Bøker av Chris Zook

A Washington Post BestsellerThree Principles for Managingand Avoidingthe Problems of GrowthWhy is profitable growth so hard to achieve and sustain? Most executives manage their companies as if the solution to that problem lies in the external environment: find an attractive market, formulate the right strategy, win new customers. But when Bain & Company’s Chris Zook and James Allen, authors of the bestselling Profit from the Core, researched this question, they found that when companies fail to achieve their growth targets, 90 percent of the time the root causes are internal, not externalincreasing distance from the front lines, loss of accountability, proliferating processes and bureaucracy, to name only a few. What’s more, companies experience a set of predictable internal crises, at predictable stages, as they grow. Even for healthy companies, these crises, if not managed properly, stifle the ability to grow furtherand can actively lead to decline.The key insight from Zook and Allen’s research is that managing these choke points requires a “founder’s mentality”behaviors typically embodied by a bold, ambitious founderto restore speed, focus, and connection to customers:• An insurgent’s clear mission and purpose• An unambiguous owner mindset• A relentless obsession with the front lineBased on the authors’ decade-long study of companies in more than forty countries, The Founder’s Mentality demonstrates the strong relationship between these three traits in companies of all kindsnot just start-upsand their ability to sustain performance. Through rich analysis and inspiring examples, this book shows how any leadernot only a foundercan instill and leverage a founder’s mentality throughout their organization and find lasting, profitable growth.

When Profit from the Core was published in 2001, it became an international bestseller, helping hundreds of companies find their way back to profitable growth after the bursting of the Internet bubble. The 2007 global financial meltdown reaffirmed the perils of pursuing heady growth through untested strategies, as firms in industries from finance to retailing to automobiles strayed too far from their core businesses and suffered the consequences.In this updated edition of Profit from the Core, authors Chris Zook and James Allen show that a renewed focus on the core is more critical than ever as firms seek to rebuild their competitive advantage coming out of the downturnand that a strong core will be the foundation for successful expansion as the economy recovers. Based on more than ten years of Bain & Company research and analysis and fresh examples from firms responding to the current downturn, the book outlines what today’s executives and managers need to do now to revitalize their core, identify the next wave of profitable growth, and build on it successfully.Zook and Allen explain how companies can:• Develop a strong, well-defined core and use it to establish a leadership position• Follow the golden rule of strategy: discourage competitors from investing in your core• Assess whether your core is operating at its full potential• Uncover hidden assets in your core that provide the seeds for new growth• Find a repeatable formula to apply core business strengths in adjacent marketsBuilding on powerful and proven ideas to meet today’s formidable business challenges, Profit from the Core is the back-to-basics strategy field guide no manager should be without.

An argument for simplicity from the bestselling authors of Profit from the CoreIs radical reinvention the key to winning in todays fast-paced world? Not judging by the results of some of the worlds best-performing companies.In Repeatability, Chris Zook and James Allenleaders of Bain & Companys influential Strategy practicewarn that complexity is a silent killer of profitable growth. Successful companies endure by maintaining simplicity at their core. They dont stray from, or regularly discard, their business model in pursuit of radical renovation. Instead, they build a “repeatable business model” that produces continuous improvement and allows them to rapidly adapt to change without succumbing to complexity.Based on a multiyear study of more than two hundred companies, the book stresses the value of repeatability in business, showing how the “big idea” today is really made up of a series of successful smaller ideas driven by a simple and repeatable business model. Zook and Allen show how some of the worlds best-known firms combine a core differentiation model with speed, adaptability, and simplicity to land them at the top for long periods of time. These firms include: Apple, Danaher, DaVita, IKEA, Nike, Olam, Tetra Pak, Vanguard, and others.CEOs, senior executives, managers, and investors all need to read this book. Its the new blueprint for reaching the topand staying there.

All companies must grow to survive--but only one in five growth strategies succeeds. In Profit from the Core, strategy expert Chris Zook revealed how to grow profitably by focusing on and achieving full potential in the core business. But what happens when your core business provides insufficient new growth or even hits the wall? In Beyond the Core, Zook outlines an expansion strategy based on putting together combinations of adjacency moves into areas away from, but related to, the core business, such as new product lines or new channels of distribution. These sequences of moves carry less risk than diversification, yet they can create enormous competitive advantage, because they stem directly from what the company already knows and does best. Based on extensive research on the growth patterns of thousands of companies worldwide, including CEO interviews with 25 top performers in adjacency growth, Beyond the Core 1) identifies the adjacency pattern that most dramatically increases the odds of success: "e;relentless repeatability;"e; 2) offers a systematic approach for choosing among a range of possible adjacency moves; and 3) shows how to time adjacency moves during a variety of typical business situations. Beyond the Core shows how to find and leverage the best avenues for growth--without damaging the heart of the firm.