Alexander Edsel - Breaking Failure: How to Break the Cycle of Business Failure and Underperformance Using Root Cause, Failure Mode and Effects Analysis, and an Early Warning System

ePUB is an open, industry-standard format for eBooks. However, support of ePUB and its many features varies across reading devices and applications. Use your device or app settings to customize the presentation to your liking. Settings that you can customize often include font, font size, single or double column, landscape or portrait mode, and figures that you can click or tap to enlarge. For additional information about the settings and features on your reading device or app, visit the device manufacturers Web site.

Many titles include programming code or configuration examples. To optimize the presentation of these elements, view the eBook in single-column, landscape mode and adjust the font size to the smallest setting. In addition to presenting code and configurations in the reflowable text format, we have included images of the code that mimic the presentation found in the print book; therefore, where the reflowable format may compromise the presentation of the code listing, you will see a Click here to view code image link. Click the link to view the print-fidelity code image. To return to the previous page viewed, click the Back button on your device or app.

How to Break the Cycle of Business Failure and Underperformance Using Root Cause, Failure Mode and Effects Analysis, and an Early Warning System

Alexander D. Edsel

Publisher: Paul Boger
Editor-in-Chief: Amy Neidlinger
Executive Editor: Jeanne Glasser Levine
Cover Designer: Chuti Prasertsith
Managing Editor: Kristy Hart
Project Editor: Andy Beaster
Copy Editor: Keith Cline
Proofreader: Language Logistics, Chrissy White
Indexer: Tim Wright
Senior Compositor: Gloria Schurick
Manufacturing Buyer: Dan Uhrig

2016 by Alexander D. Edsel

Publishing as FT Press

Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458

For information about buying this title in bulk quantities, or for special sales opportunities (which may include electronic versions; custom cover designs; and content particular to your business, training goals, marketing focus, or branding interests), please contact our corporate sales department at or (800) 382-3419.

For government sales inquiries, please contact .

For questions about sales outside the U.S., please contact .

Company and product names mentioned herein are the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, in any form or by any means, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Printed in the United States of America

First Printing October 2015

ISBN-10: 0-13-438636-1
ISBN-13: 978-0-13-438636-2

Pearson Education LTD.
Pearson Education Australia PTY, Limited.
Pearson Education Singapore, Pte. Ltd.
Pearson Education Asia, Ltd.
Pearson Education Canada, Ltd.
Pearson Educacin de Mexico, S.A. de C.V.
Pearson EducationJapan
Pearson Education Malaysia, Pte. Ltd.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015946542

As a 15-year marketing professional responsible for many campaign and product launches, reading Breaking Failure helped bring into focus my own planning and post-campaign assessment shortcomings. The author does an excellent job introducing a framework as well as techniques any manager can use to better identify, gauge, quantify and most importantly lessen the impact of failure. Detailed infographics and examples help the reader understand the power and applicability of each of these techniques. The author also does a good job illustrating how these techniques can be incorporated across any organization. Breaking Failure is a must read for any manager looking to improve business performance and avoid recurring pitfalls.

Andrew Franco, Vice President of Marketing at Transamerica

In Breaking Failure, Alexander Edsel breathes new life into an age-old question: Can businesses prevent and mitigate failure? The short answer is yes, but the strength of Edsels approach is the way in which he convincingly transfers the insights of fields such as engineering into the marketing arena while also demonstrating their practical use and implementation potential. Edsel presents an intuitive suite of frameworks that address management biases, identify and prioritize risks, establish mechanisms for warnings, and develop strategies to prevent and prepare for failure. Highly recommended for the marketing practitioner who is looking for an actionable, pragmatic approach to dealing with failure, an inevitable reality of doing business.

Yannis Kotziagkiaouridis, Global Chief Analytics Officer at Wunderman

Author Alexander Edsel has created a rich story that removes the mystery surrounding product success and failure, offering a refreshing blend of street wisdom and classical theory to apply problem-solving techniques from other disciplines into the crazy world of marketing and product management.

Jeff Kavanaugh, VP and Managing Partner, Infosys Consulting

With all the buzz in marketing today around big data and technology as the way to improve our craft, Alexander Edsel reminds us that the best opportunities for progress may come from looking outside of our discipline and applying decision-making principles from other domains. Since reading Edsels book, Ive changed the way I think about solving marketing problems and just as importantly have changed the way I think about staffing, giving much more weight to the need for cross-disciplinary thinking in our hiring.

Patricia Lyle, General Manager, Meredith Xcelerated Marketing

Ive worked with Alex on a number of projects, and I appreciate his ability to communicate highly technical concepts to executable actions for real business professionals. This book isnt just for CEOs and senior executives; its also for managers and employees looking to implement improvement processes to create real value in their businesses. As Alex points outs, the techniques do require a modest investment in time but most importantly the discipline to apply these practices on a consistent and concentrated basis to mitigate potential future failure.

Mike Hart, Vice President of Sales, Lennox Industries, Inc.

Alex brings perspective on the real-world challenges that are faced by businesses today. His approach to diagnosing issues early, applying past learnings, and hopefully ending up with better outcomes will help all enterprises from small to large improve their performance.

Bob Nolan, Senior Vice President of Insights & Analytics, ConAgra Foods

By identifying key areas where corporate failures typically originate from, Alexander Edsel lays out a roadmap for decision-makers to listen, assess, understand, and strategize to avoid or minimize the impact of catastrophic failures. This is an excellent, practical treatise to effect a learning, evidence-based organization where tools, process, concept-testing and empowerment replace gut-feelings and unsubstantiated domain-transfer generalizations. An excellent resource that should help trigger deeper thinking.

Dimitris Tsioutsias, Ph.D. / SVP, Strategic Business Analytics, Targetbase-Omnicom Media Group

At a time when everyone in business is talking about being data-driven, but very few enterprises are actually benefiting from it, Breaking Failure provides a much needed set of frameworks and methodologies to guide decision making and maximize the impact of business investments. Complex concepts are laid out clearly and can be followed easily, making them ultimately practical and applicable. And maybe most importantly, the book is relevant to multiple levels of managers and executives, as well as across organizational functions, from marketing to operations and HR.