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The Discipline of Market Leaders: Choose Your Customers, Narrow Your Focus, Dominate Your Market
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Sales rank 69,639
Customers rating (based on 33 reviews)
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Now in paperbackÜ A breakthrough approach to strategy that will revolutionize how you think about customers, competition, markets, even the fundamental structure of your business. Paper. DLC: Competition.
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| Publisher | Basic Books | | Release date | 01/1997 | | Availability | Usually ships in 24 hours | | Edition | Paperback |
| | List price | $15 | | Our price | $11.7 (you save 22.00%) | | Used price | from $0.01 |
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 Try not to excel at everything
This book has greatly assisted me to help focus on some very important issues. Our company was suffering from some negative customer feedback - and after analyzing the situation - we came to the conclusion that this was in fact caused by our desire to be good at everything. The premise of the authors - to be leaders in our field - suggested that we should focus on one discipline - not all 3. This is liberating and will greatly assist us to let go of some of our sacred cows and help us focus on what we should deliver to our customers - intimate relationships. Hopefully I will be able to write a postscript in 12 to 18 months time - when we have completed the transformation of our company.
 Thought-Provoking
Describing the three main types of corporations which become market leaders, this book opens your mind to thinking about companies in a different way. Some marketing and business books are just recycled refuse, but not this book. This book is succinct: it makes a point, illustrates it with a practical example, and then moves on to the next point. I'd highly recommend this book to all Americans.
A Framework that Stands the Test of Time
Each year, hundreds if not thousands of business books hit the shelves. Not all fare well over time. Nearly 15 years after first being published, `The Discipline of Market Leaders' holds up nicely.
The premise of the book is straightforward - in order to succeed, companies must effectively deliver their value propositions to the markets they serve. The authors suggest there are three such approaches or `value disciplines' that a company can pursue: operational efficiency, product leadership, or customer intimacy. Most importantly, Treacy and Wiersema make the case that companies must fully commit to one of the three disciplines in order to build and sustain market leadership. Failure to do so (even if a company is proficient at all three) will ultimately result in failure.
Though some of the (formerly) stalwart admirees seem a bit ironic now (Sony, Silicon Graphics) the framework presented is useful for analyzing both the way companies attack their markets and potential avenues of competitive attack. For example, Wal-Mart delivers price leadership (a facet of operational efficiency) by ruthlessly managing costs from their supply chain. Potential competitors needn't bother competing with Wal-Mart on the basis of superior logistics. However, a company might successfully do so by pursuing a customer intimacy strategy with such offerings as personal shoppers and childcare.
Another unmistakeable observation is that `Disciplines...' predates the era of the internet. Despite the absolute transformative impact of the web, the framework still can be useful in making sense of current darlings Google, SalesForce.com, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
Treacy and Wiersema are not prescriptive in terms of which discipline a company should pursue, but it does seem that there are some natural pairings. A company that delivers cost containment might itself be most consistent by pursuing a discipline of operational efficiency. A company that delivers a luxury experience might best be served by a path of customer intimacy. And likewise, it seems natural that certain marketing vehicles most closely fit a given value discipline. A company that values operational efficiency might naturally gravitate to efficient vehicles such as PPC and other online marketing avenues. The luxury brand might best be served through a high touch referral marketing program.
In short, `The Discipline of Market Leaders' gets it right - a relatively quick, intuitive read that leaves you armed with a novel approach to both strategy and analysis. Recommended reading.
Great for adding focus to your business strategy
A quick but detailed discussion of the need for and elements of a focused approach to the market. The book provides a good overview of three primary strategic approaches, and then devotes specific chapters to detailed analysis of each with examples. A must read for business leaders involved in marketing or product development.
A must buy for any atrategy development
A lot of management books are focused on the coporate scene that it is refreshing when something like this comes along. The advise is sound and can readily be applied even to small and medium enterprises as well as entrepreneurs.
A must read for anyone who is involved in the development of strategies, for companies big and small.
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