, Senior Vice President - Breuners Home Furnishing Corporation

Tom Austin outlines how the future of clicks-and-mortar will be a powerful brand-marketing tool for retailers. -- Steve Sherlock, Vice President Operations - The Bombay Company

Your view of the retail customer's point of sale experience today and in the very near future is 100% on track. The technology exists today to implement what the book predicts. It is a clear definition of what it will take to win in the new "clicks-and-mortar" retail world. Well done Tom! -- Jerry Miller, CIO & Senior Vice President - Sears Roebuck & Company

About this edition

• Publisher: Brg Pub
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0966114450
• ISBN 13: 9780966114454
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 64