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Book

Beyond the Familiar

Long-term growth through customer focus and innovation

By Seán Meehan and Patrick Barwise

174 pages

Hardcover

Overview

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Overview

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Strong customer-focused companies have a clear, relevant promise which they obsessively deliver day-in, day-out. At the same time, they relentlessly drive the market by evolving the offer in the face of market developments and opportunities. Because they meet customer needs better than the competition, again and again, they are able to generate sustainable, profitable, market-leading organic growth. The problem the book addresses is how to achieve this.

The authors identify five key steps using their framework for success:

Offer a clear, relevant customer promise;
Build customer trust by reliably delivering that promise;
Continuously improve the promise, while still reliably delivering it;
Drive the market by innovating beyond the familiar;
Support all this with an open organization that promotes frank discussion based on clear facts and market feedback.

Above all the book runs counter to the fashionable claim that the starting-point for business success should be to find a ‘blue-sky’, ‘out-of-the-box’ breakthrough innovation. Barwise and Meehan use many compelling cases to illustrate how managers can find ways within their existing network and organization to achieve long term growth.

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Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications

Hardcover

eBook

You can also buy the book on Barnes & Nobles, Book Depository, Orell Füssli and Routledge.

Publisher

Jossey-Bass

ISBN

9780470976319

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