Meeting of the Minds

by Barabba, Vincent P.

• ISBN13: 9780875845777
• ISBN10: 0875845770
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1995-10-01
• Publisher: Harvard Business School Pr

Summary

Despite much talk of being market oriented, few companies have harnessed the full range of their capabilities to serve the customer. In fact, the traditional organization of corporate activities into separate functions with marketing controlling primary access to the customer has widened the gulf of knowledge and understanding between the enterprise and its markets, and within the firm itself. This book provides a practical blueprint for creating dynamic, market-based decision-making mechanisms that lead to competitive advantage. Drawing on his thirty years of executive experience at Eastman Kodak, Xerox, General Motors, and in the public sector, Vincent P. Barabba demonstrates that when companies use systems thinking to view customers and the market as an extension of the firm, they achieve a meeting of the minds--creating value for customer, community, and enterprise. Barabba rejects the path of organizational restructuring and instead presents a unique framework for creating unity of knowledge and purpose across functions and for linking them with the markets they serve.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Introduction	1	(22)
The Late Great Age of Command and Control	23	(18)
The Marketing Concept Then and Now	41	(32)
Putting the Marketing Concept to Work	73	(28)
The Market-Based Enterprise	101	(22)
Listen	123	(30)
Learn	153	(24)
Lead	177	(36)
What Management Must Do	213	(24)
Index	237	(10)
About the Author	247