Islands of Profit in a Sea of Red Ink
Islands of Profit in a Sea of Red Ink

Author: Jonathan L. S. Byrnes

Publisher: Penguin UK

Published: 2010-11-04

Total Pages: 396

ISBN-13: 014196572X

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Companies around the world turn to MIT's Jonathan Byrnes for one reason: he can figure out where the profit is. He shows them which customers and businesses are cash cows, and which efforts are just a drain on resources. Most astonishingly, in each case he finds that roughly 40% of his client's businesses are unprofitable. We are transitioning from an era of mass markets to the Age of Precision Markets. Before, companies sought to distribute their products as widely as possible using arm's-length customer relationships. Broad metrics like aggregate revenues and costs were adequate. But today companies form different relationships with different sets of customers. Successful businesses create competitive advantages and sustained profitability by developing innovative relationships and new types of value. This is a double-edged sword: if customers are matched with the right relationships, sales and profits soar...but if they are matched poorly, profitability plunges. Islands of Profit in a Sea of Red Ink tells you how to rethink your business for maximum profit - what to do, what difficulties you'll encounter, and how to overcome them. This book gives you the roadmap and tools you'll need to be a highly effective manager in a new era of business.

Islands of Profit in a Sea of Red Ink
Islands of Profit in a Sea of Red Ink

Author: Jonathan L. S. Byrnes

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2010-10-14

Total Pages: 324

ISBN-13: 110144438X

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Top companies around the world turn to MIT's Jonathan Byrnes to figure out where the profit is. Using his systematic process for analyzing profitability, they can quickly determine which parts of the business are worth expanding and which are just a drain on resources. Then, using Byrnes's "profit levers," they can turn unprofitable business into good business and good business into great business. We now live in the Age of Precision Markets, yet most of the management processes taught in business schools were developed for the prior Age of Mass Markets. Today's savviest managers are exploiting this disconnect. They're rethinking strategy, customer relations, operations, and metrics, and overcoming internal resistance to constructive change. They also reject such harmful myths as: * Revenues are good, costs are bad * All customers should get the same great service * If everyone does his or her job well, the company will prosper Byrnes reveals an uncomfortable truth: It's possible, even easy, for everyone to meet or exceed their budget targets and for the company still to have an enormous portion of the business unprofitable by any measure. But profit levers can flip everything around. For instance, several leading companies have utilized profit levers to increase their sales by over 35 percent in their highest penetrated customers, while others have reduced their operating costs- and their customers' costs-by over 30 percent One company described in the book raised its net profits by over 50 percent in a three-year period. The book is a practical, step-by-step guide to achieving these results. Every business has enormous potential waiting to be unleashed; this book offers bold new strategies to help you find and grow those islands of profit.

Choose Your Customer: How to Compete Against the Digital Giants and Thrive
Choose Your Customer: How to Compete Against the Digital Giants and Thrive

Author: Jonathan L. S. Byrnes

Publisher: McGraw Hill Professional

Published: 2021-05-11

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 1264257104

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Two top specialists in profitable growth and innovative customer-supplier relationships show companies of all sizes how to compete with the tech giants—by choosing and providing peerless value to the right customers for long-term success. Every year, managers at companies large and small are finding it harder to compete with the likes of Google and Amazon, who are muscling into their businesses, stealing their customers, and cornering every conceivable market and service. There is, however, a way for companies to survive—and win—in this era of digital behemoths. Choose Your Customer is a powerful, consumer-targeted guide that can help managers level the playing field against their biggest competitors. Written by Jonathan Byrnes, the legendary MIT-based expert on profits, pricing, and strategy, and John Wass, a key member of the team that made Staples a major national brand, Choose Your Customer shows managers how to: Identify the customers who are the most profitable—and focus on them. Provide services and experiences that can’t be replicated by the tech giants, no matter how much data they have, or how much automation they use. Support your chosen customers’ diverse and rapidly evolving needs to accelerate profitability and growth. These customer-driven strategies enable leaders to build a uniquely targeted business that the digital giants just can’t match. From unbeatable customer service to superior pricing and product selection, Choose Your Customer provides detailed and actionable advice on how to compete successfully with the big guys and how to increase profits as a result.

Red Ink
Red Ink

Author: David Wessel

Publisher: Crown Pub

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 210

ISBN-13: 0770436145

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Presents a narrative analysis of the federal budget that reveals how funds were actually spent in 2011, evaluating the roles of such contributors as Jacob Lew, Douglas Elmendorf, and Pete Peterson.

Retail is Detail
Retail is Detail

Author: Bill Scott

Publisher: Lulu.com

Published: 2011-07-24

Total Pages: 417

ISBN-13: 1257826786

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The Retailer's Play-book on How to Beat Walmart - This book discusses how big-box retailers such as Walmart have made great improvements in managing their inventory, literally forcing their suppliers to conform to item-level inventory control, which is the main reason for their overwhelming success, and why small to medium-size retailers continue to follow the wrong path. Any retailer who reads this book should come away with an understanding of the importance of item-level inventory control, and how to adopt a plan to migrate to it as quickly as possible; because in times like these, where tremendous economic changes threaten all of us, if a change in methods is not made quickly, we will see more and more retailers closing up shop and heading to the bankruptcy courts. Yes, Walmart can be beaten! We just need to learn how to beat them at their own game.

HBR Guide to Buying a Small Business
HBR Guide to Buying a Small Business

Author: Richard S. Ruback

Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press

Published: 2017-01-17

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 1633692515

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An all-in-one guide to helping you buy and own your own business. Are you looking for an alternative to a career path at a big firm? Does founding your own start-up seem too risky? There is a radical third path open to you: You can buy a small business and run it as CEO. Purchasing a small company offers significant financial rewards—as well as personal and professional fulfillment. Leading a firm means you can be your own boss, put your executive skills to work, fashion a company environment that meets your own needs, and profit directly from your success. But finding the right business to buy and closing the deal isn't always easy. In the HBR Guide to Buying a Small Business, Harvard Business School professors Richard Ruback and Royce Yudkoff help you: Determine if this path is right for you Raise capital for your acquisition Find and evaluate the right prospects Avoid the pitfalls that could derail your search Understand why a "dull" business might be the best investment Negotiate a potential deal with the seller Avoid deals that fall through at the last minute Arm yourself with the advice you need to succeed on the job, with the most trusted brand in business. Packed with how-to essentials from leading experts, the HBR Guides provide smart answers to your most pressing work challenges.

The Editor's Companion
The Editor's Companion

Author: Steve Dunham

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2015-01-01

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 1599639025

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Excel at editing! The editor's job encompasses much more than correcting commas and catching typos. Your chief mission is to help writers communicate effectively--which is no small feat. Whether you edit books, magazines, newspapers, or online publications, your ability to develop clear, concise, and focused writing is the key to your success. The Editor's Companion is an invaluable guide to honing your editing skills. You'll learn about editing for: • CONTENT: Analyze and develop writing that is appealing and appropriate for the intended audience. • FOCUS: Ensure strong beginnings and satisfying endings, and stick with one subject at a time. • PRECISE LANGUAGE: Choose the right words, the right voice, and the right tense for every piece. • GRAMMAR: Recognize common mistakes in punctuation, parts of speech, and sentence structure--and learn how to avoid them. You'll also find valuable editing resources and checklists, advice on editorial relationships and workflow, and real-life samples of editing with explanations of what was changed and why. The Editor's Companion provides the tools you need to pursue high quality in editing, writing, and publishing--every piece, every time.

Thinking Machines
Thinking Machines

Author: Luke Dormehl

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2017-03-07

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 1524704415

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A fascinating look at Artificial Intelligence, from its humble Cold War beginnings to the dazzling future that is just around the corner. When most of us think about Artificial Intelligence, our minds go straight to cyborgs, robots, and sci-fi thrillers where machines take over the world. But the truth is that Artificial Intelligence is already among us. It exists in our smartphones, fitness trackers, and refrigerators that tell us when the milk will expire. In some ways, the future people dreamed of at the World's Fair in the 1960s is already here. We're teaching our machines how to think like humans, and they're learning at an incredible rate. In Thinking Machines, technology journalist Luke Dormehl takes you through the history of AI and how it makes up the foundations of the machines that think for us today. Furthermore, Dormehl speculates on the incredible--and possibly terrifying--future that's much closer than many would imagine. This remarkable book will invite you to marvel at what now seems commonplace and to dream about a future in which the scope of humanity may need to broaden itself to include intelligent machines.

Islands of Profit in a Sea of Red Ink
Islands of Profit in a Sea of Red Ink

Author: Jonathan L. S. Byrnes

Publisher: National Geographic Books

Published: 2010-10-14

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 1591843499

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Top companies around the world turn to MIT's Jonathan Byrnes to figure out where the profit is. Using his systematic process for analyzing profitability, they can quickly determine which parts of the business are worth expanding and which are just a drain on resources. Then, using Byrnes's "profit levers," they can turn unprofitable business into good business and good business into great business. We now live in the Age of Precision Markets, yet most of the management processes taught in business schools were developed for the prior Age of Mass Markets. Today's savviest managers are exploiting this disconnect. They're rethinking strategy, customer relations, operations, and metrics, and overcoming internal resistance to constructive change. They also reject such harmful myths as: * Revenues are good, costs are bad * All customers should get the same great service * If everyone does his or her job well, the company will prosper Byrnes reveals an uncomfortable truth: It's possible, even easy, for everyone to meet or exceed their budget targets and for the company still to have an enormous portion of the business unprofitable by any measure. But profit levers can flip everything around. For instance, several leading companies have utilized profit levers to increase their sales by over 35 percent in their highest penetrated customers, while others have reduced their operating costs- and their customers' costs-by over 30 percent One company described in the book raised its net profits by over 50 percent in a three-year period. The book is a practical, step-by-step guide to achieving these results. Every business has enormous potential waiting to be unleashed; this book offers bold new strategies to help you find and grow those islands of profit.