Despite the unsteady economy, some businesses are actually thriving, creating demand for their products now, and in the future. The latest book from Oliver Wyman partner Adrian Slywotzky uncovers how these demand creators seem to know what people want even before they do themselves. Organizations like Amazon, Zipcar, CareMore, Bloomberg, Wegmans, Netflix, Teach for America, Pixar, and The Seattle Opera have risen above the current economic environment to create offerings that people can´t resist and competitors can´t copy.
DEMAND: Creating What People Love Before They Know They Want It provides a framework of "demand levers" employed by companies that have aced the demand equation. It engagingly tells the stories behind blockbuster products and services, and highlights the unique personalities of the best demand creators.
DEMAND reveals how some companies have created extraordinary levels of demand in this slow-growth economy by answering five questions:
- Who fixed the customers´ hassle map?
- Is the product very good, or is it magnetic?
- Who built the best backstory behind their product"”signing the right deals with key partners and engaging others in their demand process?
- Who was persistent enough (it could take years) to find the triggers that turn fence-sitters into buyers?
- Who had a 45-degree trajectory of improvement (versus competitors´ 5-degree trajectory of improvement)?
"The lessons of DEMAND," Slywotzky observes, "reveal opportunities for the creation of new demand"”not just for people in business but also for social activists, governments leaders, non-profit managers, and other would-be innovators." More information about the book can be found at www.oliverwyman.com/demand and on Slywotzky´s book blog, www.demandthebook.com.
About Adrian Slywotzky
Adrian J. Slywotzky is a partner at Oliver Wyman, a leading global management consulting firm. Since 1979, he has consulted to Fortune 500 companies from a broad cross-section of industries, working extensively at the CEO and senior executive level for major corporations on issues related to new business development and creating new areas of value growth. The Times of London has named him one of the top 50 business thinkers, and Industry Week has named him one of the six most influential management thinkers"”"promising to be what Peter Drucker was to much of the twentieth century: the management guru against whom all others are measured." Slywotzky is a highly sought after speaker, and has appeared at a number of senior executive conferences, including the Microsoft CEO Summit, the Forbes, Fortune, and BusinessWeek CEO Conferences, and CFO Magazine and Conference Board conferences. He is a regular contributor to FastCompany.com.
About Karl Weber
Karl Weber is a writer specializing in business, politics, and social issues. He has collaborated with Adrian Slywotzky on four previous books, including The Upside and How Digital Is Your Business? Weber has also collaborated with Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank and author of Creating a World Without Poverty, and edited the best-selling movie companion books Food Inc. and Waiting for "Superman."
About Oliver Wyman
With offices in 50+ cities across 25 countries, Oliver Wyman is a leading global management consulting firm that combines deep industry knowledge with specialized expertise in strategy, operations, risk management, organizational transformation, and leadership development. The firm´s 3,000 professionals help clients optimize their businesses, improve their operations and risk profile, and accelerate their organizational performance to seize the most attractive opportunities. Oliver Wyman is part of Marsh & McLennan Companies [NYSE: MMC]. For more information, visit www.oliverwyman.com.
