The Profit Zone: How Strategic Business Design Will Lead You to Tomorrow's Profits

If a skill is relevant to the customer and is not currently offered, the company must develop it, or hire it, or acquire it, or license it, or find a business partner

“The single biggest problem in business is staying with your previously successful business model . . . one year too long.”

uncorks countless decisions that should have been made long ago. What price increases should be implemented, and to whom? What accounts should receive greater, or lower, levels of service? Which types of customers should we acquire and develop and which should we avoid—or even channel to our competitors? How should we change our customer developmen

Successful entrepreneurs live at the opposite end of the spectrum from conventional market research.

Even the most powerful profit engine can be neutralized by a business design that is unnecessarily asset-intensive. Asset intensity absorbs the profit and leaves no cash flow for the shareholders.

change from “Do everything” or “Do what we do well” to “Do what matters to the customer” and “Do what you are best at.” Outsource the rest, or find business partners to provide it with you.

understanding of how your customers feel, and why, offers you a major opportunity to find clues about changing priorities and future profit growth opportunities. Many organizations, blinded by their traditional way of doing business, fail to stay on top of their customers’ key priorities.

The two most valuable ideas in the old economic order, market share and growth, have become the two most dangerous ideas in the new order. To apply these ideas appropriately (and safely), you must understand the rise of no-profit zones in the economy.

build a “firewall” brand at the bottom of the pyramid: a strong, low-priced brand that is produced at a profit, however slim. The purpose of this brand is to deter competitor entry, thereby protecting the enormous profit margins at the top of the pyramid.