The Challenger Spirit

Challenger organizations are those that are disrupting their market, challenging their own habits and taking on dominant competitors. They are typically innovative and radical but what of those that lead them? This book analyzes the practices and disciplines that underpin the successful Challenger organization. In particular it looks at how Challenger leadership and culture can be developed in large, complex, established businesses.

WHAT DOES IT REALLY TAKE TO SUCCEED AND PERFORM AS A BUSINESS MANAGER AND LEADER? Great managers and leaders, at whatever level, are ones capable of driving performance and change through people. This book provides essential actions and behaviours to pursue (and those to avoid) for any manager who is seeking the path to great management and leadership.

EATING THE BIG FISH : How Challenger Brands Can Compete Against Brand Leaders, Second Edition, Revised and Expanded The second edition of the international bestseller, now revised and updated for 2009, just in time for the business challenges ahead. It contains over 25 new interviews and case histories, two completely new chapters, introduces a new typology of 12 different kinds of Challengers, has extensive updates of the main chapters, a range of new exercises, supplies weblinks to view interviews online and offers supplementary downloadable information.

This book is written for leaders that are challenging the status quo from the inside of large, established, institutions. As these organisations scale, we notice that complexity grows, their business models become entrenched and cultural barriers to change dominate. The greatest challenge leaders face at this stage is one of maintaining their energy, vitality and ability to innovate, in the face of the personal risk entailed in doing so. The100 mindsets captured here are written as an illustrated series of sharp, quick, paradoxical insights that disturb habitual corporate logic. The book is easy to pick up when five minutes are available, to remind the reader how easy it is to slip back into the comfortable armchair of conformity, and what to do to get out of it.

From the creator of thehit Sci-Fi Channel series, EUREKA! When an experimental nuclear submarine is marooned in a deposit of methane ice deep in the Marianas Trench, an elite salvage team mounts a daring rescue to prevent an explosive chain reaction that could lead to global disaster!

What do Tesla, Apple, Warby Parker, and Nike all have in common? They all challenged the conventions of their category and, in true Challenger Brand style, caused the world to navigate by their beliefs, actions, and standards. In this easily accessible series of stories, Illuminate explores what makes these brands tick and how today's modern marketer can benefit from their example. Packed full of insights, case stories, and real-world examples from my thirty-five-plus years on the front line of Challenger marketing, Illuminate is an essential read for anyone involved in the business of building brands. Particularly Challenger Brands. These are the brands who see imperfections as opportunities, who take umbrage at the lowly expectations that abound in so many categories, who challenge the Monsters in our midst. They are the mavericks who hate the status quo, who create new norms, and who force the world to navigate by their vision of the future. And these are the brands you will learn about in this book. Some are new, some are old, but all are Challengers at heart. And they all have fascinating stories to tell. Because why you do business today is, perhaps, even more important that what you do or how you do it. Yet, every day, we see too many firms chasing the competition, believing that price, product features, or passion alone will make them winners. Companies without a clearly articulated purpose. The result? Low returns. Failed or sub-performing companies. Another dream shattered. Another great idea turned to dust. The losers are the employees, management teams, owners, and boards at all these companies. As well as the investors--the VCs, private equity firms, angel funders, and founders, and the world itself. But it doesn't have to be that way. Most companies focus on what they do and sometimes, how they do it and then expect people to buy their product or service. Challengers, however, broadcast why they do what they do and change the world in the process. Challengers create new sets of rules and expect the world to follow their lead. And they do it with passion and focus, not big budgets. It's why they're some of the fastest growing companies on earth. In Illuminate II, you will learn tips and tricks, gain insights and ideas, and be able to put into practice lessons, from some of the world's most interesting Challenger Brands. Some of the stories you will read have historical routes; some are centered on my recent experience; some will hopefully inspire you to think and act different at, or with, your company, or even in your life; some will provide you clear, tangible lessons and exercises to use. And, hopefully, all of them will help you perfect the art and science of Challenger behavior.

What makes us human, and why are we so sure we're different from other animals? Humans are the most inquisitive, emotional, imaginative, aggressive, and baffling animals on the planet. But how well do we really know ourselves? How to Be Animal rewrites the remarkable human story and argues that at the heart of our psychology is a profound struggle with being animal. Most of our effects on the planet are the consequences of technological improvements and advances in our understanding of natural mechanisms. But why did this cognitive and technological edge come about in the first place and what kind of being has it made us? In How to Be Animal, Challenger brilliantly argues that this dizzying trajectory is the result of a singular characteristic of our species: the struggle with being an animal. Using a combination of memoir, historical texts, interweaving interviews and cultural and environmental history, How to Be Animal is lively and thought-provoking, bursting with ideas. This is a book for anyone who has ever contemplated what humans are and what makes our species so simultaneously brilliant and awful. Even more so, it is a book that asks tantalizing philosophical questions, such as whether and how human life matters. How to Be Animal is a tough-minded but ultimately sympathetic portrait of humanity. It exposes human beings as extraordinary animals defined by a profound struggle. In the third millennium, the way humans respond to being an animal among animals is the greatest and most inspiring challenge we face.

Four years ago, the bestselling authors of The Challenger Sale overturned decades of conventional wisdom with a bold new approach to sales. Now their latest research reveals something even more surprising: Being a Challenger seller isn’t enough. Your success or failure also depends on who you challenge. Picture your ideal customer: friendly, eager to meet, ready to coach you through the sale and champion your products and services across the organization. It turns out that’s the last person you need. Most marketing and sales teams go after low-hanging fruit: buyers who are eager and have clearly articulated needs. That’s simply human nature; it’s much easier to build a relationship with someone who always makes time for you, engages with your content, and listens attentively. But according to brand-new CEB research—based on data from thousands of B2B marketers, sellers, and buyers around the world—the highest-performing teams focus their time on potential customers who are far more skeptical, far less interested in meeting, and ultimately agnostic as to who wins the deal. How could this be? The authors of The Challenger Customer reveal that high-performing B2B teams grasp something that their average-performing peers don’t: Now that big, complex deals increasingly require consensus among a wide range of players across the organization, the limiting factor is rarely the salesperson’s inability to get an individual stakeholder to agree to a solution. More often it’s that the stakeholders inside the company can’t even agree with one another about what the problem is. It turns out only a very specific type of customer stakeholder has the credibility, persuasive skill, and will to effectively challenge his or her colleagues to pursue anything more ambitious than the status quo. These customers get deals to the finish line far more often than friendlier stakeholders who seem so receptive at first. In other words, Challenger sellers do best when they target Challenger customers. The Challenger Customer unveils research-based tools that will help you distinguish the "Talkers" from the "Mobilizers" in any organization. It also provides a blueprint for finding them, engaging them with disruptive insight, and equipping them to effectively challenge their own organization.