The Inside Advantage

I have read the book, seen Mr. Bloom speak and I have taken my team through the growth discovery process that Mr. Bloom has outlined in The Inside Advantage. His process has been an incredible insite for myself, my team, and our company. The process he describes helps a company discover WHO their core customer really is that they should target. This really helped us gain a more laser like focus for the customers of our software company that we did not have before. The WHAT and the HOW raised our awareness so that we could understand clearly what it is we have to offer and how we do it. The OWN IT is a key because it allowed us to define items that would ensure we executed. Any of you that are big fans of Jim Collins book "Good to Great" and the hedgehog principle, will love this book. Why? Because discovering your hedgehog is not easy and "The Inside Advantage" gives you a process to look inside your company and gain insight and discovery that is hard to do. Mr. Bloom's process is so well described that you will not need a facilitator to follow it. It may not take you fully up to the mountain top to your Hedgehog but will get you high up the mountain so you see the top and find the rest of the way yourself. The best reward for me as a CEO has been the many experiences in meetings and documentation that team members have referred to our WHO, WHAT, HOW and OWN IT that we learned from the process. The impact it is having is very apparent!

Growing a business takes unique strategies. This book breaks down each strategy - by focusing on who and what is involved in every step to success. One of the best examples in this book is that of Faber-Castell, pencil manufacturer. The company stayed with its line of expertise - and did not try to outdo itself or burn itself out in an unrelated field. It stayed with what it knows and does best. Even Vincent Van Gogh has commented on their product (a quote offered in the text - taken from The Economist). The timeless strategies and endurance of Faber-Castell shows that they know what they are doing and have refined their craft to its perfection. This and similar examples in the book show a small business person what it takes to make it in the competitive business world. Another interesting example is that of Proctor and Gamble. P & G managers found that Italian women cleaned their homes more often then American women. Specifically, Italian women washed the floors more often each week. To go into this market with this valuable information made all the difference. But even further, Italian women wanted tough cleaners, not just convenient ones. The marketing strategy for Italian consumers obviously had to be different than the strategy for American consumers - who value convenience (such as Swiffer Wet Mop) over tough cleaners. This book is filled with tips and examples such as these. The main point of the book is that the 'who', 'what', and 'how' create the inside advantage. Clear examples prove this - throughout the text.

This is not a book review. It's a review of reactions to a book, The Inside Advantage. The reactions came from an audience I had assembled: Business owners, CEO's and marketing professionals. (The mix is important because The Inside Advantage is about business strategy not just marketing or advertising strategy.). My hyper critical colleagues come from a variety of industries including real estate development, private jet sales, home furnishings manufacturing, and luxury retailing to mention a few. They expect an unequivocal return on their investment of time and money in meetings I arrange. They want information that will make a difference in their businesses, insights they can use in their jobs, and tools they can put in their managers' hands. They want steak not just sizzle. This evening they got both. The presentation of The Inside Advantage had the impact of lightning striking a near-by tree. It quickly split the subject of growth open so the audience could touch and see the rings required for rapid success. Four growth rings to be exact: * Core Customers: Develop a clear, intimate grasp of their needs in the context of their life * Uncommon Offerings: Identify the tangible and emotional benefits you offer that customer. * Persuasive Strategies: State the benefits in a way you and not your competitors can own. * Imaginative Acts: Deliver the benefits at touch points and in "explosive" public communications The audience response to the facts behind each of the four points was positive not only because the information was presented succinctly but also because it was packaged with practical examples drawn from real-life successes. My skeptical group grew increasing enthusiastic and appreciative. At the conclusion each wasted no time getting his personal copy of The Inside Advantage signed by the author and presenter, Bob Bloom. (Three companies that attended the meeting as guests asked to join as full time members!) Having read The Inside Advantage I know the book has bottled this same lightning that we felt in the live presentation. It's more than a good read: it's a Frommer's for the terra incognita called Rapid Growth. The book has four main parts; each delivers its own jolt of insight. (For example in Part 2 why being "uncommon" is for most business a more manageable positioning for long-term growth than trying to be "unique." ) This is a book in which individual words are carefully chosen because each word signifies a different thought. This choice-fullness of language demonstrates the disciplined mental process required to successfully execute the four steps in the Growth Discovery Process. Most importantly, all four parts are unified into (if I'm not overusing the metaphor) an overall bolt. Taken together, sequentially and systematically, these steps create a great deal more energy than if they are performed selectively or randomly. Most astonishingly, the book demonstrates how all four steps can be completed in one action-pa

INSIDE ADVANTAGE A MUST READ Bob Bloom's Inside Advantage is already on the way to becoming a classic must read, on a par with books by business and marketing legends David Ogilvy, Peter Drucker, Leo Burnett, and Stephen Covey, among others. As the head of a corporate communications company specializing in publicizing ad agencies, consumer products and business-to-business clients, I approached Inside Advantage anticipating another marketing success story about the author's achievements. I expected to read this book and say, "Wow, look what Bob Bloom accomplished." But this book is far more than a history of how Bloom built his advertising empire. Rather, it is a refreshing, useful approach whereby each reader can identify and then apply his or her positive attributes to grow a business. Bloom's four-step process is mapped out in a clear and easy-to-personalize style. It is then supported with concrete examples that enable readers to move on to their own best course of action. It provides a rare opportunity to learn from the best. That is why Inside Advantage is a must-read both for entrepreneurs of start-up businesses and for chief executives of large companies. It will crank up the creative juices. For sure, it will become an MBA college classic. After reading the book, I am confident you will join me in saying, " Wow, now I understand the process and I, too, can accomplish that!" Marilyn Gottlieb President The Crescendo Group

I recently read two books that explain how to achieve and then sustain a decisive competitive advantage: this one written by Robert Bloom with Dave Conti and Steven Feinberg's The Advantage-Makers. Both Bloom and Feinberg stress the importance of being able to recognize opportunities that others don't see (overcoming what I characterize as "the invisibility of the obvious"); possessing sound judgment to determine whether or not a an attractive opportunity is also (key word) appropriate; knowing how and when to respond to each such opportunity; having sufficient resources and the willingness to commit them, sometime quickly; and meanwhile, remaining flexible and resilient. Feinberg's focus is on Advantage-Makers as he explains how these "exceptional leaders win by creating opportunities others don't." Bloom takes a much different approach as he presents his material within a framework he identifies as "The Growth Discovery Process." It has four separate but related sequential stages, each of which Bloom explains with rigor and eloquence: 1. Determine WHO is the core customer most likely to buy the given product or service in the quantity required with a margin that ensures optimal profit 2. Then determine WHAT is the uncommon offering that can be owned and leveraged 3. Next, determine HOW the persuasive strategy will convince core customers to select the uncommon offering rather than competitive offerings 4. Finally, OWN IT! by taking certain imaginative initiatives that celebrate the uncommon offering so that it becomes indispensable to core customers. Some of the most valuable material in this book addresses (In Part 4, Chapters 10-12) one of the greatest challenges all organizations now face: How to create and then sustain a critical mass of what Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba aptly characterize as "customer evangelists." In his Introduction, Bloom explains the meaning and significance of his book's title: "The best way to expand the size, scope, and profit of your business is to grow it from the inside, capitalizing on hidden strengths that already exist within the company or brand." First, it is imperative to formulate an appropriate strategy because (like a hammer) it will be needed to "drive" decision-makers through the aforementioned four-stage process. Think of Bloom as having many of the same functions and responsibilities, as did those trail masters who successfully led late-19th century relocations of thousands of cattle across the plains states, overcoming all manner of hardships along the way. Being a film buff, I am immediately reminded of Augustus McCrae (Robert Duvall) and Captain Woodrow F. Coll (Tommy Lee Jones) in Lonesome Dove as well as Thomas Dunson (John Wayne) and Matthew Garth (Montgomery Clift) in Red River. Bloom invites those who read his book to embark on a similar journey and he then accompanies them each step of the way, illustrating key points with an abundance of real-world examples from his decades of exper