I just finished a book entitled " Giants of Enterprise" by Richard S. Tedlow. It summarizes the rise of 7 great business innovators and the enterprises they built in the last century. It included Andrew Carnegie (USS), George Eastman(Kodak), Henry Ford(Ford), Thomas Watson, Sr.(IBM), Charles Revson(Revlon), Sam Walton(Wal-Mart), and Robert Noyce(Intel). What I took away from this great read was that each of these giants had one key thing in common. They did not take their markets for granted and in some cases created a market that did not exist before, or at least not on a mass scale. That key take-a-way is - THEY DID NOT TAKE ANYTHING FOR GRANTED AND THEY LOOKED BEYOND THEIR IMMEDIATE MARKET AND COMPETITION. What I mean is they went farther that just differentiating from their competition, their mantra was to bury it.
If you look at the posting I published earlier in July called Adapt of Die on July 8th, it accentuates what this book was all about. If you do not change you will be left in the dust. All business leaders need to think broadly about where their business is going, have a solid strategic plan, be able to adjust along the way, and most of all have the right people in place to execute against the strategy.
I highly recommend this book to all product business leaders, marketing managers, and of course CEOs.
