Low Cost Rivals offers a step-by-step structured approach to help think through the issues and options, and to select the most appropriate strategy and implementation plan for dealing with them. Drawing on examples from both business-to-business and business-to-consumer companies, the book will help executives develop a deeper understanding of the nature of the threat they are facing, the options they have to both respond to these competitors and to seize opportunities for growth that good enough product and services create in many markets. The book examines how a variety of companies are responding to the threat of low cost competitors, and how well these strategies appear to be working to date. It also discusses the leadership and cultural challenges that many companies face in responding to low cost competitors. Ultimately, the insights gained from the book should lead to better and more profitable business decisions.
Book Details:
- Author: Adrian Ryans
- ISBN: 9780470687611
- Year Published: 2009
- Pages: 272
- BISAC: BUS043000, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS/Marketing / General
About the Book and Topic:
Low Cost Rivals offers a step-by-step structured approach to help think through the issues and options, and to select the most appropriate strategy and implementation plan for dealing with them. Drawing on examples from both business-to-business and business-to-consumer companies, the book will help executives develop a deeper understanding of the nature of the threat they are facing, the options they have to both respond to these competitors and to seize opportunities for growth that good enough product and services create in many markets. The book examines how a variety of companies are responding to the threat of low cost competitors, and how well these strategies appear to be working to date. It also discusses the leadership and cultural challenges that many companies face in responding to low cost competitors. Ultimately, the insights gained from the book should lead to better and more profitable business decisions.
A McKinsey Quarterly article on global trends and corporate strategy in 2006 reported that when executives from around the world were asked what single factor contributes most to the increasing competitive intensity in their industry, the second most important factor mentioned was the increase in the number of low cost competitors. Executives and managers in many companies are being severely challenged today by low cost competitors competitors that offer good enough products and services at very attractive prices. The growth of these competitors has been partly fuelled in the last couple of decades by the emergence of specialized players in many industries. This has meant that it is very easy for companies to leverage a variety of players from intellectual property to specialized manufacturing and logistics to marketing and sales to create complete low cost products or services that meet the needs of its target customers. Ryanair, ING Direct Bank and many private label suppliers have benefited from this unbundling of the traditional company. Increasingly, in many industries the low cost threat is coming from companies based in developing countries, particularly in Asia. Some of these companies have huge, rapidly growing, highly competitive domestic markets, which helps to create low cost competitors that can rapidly become formidable challengers for the established Western and other developed market players.
PLATFORM FOR THE BOOK: Adrian Ryans is based at IMD, with teaching positions at the University of Western Ontario and Stanford University. He will promote the book in each of these avenues. At the executive program at the Stanford Business School in California, copies of recent faculty authored books are routinely distributed to the program participants. Enrolment in the program is usually about 100 persons per year and the book is typically distributed for the first 5-7 years after publication. Almost always a few of the executives attending the program order copies for their teams. BASED ON WORK CARRIED OUT AT THE CORE OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESSES: The work the author has carried out with leading companies has given him extensive knowledge of the real challenges managers face and how they are responding to these challenges. CONTEMPORARY THINKING: Provides the reader a deeper understanding of how quickly low-cost players might emerge in his or her industry, and how competitive they are likely to be, as well as dealing very specifically with what traditional players can learn from low-cost competitors. INTERNATIONAL APPEAL: Examples, interviews and case material from global organizations such as GE, IBM, Deloitte, Hewlett Packard, Bank of Montreal, Boeing, ING, Direct Bank, Blackberry, Compaq Computers, Ryanair, Nintendo, P&G, and Tesco.
About the Author
Adrian Ryans is Professor of Marketing and Strategy at IMD, Lausanne, Switzerland. In addition he is a visiting Professor at Richard Ivey School of Business, The University of Western Ontario, 2001-present and Visiting Professor of Marketing, Stanford University, 1981-present (teach Marketing module in AeA-Stanford Executive Insititute). The two positions he had before he joined IMD are: Nabisco Brands Professor of Marketing, Ivey Business School, The University of Western Ontario, 19871992 (first named professor at Ivey) Professor of Business Administration, Richard Ivey School of Business, The University of Western Ontario, 1983 2001 The primary focus of his work has been with executive development. He has led and taught programs for many leading North American and European companies including: GE, IBM, Holcim, Deloitte, ASML, Tektronix, HP, Bank of Montreal, Boeing, National Semiconductor, Varian, Medtronic, Saurer, LSI Logic and Nortel Networks. He has written best-selling cases about companies as varied as ING, Direct Bank, Blackberry, Compaq Computers, Ryanair, Nintendo, P&G, and Tesco. Adrian is the co-author of two books.