The Impossible Advantage: Winning the Competitive Game by Changing the Rules - Hardcover

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Andreas Buchholz, an engineer, and Wolfram Wördemann, a communication specialist, first met at Procter & Gamble in Schwalbach, Germany. After earning their marketing spurs at P&G, they jointly founded the marketing strategy consultancy ‘Buchholz Wördemann Partners’ located in Königstein near Frankfurt am Main. Together with the team they have assembled, BW Partners have served a large number of multinational corporations across Europe and beyond, always with a focus on breakthrough, “out of the box” strategic thinking. Their extensive list of clients includes Amexco, Bayer Schering, IBM Lenovo, Nestlé, Pepsico, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble, Sanofi-Aventis, Siemens, T-Mobile, and World Vision. Andreas and Wolfram co-authored the Financial Times bestseller ‘What Makes Winning Brands Different: The hidden method behind the world’s most successful brands’ (John Wiley & Sons 2000).

Ned Wiley first made a mark in the world of television thirty years ago when, as Procter and Gamble’s first European Brand Manager, he introduced Italian television audiences to the soap opera. His career spans consumer marketing, advertising and interactive digital communications, at firms including Foote, Cone & Belding, Publicis Group and Gist Communications.

Today, Ned is with one of the world’s largest media companies, Axel Springer. As a Managing Director of Axel Springer Digital TV Guide, he is once again working to revolutionize the way advertisers engage consumers by helping consumers navigate the ever-changing landscape of television and video entertainment. Ned is an alumnus of The University of Chicago College and The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Von der hinteren Coverseite

Just about any business strategy tells you how to become a better or even one of the 'best players' in your market through innovation, quality or price leadership, differentiation or positioning.

The Impossible Advantage takes you straight to an entirely different level of thinking: How to win the competition by Changing the Rules of the Game in your own favour. Make your competitors play your game and follow your rules!

'Impossible for us!' is what 8 out of 10 managers firmly believe. But does it really take a market leader to 'rule' the competition? Or a major technological breakthrough? Or even a massive new product campaign? No, not necessarily! This book delivers stunning evidence that virtually any player in the marketplace and you too! can emerge as a Game Changer and gain an impossible advantage over competition. Find out how to disarm seemingly invincible market leaders, how to transform prevailing power relationships, how to mastermind a paradigm shift in your market environment. All you need is something anybody can come up with, namely, a Game Changing Idea!

The Impossible Advantage introduces you to four compelling 'Game Changing Strategies' that work for managers in any industry or business sector, B-to-B or B-to-C, even in the political arena or in major legal cases. These strategies are as relevant to modern lifestyle categories as they are to conservative or traditional ones, no matter how big your market or how small your segment may be. Explore the fascinating case studies and start taking a refreshingly different look at your market, your competitors and your growth opportunities.

"After founding RTL -- the first private TV channel in Germany-- in a garage, it took us eight years to dethrone the two giant public channels, and become market leader. When we started, our perspectives were modes and our budgets were tight. But then we came up with that Game Changing Idea which then turned the market dramatically in our favour. Read this book and find out how to make The Impossible Advantage work for your business, too."
Helmut Thoma, Founder of RTL, Germany's Number-One TV station

"Changing the rules of the game always works to the advantage of the one who takes the initiative. The Impossible Advantage abundantly proves this and what's more gives some good recipes for success. A must-read for all marketing and advertising people. Particularly in these challenging times."
Maurice Levy, Chairman & CEO, Publicis Groupe

"Most surprising about the ideas in The Impossible Advantage is that they haven't been widely spread among business and management schools for years."
John C. Kornblum, Former US Ambassador and Chairman of Lazard Germany

Aus dem Klappentext

The competition in the marketplace is a game, no doubt, much like any other game except for one small, but most significant difference: in the market, some of the players are also the rule makers.

From a classic game perspective, these rule makers or Game Changers enjoy nothing less than an impossible advantage over the vast majority of their competitors who are happy to simply play along by the rules.

Few managers truly understand the fine art of how to control the intangible and somehow enigmatic laws and rules of the competition in the marketplace. And hardly anybody knows about the compelling and proven techniques of how to purposefully change them in their own favour.

The Impossible Advantage reveals some surprising news: how virtually anybody can learn the art of the Game Masters and Game Changers. There are no demanding prerequisites: just get ready to engage in a mind-opening and provocatively different way of thinking.