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

by Fred D. Crawford, Ryan Mathews

Ex•cel•lence (n.) 1. The clearly false and destructive theory that a company ought to be great at everything it does. 2. A mistaken goal in which 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.

Based on exhaustive research, The Myth of Excellence provides conclusive evidence of the futility of trying to be excellent in all aspects of a commercial transaction—price, product, access, experience, and service. Instead, the strategy for your products and services should be to dominate on one element, differentiate on a second, and be at industry par (i.e., average) on the rest. Yes, it is okay to be average as long as your customers know specifically where and how you are superior and world-class.

Genres: Business, Entrepreneurship, Management

272 pages, Paperback

First published June 26, 2001

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

My personal favorite view of how companies win in markets. Great, really great, examples backing up the theory. Tends to put traditional product strategy, positioning, and placement into question so can be seen as contraverial by some.

[Darryl Updegrove · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting concepts and grading, which I think are useful, but notably, many example companies for how to do business are no longer in business. Some were bought out (Midwest Express), and some went belly up (Quinn markets and Record Time). Some changed their business model (Dollar General). Understandably, the authors could not predict the future, but apparently neither could these paragons of business. So, would love to see a follow on book evaluating where they went wrong (others include Buick, Continental, TWA). It was almost more interesting to research these businesses to see if the model failed them or if they failed to follow the model.

[Oscar Adrianzen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great¡ Book¡ A classic book of customer experience