Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/55680
Bookshelf Most companies realize that different customers prize different attri- butes—colors, sizes, payment plans—so they offer options. "How- ever, when it comes to pricing, most companies behave as though their customers are identical by setting just one price for each product," says Rafi Mohammed in The 1% Windfall. The title comes from the notion that if companies raise prices by just 1 percent, they can increase their oper- ating profits by 11 percent, but Moham- med doesn't advocate that readers merely jack up prices across the board. Instead, he meticulously explains a range of approaches to pric- ing. For instance, in the value-based system, sellers consider what the competition charges for the "next best alternative" and set their own prices higher or lower, depending on how they compare. In versioning, sellers offer a core product at a basic price, then add or take away attri- butes and adjust prices accordingly. Other methods exist, but Moham- med's point is clear: Setting prices simply by calculating costs and profit margins leaves money on the table. (Harper Business, $27.99) Budding entrepreneurs will find both inspiration and a set of practical strategies to help them realize their dreams in The Risk Takers. Renee and Don Martin tell the stories of 16 entrepreneurs who built flour- ishing businesses even though they started out with little cash and faced serious adversity along the way. Among those profiled are Kinko's founder Paul Orfalen, Spanx inven- 74 BizEd MAY/JUNE 2010 tor Sara Blakely, and Build-A-Bear CEO Maxine Clark—as well as Don Martin himself, who built a small insurance company into a thriving business that eventually sold for $64.5 million. In the con- cluding chapter, the authors high- light the traits many of the entre- preneurs have in common: They trust their guts, buck conventional wisdom, target underserved niches, pounce on new trends, exploit com- petitors' weaknesses, and so on. It's a quick read, but offers plenty of motivation to the aspiring business- person. (Vanguard Press, $25.95) If you're in the marketing business, you have to know how to catch consum- ers' attention and make them crave what you have to sell. That's always been tricky, but it's harder than ever in a shrill and hypercompetitive world where consumers are con- stantly bombarded by information. To make your message stand out, says Sally Hogshead, you must learn to Fascinate. "Companies that can help consumers feel more fascinated in their own lives, or more fascinating in their rela- tionships, not only will win the sale but will earn con- sumers who actively seek out those products." She describes the "seven trig- gers" of fascination—lust, mystique, alarm, prestige, Many people offer theories about what's wrong with the MBA, but few of them study the problem with as much depth and attention to detail as Srikant Datar, David Garvin, and Patrick Cullen in Rethinking the MBA. The three authors, all of Harvard, have compiled exhaustive data about the content and structure of MBA programs, the forces that have shaped the past 50 years of business education, and the trends and risks that will define its future. "The data show an industry facing important challenges and institutions wrestling with the basic questions of purpose, posi- tioning, and program design," they write. "They also show an industry that has already begun the slow, painful process of adopting new approaches to maintain its relevance in a rapidly changing environment." They refute the common charge that schools run "cookie cutter" MBA programs, citing a high continuity in content but great diversity in structure. They also identify areas where schools need to introduce or beef up programs to serve a changing market, including leadership, globalization, innovative thinking, and integrated studies. Finally, they comprehensively analyze programs run by six leading institutions—the University of Chicago, INSEAD, the Center for Creative Leadership, Har- vard, Yale, and Stanford—and discuss how these might serve as models for business education in the future. All the topics in the book are familiar, but the book does a terrific job of gathering in one place most of the relevant information needed for management education to face its future. (Harvard Business School Press, $39.95)