Outsmart!: How to Do What Your Competitors Can't

by Jim Champy

Book Overview

"Champy's engaging prose, fascinating success stories, penetrating reflections, and provocative challenges to the status quo capture your full attention from the first page to the last and leave your... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0132357771
• ISBN13: 9780132357777
• Release Date: February 2008
• Publisher: FT Press
• Length: 188 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.3" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Good Examples to Help Generate Creative Thinking!

"Outsmart" is a series of short studies describing eight fast-growth companies. Readers can hopefully generalize from the thinking involved to create new ideas for themselves. The first involved a new company called "Sonicbids," where music promoters (about 10,000) can list the events for which they need musicians, and the 120,000 musician-members can look over the list and make their contacts. The total market involved is estimated at $15 billion, with about 90% too small for the standard approach to the business. Yet, there is about $2.5 billion in wedding business/year alone. Musician-members pay an annual fee to Sonicbids, as well as a small per event fee to promoters who guarantee they will review the submitted material. The second example is about "Minute Clinic" - kiosks staffed by nurse-practitioners to provide easily accessible basic medical care at low costs. Software directs strict protocols and screening procedures to confirm a diagnosis and rule out really serious conditions. Each kiosk also has a physician on-call for any doubts or special concerns. Most patients are treated within 15 minutes; those delayed receive pagers allowing them to shop in the surrounding store. CVS Pharmacy has since bought out the concept - obviously benefiting from the prescriptions written as an outcome of the process. An interesting set of mini-case-studies involving new thinking in today's world.

Uncovering Opportunity by Identifying Asymmetry & Complexity

OutSmart! provides clear and useful examples of companies that have successfully uncovered business opportunities by identifying asymmetry and complexity. It also provides a gentle reminder that astute thinking and swift execution are major advantages in our "complex, volatile and demanding" business world. Mr. Champy does this through a series of readable studies of eight exemplary companies. Each study is concluded with actionable thinking exercises and questions that can be applied across industries and business opportunities. A primary reason why OutSmart! is a worthy business book is its distinct avoidance of prescriptive modeling. Each business success profiled is unique to that company. The book's examples are of companies that thought differently when confronted with unique business circumstances and uncovered monetizable opportunities. Champy reminds us that true competitiveness is uniqueness and this uniqueness is not discovered or established once, but must be continually updated and adapted to meet ever-changing customer needs. There is no way of fixing, modeling or formalizing uniqueness in such a way that will ensure competitiveness. What Mr. Champy demonstrates in OutSmart! is that companies who operate outside tradition, and remain flexible enough to not become tradition, will dominate the future. Some of the topics covered by Mr. Champy in OutSmart! may seem obvious, especially immediately after reading it. However, it is important to read the book with a healthy skepticism of your own hindsight bias. For example, all of the companies profiled in OutSmart! have a strong relationship with their customers and focus relentlessly on improving customer service. Most companies today habitually tout that staying attuned with customers (customer service) is their strength, a source of competitive advantage. If customer service is so apparent, why do so many companies fail at the obvious? OutSmart! provides an apt reminder that just knowing something intellectually is not enough; we need to successfully execute and continually improve on this knowledge for it to be a source of competitive advantage. I look forward to the next volume; this book is the first of a four volume series.

Lessons Learned from the Smartest

This book is completely different than previous books by Jim Champy. You could give a copy of it - and I have already given copies - to students, to entrepreneurs, and to anyone who is interested in business. 'Outsmart!' is filled with surprising, and somewhat counterintuitive, lessons learned from companies that have achieved super-high growth for at least 3 straight years. I was not disappointed by the amazing experience of the founders of new enterprises (such as Sonicbids and MinuteClinic), but I was stunned by what can be done in the context of 'incumbent' organizations (such as Smith & Wesson). Jim Champy states his case clearly: there is not much new in management, but there sure is a lot that's new in business.

A Research-Driven Analysis of Results-Driven Companies

Previously, Champy argued in Reengineering the Corporation (1993) that "companies need to change radically and be managed from a process perspective," in Reengineering Management (1995) he contended that "leaders had to change their way of thinking before they could change their organizations," and then in X-Engineering (2002) he made the case that "process change must extend outside the company walls to suppliers, customers, and business partners." What we have in his newest book is a brilliant research-driven analysis of eight results-driven companies that he and his associates selected from among about 1,000 high-velocity businesses with growth rates about 15%. More specifically, they examine their revenue producing ideas that are "neither hypothetical nor based on esoteric technologies. They don't require hundreds of millions of venture capital dollars or the vast sums from stock offerings to implement. " Champy then makes an especially important point: "Rather, they are strategies that any business leader can easily and immediately understand." These are the eight exemplary companies that have outsmarted their competition, not only surviving but growing, gaining more of the supply of their customers, forcing their rivals "to adapt or die": Sonicbids, MinuteClinic, Smith & Wesson, Shutterfly, S.A. Robotics, Jibbitz and Crocs, Partsearch, and SmartPak. Few of those who read this book will recognize most of them by name. (I recognized only Smith & Wesson and Crocs.) Champy devotes a separate chapter to each. All of them "have found the holy grail of strategy: an unmet customer need." I especially appreciate Champy's use of several reader-friendly devices, notably a periodic insertion of what he believes are key points, with a larger font size and in bold face; also a "Get Smart" insights concerning each exemplary company, and then a "Questions to Ask Yourself" at the conclusion of each chapter. It would be a disservice to both Champy and to those who read this review to provide an example of the "Get Smart" and "Questions to Ask Yourself" material. They are best revealed with the narrative, in context. However, I have decided to provide a representative selection of key points, and do so for two reasons: They suggest the thrust and flavor of Champy's reasoning and writing skills, and because they are relevant to any company (regardless of size or nature) that now struggle to increase customer and market share by outsmarting their competitors, forcing them "to adapt or die." "We tend to compartmentalize our knowledge, neglecting to apply a lesson we learned to a problem that comes up in another context." (Page 62) "The ultimate proof of the value of a product or service is that someone is willing to pay for it." (Page 92) Note: This point reminds me of what Warren Buffett once suggested, that "price is what is charged but value is what others think it is worth." With regard to outsourcing, "The key is to know what you are really good

The new 'Good to Great'

I got an early copy of this book because I write reviews for a couple of the major business journals. I think it is absolutely terrific. Often missing from otherwise good books are real-world case studies to help illustrate the points in the narrative. This book is chock-full of them, and they are often eye-opening. Champy has spent a good deal of time researching some of the businesses that have reinvented themselves [Smith & Wesson is a fascinating example] as well as creating whole new models for the online world [Sonicbids]. And don't think it's all a Pollyanna approach, as the author also dissects several major business failures, including Swiss Air. The thread that runs through this book is its focus on people who see opportunities where others don't, and it's a great one. Books about creativity and innovation are often a little thin when it comes to practical storytelling. Not this one. Some of my readers e-mail me every so often asking for suggestions on what they should pick up after 'Good to Great.' It has been a while since 'The Great Red Book'. This book, in my opinion, is a truly worthy successor.