The market makers : how leading companies create and win markets / Daniel F. Spulber.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Spulber, Daniel F.

Series:

BusinessWeek books

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Success in business.

Market share.

Physical Description:

x, 314 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York : McGraw-Hill, [1998]

Summary:

In this groundbreaking book, leading strategist Daniel Spulber defines a revolutionary new approach to business. Taking his inspiration from market makers in the financial community, he identifies the primary elements that lead to successful market making. Adapting this framework to the business world in general, Spulber has come up with a method that companies of any size can use to become a market maker in their own industries.

Becoming a market maker requires being the best--not only by providing better product quality and lower prices, but also by providing more convenient service to both customers and suppliers. Spulber encourages businesses to look at all transactions, because only by innovating in each of a company's activities are new results possible.

Market makers are companies that create something entirely new, whether a new product or service, or a better and faster way of bringing that product or service to market. But they cannot stop there. Once companies have captured the lead, market makers must constantly innovate, change, and improve, or else they will lose their position. In this way, market makers both create and manage markets as they come to define the businesses they are in.

Spulber analyzes, for example, how the Gap created a clothing revolution by constantly modifying the way it does business--drastically reducing the ordering cycle of clothes--allowing it to respond rapidly to fashion changes in colors, fabrics, and styles, and tailoring inventories and production to customer demand patterns. The Gap's suppliers could adjust their manufacturing plans, hiring, and material purchases in response to more up-to-date sales information. By building a bridge between its customers and suppliers, the Gap became a market maker in casual clothing.

Spulber's strategies are applicable in any industry--as he generously illustrates throughout this book, with case studies of cutting-edge firms such as Southwest Airlines, Wal-Mart, NationsBank, Sun Microsystems, Toyota, Dell Computer, Microsoft, Charles Schwab, and many others. Spulber's forward-thinking approach helps business people do much more than stay in the game--it helps them win markets.

Contents:

Winning Markets

Building Market Bridges 12

Market Strategy 22

Outline of the Book 25

2 The Value of Winning 29

Winning 31

Intermediation 37

Recognition 38

Pushing Out the Boundaries of the Firm 46

3 Market Making 65

Price Setting 66

Coordinating Exchange 79

Market Clearing 86

Allocating Goods and Services 90

4 Arbitrage 95

Spatial Arbitrage 98

Dynamic Arbitrage 101

Risk Arbitrage 107

Technological Arbitrage 112

5 Intermediation 119

Agent 120

Monitor 139

Broker 145

Communicator 155

6 Networking 167

Suppliers and Customers 168

Matching and Mixing 172

Networks and Organizations 180

Organizational Boundaries 191

Market Strategies

7 Entry Strategies 219

Go-Between 222

Bring-Together 227

Bypass 232

Connect 236

8 Indirect Strategies 245

Economy of Force 246

Undefended Markets 248

The Path of Least Resistance 252

The Line of Least Expectation 256

9 Offensive and Defensive Strategies 265

Offense 267

Defense 291

Innovation 296.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

007060584X

OCLC:

38542582