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Summary: Great BOOK and a Great INTERVIEW
Review: Innovation is one resource that we can have an unlimited supply of -- so why is that we act as if it's in short supply?Don Mitchell is a national expert and he knows how to tap into this rich vein of gold and gain the 'Ultimate Competitive Advantage." He has proved beyond doubt, that success does start on the inside with our ideas for improvement. In this comprehensive book, Don and Carol Cole show us how to tap into innovative ideas, refine them, and then put them into action. To quote them, "Succeeding with a competitively advantaged business model is like running downhill with a tail wind." I interviewed Don Mitchell on "The Inside Success Show" and he was overflowing great insights for how to come up with powerful business innovation ideas and choose the right ones to put into practice. Here's some other things I learned from Don: ** How Don Mitchell went from creating problems as a lawyer to solving them
** Why 'just good enough' is your enemy ** What values give you a competitive advantage
** How to continuously come up with great ideas
** Why you should allow more mistakes to be made
** How to be ready for any future outcome
** And much, much more ... If you want to have the ultimate competitive advantage, whether it's in business, in the classroom, or on the sports field, then I highly recommend reading this book. Randy (Dr. Proactive) Gilbert, Host of The Inside Success Show (TheInsideSuccessShow.com) and best-selling author of "Success Bound"
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Summary: weLEAD Book Review by the Editor of leadingtoday.org
Review: Don Mitchell and Carol Coles take a different and interesting view of business model innovation. It is their contention that a business can continually improve the effectiveness of practically everything that is done. Their book is the result of current research and seeks to go beyond the stale concept of "here is what others are doing so go ahead and copy it". A major goal of The Ultimate Competitive Advantage is to teach you how to improve your organization with a sound business model and how to use your creativity to continually improve that model. This can result in generating your own new growth opportunities rather than waiting for opportunities to be created by competitors or the marketplace. The authors offer the powerful concept of reinventing your business model to discover new outlooks that will increase stakeholder satisfaction and allegiance. Competition is not only with other competitive organizations but with your organization's present business model! The Ultimate Competitive Advantage will help you evaluate your business plan from "stem to stern". Mitchell and Coles ask a number of challenging questions to focus your plan on the proper target and in the right direction. They seek to engage the reader's potential for imagination and prod the reader to ultimately look for new ways to promote growth. If fully appreciated, this book will direct you to some positive answers that are typically apparent but often overlooked. This book is not simply a philosophical treatise on how to create a business plan or workable business model. It is laced with real life examples that will give you pause for reflection and personal evaluation. It is not your typical book on management or leadership. However, it does present some of the best practices of respected business leaders and stresses the importance of effective communications and relationships among all stakeholders. Examples include some of the most recognized and successful organizations on the modern business landscape.
The Ultimate Competitive Advantage is composed of four parts and broken down into nine chapters. Every chapter concludes with a series of "key questions" that are intended to spark the reader's inventiveness and vision. If you desire to read a book that will take you to the next level toward improving your business model, you have found it!
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Summary: The key to continuously increasing your business success
Review: Since the Internet Hype came along, most of the talk has been about discovering the "next new thing", creating a great mind shifting business model. While Don & Carol's book is also about Business models, their approach is shows more emotional intelligence. Rather than trying to come up with a revolutionary idea, and then figure out how one get the world to adopt that new idea, they recommend to go for a continuous improvement type of approach. Part of their message boils down to having more empathy for your customers by listening to what their needs are and then adapting yourself accordingly.
Given statistics indicate that only 10% of the population are of the "revolutionary type" (called "early adopters" in marketing) while 65% of the population is more of the "gradual evolution" type of person, their approach probably makes more sense to most people around. The authors probably have come to this conclusion from their 25+ years as strategy consultants, but if one looks at the demise of the dot.com period and at the continuing success of products from the far east, there is lots of evidence to support this point of view.
The basic question of the book is "how can your company simultaneously improve costs, adjust prices and provide new benefits in a move to increase the value (or ROI) your product or services represent. As some other reviewers pointed out, in the past Porter, Drucker, etc have offered theories to answer this question, but this book is far more practical.
The authors give you loads of questions to get you started to think in a more innovative, improvement oriented way about the things you are already doing. For those of us who claim don't have time, the formatting of the book helps you to pick out thought-provoking questions easily: they are presented in boxes throughout the text and summarized in "key questions" sections at the end of each chapter.
After reading this book, few excuses are left for not starting to continuously regenerate your business model. Patrick Merlevede author of "7 Steps to Emotional Intelligence"
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Summary: A Sweet Read for Entrepreneurs Looking to Stay Profitable
Review: The Ultimate Competitive Advantage helps answer an oft-asked question for entrepreneurs-"I'm successful today-now what?" Mitchell and Coles cite small and large companies seeking ways to stay profitable for the long haul. An especially topical chapter is "Further Improve Your Business Model and Build a Buffer for Lean Times." The authors also explore how to adjust prices to increase profitability and how to focus on areas of greatest growth and profitability. Kimberly L. McCall ("Marketing Angel"), author of Sell it, Baby! Marketing Angel's 37 Down-to-Earth & Practical How-To's on
Marketing, Branding & Sales
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Summary: Every self-employed person needs this book.
Review: The words "capitalism" and "free market" all too often bring to mind images of ruthless competetion, and the business exploitation of both workers and consumers. Too many people (who have never been in business on their own) believe the path to business success is through deceptive practices. They also believe that consumers need government protection. In direct contradiction to commonly held beliefs, Don Mitchell, a business consultant, has studied the most successful public and private companies, and discovered something very interesting. The most successful companies are those that constantly revise their business models to meet consumer needs at the least cost. Example: Ecolab started its business innovation by enabling its customers (mostly restaurants) to keep health inspectors satisfied by sharing its knowledge of chemicals to improve all aspects of restaurant management--from cooking and cleaning to storage and waste management. Eventually it expanded into janitorial services. It did all of this while maintaining a competetive price for its products. No new entrant could match the services Ecolab would provide. The most important chapter for self-employed people is Chapter 1: Increase value without raising prices or costs. This chapter provides several ideas on how to look at day-to-day business operations, and find out which areas inadvertently discourage customers from purchase. The author also discusses the importance of TESTING an idea before a complete revision. This is more applicable to larger corporations, but start-ups should consider testing the plausibility of the business model before sinking too much money into the project. Although Mr. Michell's concepts apply to a wide variety of industries, one of the few areas not mentioned is health care. As a health care professional, I'm certain innovation would provide patients with better care for less costs. Unfortunately, government reimbursement patterns (which most insurance plans copy), severely limit what inventive people can do within the system. Until people decide health care is like most other goods and services--best handled by a free market, health care will likely improve practices rather slowly.
Bottom line: It is possible to both do good for others, and do well for yourself.
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Summary: A Swiss Army knife of business model-based strategies
Review: If you were to judge this deeply practical, example-studded book by the quality of those enthusiastically recommending it on several pages, you would have to be impressed. Of course endorsements aren't always objective, but a strong secondary indicator is the average five star rating from 104 reviewers here on Amazon - quite a feat. This book exhibited a third promising feature before even considering the details: After my initial rapid scan, numerous sticky flags pointed to chunks of text that demanded further reading. The core business points made in this book by management consultants Donald Mitchell and Carol Coles are based on a ten-year study of companies that had grown the fastest over a three-year period. Fortuitously, on the same day that I read Mitchell and Coles' book, I also read "What Really Works", also based on a multi-year study and intended to identify the crucial factors in sustained outperformance. Comparing the two works is far from a waste of time since their style and approach differ substantially. The Ultimate Competitive Advantage is less obviously rigorous but far more lyrical, full of well-selected and well-related stories of entrepreneurial success. I also endorse Mitchell and Coles' central message: The best-performing corporations are those that constantly review and update their business models to adapt to changing conditions. It would make for an interesting and revealing exercise to compare this thesis with that of "What Really Works" in which the emphasis is on clarity of strategy rather than business model innovation. Despite a superficial clash, the two approaches may mesh rather well when seen in the appropriate context. The Ultimate Competitive Advantage can benefit executive decision-makers and managers at companies of any size, especially those who need a reminder of the enduring truths of value generation. The book is well organized, with helpful introductory summaries for each chapter, and can function as a Swiss Army knife of methods for almost any situation. If the fundamentals of pricing, costs of doing business, and benefits added seem too dull to read about, you could be missing out on a compelling rendition of core truths of which we too often lose focus.
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Summary: Some good information
Review: I found that the book was well laid out. The writing style was clear and concise, and I particularly enjoyed the authors' use of metaphors, etc., to illustrate their points. I thought it was good that the authors set key points aside in the margins on the text as well. They used alot of good, practical examples to help readers understand what for some would be complex ideas. I particularly enjoyed the key questions at the end of each chapter - I found that was the really the only thing in the book that I could, with effort, apply to my own situation. I did find that this book was not as useful to me as some other books on business management/leadership. As a front line worker in the human services (not for profit) sector, I didn't find much of the information applicable to my line of work as some other books. I also found that the prologue/introductory part of the book went on too long. In fact, I didn't like the way the authors would refer back to and expand upon case studies given in the introductory section - I'd have preferred to see these case studies at the beginning of the relevant chapter only. I also would have preferred fewer, and less detailed, examples - I wanted more theory. It was because I couldn't relate to the examples that I had trouble seeing how I could use this material in my workplace. Most of my criticisms are likely things that wouldn't have bothered me if the subject matter was more relevant to my life. I think this would be a good book for a business student to read, and as such I would highly reccommend it for the reading lists of any post secondary business program. It's just not a book that will likely appeal to a general readership.
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Summary: practical guide to innovation
Review: This is a very practical book designed for business people that systematically goes through what can be done to create a business model that constantly renews itself. It has some good stories that support the flow of ideas, of which there are very many. THe way that it is written makes this a very difficult book to get through if you are looking for a straight read, which I was. I did not enjoy reading it, but will go back to it when the right question arises. Recommened for business people rather than those wanting to understand how businesses are run in a journalistic way.
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Summary: A Continuous Improvement Innovation Stimulator
Review: Disclaimer: I was given a free reviewer's copy of this book by the author. REVIEW: Despite being initially turned off by the title (I tend to dislike hyping words like "ultimate"), The Ultimate Competitive Advantage has very strong content and should be quite useful to readers responsible for organizational improvement and/or interested in innovation. Here "innovation" is used in its broader context and not just technical innovation. The title and subtitle suggested to me that the book was about overall business strategy and business model innovation at the big picture level, however, I found the opposite. To me this book is actually about continuous business improvement at the operating level and it does an excellent job at that. I haven't read another book that so thoroughly and numerously discusses tactical and operational ideas related to good business practices. The core business concepts of others that I recognized were Peter Drucker's marketing concept, his idea that profit centers cannot exist inside an organization, and Michael Porter's Value Chain concept. The extent that the book is strategic, it should be thought of as a bottom-up evolution of a new business model though continuous improvement rather than a top-down approach. The authors take the right tone and show you how to get to a better business model without claiming to know the "best" model. The book has many examples that should stimulate your own ideas for business operating improvement. The authors clearly know the right questions to ask. The biggest drawback of the book that I found is the authors' tendency to go to excess. While the excess of ideas for business improvement is probably a good thing, the other excesses were a little annoying. For example, the book starts off with 30 quotes from readers recommending the book - I think a handful would have been adequate. Another example, the book has two Forwards, a Preface, an Introduction, a Prologue, and an Introduction to Part One - Chapter One starts on page 61. The content is generally good, so this is little more than annoyance. However, I personally prefer reading more concisely written books. STRENGTHS: Book is written with a focused purpose and author clearly tries to make the book effective for the reader. Chapters end with Key Questions which do a good job of summarizing core concepts. Lots of ideas for stimulating improvements in business practices, processes, and pricing. I found the last two chapter especially useful for those interesting in marketing. I generally liked and agreed with nearly all of the content. I think the authors would make excellent consultants. WEAKNESSES: The "excesses" noted above. Some side bars I think are too long and interrupt the flow of the book.
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Summary: Common Sense
Review: Don Mitchell was gracious enough to send me this book because he knows I often review business books. I picked it up with much interest because I am working with a financial institution that is having trouble reclaiming its business model. I thought I would learn enough to be more helpful to them. I expected a kind of in-depth analytic "magic" -- secrets to the kingdom. What I found instead was something I keep having to learn again and again: There ARE no secrets to the kingdom. There is only the imaginative work of real people with real businesses, trying things and building their own perspective as they succeed and fail. This is a book of one story after another of proprietors -- in large and small companies -- who took the trouble to look closely at their customers, their processes, their products, and their own interests, and ask themselves: What could we be doing differently? I don't think the book describes "thinking outside the box" so much as "playing with the box" -- taking on a creative perspective within the constraints and parameters of your own business. The stories are well told and the writing is engaging. One small critique: I personally found the format dense, daunting, and confusing. The book itself could be laid out more like a developmental path for the readers -- a way for readers to build their own capacity to explore their self-imposed limits (and remove them). In a nutshell: Effective use of imagination starts when you learn what's possible, and this is a compendium of What's Possible. I'm left with one question, however: Who is the book really aimed at? Is it the proprietor of a business? Or the people within? And to what extent will following this book bring them up against the unspoken taboos of their organization. Are they prepared to confront those? I'll add one thing. Don (whom I've never met, but whom I've corresponded with) is one of the great self-promoters in the business book field. His use of reviews of other books on Amazon.com is remarkable, and has been for five years. I say this with all admiration; he never steps over the line of being overbearing (he dances up to the edge of it from time to time), but he gets his "brand" out there. I have a book coming out myself in October (Who Really Matters: The Core Group Theory of Power, Privilege, and Success) and I can only look at what Don does with admiration and a little awe, in part for his persistence and energy. If Amazon.com has become the "place of record" online for information about new books, a review by Don Mitchell is a kind of milestone, a milestone that I suspect nearly every business book writer is aware of.
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