The Myth of Excellence: Why Great Companies Never Try to Be the Best at Everythi

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		The Myth of Excellence: Why Great Companies Never Try to Be the Best at Everythi
		The Myth of Excellence: Why Great Companies Never Try to Be the Best at Everythi

基本信息·出版社：Crown Business
·页码：272 页
·出版日期：2001年06月
·ISBN：0609608207
·International Standard Book Number：0609608207
·条形码：9780609608203
·EAN：9780609608203
·版本：1
·装帧：精装
·正文语种：英语
·外文书名：杰出的神话

内容简介 The Undiscovered Consumer . . .and the Mistake of Universal Excellence

What do customers really want? And how can companies best serve them? Fred Crawford and Ryan Mathews set off on what they describe as an "expedition into the commercial wilderness" to find the answers. What they discovered was a new consumer -- one whom very few companies understand, much less manufacture products for or sell products or services to. These consumers are desperately searching for values, a scarce resource in our rapidly changing and challenging world. And increasingly they are turning to business to reaffirm these values. As one consumer put it: "I can find value everywhere but can't find values anywhere."

Crawford and Mathews's initial inquiries eventually grew into a major research study involving more than 10,000 consumers, interviews with executives from scores of leading companies around the world, and dozens of international client engagements. Their conclusion: Most companies priding themselves on how well they "know" their customers aren't really listening to them at all. Consumers are fed up with all the fuss about "world-class performance" and "excellence." What they are aggressively demanding is recognition, respect, trust, fairness, and honesty.

Believing that they are still in a position to dictate the terms of commercial engagement, businesses have bought into the myth of excellence -- the clearly false and destructive theory that a company ought to be great at everything it does, that is, all the components of every commercial transaction: price, product, access, experience, and service. This is always a mistake because "the predictable outcome [is] that the company ends up world-class at nothing; not well-differentiated and therefore not thought of by consumers at the moment of need."

Instead, Crawford and Mathews suggest that companies engage in Consumer Relevancy, a strategy of dominating in one element of a transaction, differentiating on a second, and being at industry par (i.e., average) on the remaining three. It's not necessary for businesses to equally invest time and money on all five attributes, and their customers don't want them to. Imagine the confusion if Tiffany & Co. started offering deep discounts on diamonds and McDonald's began selling free-range chicken and tofu.

The Myth of Excellence provides a blueprint for companies seeking to offer values-based products and services and shows how to realize the commercial opportunities that exist just beyond their current grasp -- opportunities to reduce operating costs, boost bottom-line profitability, and, most important, begin to engage in a meaningful dialogue with customers.
The Undiscovered Consumer . . .and the Mistake of Universal Excellence

What do customers really want? And how can companies best serve them? Fred Crawford and Ryan Mathews set off on what they describe as an "expedition into the commercial wilderness" to find the answers. What they discovered was a new consumer -- one whom very few companies understand, much less manufacture products for or sell products or services to. These consumers are desperately searching for values, a scarce resource in our rapidly changing and challenging world. And increasingly they are turning to business to reaffirm these values. As one consumer put it: "I can find value everywhere but can't find values anywhere."

Crawford and Mathews's initial inquiries eventually grew into a major research study involving more than 10,000 consumers, interviews with executives from scores of leading companies around the world, and dozens of international client engagements. Their conclusion: Most companies priding themselves on how well they "know" their customers aren't really listening to them at all. Consumers are fed up with all the fuss about "world-class performance" and "excellence." What they are aggressively demanding is recognition, respect, trust, fairness, and honesty.

Believing that they are still in a position to dictate the terms of commercial engagement, businesses have bought into the myth of excellence -- the clearly false and destructive theory that a company ought to be great at everything it does, that is, all the components of every commercial transaction: price, product, access, experience, and service. This is always a mistake because "the predictable outcome [is] that the company ends up world-class at nothing; not well-differentiated and therefore not thought of by consumers at the moment of need."

Instead, Crawford and Mathews suggest that companies engage in Consumer Relevancy, a strategy of dominating in one element of a transaction, differentiating on a second, and being at industry par (i.e., average) on the remaining three. It's not necessary for businesses to equally invest time and money on all five attributes, and their customers don't want them to. Imagine the confusion if Tiffany & Co. started offering deep discounts on diamonds and McDonald's began selling free-range chicken and tofu.

The Myth of Excellence provides a blueprint for companies seeking to offer values-based products and services and shows how to realize the commercial opportunities that exist just beyond their current grasp -- opportunities to reduce operating costs, boost bottom-line profitability, and, most important, begin to engage in a meaningful dialogue with customers.
作者简介 FRED CRAWFORD is executive vice president and global sector leader of Cap Gemini Ernst & Young's consumer products, retail, and distribution consulting practice. From his base in New York City he travels the globe working with senior executives on how to reach today's elusive consumer.

RYAN MATHEWS is a principal at FirstMatter LLC, a leading futurist firm that works with companies such as Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Grey Advertising, General Motors, Georgia-Pacific, and Coca-Cola to anticipate the trends shaping corporate America, global business, and e-commerce.

专业书评 From the Back Cover

"Tired of business drivel? If you are ready to step beyond platitudinous mission statements and strategies cooked up in distant boardrooms that have no connection to the trenches where business battles are actually being fought, this is the book for you. It is grounded, readable, and honest -- just like your business should be."
-- Paco Underhill, author of Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping

"The Myth of Excellence stands apart from the deluge of business books on the market with its candor and readability. For the brand-marketing executive, the book provides some especially revealing insights into underlying consumer values. Even more refreshing is the authors' approach to imparting business lessons through real research and first-hand case studies."
-- C. Manly Molpus, president and chief executive officer, The Grocery Manufacturers of America

"Everyone in business thinks they really know their customers and what they want. But, in The Myth of Excellence, Fred Crawford and Ryan Mathews have given me new and useful insights into the startling changes taking place before our very eyes. When they tell us, for example, that 'human values are the contemporary currency of commerce,' they are not just offering another new business platitude but rather a new lens through which to view the consumer -- a lens very few people understand. The Myth of Excellence is both a big idea and a blueprint for action. A true must-read."
-- Michael Burandt, president, North American Consumer Products, Georgia-Pacific Corporation

"Today's customers are leading a revolution against business as usual: They are demanding that companies recognize them as individuals and conduct business on their terms. In The Myth of Excellence, Crawford and Mathews provide proven strategies for meeting the demands of today's empowered customers, who are crying out to be treated with respect, dignity, and courtesy."
-- Thomas M. Siebel, chairman and chief executive officer, Siebel Systems, Inc.


From Booklist

Crawford is the managing director of the consumer products, retail, and distribution practice at the Cap Gemini Ernst & Young consultancy. Mathews is a futurist specializing in demographics and lifestyle analysis at FirstMatter, another consulting firm. To research purchasing behavior, they surveyed 5,000 consumers, but the responses they got surprised them and prompted their title's contrary proposition. Crawford and Mathews found that values (respect, honesty, trust, dignity) were more important to consumers than value. This discovery led the pair to develop a new model of "consumer relevancy." They explain in detail the importance of price, service, quality, access, and experience for the consumer. They then suggest that for companies to be successful they need to dominate on only one of these five factors. On a second of the five they should stand out or differentiate themselves from their competitors; and on the remaining three they need only to be at par with others in their industry. With dozens of examples, Crawford and Mathews demonstrate the validity of their premise. David Rouse
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
文摘 Field Notes from the Commercial Wilderness

This book is really the diary of a journey -- field notes from an expedition into the commercial wilderness, if you will. Our trek began with a survey, fairly modest in conception although broad in scope. After all, we thought we knew how consumers felt. Understanding consumer dynamics, analyzing marketplaces and market spaces, anticipating the impact of technological change on businesses and consumers, and looking into the future are all significant elements of our day-to-day business and personal lives. In retrospect, it is incredible how naive we really were -- naive, but not unlike a lot of other businesspeople. Since we knew what we were looking for, we wanted the data to provide verification of our brilliant insights. Like a company polling its customers and rationalizing any negative comments, we expected the survey results to support our entrenched assumptions.

We assumed, for example, that consumers wanted the absolute lowest prices, the very best products, and lots of value-added services. We also expected them to tell us that they wanted shopping to be fun and entertaining. We were in for a shock.

Our real journey started when the data came back. We were sitting in the conference room of a restored Victorian home in Westport, Connecticut, marveling at how it was possible for 5,000 Americans to be so wrong. Our initial research included more than 4,000 consumer telephone surveys and 1,000 additional Internet polls, covering a wide range of questions about various facets of the consumer/business relationship and the "average" shopping experience, followed up by hundreds of additional one-on-one conversations with consumers.

We had asked consumers some basic questions about relatively simple business transactions, or so we thought, and they'd blown it. They didn't get it. What had gotten into them? Slowly, the grim truth began to dawn on us: They weren't wrong. We were.

The
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