''Unstoppable: Finding Hidden Assets to Renew the Core and Fuel Profitable Growth'' is a non-fiction book on business strategy by American business consultant
Chris Zook
Chris Zook is a business writer and partner at Bain & Company, leading its Global Strategy Practice. He currently resides in Amsterdam, the Netherlands and in Boston, Massachusetts. He is listed by ''The Times'' (London) as one of the world's top ...
. This is the third book in his ''Profit from the Core'' trilogy, preceded by ''
Profit from the Core'' released in 2001 and ''
Beyond the Core'' in 2004.
Overview
In previous books in the trilogy, Zook explained how to expand, exploit, and support the current core of a company's
business model
A business model describes how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value,''Business Model Generation'', Alexander Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur, Alan Smith, and 470 practitioners from 45 countries, self-published, 2010 in economic, soc ...
. Firms usually go through a common growth cycle. Initially, they focus their resources on establishing their core businesses and using them against competition. Then, companies should leverage their strengths and move into closely related areas of business. Finally, companies exhaust these opportunities and have to redefine their cores, making hard decisions and launching a necessary transformation. When a company tries to redefine its core, often managers follow one of three paths—they commit ever more deeply to what they currently do, they move into segments where they have no experience, or they merge with some other group to create a new megacompany.
Zook argues that each of those moves has a very small chance of success over the long term. The chances are much better when companies examine what they already have, and then map out how to leverage those hidden assets. Zook divides these assets in three categories: undervalued business platforms, unexploited customer assets, and underutilized capabilities. If the company moves in these areas where it already has experience, it may successfully redefine itself to meet the next growth period.
Criticism
—Review by First Friday Book Synopsis
See also
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5 forces model
Porter's Five Forces Framework is a method of analysing the operating environment of a competition of a business. It draws from industrial organization (IO) economics to derive five forces that determine the competitive intensity and, therefore, ...
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Business model
A business model describes how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value,''Business Model Generation'', Alexander Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur, Alan Smith, and 470 practitioners from 45 countries, self-published, 2010 in economic, soc ...
s
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Competitive advantage
In business, a competitive advantage is an attribute that allows an organization to outperform its competitors.
A competitive advantage may include access to natural resources, such as high-grade ores or a low-cost power source, highly skilled ...
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Coopetition
Coopetition or co-opetition (sometimes spelled "coopertition" or "co-opertition") is a neologism coined to describe cooperative competition. Coopetition is a portmanteau of cooperation and competition. Basic principles of co-opetitive structures ...
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Core competency
A core competency is a concept in management theory introduced by C. K. Prahalad and Gary Hamel.Prahalad, C.K. and Hamel, G. (1990)The core competence of the corporation", Harvard Business Review (v. 68, no. 3) pp. 79–91. It can be defin ...
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Strategic management
In the field of management, strategic management involves the formulation and implementation of the major goals and initiatives taken by an organization's managers on behalf of stakeholders, based on consideration of resources and an assessment ...
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Value Migration: How to Think Several Moves Ahead of the Competition''
References
External links
Official websiteOfficial website
*{{youtube, R55DRFxOAuU, Chris Zook, Partner of Bain & Company (Amsterdam) on The Leaderonomics Show
2007 non-fiction books
American non-fiction books
Business books
Harvard Business Publishing books