Built for Growth: Expanding Your Business Around the Corner or Across the Globe

by Arthur Rubenfeld, Collins Hemingway, Arthur Rubinfeld, et al.

Book Overview

If there's one thing that's consistent in today's business world, it's rapid change. So how do you not only stay steady but actually grow'and quickly enough to stay safely ahead of your competitors?... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0131465740
• ISBN13: 9780131465749
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: Wharton School Publishing
• Length: 343 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.3" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Built for Growth - The Starbucks Way

Built for Growth was an extremely thought provoking and eye opening read. Rubinfeld and Hemingway asked themselves a crucial question: 'What makes the growth of truly exceptional companies different from the other companies?' - by answering which, the authors have discovered timeless principles that distinguish growth strategies of outstanding companies. Of all books on business strategy, this one packs a rare combination of academic rigor, practicality and insight. As a current business student with a summer internship in a "Built for Growth company," I was amazed as their careful analysis rang true. This is one book I can highly recommend to any student, professional, or business educator looking for those not-so-subtle traits that characterize a truly "Built for Growth" company!!

Sound ideas for opening or expanding a business.

Arthur Rubinfeld is the person given the credit for managing the expansion of the Starbucks chain from 100 stores to almost 4,000 worldwide. Therefore, his ideas for how to successfully expand a business should be taken seriously on that basis alone. However, his ideas are so sound that they would be worth considering even if he did not have the track record of success. One of the primary ideas is the obvious one that location matters. His examination of the value of location deviates from what most people would consider sensible. For some businesses, he points out that having competitors nearby is an asset. For example, if you have a coffeeshop, then having similar shops nearby can be an advantage. Your area can then be known as a place to hang out, so people will travel to that area and the increase in overall traffic will lead to more business for yourself. Another idea is that the external and internal ambience of your business can make a big difference. The overall customer experience can be substantially altered by simple changes in design, so one must be very careful to do it right. Or if you do it wrong the first time, do not hesitate to correct your error. Rubinfeld puts forward some case studies of how businesses organized the presentation of their goods and the flow of their customers. Some business strategies that appear sound can be counter-productive. For example, having a cashier ask the customer that is checking out if they found everything they were looking for will often have negative consequences. If the customer replies in the negative and there is a long line, there is little the cashier can do to rectify the situation. Any attempt to aid the customer will only annoy the other customers standing in line to pay. By this time, the customer is also probably too frustrated to want to go back and find what they were looking for. Therefore, the time to aid the customer is when they are in the retail area and not in the check out line. For many, success can be a curse, as the adjustments that need to be made when a business grows too rapidly can be very difficult to manage. There are many cases where a business was initially successful, only to struggle to manage the rapid growth. Most of these businesses are eventually purchased by larger organizations that have experience in managing growth or who are so large that the growth of the small business is tiny relative to their overall organization. This is an excellent book on how to open a new business as well as how to expand the number of elements in a chain. If there is one thing that must be kept in mind when an additional store is opened, it is that each one is different. It is only by knowing that each one is in some sense a new business that it is possible to expand from 100 to nearly 4,000 stores. A well-known brand can get you started, but it is the quality of the product and the way it is delivered that will keep you going. Rubinfeld understood this and after readin

Required reading for those in the retail industry

If you are working in the retail industry this book will be of interest to you. In it the authors detail how to start or buy a retail business as well as how to revive a failing one. This is not just another book on retail theories. Arthur Rubinfeld has worked with the likes of Starbucks, Oakley, Gateway, and many other highly successful retailers. Co-author Collins Hemmingway also co-authored Bill Gates' best selling book Business @ the Speed of Thought. The authors provide a step-by-step process focusing on all aspects of a successful retail business including branding, location, employees, customers, finance, and business planning. The book is well organized and follows the normal business growth model from planning and implementing your first store through expansion to using innovation as a way to grow beyond the limits of your current product line or customer profile. Of course such a book would not be thorough if it didn't include information on pitfalls to avoid and the authors do not disappoint the reader in this area either. With solid advice in how to be a success in your retail business Built for Growth is a recommended read.

How Micro Precision Can Have Macro Impact

In the Introduction, Rubinfeld explains that the book he and Hemingway have written "is primarily geared at helping a retailing entrepreneur rapidly expand into a powerful marketing presence. The same principles that drive an entrepreneur, however, can also reinvigorate the brand for an existing retail chain and trigger new growth. These principles can also help carve out a profitable, defensible niche against potential market invaders for the retailers who want to keep their business small....[Built for Growth] distills what I have learned from a comprehensive view of what it takes to develop a winning retail concept....[by taking] a holistic approach to retail development, combining theory and practical ideas to cover the entire scope of what it takes to succeed in retail." This is an otherwise informative excerpt but I do challenge one of its implications: That the information and counsel provided will be of greatest value only to those now involved in various stages of retail entrepreneurship. That is too restrictive. In fact, what is offered in this volume can also be of great value to decision-makers in other organizations which are now or hope to become business partners with retail merchandisers. Moreover, I highly recommend this brilliant book to decision-makers in all other organizations (regardless of size or nature) which also need (1) to conceive, design, and then execute a brand (or brands) with sustainable appeal and increasing value; (2) to create an environment within which imagination, courage, and drive can be nourished; (3) to "go long" by executing a strategy by which to achieve rapid growth with business models that scale rapidly and thereby establishes market supremacy which puts "the game out of reach" from competition; (4) to dominate with the most appropriate POP "locations" which could include retail outlets, perhaps, but also catalogs, Web sites, telemarketing, couponding, and appropriate strategic alliances; and to "push the envelope" of brand leadership through innovation which invigorates product or service, design, customer service, and quality..."over and over again." The material is carefully organized within four Parts: Make No Little Plans (Chapters 1-7), Go Long (Chapters 8-11), Own Main & Main (Chapters 12-15), and Push the Envelope (Chapters 16 and 17). Most of the recommendations provided in each Part are based on Rubinfeld's extensive real-world experience while serving as Starbucks' executive vice president, and, on Hemingway's equally extensive experience while serving as Microsoft's director of business development and international marketing. He is also the co-author with Bill Gates of Business @ the Speed of Thought. Of great importance to me is the fact that only about 20-25% of this book discusses principles and everything else focuses on implementation, execution, achieving objectives, performance, etc. Rubinfeld and Hemingway's intellectual rigor is evident throughout their narrative. Guid

Solid And Straightforward

Everything you ever wanted to know about success in retail in jammed into this one book. This author covers it all, not just by focusing on the brand or location, but real solid ideas on people management, property management, finance and long term strategy. Somehow the author covered both how an upstart company can get it done and how a big and bland organization can get back on the right track. The books main focus is helping a retail business expand into becoming the next Starbucks. The author starts out by detailing some rather hard facts. Most new business owners jump into the enterprise. They do little planning and as a result over half fail within the first year. The author details that the real issues are not always a lack of cash, but that the entrepreneur had a lack of knowledge of how to avoid mistakes, how to efficiently operate a business, and how to think through business issues. The author believes that you need a holistic approach to conceiving, designing and carrying out a retail business plan. This book gives you real world examples on how to keep your brand fresh and relevant. On top of all this the book is also well written and easy to read. The pages fly by. Overall I thought the book was wonderful. It had a ton of insight and more good ideas then you can possibly use. This is one of those books that you keep handy and keep going back to.