Whatever the case, the authors bring solid credentials to their forecast of the coming retail landscape, and they provide...
The mall is dead. Long live…well, a different mall.
Retail consultants and strategists Lewis and Dart chart three periods of commercial history. The first was an era of pent-up real demand; the second featured abundance and the generation of wants made into needs; the third—well, whatever it is we’re living in now, when “consumers have grown accustomed to an instantaneous and unlimited selection of virtually anything they might dream of.” The problem for retailers is that our collective tastes have changed. Spoiled rotten, we demand “experience” when we shop, so that a visit to Trader Joe’s or Victoria’s Secret—take your pick—becomes a pampering of the senses as much as an opportunity to stock up on pot stickers or bras. Some retailers are not equipped to handle the rigors of what the authors call “experiential superiority,” to say nothing of “superior value-chain control.” At some unspecified point in the near future, Lewis and Dart predict that half of retailers and brands are going to disappear, to be replaced by companies that have somehow engineered their way around the “traditional retail/wholesale business model.” Writing with numerous bulleted lists, the authors outline the qualities and characteristics that they believe the winners in this Darwinian struggle will share—and, it would seem, many of those winners will be Chinese. Some of their conclusions seem very well backed by solid evidence; on the last point, for instance, they point to one Chinese apparel maker’s recent acquisition of 16 American brands. Other conclusions seem more speculative. If rats are drenched in dopamine while exploring new sections of the maze, does that really translate to humans taking great pleasure in finding a new store—particularly when “future consumers are going to be ‘wired,’ but only to what they choose to be wired to”?
Whatever the case, the authors bring solid credentials to their forecast of the coming retail landscape, and they provide plenty of interesting material for readers on both sides of the cash register.Pub Date: Dec. 7, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-230-10572-0
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Sept. 10, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2010
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
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These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.
A helpful guide to working effectively with people from other cultures.
“The sad truth is that the vast majority of managers who conduct business internationally have little understanding about how culture is impacting their work,” writes Meyer, a professor at INSEAD, an international business school. Yet they face a wider array of work styles than ever before in dealing with clients, suppliers and colleagues from around the world. When is it best to speak or stay quiet? What is the role of the leader in the room? When working with foreign business people, failing to take cultural differences into account can lead to frustration, misunderstanding or worse. Based on research and her experiences teaching cross-cultural behaviors to executive students, the author examines a handful of key areas. Among others, they include communicating (Anglo-Saxons are explicit; Asians communicate implicitly, requiring listeners to read between the lines), developing a sense of trust (Brazilians do it over long lunches), and decision-making (Germans rely on consensus, Americans on one decider). In each area, the author provides a “culture map scale” that positions behaviors in more than 20 countries along a continuum, allowing readers to anticipate the preferences of individuals from a particular country: Do they like direct or indirect negative feedback? Are they rigid or flexible regarding deadlines? Do they favor verbal or written commitments? And so on. Meyer discusses managers who have faced perplexing situations, such as knowledgeable team members who fail to speak up in meetings or Indians who offer a puzzling half-shake, half-nod of the head. Cultural differences—not personality quirks—are the motivating factors behind many behavioral styles. Depending on our cultures, we understand the world in a particular way, find certain arguments persuasive or lacking merit, and consider some ways of making decisions or measuring time natural and others quite strange.
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.Pub Date: May 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61039-250-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
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