While all of us as leaders of growing organizations seem to know what makes us successful, Lewis and McKone do an uncanny job of pushing the reader to ask the tough question of what more can be done to unlock the potential to drive market share and margin growth. Edge Strategy takes the blinders off and helps you look around corners for opportunities that may be missed in strategic planning sessions.
GEOFF BALLOTTI, President and CEO, Wyndham Hotel Group
M&A and new business development may garner newspaper headlines, but Lewis and McKone guide the reader in identifying and capturing growth with less risk. This book urges greater attention on foundational business assets and customers. It deserves a thoughtful read and extended discussion.
BRIAN BETHERS, CEO and Chairman, 1-800 CONTACTS
In this compelling book, Alan Lewis and Dan McKone show how to take on an edge strategy mindset, enabling you to continually identify and unlock the great value that exists at the edge of your business. A great read!
MICHAEL E. FOSS, CEO, Sports Authority
Edge Strategy will inspire you to think about growth opportunities in a new and powerful way. Through insightful examples and a well-structured process, the concepts presented in the book provide a framework for identifying the opportunities that lie at the doorstep of many businesses ready to be leveraged by the organizations various assets with limited risk and significant upside.
ARI N. HASEOTES, CEO, The Cumberland Gulf Group
The approach put forward in Edge Strategy has helped us effectively frame and evaluate our growth opportunities. It provides a road map that considers internal capabilities, customer behavior and preferences, and the elements of differentiation.
JULIET JOHANSSON, Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer, Office Depot, Inc.
For any executive or manager who wants a practical, realistic guide to increasing growth in their business, look no further. Lewis and McKone do a remarkable job of making the journey both informative and enjoyable.
HARRY M. JANSEN KRAEMER JR., Professor, Northwestern Universitys Kellogg School of Management; former Chairman and CEO, Baxter International; and author, From Values to Action and Becoming the Best
Weve learned that the most effective way to extract profits from our business is to focus on the core. But that leaves a big question unanswered: How do you grow? Lewis and McKone offer clear insight on how to grow the enterprise using edge strategy. A must-read.
JIM LAWRENCE, former CFO, Unilever and General Mills
Edge Strategy is a must-read for any executive trying to chart successful and profitable growth. Lewis and McKone elegantly outline a clear path toward focusing on the low-hanging fruits that will surely lead to great results for any business.
PATRICK SALYER, CEO, Gigya
Successful companies continually look to emerging markets or underserved areas in the core business where assets, competencies, and culture can be leveraged. Alan Lewis and Dan McKones Edge Strategy provides valuable insights into this journey. It provides a road map for identifying and understanding opportunities often considered at the margin of the core business, and then deploying core assets and services in a different yet complementary way to unlock new value for customersand generate new revenues for the core business. Its a thought-provoking narrative for any executive.
DOUGLAS W. STOTLAR, President and CEO, Con-way Inc.
Strategy doesnt have to be about big shifts or leaps. Its often about taking the competitive advantages you already have and figuring out how to expand or apply them to new products, markets, or business lines. In this insightful yet deeply practical book, Lewis and McKone provide an indispensable guide to tackling this challenge.
KATHLEEN TAYLOR, former President and CEO, Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts
With Edge Strategy , Alan Lewis and Dan McKone have given us, regardless of whether our endeavors are for-profit or not, a cogent and impactful reminder of how important it is to think beyond historical or traditional boundaries and to imagine a result that we have not yet experienced... and then go for it. As they clearly demonstrate with their examples of edge strategy, the results can be the difference between revitalization and failure.
GLENN TILTON, former CEO and Chairman, United Airlines and Texaco Inc.
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Copyright 2016 L.E.K. Consulting
Edge Strategy is a trademark of L.E.K. Consulting LLC
All rights reserved
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior permission of the publisher. Requests for permission should be directed to , or mailed to Permissions, Harvard Business School Publishing, 60 Harvard Way, Boston, Massachusetts 02163.
First eBook Edition: Jan 2016
ISBN: 978-1-63369-016-5
CONTENTS
THE EDGE EFFECT: Why Edges Are Powerful |
EDGE OF THE PRODUCT: Rescoping the Boundaries of Your Offer |
EDGE OF THE JOURNEY: Completing the Customers Mission |
EDGE OF THE ENTERPRISE: Viewing Your Assets from the Outside |
EFFECTIVE UPSELLING: Redefining Even Better Solutions |
DEALING WITH MARGIN PRESSURE: Staying Profitable Despite Headwinds |
BEATING THE COMMODITIZATION CYCLE: Sharpening Differentiation with Less Risk |
THE EDGE OF BIG DATA: Enabling New Ways to Create Value |
A NEW MINDSET FOR M&A: Getting Real Value from Synergies |
FINDING YOUR EDGE: A Ten-Step Guide |
During many years analyzing and advising hundreds of companies, we have observed a simple but distinct pattern in the fabric of corporate strategy. Our research demonstrates that this recurring theme exists in all sixty-two industries in the Standard & Poors (S&P) index. We have witnessed this phenomenon in large companies and small, worldwide, and over time. The familiar aspect of the pattern is that the best prospects for driving profits tend to leverage resources and capabilities that your organization already knows. The less intuitive aspect is that the best leverage often exists at the edge of your business model.
Our business focuses on improving other businesses. As a result, we see companies striving, reaching, and bending, quite literally contorting their business models in search of a way to augment their bottom lines. However, we have found that many of these companies struggle to advance with the traditional growth strategies.
The issue for most firms, regardless of industry, is that they seem to be programmed to simply do more of what they do best: extending their presence to more regions, expanding their range to more customers, or just plain selling more stuff. We often find that companies are so focused on doing more of what they do every day that they start to think everything in their organization has a singular purpose. They understand the purchase process inside out, they drive vendors and channels, and they chart operational flows in NASA-worthy detail, all in ruthless pursuit of optimization.
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