Anatomy of a breakout (with Bob Dylan)
By Anoop K Menon
Companies that explicitly set out to excel are remarkably few and far between, but those that do so in a logical and consistent way are fewer. Breakout Strategy by Finkelstein, Harvey and Lawton focuses on the fewer lot, many of whom seemingly emerged from nowhere to become market leaders. 
Ten years in the making and three years in the writing, Breakout Strategy emerged from an in-house executive MBA program the authors were associated with in the mid-90s. A shared academic background—all three teach professional management courses at their respective universities— has shaped the book’s scholarly structure with a liberal sprinkling of cases, charts and summaries in every chapter leading the reader into deeper appreciation of the concept.
In an intensely competitive world of business where change is endemic, where companies emerge, mutate, prosper or perish all the time, ‘breakout’ stands for rapid growth of a new industry or market arena, or the emergence of a formidable new competitor that rises to become a dominant player in an established industry.
The authors argue that all breakout success stories share several common characteristics. First, a simple, carefully crafted and brilliantly executed strategy. Second, careful alignment of ostensibly standard routines (like strategy reviews, business planning and setting of performance targets) with the company’s mission, accompanied by world-class execution. Third and most important, leadership that is steeped in the realities of their companies, industries and markets.
Taking by storm (examples include Cisco and Sodexho), Laggard-to-leader (Harley Davidson, Burberry), Expanding horizons (Starbucks, Toyota) and Shifting shape (IBM, Apple) are the four generic breakout types discussed in this book. Every chapter has supporting cases drawn from across the industrial and societal spectrum, politics and creative arts included. In the latter case, it is the popular folk singer Bob Dylan whose career graph has been studied in the ‘Taking by storm’ category.
While acknowledging Dylan’s genius as a great folk musician and lyricist, the authors point out that a lesser known aspect of his genius was a strong understanding of the music business game. He networked hard, learned from the top artists of the day like Woody Guthrie, and used his connections to get top slots at folk music venues. He also worked hard to cultivate a distinctive voice and performance style that became his value proposition in the folk music market, lifting him to the top of the game as the king of folk rock.
In the closing chapters of the book, the authors also address the role of ‘soft’ systems in the successful implementation of breakthrough strategies. When it comes to change management and strategy delivery, there are two schools of thought: one that emphasizes the organizational process, structure, and systems dimensions of the business (techno) and one that highlights the group culture, people skills and management practices side of the enterprise (socio).
Techno systems like CRM can be implemented relatively quickly and their results are comparatively easy to quantify. Socio aspects like employee empowerment and responsive leadership require a lot more hard work but lack clear methods of delivery and the results are difficult to quantify. As a result, strategy implementation continues to be a techno-dominated affair. Unfortunately, the prevalent ‘you can’t manage what you can’t measure’ philosophy, regarded as essential to achieving growth, only serves to re-enforce this bias.
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