Strategy from the Outside In

Even in the worst business environment in memory, some companies have gained market share, grown revenues and profits, and created more value for customers. Indeed, some have managed consistent market share, profit, and customer value growth through the boom-and-bust business cycles of the last twenty years. These are not flash-in-the-pan companies. They are the likes of Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble, Fidelity, Cisco, Walmart, Amazon, Apple, IKEA, Philips, Texas Instruments, Becton Dickinson, and Tesco. We’ve spent years looking at these companies (and many less successful ones) searching for patterns and commonalities that explain their stellar results, and we’ve concluded that they offer these important lessons: * These companies approach strategy from the outside in. They begin with the market, not their own capabilities. While that may sound easy, it is incredibly difficult. In the vast majority of companies inside-out thinking dominates practice and inevitably leads to eroding customer value and company profits. * These companies invest in generating and deploying unique market insights to inform and guide their outside-in view. They don’t guess or fly blind. * These companies focus every part of the organization on achieving, sustaining and profiting from customer value. These actions are the major focus of our book because we find it’s what really distinguishes market leaders from other companies that are just muddling through over the long-run. Market …