War in the Boardroom: Why Left-Brain Management and Right-Brain Marketing Don't See Eye-to-Eye -- and What to Do About It by Al Ries and Laura Ries
(HarperCollins, NY-USA, 2009)
"You win by creating better brands" is the message I took away from this book. Al Ries talks about the differences between left-brained management and right-brained marketing and how rift between the two causes problems. Thats 'war in the boardroom'. The war is caused due to difference in the approaches of left and right brained thinkers - Management is logical whereas marketing is creative. Management or the numerical mind goes with a expansion approach to build a business, to create a product. But creative people look for a focused message - You need to contract in order to build a brand, you need to develop a perception. This difference in thinking causes a rift between the two. The book explains why money alone is not enough to build a brand. The authors finally provides a few hints on how to find a middle ground between the right brained managers and the left brained artists. It demonstrates how both kinds of people are important for a business to succeed.
The book gives some recent and interesting examples - I enjoyed reading through them and realting to each story. It talks about why brands like Harley Davidson, Starbucks, Heinz dominate the market while others fail. Strong brands do not focus on everyhing they can do, they focus on their strengths and dominate it. I liked the FedEx story about how the brand lost millions of dollars in its initial years until they found an area to focus on. Once they focused on their core strength (overnight deliveries), they just took off. The fun part is that they never closed any of their other services - but they became the best overnight delivery business and created a strong perception. That is what great brands do.
Overall, the book is a easy read. I would recommend the book to both sides - left brainers and the right brainers :)
The book gives some recent and interesting examples - I enjoyed reading through them and realting to each story. It talks about why brands like Harley Davidson, Starbucks, Heinz dominate the market while others fail. Strong brands do not focus on everyhing they can do, they focus on their strengths and dominate it. I liked the FedEx story about how the brand lost millions of dollars in its initial years until they found an area to focus on. Once they focused on their core strength (overnight deliveries), they just took off. The fun part is that they never closed any of their other services - but they became the best overnight delivery business and created a strong perception. That is what great brands do.
Overall, the book is a easy read. I would recommend the book to both sides - left brainers and the right brainers :)
