Profit From the Core : Growth Strategy in an Era of Turbulence

Rating:
Summary: A Classic
Review: Finally, an important management book based on solid, sustained research and original thinking. Zook begins with the fact that only one in eight companies achieve sustained growth over periods of ten years or more. From this, Zook argues that a company's best-performing businesses hold the greatest potential for growth, and that one should therefore prioritize and strategize with their existing winners at the forefront of the company. Free of lingo and full of practical advice, this is a book that every manager can turn to.

Rating:
Summary: Hard work, but not a good book on strategy
Review: First, this is an excellent book to read. Well researched, edited, and from experts active in the field.

Second, the author makes many important recommendations about how you should manage your company... strategically. Again, these recommendations are based largely on research done by the author or his peers mostly at Bain & Co. regarding maintaining competitive advantage.

With the exception of Jack Welch (and previously Geneen at IT&T, I'm sure), large conglomerates can not maintain growth rates over long periods of time (ten years was the period used in the book).

So, the recommendations that your company stick to its knitting ("the core") is the foundation of the book. But many people already know this. So, most interesting, are the recommendations and research that show the nuances.

For example, the author shows how the areas around your core business offer the most profitable opportunities for fast growth... yet also contain the most dangers from encroaching competitors, or bad fitting investments. He calls this area your adjacency.

The author suggests that how you manage your adjacency largely determines your success at long term business growth.

There are too many concepts and details to summarize here. There is a lot of meat to the book (although it is not a huge book). Still it is fairly easy to read. You will not whiz through the book because you will often pause to consider the ramifications of the author's points. But it is not a difficult read.

The books major points are well illustrated with many examples (Dell, Microsoft, Starbucks, W.W. Grainger, etc.).

This book is most appropriate for management involved in strategy, and investors trying to figure out the appropriateness of acquisitions by companies.

Most of the pages in my book are underlined. The stories fit the observations and recommedations well. The research presented was most interesting, and was often summarized into easily read charts and tables.

I highly recommend this book. There are lots of implementable ideas in this book. As an investor you will be able to spot an inappropriate acquisition much more easily. ...

Rating:
Summary: Competitive Advantage - stick to your knitting... plus...
Review: First, this is an excellent book to read. Well researched, edited, and from experts active in the field.

Second, the author makes many important recommendations about how you should manage your company... strategically. Again, these recommendations are based largely on research done by the author or his peers mostly at Bain & Co. regarding maintaining competitive advantage.

With the exception of Jack Welch (and previously Geneen at IT&T, I'm sure), large conglomerates can not maintain growth rates over long periods of time (ten years was the period used in the book).

So, the recommendations that your company stick to its knitting ("the core") is the foundation of the book. But many people already know this. So, most interesting, are the recommendations and research that show the nuances.

For example, the author shows how the areas around your core business offer the most profitable opportunities for fast growth... yet also contain the most dangers from encroaching competitors, or bad fitting investments. He calls this area your adjacency.

The author suggests that how you manage your adjacency largely determines your success at long term business growth.

There are too many concepts and details to summarize here. There is a lot of meat to the book (although it is not a huge book). Still it is fairly easy to read. You will not whiz through the book because you will often pause to consider the ramifications of the author's points. But it is not a difficult read.

The books major points are well illustrated with many examples (Dell, Microsoft, Starbucks, W.W. Grainger, etc.).

This book is most appropriate for management involved in strategy, and investors trying to figure out the appropriateness of acquisitions by companies.

Most of the pages in my book are underlined. The stories fit the observations and recommedations well. The research presented was most interesting, and was often summarized into easily read charts and tables.

I highly recommend this book. There are lots of implementable ideas in this book. As an investor you will be able to spot an inappropriate acquisition much more easily. ...

Rating:
Summary: Concise, practical, a strategic advantage
Review: For market leaders of all sizes, this book will help you maintain focus on expanding your power in the market place. It will add clarity to your vision and decision making. Conversely, it will help avoid those investments in resources that would drag down your company's performance. In this period of global change and uncertainty, Chris Zook's book will you a competitive edge.

Rating:
Summary: A fine piece of research
Review: I just finished reading "Profit from the Core" and found it to be a powerful contribution to my thinking. The central concept is simple: Most effective companies build on their core strategic strengths to drive and sustain their growth. Zook illustrates how companies that stray too far from their core either lose their way or get into territory where they don't have any sustainable advantage. While many management texts are poorly written, with key points often being lost in oceans of minutia, this one avoids that problem. Key points are made , supported by clear evidence and examples. Reading it was a pleasure.

I would have preferred to see fewer examples from the consulting practice at Bain. I realize this is the basis for most of his experience, but more examples from outside that sphere would have been helpful. But this is quibbling. The book really delivers.

I would recommend it highly. It will cause even the most experienced of leaders to rethink their growth strategies. It is well worth your time.

Rating:
Summary: Great book for the investor
Review: I'm retired now, but I spend much of my time investing in stocks, so I try to stay up on the latest business thinking. Profit from the Core may be the best business book I've ever read. I find that most business books are either so general or full of unsupported opinions that they provide little insight or are so complex and full of jargon that they are incomprehensible. But Profit from the Core avoids both of these traps.

Its clear and plain language delivers the key messages in a powerful way--in only 150 pages of large print! Its ideas are based on objective research on thousands of firms, including dozens of in-depth case studies.

As the economy weakens and competition heats up, I think that finding profitable growth will become an urgent need for most companies. Companies that follow the principles laid out in Profit from the Core will be where I will be looking to invest.

Rating:
Summary: Worth it
Review: I've read many books on business and imho, this is one of the best. Unlike most, it is both insightful and practical at the same time. It's well written, easy to read, and I think it would appeal to a wide audience. The advice about growing from the core is right on target. If you've ever taken over a business that pursued a "grass is greener" strategy, you know what I mean. Building from the core makes so much more sense, and finally someone took the time to back it up with many interesting examples and facts.

More importantly for managers, the book's recommendations are practical to implement. It provides frameworks to analyze your own business and growth opportunities. I bought copies for my entire staff in preparation for an off site discussion that worked out very well. Despite feeling we'd maxed out in our current market, it took only a short time to identify a couple of realistic opportunities to grow from our core. These "core" opportunities certainly make more sense than other business ideas that had been kicked around (to which, we brought nothing more than market research reports and powerpoint presentations).

In my opinion, if you manage a business, or just like reading about them, you won't go wrong with this book or its advice.

Rating:
Summary: Focus on your core
Review: In a time of mega mergers and consolidation this book has an intriguing perspective. The authors (Bain consultants) argue that embracing non core businesses is probably trouble. Drawing on a huge multi-year study and Bain database the authors show that growing companies with unfocused acquisitions in non core businesses are typically under performers. The book shows several examples of how Bain purchased under performing companies (divisions) from conglomerates and by investing and focusing on their core business ignited explosive growth.

You might be asking how then does a business grow. The authors would say first by defining the core business. What business are we really in and good at. Once the core business has been defined and focused on growth opportunities come from opportunities adjacent to the core business. A few example adjacencies could be new customer segments, new channels, new geographies, new value chain steps (forward, backward...), new business, and new products.

If you are trying to define a sustainable growth strategy then this book is worth the read. If you have many non core business that are under performing then this book is worth the read. If you have a successful business and are looking for the next growth vehicle you will want to read this book.

Rating:
Summary: Finally, fact based strategic consulting solutions!
Review: It is both refreshing and exciting to read a strategy treatise that is fact based and rich with data driven observations and conclusions. Put aside the books with the "easy answer" or the next new thing, Chris Zook focuses on what appears to be the brilliantly obvious that is often overlooked by businesses today. With the Bull Markets beating a hasty retreat Zook's message is timely, and yet timeless. First time entrepreneur to experienced CEO, executive to product manager can all benefit from the author's research. To comment on Profits From The Core simply as a book does not do it justice. Zook has compiled a systematic approach to defining and analyzing the basis of ones core strategy, and then provides a structure with which to analyze the entity's competencies and map a path for economic growth. (The author has created a user friendly website to assist readers in this process.) The book is data centric yet is eminently readable due to the author's style of providing case studies and tangible evidence to support his arguments. Upon reading the acknowledgements I would state that his father has successfully achieved the goal of teaching a son to write.

Rating:
Summary: Facts and common sense
Review: It is such a pleasure to read a business book free of the gibberish catch-phrases and stilted prose that characterize so many in this saturated segment. Zook's expositions on how companies grow and create value are not driven from guesswork or force-fitting examples into a pre-conceived frame. He started with data and draws the unavoidable conclusions from the data elegantly and simply. Relative market share in a well-defined industry is shown time and again to be a sure way to sustainable growth. Running a business is 95% operations, 5% strategy, but the 95% is useless if the 5% is wrong. This book deals comprehensively with the 5%. Practitioners shouldn't need much else to guide their most important decisions.