Edge Strategy: A New Mindset for Profitable Growth - Hardcover

Lewis, Alan; McKone, Dan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1633690172 ISBN 13: 9781633690172

Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press, 2016

Synopsis

Are you missing opportunities for growth that are right in front of you?

In today’s volatile economic environment, filled with uncertainty and sudden change, the forces pushing you to stay focused on the core business are extremely powerful. Profiting from the core is crucial, but the danger is that overfocus on the core can blind companies. Scanning the horizon for new markets and new products can also be tempting, but risky. Fixating too much on either strategy can cause you to miss the substantial opportunities for growth that are often hidden in plain sight, at the edge of the core business.

In this insightful yet practical book, strategy experts Alan Lewis and Dan McKone articulate a mindset that helps leaders recognize and capitalize on these opportunities.

The Edge Strategy framework challenges how the boundaries of your existing products and services map to your customers’ views of the world and then provides three different lenses through which you can see and leverage value:

Product edge. How to capture incremental profits and other benefits by slightly altering the elements and composition of a core offering
Journey edge. How to create and capture extra value by adjusting your role in supporting the customer’s journey to and through your offering
Enterprise edge. How to unlock additional value from resources and capabilities that support your core offering by applying them in a different context, for a different offering or different set of customers

With engaging examples across many industries, Lewis and McKone coach you on how to identify and assess each of the different edges” and then provide concrete insights and advice on applying edge strategy and tactics to use in specific business contexts. The book concludes with a ten-step process to help executives and managers find and leverage the edges in their own companies.

Edge Strategy is the concise, hands-on guide for growing your business by getting more yield from assets already in place, relationships already established, and investments already made.

About this title

About the Author:

Alan Lewis is a managing director and partner in L.E.K. Consulting’s Boston office. He has spent the last twelve years helping companies large and small identify new growth opportunities and realize the benefits. He started his career as a professional engineer, commercializing new technologies in the chemicals sector.

Dan McKone is a managing director and partner at L.E.K. Consulting and a member of L.E.K.’s global leadership team. He has led hundreds of client engagements across many industries and has spent the last two decades advising on corporate strategy and growth, business model evolution, and value-based decision making.

Review:

CEOs need to abandon bold strategies for life on the Edge Alan Lewis and Dan McKone of L.E.K. Consulting believe that taking a more pragmatic approach could pay dividends.” Forbes

"Edge strategies" describe the process of finding new opportunities at the edge of the existing ones... It is refreshing to read a new strategy book that does not make grand gestures . And this is a book that the CFO will love too because it's not going to cost the earth! 5/6 Stars” Børsen, Denmark

In its customer-friendly forms Edge Strategy is a valuable corrective to the obsession with transformational ideas.” The Economist

Here is the main premise of Edge Strategy: Companies can accelerate growth by finding new uses for their existing assets. Sounds simple but it’s not.” Consulting magazine

clearly written and offers many examples of how to apply these ideas to your own company.” The Globe and Mail

ADVANCE PRAISE for Edge Strategy:

John Tague, President and CEO, Hertz Corporation
Alan Lewis and Dan McKone offer an alternate path to growth and show how implementing an edge strategy’ creates value in a sustainable way. To presume it doesn’t apply to your industry or situation would be missing a great opportunity.”

Kevin Mayer, Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer, The Walt Disney Company
We all need peripheral vision. Edge Strategy offers a clear and powerful framework for identifying and leveraging opportunities for growth that can sometimes be hard to see at the edges of your core business. A must-read.”

Darrell Webb, President and CEO, Guitar Center
Refreshingly pragmatic advice for driving growth, with a strong ROI, in any business.”

John Rainey, CFO, PayPal
Edge Strategy flips the conventional notion of strategy on its head and provides an insightful take on where some of the best value-creating innovations come from.”

Robin Hayes, President and CEO, JetBlue
Edge Strategy will help you and your business pull some of the most powerful levers at your disposal. Lewis and McKone outline a clear, smart approach to driving new and greater yield from assets you already manage . . . and delighting customers in the process.”

Tom Polen, Executive Vice President and President, Medical Segment, Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD)
If you’re looking for a playbook to higher growth and customer loyalty, Edge Strategy hits the mark. I expect every reader will take away new ideas to put into practice and improve their company’s performance.”

About this edition

• Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1633690172
• ISBN 13: 9781633690172
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 224