Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It...and Why the Rest Don't (Rockefeller Habits 2.0 Revised Edition)

by Verne Harnish

It’s these ongoing weekly meetings that will keep your strategy relevant and fresh.

The council members are expected to spend time each week talking with customers and employees and checking out competitors, extracting insights and ideas to fuel their strategic thinking.

Jobs spent most afternoons engaged directly with customers, much to the chagrin of his team. And, underscoring the link between strategy and marketing, he chaired only one function — marketing — via a three-hour, Wednesday-afternoon meeting.

Lords of Strategy: The Secret Intellectual History of the New Corporate World,

that’s what branding is all about: owning a small piece of the mind-space within a company’s targeted market, whether that’s in a local neighborhood, an industry segment, or the world.

By naming it you make it easier for happy customers to spread the word.

The key is owning words that matter — the ones people think about and use to search for your products and services.

you may be better off picking slightly less used but still popular terms to point potential customers to specific products or services you offer.

“You are what you publish.”

Epic Content Marketing: How to Tell a Different Story, Break through the Clutter, and Win More Customers by Marketing Less.

“Your Career Success Hinges on One Word: Do You Know It?”

The key is picking a niche and owning (or creating) the words in the minds of the people you want as your core customers.

selling to large restaurant and hotel chains. These companies operate in a 24/7 environment and need dishes that not only are clean but look

great brands don’t try to please everyone.

flights vs. the more expensive hub-and-spoke system, and nurtures a quirky culture that helps customers put up with all the negatives. These activities serve as blocking factors precisely because all the other airlines, except copycat Ryan Air, are already invested in multiple aircraft, provide advance-reservation seating (it’s hard to take away something you’ve already given the customer), are locked into expensive hubs, and have built cultures of unhappy employees! The key is to choose HOW you go about delivering your products and services in your industry in ways that are nearly impossible for your competition to copy. Notice that these activities derive

we used to obsess over profit per event; now it’s profit per city with our new Scaling Up Master’s Program.