Compete Smarter, Not Harder: A Process for Developing the Right Priorities Through Strategic Thinking - Hardcover

Putsis, William

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1118708717 ISBN 13: 9781118708712

Publisher: Wiley, 2013

Synopsis

How to compete in the right space for greater profitability and growth

The Internet, mobile technology, the ubiquity of information and the availability of big data have dramatically increased the speed and impact of success and failure. Companies today know that they must be competitive, but precisely where, and more importantly how, to compete is not always easy to identify―until now. Compete Smarter, Not Harder explains how to prioritize market opportunities so that a company's strengths in one area can be leveraged across multiple markets. Using cutting-edge academic research and extensive industry practice, author William Putsis outlines the strategic decisions needed to determine which space provides the best margins, overall profitability, and growth potential.

• Details a step-by-step process for strategic prioritization, from strategic market selection to the tactics of execution, providing competitive advantage across markets
• Written by Doctor William Putsis, a professor of marketing, economics, and business strategy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who has consulted and led executive development efforts with leading companies throughout the world

Prioritize with conviction. Make absolutely sure that all of your hard work goes toward the right space.

About this title

About the Author

DR. WILLIAM PUTSIS is a Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Kenan-Flagler Business School specializing in the areas of Marketing, Economics, and Business Strategy. His scholarly work has been published in various journals, including the Journal of Marketing Research, Marketing Science, Journal of Business, Journal of Business Research, Managerial and Decision Economics, Marketing Letters, Applied Economics, Journal of Forecasting, and the Review of Industrial Organization. He is also President and CEO of Chestnut Hill Associates, a strategic consulting firm he founded in 1995. The process presented in the book has been developed over the past two decades of working with organizations of all sizes including many leading Fortune 500 companies.

From the Back Cover

The Internet, mobile technology, the ubiquity of information and the availability of big data have dramatically increased the speed and impact of success and failure. Those who succeed today do so because they compete in the most advantageous part of the market.

However, finding the right space to compete effectively is not always easy―until now. In Compete Smarter, Not Harder, Dr. William Putsis shows you how to seize market opportunities that will have the greatest impact across multiple markets.

By utilizing the step-by-step process of strategic prioritization developed in the book, you can rework competitive efforts across markets to benefit your business. Learn to recognize strategic decisions that provide the best margins, overall profitability, and growth. Apply those strengths to extract value in other markets. Brimming with insights from Dr. Putsis’s progressive academic research and widespread industry practice, Compete Smarter, Not Harder addresses each step from strategic market selection to tactics of execution and covers the following:

• Techniques for determining the most advantageous market opportunities for your business
• Approaches to manage the risk of growth
• Processes to target the right customers in the right space with the right offering
• Methods of aligning incentives so that others are incentivized to do what is in your best interest
• Guidelines for preparing for the future by anticipating and leading changes in your market

Every business leader can learn how to exert less effort and yield greater results. With relatable vignettes and accessible guidelines, Compete Smarter, Not Harder can make your business more profitable and you more effective.

From the Inside Flap

Praise for Compete Smarter, Not Harder

Dr. Putsis has made a valuable contribution to strategic thinking with Compete Smarter, Not Harder. He offers practical tools for helping your organization decide where and how to compete. These are the two critical elements of creating shareholder value: delivering what your customers really want and doing it better than your competition.
--MICHAEL H. THAMAN, Chairman of the Board and CEO, Owens Corning

In a practical guide for managers at all levels, Putsis explains that the key to success is in the prioritization of the right markets and the right customers. This book offers a detailed process for making the right business decisions to compete successfully in today's business environment.
--JOHN A. QUELCH, Charles Edward Wilson Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School

The root cause of business success is discipline, and that is especially true in strategy development. This book lays out a disciplined framework that will allow today's leaders to identify the difference between a temptation and a genuine opportunity--this is the essence of winning and losing in a rapidly changing world.
--MICHAEL J. CAVE, Senior Vice President at the Boeing Company and President of Boeing Capital Corporation

In Compete Smarter, Not Harder, Bill Putsis advocates a level of focus that requires strategic use of information to set smart limits. To keep their organizations competitive, leaders need to know--and sometimes embrace--their market's limits through strategic prioritization. Smart leaders first apply analytics to explore the boundaries of their market to uncover new opportunities. Then they make fact-based decisions at every subsequent turn. Businesses that fail often do so, not because their leaders didn't work hard enough, but because they didn't carefully choose where to compete. This book delivers the principles and tools to navigate those choices.
--JIM DAVIS, Chief Marketing Officer, SAS

Edition details

• Publisher: Wiley
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1118708717
• ISBN 13: 9781118708712
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224