Profit Patterns : 30 Ways to Anticipate & Profit from Strategic Forces Reshaping your Business

by Adrian J. Slywotzky

Profit Patterns opens with a series of chaotic paintings by Pablo Picasso. Each piece is increasingly difficult to recognize; the final portrait is little more than a jumble of shapes and colors. But... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0471979716
• ISBN13: 9780471979715
• Release Date: June 1999
• Publisher: Wiley
• Length: 464 Pages
• Weight: 2.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 3.8" x 0.5" x 3.0"

Customer Reviews

Who's in control?

As in The Profit Zone, the co-authors pose and then answer key questions. They also provide numerous checklists which enable the thoughtful reader to undertake a rigorous self-diagnosis. For example, in Part II, such questions and checklists direct and enrich understanding of Mega Patterns, Value Chain Patterns, Channel Patterns, Product Patterns, Knowledge Patterns, and Organizational Patterns. In effect, the authors create an infrastructure within which to organize and then correlate the most relevant experiences of dozens of corporations with the specific circumstances of the reader's own organization. Better yet, although most of the corporations discussed are among the "Fortune 100", this infrastructure can also be of substantial (if not even greater) value to small-to-midsize companies as well. In Part III, Slywotsky & Morrison explain HOW "Strategic Anticipation" enables managers to anticipate and respond quickly to patterns as they unfold. Strategic Anticipation helps managers to "move where the value will be." Patterns "hint at the future strategic story of a company or industry, explain the past and describe the present." Those who have not read Profit Patterns and do not plan to do so can only hope is that the same is true of their competitors. But don't bet on it. Those who share my high regard for this volume are urged to check out Slywotzky's recently published The Upside as well as Ram Charan's Know-How and Richard Ogle's Smart World.

Good cases and clear description various business models

The book identifies 30 "profit patterns". The patterns are categorized, and each one identifies some revenue mechanic or some interesting competitive strategy. Each pattern is supplemented with examples as well as with a brief case.This book inspired me for some strategies in my early days as an freelance strategy consultant, I implemented a variation of the "Micro Segmentation" pattern with great results.The book comes also with a brief description of the strategy development process utilized by Mercer Management consulting. The description is usefull, although you will need probably more details to take full advantage of it.And please don't expect to much new things - if you already did read 20 books on strategy, this will not add much more. But also don't expect to find common stuff like the BCG portfolio, it's still not THAT basic.Overall in my opinion this is THE BIBLE of profit patterns, from time to time I still pick the book from my shelf and review some of my favourite patterns...

Reading "Profit Patterns" is A Profitable Use of Your Time

"Profit Patterns" was an assigned book for the capstone course in the MBA program at Golden Gate University and was an appropriate recommendation for the depth and breadth of coverage it gave to the issue of strategic pattern thinking.The premise of Profit Patterns by Adrian J. Slywotzky and David J. Morrison is that we learn from experience by studying patterns. Good managers are skilled at strategic pattern recognition and see the whole picture. Industries are reshaped by patterns, which may build slowly or move rapidly, and the ability to recognize and capitalize on these patterns allows an organization to create strategies that lead to sustained value and profitability. In his article titled "Crafting Strategy", Henry Mintzberg, another well known author on the subject of business strategy, indicates that a "key to managing strategy is the ability to detect emerging patterns and help them take shape. The job of the manager is not just to preconceive specific strategies but also to recognize their emergence."Part I of the book is titled 'The New Game of Business' and describes the changes occurring in business which call for a new skill set. These changes are called Getting It, Polarization and Mindshare. Getting It refers to the ability of managers to become masters of pattern recognition. Instead of seeing chaos, these managers see the strategic pattern unfolding within the complexity, and discover the pattern behind it all. In short, they "get it". Polarization is the result of early recognition and exploitation of patterns in that the company that "got it" first realizes great momentum, its market value explodes and value is no longer proportional; it has polarized. Many examples are given such as Cisco vs. Bay Networks, Coca-Cola vs. Pepsi, and Nike vs. Reebok. Polarization means "winner takes all", and is spreading to other industries. The focus of competition in more and more industries is competition for mindshare, and is crafted as a three-part strategy: 1) mindshare with customers, 2) mindshare with investors and 3) mindshare with talent. Getting It, Polarization and Mindshare are critical skills in the war for dominance in an industry.Part II of Profit Patterns describes thirty patterns that have affected business designs over the last two decades. The patterns are organized into the following categories:o Mega - No Profit, Back to Profit, Convergence, Collapse of the Middle, De Factor Standard, Technology Shifts the Boardo Value Chain - Deintegration, Value Chain Squeeze, Strengthening the Weak Link, Reintegrationo Customer - Profit Shift, Microsegmentation, Power Shift, Redefinitiono Channel - Multiplication, Channel Concentration, Compression/ Disintermediation, Reintermediationo Product - Product to Brand, Product to Blockbuster, Product to Profit Multiplier, Product to Pyramid, Product to Solutiono Knowledge - Product to Customer Knowledge, Operations to Knowledge, Knowledge to Producto Organizational - Skill Shift, Pyramid

Original Thought in Business Writing - How Unique!

Slywotzky and Morrison have accomplished something with this book that regular readers of business books would have thought impossible - they've applied intelligence and creativity to strategic buisness thinking and created a materpiece of originality and insight. Their categorization of business models into patterns based on their effects on either customers, distribution channels, products, knowledge, or organization is one of those flashes of insight that seems obvious only after someone has articulated it as clearly as Slywotzky and Morrison have done here. The clarity of expression and organization, and the case studies of real-world examples that illustrate the use of these patterns of business strategy and competition, make this a central holding of any serious business reader's library. Every management consultant, business owner or manager, or executive, should understand the business strategies outlined here.

Who's in Control?

As in The Profit Zone, the co-authors pose and then answer key questions. They also provide numerous checklists which enable the thoughtful reader to undertake a rigorous self-diagnosis. For example, in Part II, such questions and checklists direct and enrich understanding of Mega Patterns, Value Chain Patterns, Channel Patterns, Product Patterns, Knowledge Patterns, and Organizational Patterns. In effect, the authors create an infrastructure within which to organize and then correlate the most relevant experiences of dozens of corporations with the specific circumstances of the reader's own organization. Better yet, although most of the corporations discussed are among the "Fortune 100", this infrastructure is of substantial (if not even greater) value to small-to-midsize companies as well.In Part III, Slywotsky & Morrison explain HOW "Strategic Anticipation" enables managers to anticipate and respond quickly to patterns as they unfold. Strategic Anticipation helps managers to "move where the value will be." Patterns "hint at the future strategic story of a company or industry, explain the past and describe the present." Those who have not read Profit Patterns and do not plan to do so can only hope is that the same is true of their competitors. But don't bet on it.