18 APRIL 2015 Consulting®
BookIt
MARKETING ABOVE THE NOISE
Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters
By Linda J. Popky
Bibliomotion, Inc., $27.95 195 pages
Few would argue that the business landscape has dramatically changed over the
past decade with the evolution of technology and the rise of social sharing. But as
shares, followers, and ‘likes’ have eclipsed traditional marketing measures, Linda
J. Popky, author of Marketing Above the Noise, argues many CMOs are focusing
on the wrong things. Popky urges marketers to focus less on keeping up with the
latest marketing tools and tactics and more on what matters: long-term strategies
that work. With a back-to-basics approach, Popky outlines eight timeless truths
of successful marketing initiatives that she calls the Dynamic Market Leverage
Factors that have slipped into the background as marketers try to stay abreast of
new technologies and platforms, often at the expense of their marketing success. Popky also unveils Five
Momentum Factors that further drive marketing success—organizational commitment, resources, people,
technology and environment—that will bring any organization’s marketing effectiveness to the next level.
NO ORDINARY DISRUPTION
The Four Global Forces Breaking All the Trends
By Richard Dobbs, James Manyika and Jonathan Woetzel
McKinsey & Company, $27.99, 288 pages
During the Industrial Revolution,
one new force changed everything.
Today our world is undergoing
an even more dramatic transition
due to four fundamental disruptive
forces—any of which would rank
among the greatest changes the
global economy has ever seen.
These forces are upending what we
long thought were reliable trends:
the global capitals of consumer and business growth
will be emerging market cities most of us never
heard of; the era of cheap capital is ending; training
for new job skills can’t keep up with technology’s
elimination of old jobs; and the U.S. recently
surpassed Russia as the world’s largest supplier
of oil and natural gas. In No Ordinary Disruption:
The Four Global Forces Breaking All the Trends,
Richard Dobbs, James Manyika and Jonathan
Woetzel the directors of the McKinsey Global
Institute, the think tank of McKinsey & Company,
dive deeply behind current headlines to analyze
emerging trends caused by four disruptive forces
transforming the global economy: 1) Economic
power is shifting to emerging markets; 2) The
furious pace of technology adoption has shortened
companies lifecycles; 3) Aging demographics could
lead to the first global population plateau; and, 4)
Instead of a series of lines connecting major hubs
in Europe and North America, the global trading
system has expanded into a complex, intricate and
expanding web. The implications of these four
data points are brought to life by dozens of data
points and engaging stories of how forward-looking
entities are adapting to take advantage of them. The
authors urge business leaders to reset their intuition
and make decisions based not on yesterday’s
assumptions, but instead on today’s new normal.
