Synopses & Reviews
Going head-to-head with competitors is a recipe for slow growth and low margins. Theres a way to do better.DPR Construction is a $2.5 billion company operating in the fiercely competitive and highly commoditized construction industry. Unlike most of its peers, it has achieved years of spectacular growth and has currently reached number ten on Fortunes Best Places to Work” list. How did it accomplish this? By being better.
Back when DPR was small and relatively unknown, the company launched itself ahead of the pack by becoming an expert in emerging customer needs like digital infrastructure, energy efficiency, and green materials. Instead of waiting for clients to come to it with problems, DPR introduced clients to solutions they didnt even know they wanted. The strategy paid off so well that when Apple decided it would build its futuristic head office in Silicon Valley, DPR was its obvious choice.
Matter, the fruit of ChangeLabs Founder and President Peter Sheahans three-year research project, identifies dozens of companies that became the obvious choice in crowded markets. These companies transcended disruption by proactively rethinking their industries and developing new business models. Showing remarkable curiosity, creativity, courage, and generosity, they held themselves accountable for taking customers on a journey toward the future. They became beacons of innovation and collaboration, elevating their business models, their relationshipsand inevitably, their results.
Better organizations are remarkably diverse. From high-profile brands like Adobe and Nike, to boutiques like Lang Marketing and BlueShore Financial, organizations of all shapes and sizes have utilized the forward-looking strategies described in this book with dramatic results: more revenue, more sustainability, bigger profit margins, and greater market share. Matter offers illustrative case studies and a tactical framework that will become your blueprint for making your organizations ever better.
Its time to see yourself as a leader, and to invest beyond your four walls. Start the exciting journey and become a business that is stronger, elevated . . . simply, better.
Synopsis
People want to buy from, work for, and partner with companies that matter.
So how do you build a company that matters?
Companies and people that matter have successfully become the obvious choice in the hearts and minds of their customers, their employees, and their communities. They elevate themselves by consistently finding ways to solve the most pressing needs their markets face. The result? They create more value year after year and build a sustainable, differentiated organization.
In Matter, Peter Sheahan and Julie Williamson show you how to identify the place where you can create the most valueyour edge of disruptionat the intersection of old and new, where your existing profits, reach, and reputation enable you to create the markets of the future. This is the place where the most important problems are solved and where the fewest people can solve them. Your edge of disruption is where your opportunity to matter is found.
Matter uses extensive case studies of real companies that have successfully become the obvious choice in their marketsfrom high-profile corporations like Adobe and Burberry to lesser-known brands like Littlefield and BlueShore Financial. Their stories define innovative and impactful approaches to business that you can use to influence and partner with the right customers and clients to win in our radically changing world. Through their journeys, you will find the inspiration and courage to lean in to complexity and solve the higher value problems that matter most.
Don t just read this bookuse it to identify and act on opportunities to create the most value and accelerate your own journey to becoming a person and a company that matters.
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About the Author
Founder of global consultancy ChangeLabs,
Peter Sheahan is known internationally for his innovative business thinking and thought leadership. With staff in 9 cities across 3 countries, he knows firsthand the challenges of growing a business in these rapidly changing times.
Peter has worked with some of the worlds leading brands, including Apple, Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, Hyundai, IBM, Pfizer, Wells Fargo, and Cardinal Health. He is the author of 3 business books: Flip, Generation Y, and Making it Happen. Peter has delivered more than 2,000 presentations to over 300,000 people in 15 different countries, and he has been named one of the "25 Most Influential Speakers" in the industry by the National Speakers Association. In July 2012, he was inducted into the National Speakers Association Hall of Fame, receiving the Council of Peers Award for Excellence (CPAE) lifetime achievement award for speaking excellence.