Jason Green - Optimizing Growth: Predictive and Profitable Strategies to Understand Demand and Outsmart Your Competitors

Trim Size: 6in x 9in Green ffirs.tex V1 - 02/23/2018 8:56pm Page ii k k k k Trim Size: 6in x 9in Green ffirs.tex V1 - 02/23/2018 8:56pm Page i k OPTIMIZING GROWTH k k k Trim Size: 6in x 9in Green ffirs.tex V1 - 02/23/2018 8:56pm Page ii k k k k Trim Size: 6in x 9in Green ffirs.tex V1 - 02/23/2018 8:56pm Page iii k OPTIMIZING GROWTH Predictive and Profitable Strategies to Understand Demand and Outsmart Your Competitors k k J A S O N G R E E N | M A R K H E N N E M A N | D I M I T A R A N T O V k Trim Size: 6in x 9in Green ffirs.tex V1 - 02/23/2018 8:56pm Page iv k Copyright 2018 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey. Published simultaneously in Canada. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600, or on the Web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages. k Wiley publishes in a variety of print and electronic formats and by print-on-demand. k Wiley publishes in a variety of print and electronic formats and by print-on-demand.

Some material included with standard print versions of this book may not be included in e-books or in print-on-demand. If this book refers to media such as a CD or DVD that is not included in the version you purchased, you may download this material at http://booksupport.wiley.com. For more information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Green, Jason, 1963- author. | Henneman, Mark, 1961- author. | Antov, Dimitar, 1978- author.

Title: Optimizing growth : predictive and profitable strategies to understand demand and outsmart your competitors / Jason Green, Mark Henneman, Dimitar Antov. Description: Hoboken : Wiley, 2018. | Includes index. | Identifiers: LCCN 2017058594 (print) | LCCN 2018008033 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119462194 (pdf) | ISBN 9781119462200 (epub) | ISBN 9781119462224 (hardback) Subjects: LCSH: Organizational change. | Creative ability in business. | BISAC: BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Finance. | BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Development / Economic Development. | BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Economics / General. | BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Economics / General.

Classification: LCC HD58.8 (ebook) | LCC HD58.8 .G723 2018 (print) | DDC 658.4/06dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017058594 Cover Design: Wiley Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 k Trim Size: 6in x 9in Green ftoc.tex V1 - 02/23/2018 8:47pm Page v k CONTENTS k k v k Trim Size: 6in x 9in Green ftoc.tex V1 - 02/23/2018 8:47pm Page vi k viContents k k k Trim Size: 6in x 9in Green fpref.tex V1 - 02/23/2018 8:47pm Page vii k PREFACE Thisisabookaboutsuccessfullydrivingprofitablegrowthinarapidly changing environment. Our goal is to provide principles, approaches, frameworks, and tools that can be applied to virtually any type of business in any industry, whether business to consumer (B2C) or busi ness to business (B2B), large or small, or local or global, to help drive growth. By describing the key steps in an overarching growth process in enough detail, we hope to make each step and its related components actionable for any manager. We have attempted to provide a range of k k approaches from simple back of the envelope exercises and key ques tions to sophisticated Big Data analytics to help kick-start any growth effort within any organization. Throughout the book we use case examples to help bring key concepts alive. Our intent is to provide a range of case examples across industries and situations from market-leading companies that wanted to extend their lead to turnaround situations where there was danger of failing.

We hope the cases will be both informative and inspiring. When growth has stalled, it is often a symptom of fundamental changes among customers and mar kets that may make the tried-and-true playbook that drove prior successes less effective. Beyond having a plan for reigniting growth, it takes per sonal courage and conviction to undertake a process that might challenge the organizations conventional wisdom and then alter or even rewrite the playbook that built the business in the first place. The book will reinforce four key themes based on our experiences that we believe are critical for successfully achieving growth objectives: First, we believe that the most certain path for achieving profitable growth begins with insights into demand. We think of demand as the solutions consumers and customers are seeking across the entire range of situations they experience day in and day out. A solution for feeling vii k Trim Size: 6in x 9in Green fpref.tex V1 - 02/23/2018 8:47pm Page viii k viiiPreface more energized in the morning, a solution for transforming my business from selling products to providing services, a solution for paying off credit card debt, and so on.

Some groups or segments of consumers/customers are highly satisfied with the current solutions available to them. Others are highly dissatisfied with everything they are aware of or have tried. This is why sales figures are not a true indicator of the actual demand in a given market; sales receipts do not measure unfulfilled demand. Understanding how demand varies by segment of consumer and customer is a critical aspect of identifying the most attractive growth opportunities in the market. Demand is not one homogeneous block. Developing insights into what we call demand segments, along with insights into what drives demand, what fulfills demand, and the eco nomics of demand, make up the foundation for building a successful growth strategy.

In addition, we believe much greater precision will be needed to drive growth than ever before. More precise insights leading to more precise investments and actions will reduce waste and create a potentially sig k nificant edge. Understanding precisely who to win with and how to win k with them will require increasing levels of precision as retail channels expand, media options fragment, and the choices available to consumers and customers increase dramatically. For example, if businesses dont have a precise understanding of the new digital path to purchase, the most crit ical search terms being used by attractive customers, or the role of ratings and rankings on purchase decisions, their offers may never even make the consideration set for key consumers. We also believe that growth is best achieved through a comprehensive system that continually identifies and tests potential growth hypotheses. The system we propose is focused on continually answering what we call the How, Who, What, Where, Why, and How To of growth opportuni ties.