Why being a "fast second" is often more financially rewarding than being at the cutting edge
If you get there first, you'll lead the pack, right? Not necessarily! The skill-sets of most established companies, say strategy experts Constantinos Markides and Paul Geroski, are far better suited to scaling up newly created markets pioneered by others (in other words, being "fast seconds") than to creating these markets from scratch. In Fast Second, they explore the characteristics of new markets, describe the skills needed to create and compete in them, and show how these skills match up with different types of companies. Drawing on examples of successful fast-second firms such as Microsoft, Amazon, Canon, JVC, Heinz, and many others, they illustrate how to determine which new markets have the potential to be successful and how to move into them before the competition does, when to make a move into a new market, how to scale up a market, where to position a company in the market, and whether to be a colonizer or a consolidator.
Constantinos Markides (London, UK) is author of the bestselling strategy book All the Right Moves (23,000 copies sold) and Professor of Strategic and International Management at London Business School and Harvard Business School. Paul A. Geroski (London, UK) is Professor of Economics at London Business School whose specialties include competitive strategy and market structure.
AUS DEM INHALT:
1. Spotting the Real Innovators.
2. Where Do Radical Innovations Come From?
3. From New Technologies to New Markets.
4. Colonists and Consolidators.
5. From Colonization to Consolidation.
6. Racing to Be Second: When to Enter New Markets.
7. The Changing Basis of Competition.
8. Creating the Markets of the Twenty-First Century.
Notes.
Further Reading.
Acknowledgments.
The Authors.
Index.
If you get there first, you'll lead the pack, right? Not necessarily! The skill-sets of most established companies, say strategy experts Constantinos Markides and Paul Geroski, are far better suited to scaling up newly created markets pioneered by others (in other words, being "fast seconds") than to creating these markets from scratch. In Fast Second, they explore the characteristics of new markets, describe the skills needed to create and compete in them, and show how these skills match up with different types of companies. Drawing on examples of successful fast-second firms such as Microsoft, Amazon, Canon, JVC, Heinz, and many others, they illustrate how to determine which new markets have the potential to be successful and how to move into them before the competition does, when to make a move into a new market, how to scale up a market, where to position a company in the market, and whether to be a colonizer or a consolidator.
Constantinos Markides (London, UK) is author of the bestselling strategy book All the Right Moves (23,000 copies sold) and Professor of Strategic and International Management at London Business School and Harvard Business School. Paul A. Geroski (London, UK) is Professor of Economics at London Business School whose specialties include competitive strategy and market structure.
AUS DEM INHALT:
1. Spotting the Real Innovators.
2. Where Do Radical Innovations Come From?
3. From New Technologies to New Markets.
4. Colonists and Consolidators.
5. From Colonization to Consolidation.
6. Racing to Be Second: When to Enter New Markets.
7. The Changing Basis of Competition.
8. Creating the Markets of the Twenty-First Century.
Notes.
Further Reading.
Acknowledgments.
The Authors.
Index.
"A bold challenge to conventional thinking with plenty of examples to support the authors' hypothesis." ( Voyager (BMI Inflight), February 2006) "...a ring of real wisdom..." ( Financial Times , 21 st September 2005) "This interesting book examines types of innovation and how these can help companies succeed in creating and colonising new markets." ( Brand Strategy, May 2007)