Unlocking The Customer Value Chain

Based on eight years of research visiting dozens of startups, tech companies and incumbents, Harvard Business School professor Thales Teixeira shows how and why consumer industries are disrupted, and what established companies can do about it—while highlighting the specific strategies potential startups use to gain a competitive edge. There is a pattern to digital disruption in an industry, whether the disruptor is Uber, Airbnb, Dollar Shave Club, Pillpack or one of countless other startups that have stolen large portions of market share from industry leaders, often in a matter of a few years. As Teixeira makes clear, the nature of competition has fundamentally changed. Using innovative new business models, startups are stealing customers by breaking the links in how consumers discover, buy and use products and services. By decoupling the customer value chain, these startups, instead of taking on the Unilevers and Nikes, BMW’s and Sephoras of the world head on, peel away a piece of the consumer purchasing process. Birchbox offered women a new way to sample beauty products from a variety of companies from the convenience of their homes, without having to visit a store. Turo doesn't compete with GM. Instead, it offers people the benefit of driving without having to own a car themselves. Illustrated with vivid, indepth and exclusive accounts of both startups, and reigning incumbents like Best Buy and Comcast, as they struggle to respond, Unlocking the Customer Value Chain is an essential guide to demystifying how digital disruption takes place – and what companies can do to defend themselves.

Understand Michael Porter’s value chain in no time! Find out everything you need to know about this valuable business tool with this practical and accessible guide. The Harvard Business School professor Michael E. Porter has dedicated much of his career to studying competitive advantage. One of his best-known concepts is the value chain, which is used to deliver a product or service to the market and has three key objectives: to improve services, to reduce costs and to create value. The model can be applied to virtually any business in any sector, making it a vital tool for companies looking to make the most of their competitive advantage in an increasingly crowded market. In 50 minutes you will be able to: •Identify the nine functions that generate value within a business •Analyse your company’s activity to make the most of your competitive advantage •Find areas for improvement and take concrete steps to maximise performance ABOUT 50MINUTES.COM | MANAGEMENT AND MARKETING The Management and Marketing series from the 50Minutes collection provides the tools to quickly understand the main theories and concepts that shape the economic world of today. Our publications will give you elements of theory, definitions of key terms and case studies in a clear and easily digestible format, making them the ideal starting point for readers looking to develop their skills and expertise.

Based on eight years of research visiting dozens of startups, tech companies and incumbents, Harvard Business School professor Thales Teixeira shows how and why consumer industries are disrupted, and what established companies can do about it—while highlighting the specific strategies potential startups use to gain a competitive edge. There is a pattern to digital disruption in an industry, whether the disruptor is Uber, Airbnb, Dollar Shave Club, Pillpack or one of countless other startups that have stolen large portions of market share from industry leaders, often in a matter of a few years. As Teixeira makes clear, the nature of competition has fundamentally changed. Using innovative new business models, startups are stealing customers by breaking the links in how consumers discover, buy and use products and services. By decoupling the customer value chain, these startups, instead of taking on the Unilevers and Nikes, BMW’s and Sephoras of the world head on, peel away a piece of the consumer purchasing process. Birchbox offered women a new way to sample beauty products from a variety of companies from the convenience of their homes, without having to visit a store. Turo doesn't compete with GM. Instead, it offers people the benefit of driving without having to own a car themselves. Illustrated with vivid, indepth and exclusive accounts of both startups, and reigning incumbents like Best Buy and Comcast, as they struggle to respond, Unlocking the Customer Value Chain is an essential guide to demystifying how digital disruption takes place – and what companies can do to defend themselves.

The value chain is the tried and true foundation of any profitable business.Sustainability Decoded is a no-nonsense business book that shows you how to increase profits by integrating sustainability into your company's value chain. This practical guide provides innovative tools and approaches for adding value at each station, including: Sustainability Matrix Decision Tool for Codes of Conduct; Triple Bottom Line Short Form; Eco-Label Graphic Matrix; Sustainability Ratio Guide; Life Cycle Analysis Grid; Local-Global Scorecard; the Redesign Card; the Green IT Checklist; the Balanced Scorecard for Life; the Biomimcry Backwards Forwards Tool.Sustainability Decoded provides a profitable means to practice sustainability. It is as useful to the non-business person who needs a quick guide to the practicalities and principles of adding value right across business processes as it is to the seasoned business professional looking for practical and profitable inspiration from sustainability. Includes case studies on Patagonia, and One PacificCoast Bank.

"Value nets are digital powerhouses that fuel business results."-From the Foreword by Adrian Slywotzky If you have ever ordered a computer over the Internet and been amazed that a product built to your exact specifications could arrive at your door within days, or if your business's competition is suddenly gaining share by delivering custom-designed merchandise faster and more reliably than you can, you need to read Value Nets. Enlightened managers around the world are learning that the supply chain can be a bountiful source of profitable growth, increased market share, and shareholder value. Value Nets: Breaking the Supply Chain to Unlock Hidden Profits shows you how to release the value hidden in supply chain operations through new digital networked solutions. Value Nets introduces you to a new form of business design built around superb supply chain performance in the e-commerce world. This design enables any company to do far more with the supply chain than simply control costs. It provides a basis for true differentiation in the marketplace and gives you the power to deliver first-rate service and customized products to customers in ways that delight them and keep them coming back for more. Using numerous powerful case studies and examples from companies that have adopted value net design-Gateway, Cisco Systems, Cemex, Biogen, Zara, and dozens more-the authors demonstrate how value nets bridge the gap between the executive culture of strategy and business reinvention and the operational world of procurement, manufacturing, and logistics. They introduce the new concept of value nets and offer compelling evidence of their outstanding results. They also explain the five elements of value net creation, supplying specific examples from companies that have built value nets and showing how the new design helped these companies achieve superior profitability and customer satisfaction. Complete with an appendix that helps you think through the applicability of value nets to your company, Value Nets delivers everything you need to understand and implement this remarkable new business design. It captures the creativity of today's most effective business model and puts its power where it will do the most good-right in the palm of your hand. As one of the world's premier corporate strategy firms, MERCER MANAGEMENT CONSULTING helps leading enterprises achieve sustained shareholder value growth through the development and implementation of customer-focused business designs. Mercer's thought leadership on the topic of value growth is evident in four agenda-setting books published in the past four years: Profit Patterns, The Profit Zone, Value Migration, and Grow to Be Great. The firm serves clients from twenty offices in the Americas, Europe, and Asia."Value Nets exposes the supply chain for what it really is--a strategic differentiator. Reading about the success of Apple Computer, Zara, et al., will convince you that the time to take action is now!"-H. Lee Scott, President and CEO, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. "Our experience is proof that the ideas presented in Value Nets work. Agile, networked operations help us deliver superb service to our customers and drive shareholder value as well."-James Mullen, President and COO, Biogen, Inc. "Value Nets takes supply chain management to the next frontier. CEOs will find it extremely helpful in their quest to provide better service and reduce cost by meeting unique customer requirements."-William "Gus" Pagonis, Retired Lt. Gen., U.S. Army Executive Vice President of Logistics, Sears, Roebuck and Company "Value Nets brings new concepts and a road map for competitive advantage to businesses in Latin America and other global markets where traditional supply chain thinking controls business design."-Julio A. Barea, President and CEO, Sara Lee Branded Apparel, Latin America Group

Business Models for Transforming Customer Relationships What if there were a way to turn occasional, sporadic transactions with customers into long-term, continuous relationships--while simultaneously driving dramatic improvements in operational efficiency? What if you could break your existing trade-offs between superior customer experience and low cost? This is the promise of a connected strategy. New forms of connectivity--involving frequent, low-friction, customized interactions--mean that companies can now anticipate customer needs as they arise, or even before. Simultaneously, enabled by these technologies, companies can create new business models that deliver more value to customers. Connected strategies are win-win: Customers get a dramatically improved experience, while companies boost operational efficiency. In this book, strategy and operations experts Nicolaj Siggelkow and Christian Terwiesch reveal the emergence of connected strategies as a new source of competitive advantage. With in-depth examples from companies operating in industries such as healthcare, financial services, mobility, retail, entertainment, nonprofit, and education, Connected Strategy identifies the four pathways--respond-to-desire, curated offering, coach behavior, and automatic execution--for turning episodic interactions into continuous relationships. The authors show how each pathway creates a competitive advantage, then guide you through the critical decisions for creating and implementing your own connected strategies. Whether you're trying to revitalize strategy in an established company or disrupt an industry as a startup, this book will help you: Reshape your connections with your customers Find new ways to connect with existing suppliers while also activating new sources of capacity Create the right revenue model Make the best technology choices to support your strategy Integrating rich examples, how-to advice, and practical tools in the form of "workshop chapters" throughout, this book is the ultimate resource for creating competitive advantage through connected relationships with your customers and redefined connections in your industry.

Value chains today have a huge impact on multinational corporations right to exist and the way they compete. The future challenges associated with value chains are also huge and include new demands from society, emerging-market strategies, resource scarcity, risk proliferation and other issues. Anticipating and addressing these future challenges are crucial if companies are to compete effectively. IMD and several multinational companies created the IMD Global Value Chain Center (VC2020) in June 2011 to develop research about the future of value chains. This book summarizes some of the key findings from this two-year project."

Global value chains (GVCs) are a key feature of the global economy in the 21st century. They show how international investment and trade create cross-border production networks that link countries, firms and workers around the globe. This Handbook describes how GVCs arise and vary across industries and countries, and how they have evolved over time in response to economic and political forces. With chapters written by leading interdisciplinary scholars, the Handbook unpacks the key concepts of GVC governance and upgrading, and explores policy implications for advanced and developing economies alike. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial}