CIOIN

The authors have done a splendid job of sensitizing the reader to changes in the supply versus demand equation faced by businesses today, and prescribing how to address this and win in the market.The first part of the book describes the changing dynamics in demand, over supply and demand contraction. All this is also leading to pricing crisis for businesses straining for top line and bottom line growth. The second part of the book brings out strategies to address this issue and beat competition. Given the current competitive landscape and extremely low tolerance to errors, the authors have introduced the Fifth P (Pricing) to the traditional 4 P’s (Product, Promotion, Place and Price) to ensure that each parameter operates at maximum efficiency and lowest cost. The third and final part of the book focuses on execution and how to organize organizations to win. The authors have also demonstrated how one can leverage technological advances like social media to discover, identify and serve the customers better and create opportunities for delivering industry leading growth in revenues and profits. The book is replete with real-world examples, making it a rich source of insights. An extremely useful book to read for organizations of all sizes.

I like the fact that the authors have focused on understanding consumer behavior and creating new product lines or services. The book clearly proves that what’s worked in the past may or may not do so in the future. The only way out is to keep innovating. The authors make a strong case for boosting innovation spend, clearly proving through cases, that organizations which do so derive higher business value and returns than those that don’t. Some of the observations contained within its pages may not be applicable to all businesses, but the authors point about innovating by keeping customer demand in mind and aligning the innovation engine with demand, with a clear focus on demand creation are bound to add value to all organizations. Definitely worth a read.