We've all heard about thinking outside the box. Sometimes it really pays off. Take Ray Kroc: He started out by selling milkshake machines to the brothers McDonald but quickly realized that the stronger revenue potential was not in equipment but in milkshakes (and hamburgers too, of course). Howard Schultz had similar foresight when he was peddling coffee machines to a chain called Starbucks. In both cases the entrepreneurs saw far beyond the box. Both entrepreneurs ended up buying those businesses and became extraordinarily successful.
Optimism and faith in an idea aren't enough, though. As this book explains, it's also important to preemptively outdo and overtake the competition, open in a top-notch location, and manage the brand so you truly stand out with product, design, service, and quality. Arthur Rubinfeld knows something about this, since he spent ten years as an executive vice president taking Starbucks from 100 stores to around 4,000. The book's coauthor, Collins Hemingway, co-wrote Business at the Speed of Thought with Bill Gates. Rubinfeld is now founder and CEO of Airvision consultants, and Hemingway has his own firm, Escape Velocity Ventures.
The holistic approach offered here describes how to devise a concept, develop it in a local market, and then expand nationally and globally. Concurrently, according to Rubinfeld and Hemingway, it is important to keep the brand at the forefront of customers' minds. They combine theory with practice to explain the many aspects of successfully growing and managing a retail business. While chapters cover a range of pertinent areas such as merchandising, execution, real estate, and branding, they do not venture into online e-tailing: Rubinfeld is a traditional practitioner and shares what he knows of the true bricks and mortar retail experience.
Retail is tough whether you run one store or are part of a large company trying to manage its brand while growing rapidly. Built for Growth is a practical guide with good ideas, encouragement, and advice for a wide range of managers.—S. J. Johnston
Table of Contents:Foreword
Introduction
- Make No Little Plans
- It's About Your Values
- Opportunities, Ideation, and Concepts
- The Importance of the First Store
- Maximizing the Retail Experience Through Design
- Seamlessly Connecting Design to Brand While Staying on Budget
- Merchandising: Maximizing Your Profits
- Customizing Customer Service
- Go Long
- Blueprint for Execution
- Taking Your Organization Long
- Kicking the Economic Model into Gear
- Wellsprings to Expansion
- Own Main & Main
- How to Grow Rapidly Without Stumbling
- Hot Spots, Oil Stains, and the Perfect Location
- A Walk Through the Locationing Process
- Real Estate: Who Needs Who More, When
- Push the Envelope
- Innovation as the Path to Growth
- Defining Your Mission in the New Age of Retail