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Demand: Creating What People Love Before They Know They Want It (2000)

by Adrian Slywotzky(Favorite Author)

3.92 of 5 Votes: 3

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English

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review 1: This book starts off well enough with some introductory case studies, switches to learnings from these case studies, but then suddenly has only case studies.In the last chapters the authors switch to a 'if only we had retained our labs' monologue, closing with an admonishment that "CHANGE STARTS WITH YOU".It is an interesting read but I found it hard to really take away anything from it.
review 2: I never thought I'd get into business books, but after working at a business magazine and thinking about journalism from an entrepreneurs standpoint, I've really begun to take a look at different strategies and theories out there. I'm glad I picked this book up because it tries to find the secret about demand. Basically, what makes one product more successful than a v... moreery similar product? An easy chapter would've been advertising and brand awareness, but I'm glad Slywotzky steered away from that topic. One of the first chapters explored "magnetism." What makes a great product great? One example was Zipcar. Its creator thought everyone would jump onto the idea of car sharing because it would lessen everyone's carbon footprint and it would be good for the planet. Success, however, was not reached until its founder was ejected by the board and a new CEO took an analytical approach, trying to understand why some people were die-hard enthusiasts while others could care less. (In short, they found density in clusters was the key, and now Zipcar is expanding.) In another chapter, the author looks at the case of the e-reader war. The Sony Libre was like Amazon's Kindle (low weight, E-ink technology) and it came out a year before the Kindle, but it turned out to be a failed product. Why? WiFi and a deep library that Sony just could not match. Amazon, a Internet retail website, had no business getting into the handheld electronic business, but it did and succeeded.An alarming chapter came at the end, where the author discusses that many of the great innovations start with scientific breakthroughs. Either a school or a business has an research and development outfit that works on creating new projects, without the pressure of deadlines or immediate commercial application. (Xerox's PARC lab is one such example.) Today, those departments are either gone or severely shrunk, as many companies need to figure out how to make money now for mere survival. The future looks bleak for breakthrough achievements.Of course, the book ends with a call to action: Don't look up for the next demand creator, look in the mirror. less

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