by Robin Lewis and Michael Dart ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 7, 2010
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
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by Rebecca Henderson ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2020
A readable, persuasive argument that our ways of doing business will have to change if we are to prosper—or even survive.
A well-constructed critique of an economic system that, by the author’s account, is a driver of the world’s destruction.
Harvard Business School professor Henderson vigorously questions the bromide that “management’s only duty is to maximize shareholder value,” a notion advanced by Milton Friedman and accepted uncritically in business schools ever since. By that logic, writes the author, there is no reason why corporations should not fish out the oceans, raise drug prices, militate against public education (since it costs tax money), and otherwise behave ruinously and anti-socially. Many do, even though an alternative theory of business organization argues that corporations and society should enjoy a symbiotic relationship of mutual benefit, which includes corporate investment in what economists call public goods. Given that the history of humankind is “the story of our increasing ability to cooperate at larger and larger scales,” one would hope that in the face of environmental degradation and other threats, we might adopt the symbiotic model rather than the winner-take-all one. Problems abound, of course, including that of the “free rider,” the corporation that takes the benefits from collaborative agreements but does none of the work. Henderson examines case studies such as a large food company that emphasized environmentally responsible production and in turn built “purpose-led, sustainable living brands” and otherwise led the way in increasing shareholder value by reducing risk while building demand. The author argues that the “short-termism” that dominates corporate thinking needs to be adjusted to a longer view even though the larger problem might be better characterized as “failure of information.” Henderson closes with a set of prescriptions for bringing a more equitable economics to the personal level, one that, among other things, asks us to step outside routine—eat less meat, drive less—and become active in forcing corporations (and politicians) to be better citizens.
A readable, persuasive argument that our ways of doing business will have to change if we are to prosper—or even survive.Pub Date: May 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5417-3015-1
Page Count: 336
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
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by Daniel Kahneman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 2011
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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