Book description
What people are saying about Discount Business Strategy:
"Michael Andersen and Flemming Poulfelt provide a provocative
discussion of the rapidly growing role of discounters across numerous
industries: how they operate; how they create uniqueness; and how they
can destroy value for incumbents. Understanding the specific moves and
tools that the authors analyze will be valuable for attackers and
incumbents alike."
-Adrian J. Slywotzky, Director, Mercer
Management Consulting USA
"This book is very timely, dealing with today's most critical
strategic issue: how to provide more value to the consumer through
aggressive discounting. Those players in manufacturing and
distribution who master this will be the winners; many established
firms will fall by the wayside. A similar set of issues are facing
many nations today - Europe vs. Asia!"
-Peter Lorange,
President, IMD, Switzerland
"Andersen and Poulfelt have researched one of the most important
themes in today's business world - how fundamentally new business
models have wiped out establishments not with new products or
technologies, but by creating new rules for conventional industries.
Read this book and learn how to recognize the disruption of your
industry before it is too late!"
-Sigurd Liljenfeldt, Senior
Partner, Monitor Group, France
"This book asks if a firm can have its cake and eat it too -
that is, maintain high quality at low prices. My favourite example and
shopping place is big box Costco. Ikea is another. A must read for a
broad audience concerned about corporate
survival!"
-Professor Larry E. Greiner, Marshall School of
Business, University of Southern California, USA
The aspiration to adopt the right strategy still prevails over the
business world. But is there a single 'best' strategy for a company?
Can an organization create sustainable competitive advantage from an
'off-the-peg' strategy? And are most companies likely to craft a
strategy that genuinely creates uncontested market space and makes the
competition irrelevant?
The answer to all these questions is probably 'No'. And the rising
tide of companies like Dell, CostCo, Skype and Linux means that asking
them at all may soon be futile. While strategists have foundered in
old paradigms, a new breed of competitors has emerged. Value
destroyers. Old-style thinking understood value destruction when it
was confined to an industry and driven by a new product or technology.
But what are the implications when the destruction stems from a new
way of thinking - from a strategy that simultaneously creates value?
The implications are enormous. Every company in every industry is
potentially at risk.
This risk - or opportunity - is precisely the reason for this book
and its focus on exploring why and how some companies have bridged the
gap between differentiator and cost leader strategies to emerge as
winners in hypercompetitive markets, and what this entails in terms of
value destruction and creation. Discounting organizations are here to
stay - are you?
Michael Moesgaard Andersen is CEO of Andersen
Advisory Group A/S. He and his team have provided strategy advice to
numerous companies and public organizations around the world, and he
is also directly involved in business development through his own
venture capital company. He has worked as a lecturer at Copenhagen
University and as external examiner at Copenhagen Business School, and
is a frequent speaker at conferences. He is the author of numerous
articles and two books on technology and management issues.
Flemming Poulfelt is Professor of Management and Strategy and
Vice Dean at Copenhagen Business School, and Director of LOK Research
Center. He is the author of many articles and books on the subjects of
strategy, professional service firms, change management, knowledge
management and management consulting. His books include The
Contemporary Consultant (2004) and Managing Complexity and
Change in SMEs (2006). He has served on numerous corporate
boards, consults widely and is a frequent speaker at seminars and
conferences.
