Repeatability

Build Enduring Businesses for a World of Constant Change

Chris Zook, James Allen

• Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9781422143308
• eBook ISBN: 9781422143704
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Management
• Index: Business

An argument for simplicity from the bestselling authors of Profit from the Core Is radical reinvention the key to winning in today’s fast-paced world? Not judging by the results of some of the world’s best-performing companies.In Repeatability, Chris Zook and James Allen—leaders of Bain & Company’s influential Strategy practice—warn that complexity is a silent killer of profitable growth. Successful companies endure by maintaining simplicity at their core. They don’t stray from, or regularly discard, their business model in pursuit of radical renovation. Instead, they build a "repeatable business model” that produces continuous improvement and allows them to rapidly adapt to change without succumbing to complexity.Based on a multiyear study of more than two hundred companies, the book stresses the value of repeatability in business, showing how the "big idea” today is really made up of a series of successful smaller ideas driven by a simple and repeatable business model. Zook and Allen show how some of the world’s best-known firms combine a core differentiation model with speed, adaptability, and simplicity to land them at the top for long periods of time. These firms include: Apple, Danaher, DaVita, IKEA, Nike, Olam, Tetra Pak, Vanguard, and others.CEOs, senior executives, managers, and investors all need to read this book. It’s the new blueprint for reaching the top—and staying there.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• The Great Repeatable Model
• Principle 1: A Well-Differentiated Core
• Principle 2: Clear Nonnegotiables
• Principle 3: Closed-Loop Learning
• Leadership: Freedom or Framework?
• The Triumph of Simplicity
• Appendix 1: Research Methodology
• Appendix 2: How Repeatable Are You?
• Appendix 3: Summary of Top Thirty Case Studies
• Appendix 4: Lexicon of Key Terms
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Acknowledgments
• About the Authors