Rejuvenating the Mature Business: The Competitive Challenge

In this new analysis of success and decline among mature businesses, Charles Baden-Fuller and John Stopford identify the key elements which allow some firms to soar ahead of the competition while others sink into terminal decline. Within the same industry, some firms show a financial performance that is at best adequate, with managers who feel imprisoned by their corporate environment; while others manage to achieve sustained, above-average financial performance and innovate new products and new processes. What are the key factors that differentiate the two? Drawing on a wide range of international businesses and industries, with examples of Japanese, US and European firms, the authors illustrate what it is that enables some companies to innovate, adapt and secure a competitive advantage while others fail. Company size and industry sector do not appear to affect the issue: the ability to innovate and adapt to market conditions clearly does. Some of the stories and examples presented here are surprising and challenge existing theories. Throughout the authors provide a well-researched, up-to-date, new approach to the whole question of corporate turn-around.

In business, as in life, those people who succeed are focused, energetic, creative, persistent - and brave. They not only confront the changes taking place in their environment, but also take charge of change to lead their industries. To help managers of mature businesses take control of their destinies, Rejuvenating the Mature Business outlines a four-step procedure for rejuvenation. Charles Baden-Fuller and John Stopford explain how a mature business can rejuvenate and how it can transform not only itself, but also its industry - even going so far as to rewrite the rules for success. Baden-Fuller and Stopford challenge managers to jettison the traditional thinking that pervades their industry, and to replace it with new, entrepreneurial ideas ranging from distributor relationships to new product design to market scope. They profile such companies as Hotpoint, which broke traditional rules by focusing on a national market when its rivals were international; Benetton, whose innovative strategic supplier alliances have made it a low-capital, high-profit operation; Banc One, whose service innovations revolutionized U.S. consumer banking; and knife manufacturer Richardson Sheffield, whose pioneering quality control, "lean" production strategies, and new product innovations led it from near bankruptcy to world leadership. The stories of these companies and many others, from Toyota to British Airways, dramatize each phase of rejuvenation. How can managers be rejuvenators? The authors emphasize what they call a crescendo approach - starting with experiments using few resources, then working up to larger investments. They clearly lay out the practical steps, demonstrating how managers mustfirst galvanize, creating a top team dedicated to renewal and willing to take new initiatives. They then describe the process of simplification, focusing scarce resources on a few carefully selected goals. Their third step is building new capabilities through strategic innovation. And fourth, they outline the methods for maintaining momentum. Along the way, managers learn why rejuvenators have low staff turnover and high morale; how they can assess and cope with risk; why effective change is like mounting a "strategic staircase"; how value can be delivered - without tradeoffs - to staff, customers, and shareholders alike; how conventional opposites - like high quality and low costs - can go hand in hand; and how economic downturns, fast-changing technology, and fluctuating consumer behavior can be translated into golden opportunities. This book is the rejuvenators' manual, replacing outdated conventional wisdom with powerful new thinking and strategies for success. Reading it should be every manager's first step toward giving their own firms new life.