Beyond the Familiar, by Patrick Barwise and Seán Meehan

These two take an enterprise-wide approach to creating organic growth, with a simple, clear and actionable model. They agree with Sharp that the only differentiation really worth pursuing is to be the business that delivers on the category basics better than competitors. Their previous book, Simply Better, laid out that argument in full. This time they’re showing how to put it into practice. They place a very high value on customer feedback, especially on understanding the causes of customer dissatisfaction – a neat twist, since most businesses focus on their positive raters, whether through customer satisfaction or net promoter scores. It’s not easy for people in business to focus on and report on the bad stuff – but it may just be the best way to find the most significant opportunities for improvement, and hence get better results, not just on the surveys but in the marketplace and on the bottom line.

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Books | July 2012