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Trade-Off: Why Some Things Catch On, and Others Don't
by
Kevin Maney (Goodreads Author),
Jim Collins
A Fresh and Important New Way to Understand Why We Buy
Why did the RAZR ultimately ruin Motorola? Why does Wal-Mart dominate rural and suburban areas but falter in large cities? Why did Starbucks stumble just when it seemed unstoppable?
The answer lies in the ever-present tension between fidelity (the quality of a consumer’s experience) and convenience (the ease of getting a...more
Why did the RAZR ultimately ruin Motorola? Why does Wal-Mart dominate rural and suburban areas but falter in large cities? Why did Starbucks stumble just when it seemed unstoppable?
The answer lies in the ever-present tension between fidelity (the quality of a consumer’s experience) and convenience (the ease of getting a...more
Hardcover, 240 pages
Published
September 15th 2009
by Crown Business
(first published 2009)
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Insightful comparison of quality versus convenience
Technology journalist Kevin Maney coined the term “fidelity swap” to describe the choice consumers make between “convenience” and “fidelity,” which is the quality of the experience that a product or service provides. People make such trade-offs many times every day. To illustrate, consider whether you would rather watch the Yankees play live at Yankee Stadium or see the game from the comfort of your home? Would you rather enjoy the experience of...more
Technology journalist Kevin Maney coined the term “fidelity swap” to describe the choice consumers make between “convenience” and “fidelity,” which is the quality of the experience that a product or service provides. People make such trade-offs many times every day. To illustrate, consider whether you would rather watch the Yankees play live at Yankee Stadium or see the game from the comfort of your home? Would you rather enjoy the experience of...more
The subtitle of this book is "The Ever-Present Tension Between Quality and Convenience," and technology reporter Maney makes a case for why you can't really have both.
He actually prefers the term "fidelity" to quality, mostly because his definition of fidelity includes elements of popularity and consumer self-identification that are not intrinsic to quality. He also includes cost as an essential factor in convenience. His definitions seem a little loose at time, loose enough that they might be a...more
He actually prefers the term "fidelity" to quality, mostly because his definition of fidelity includes elements of popularity and consumer self-identification that are not intrinsic to quality. He also includes cost as an essential factor in convenience. His definitions seem a little loose at time, loose enough that they might be a...more
The basic premise of this book is that companies (and individuals and whatever) can shoot for a product with high fidelity, or high convenience. Or high fidelity, with a touch of convenience. Or high convenience, with a touch of fidelity. But they shouldn't shoot for both high fidelity and high convenience, or they're chasing a mirage. And they'll fail.
And that's it. Complete with a little graph.
And he repeats the graph several times. And he repeats himself several times.
I did find it interestin...more
And that's it. Complete with a little graph.
And he repeats the graph several times. And he repeats himself several times.
I did find it interestin...more
Very interesting and well written book, although the perspective, in some cases, is dated (2009). Still, very worthwhile and fascinating especially for insights that were yet to be fulfilled at that time. For instance, this was before Apple came out with the iPad, which changed the market for e-readers and e-books. The author questioned whether Apple can continue with only the iPod and its computers. And he questioned Amazon's Kindle, as it had yet to take off. He cited Kodak's possible turnarou...more
Jun 01, 2012
Rich Levin
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Entrepreneurs, Business Owners, and Execs
I read this a couple of years ago and used the convenience - fidelity concepts to change to course of our company. We were clearly pursuing the fidelity mirage and instead moved to a convenience model. I love books that give me an "aha" that I can immediately apply to my business or my life. This is one of them. The forward is written by Jim Collins. Interestingly enough, his book, "Good to Great" is another of those that led me to make very effective changes in our business model.
I gave away my...more
I gave away my...more
This book was very well written, and got its point across succinctly. It's basically about how every business has to negotiate along the fidelity (quality, status) and convenience (ease of use, cheapness) axis, and that those who try to do both or do neither won't take off. He draws from examples as varied as Starbucks (high fidelity, which started to falter in 2007 when it tried to become too convenient and oversaturated the world with franchises) to Segway (less convenient than walking and wit...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Very interesting book about why some things catch on, others don't, why some things are popular for a while, and then vanish.
My husband and I read it a couple months ago, and still reference fidelity and/or convenience when describing something, and why it's popular (or not).
My husband and I read it a couple months ago, and still reference fidelity and/or convenience when describing something, and why it's popular (or not).
Maney does a good job of supporting the concept in this book - to be successful in business you need to decide whether you are high fidelity or high convenience, and you cannot be both. It certainly gets you thinking, and he poses a lot of really good questions to be asking yourself as you grow a business, or develop a product.
"Quality versus convenience" with a lot of very interesting examples. I actually really enjoyed this book. His examples of up and coming companies/ideas will either confirm or shake his theory's credibility down the road; I thought it was interesting he would include them.
Amazing book that both makes perfect sense, and makes you think about business strategy. This book is a business class in a book. I would suggest this book for anyone starting a new company or trying to reinvent a current one.
The concept of the tension between quality (or fidelity) and convenience is well represented and there are good examples of success and failures from those that understand which end they are shooting for, and those that don't.
Not great, but he's not totally wrong about seeing the consumer world through the lens of fidelity-convenience trade-off. However, he uses his thesis to "explain" some phenomena, like Wal-mart's success, that I've heard explained in other, less stretching ways.
I enjoyed this book, it was an interesting concept and FINALLY I know the reason why Crocs caught on... It's always been a sore spot with me.
Although the examples and case studies were interesting I felt the meat of the book was in section one so I kind of skimmed the last half.
Although the examples and case studies were interesting I felt the meat of the book was in section one so I kind of skimmed the last half.
Good overview of why some products are successful, and other fail, without getting bogged down at all in statistics or jargon.
Money quote: Blu Ray format is doomed to fail. Credibility fail by author as he portrayed himself as a futurist for buying behaviors.
Don't fall into the fidelity belly ! Interesting and easy read, after about 3/4 of the book you get Maneys point.
An optional-read book for knowledge workers and entrepreneurs on concepts and trends.
Good theory to get the idea. Particularly good for those focused on product development and product marketing. Some examples near the end felt to be a 'stretch' to fit his framework.
Simple, clear, with interesting examples.
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The book isn't really about a trade-off, it's about how products/ ideas need to focus on either fidelity or convenience. An interesting idea and a lot of case studies that are fit into the argument. While I didn't agree with every example used and thought some of the arguments were too reductive, I do find the general idea of the book interesting and agree that we like to buy luxury (fidelity) or needed (convenience). Also very interested in the author's discussion of newspapers and the Amazon K...more
Pretty interesting, quick read
Apr 24, 2012
Soundview Executive Book Summaries
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Shelves:
2010-best-business-books
Trade-Off: Why Some Things Catch On, and Others Don't by Kevin Maney was chosen by Soundview Executive Book Summaries as one of the Top 30 Business Books of 2010.
Quality and convenience....the battle for consumers.
I thought this was an interesting idea, but the book itself was very repetitive. I probably could have read only a few chapters and still gotten the essential points of it - the only added benefit of reading the entire book was looking at all the different examples (which mostly involved technology innovations like i-phones and cameras). The entire concept is explained in the first chapter, and it did not develop much further from that.
A simple concept for understanding business strategy. Everyone already gets the concept of this book but he puts it in terms that make it very simple to understand and makes you think, yes, that is how business strategy works. So simple, the book repeats itself a lot and tries hard to make itself longer than it probably needs to be. Still, I'm glad I read it.
Great book! A "simple" concept that is very difficult to apply to business -- fidelity vs. convenience. This book was full of examples of the fidelity vs. convenience balance in real business scenarios. It was well written - a quick, but very informative read. This was one of my favorite business books and I would highly recommend it.
Jim is family, of course he gets 5 stars from me!!
Malcolm Gladwell wannabe
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30 sept. 07:51