The Ultimate Competitive Advantage: Secrets of Continually Developing a More Profitable Business Model - Hardcover

Donald Mitchell; Carol Coles; B. Thomas Golisano; Robert B. Knutson

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1576751678 ISBN 13: 9781576751671

Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2003

Synopsis

Authors Donald Mitchell and Carol Coles conducted a ten-year study of companies that had grown the fastest over a three-year period. Their research reveals that while unsuccessful companies doggedly apply outdated business models, the successful ones improve their models every two to four years.

The Ultimate Competitive Advantage provides a straightforward, systematic method any company can use to review and improve its business model and each of its key components: pricing, costs of doing business, and benefits added. Dozens of concrete examples from companies of all sizes and types are provided.

About this title

About the Author

Donald Mitchell is CEO and chairman of Mitchell and Company, a financial and strategy consulting firm that was founded in 1977. He has worked on assignments with the most senior officers at hundreds of major companies including Abitibi-Consolidated, Aetna, American International Group, AMP, Armstrong World Industries, Baxter International, Beckman Coulter, Becton Dickinson, Bell & Howell, Black & Decker, Boise Cascade, Campbell Soup, CIGNA, Citigroup, Colgate-Palmolive, Deere, Dow Chemical, Eastman Chemical, Emerson Electric, Ford, Georgia-Pacific, W.W. Grainger, Hershey Foods, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, ITT, Kellogg’s, Kraft, Lockheed Martin, Lubrizol, Mallinckrodt, McCormick, McGraw-Hill, Molex, Motorola, Nabisco Brands, Northrop Grumman, Olin, PepsiCo, Pitney Bowes, Procter & Gamble, Ralston Purina, Raytheon, Schering-Plough, Charles Schwab, Siemens, Southwest Airlines, Time Warner, Union Carbide, US WEST, Warner-Lambert, and Xerox.

He is a professional speaker at major meetings such as those conducted by Business Week’s annual conference for Chief Financial Officers and the Young President’s Organization.

He has undertaken pioneering research in the areas of CEO best practices, developing improved business models, and stock price enhancement. His research on the latest CEO best practices have been featured annually in Chief Executive Magazine, and are widely studied by CEOs of many major companies. He has also written on these subjects several times for Directors & Boards, the leading publication on governance for directors of public companies. He has written more than two dozen major articles on these subjects. He has been quoted in Business Week, Forbes, Fortune, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal more than 100 times. More than 150 journalists contact him for stories annually from publications all over the world.

He is a graduate of Harvard College with an A.B. in history, and has a J.D. degree from Harvard Law School. While attending Harvard Law School , he also took the second year marketing curriculum at Harvard Business School. He is a member of the bar in Massachusetts. He is a former director of the Harvard Alumni Association and a former Treasurer of the Harvard Law School Association.

As a hobby, he writes on-line book reviews and was the second most popular customer reviewer on Amazon.com Carol Coles is COO and president of Mitchell and Company, and co-founded the firm. She has an extensive practice in strategy development and stock-price improvement. Ms. Coles has led assignments with over 100 major companies, including some of the firms listed above. She has been quoted in major publications more than 50 times. She also does professional speaking to major groups, including the ones listed above. This will be the third book that she has coauthored with Donald Mitchell. She is a graduate of New York University, and has a masters degree from Columbia University.

Reviews

It's a challenge to discuss business models compellingly, but management consultants Mitchell and Coles do an impressive job of it here. Their thesis: the best-performing corporations are those that constantly review and update their business models to adapt to changing conditions. Their supporting stories in particular are well-chosen, fleshing out entrepreneurial successes from companies from a dry cleaner in Newton, Mass. to the Mandalay Resort Group. At the "award-winning" cleaners in Newton, for example, the owner established a VIP service at no extra charge; customers could drop off laundry any time of the day, have the costs charged to a credit card and use a separate line when picking up their clothes. The benefits for the owner? He cut costs by ensuring swift payment and could process the VIP customers' orders before or after business hours, thus diminishing the demands on his employees manning the counter during busy opening hours. That example shows up in Chapter Three, "Eliminate Costs That Reduce Customer and End-User Benefits," and like the rest of the book, the case studies are clearly and enthusiastically presented with literary epigraphs and helpful chapter summaries that front each chapter. The lessons are far from shocking (e.g., "Cut Harmful Costs"), but it's a worthy review of sound business practices. The core message, for businesses big and small: survival depends on constant business model improvement, especially in tough economic times.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1576751678
• ISBN 13: 9781576751671
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 334