Optimizing Growth: Predictive and Profitable Strategies to Understand Demand and Outsmart Your Competitors

PRAISE FOR OPTIMIZING GROWTH

"As disruption becomes the norm across industries, this book shows how any business can grow by developing a new strategy that brings actionable customer insights and big data capabilities together. This important book charts a new course for realizing growth as traditional barriers to entry erode and the existing playbook has less impact going forward."
JAMES M. KILTS, former chairman and CEO, The Gillette Company

"Today′s consumer has more information, more choices and more power than ever before, which means that having highly precise insights is no longer a nice–to–have, but a necessity. In this book you′ll get actionable tools for developing these insights to improve your marketing and business results."
GARY BRIGGS, CMO, Facebook

"By connecting precise insights into customer demand to powerful big data capabilities, the authors provide a playbook for winning in our digital world."
DAVID L. CALHOUN, senior managing director, head of Private Equity Operations, Blackstone

"What this book makes clear is that truly customer–centered, demand–based insights are the organizing framework for unlocking the power of big data to accelerate profitable growth."
WILLIAM HOFFMAN, Chief Analytics Officer and Head of CRM, U.S. Bank

Preface vii

Acknowledgments xi

About the Authors xiii

SECTION I Why Greater Precision 1

CHAPTER 1 The Growth Challenge 3

CHAPTER 2 Building a Demand–Based Business System 29

CHAPTER 3 A New Business Model 45

SECTION II The Precision to Optimize Your Current Business 67

CHAPTER 4 Building a Demand EarlyWarning System 69

CHAPTER 5 Enhanced Demand Landscape 85

CHAPTER 6 Precisely Locating Demand 111

CHAPTER 7 Brand Economics: Unlock the Power of Your Brand 131

CHAPTER 8 Pricing with Precision 149

SECTION III Moving to a Demand–Driven Business System: The Big Data Advantage 165

CHAPTER 9 Innovation ThatWorks 167

CHAPTER 10 Demand–Based Cost Reduction 187

CHAPTER 11 Winning in a Digital World 201

Index 221

JASON GREEN is a managing director with Alvarez & Marsal and has almost 30 years of consulting experience. He is the former CEO of The Cambridge Group and was a principal with the firm for over 20 years. Jason has worked with senior management teams at companies across industries and global markets to create and sustain profitable growth in their businesses. Prior to joining The Cambridge Group, Jason was with McKinsey & Company. He holds an undergraduate degree from Yale University and an MBA from the Kellogg School at Northwestern University.

MARK HENNEMAN has delivered profitable growth for more than two decades as a senior partner with The Cambridge Group, a principal with Booz Allen Hamilton (now Strategy &), and an executive with Motorola, Inc. Mark is the architect of the Demand Business System and collaborates with executive teams to unlock new sources of growth by aligning business activities with the most profitable demand in the marketplace. Mark holds a BA and MA in economics from Northwestern University and an MBA from Dartmouth College.

DIMITAR ANTOV is a current director and former principal at The Cambridge Group and previously led IP development at their Economic Center of Excellence. He is also the managing director at Straight Forward Concepts, a consultancy specializing in sales and marketing strategy activation. In this role, he leads teams that heavily utilize quantitative analysis, machine learning, predictive modeling, CRM database scoring, BI reporting, and data visualization; he also speaks at conferences covering state–of–the–art techniques in data mining and consumer research. Dimitar holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Northwestern University.

www.optimizinggrowthstrategy.com