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For forty years managers have been exhorted to "stay closer
to the customer and ahead of the competition." And with good reason. Research
now shows that market-driven organizations outperform their rivals. Given the
obvious benefits, why do so many companies fail to become market-driven? Because
their internal processes, structures, incentives, and controls get in the way,
says George Day, one of the world's leading authorities on marketing strategy.
Building on his path-breaking book Market Driven Strategy and a decade
of experience in coaching firms to deliver superior customer value, Day presents
for the first time a battle-tested framework for creating the market-driven organization.
In eminently readable prose, Day argues that in successful market-driven
organizations, three key elements -- capabilities, culture, and configuration
-- are aligned to the market. Day explores the distinctive market-sensing and
market-relating capabilities that are at the heart of the market-driven companies.
He draws on examples of such market-driven firms as Intuit, Wal-Mart, Virgin Airlines,
Disney, and Gillette to illustrate how intimate knowledge of their customers and
markets gives these firms a powerful advantage over rivals. By contrast, Day shows
how failure to align the organization to the market can result in such mishaps
as IBM's loss of leadership of the computer market or Motorola's stumble in shifting
from analog to digital cellular phone systems. Using
case studies of Owens Corning, Sears, and the Eurotunnel, Day provides a concise
roadmap to managers who want to strengthen the orientation of their organizations
to the market. He concludes with a detailed diagnostic questionnaire to help managers
assess their own progress. Here at last are all the insights and tools necessary
to construct a company with superior skills for understanding, attracting, and
keeping valuable customers. George S. Day holds the
Geoffrey T. Boisi Professorship in the Department of Marketing and is Director
of the Huntsman Center for Global Competition and Innovation at the Wharton School
of the University of Pennsylvania. Professor Day has written more than 125 articles
for leading marketing and management journals and fourteen books including Market
Driven Strategy, the companion volume to this book. A consultant to leading
corporations worldwide, Day is the recipient of the Charles Coolidge Parlin Award
for his leadership in the field of marketing and the Paul D. Converse Award for
outstanding contributions to the development of the science of marketing. He lives
in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.
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