A groundbreaking guide to making profitable business decisions Do you wonder why your value initiatives aren't providing the payoff you'd hoped for? Could it be because you've been thinking about value all wrong? According to the authors of this groundbreaking guide, there's a very good chance that you have. Using examples from leading companies worldwide, they explain why every decision a company makes either creates value or detracts from it, and why, if they hope to survive and thrive in today's increasingly competitive global marketplace, company leaders must make value-creation the centrepiece of every business decision. Authors Kaiser and Young have dubbed this approach "Blue-Line Management," (BLM), and in this entertaining, highly accessible book, they delineate BLM principles and practices and show you how to implement them in your company.
- Explains why the failure to properly define and assess value often makes it difficult for the people who manage businesses to effect long-term success
- Offers guidelines for making the satisfaction of customer needs and wants—i.e. value creation—the driver of all business activities
- The authors are respected academics at INSEAD, the world's largest and most respected graduate business school, with campuses in Europe, Asia and the Middle East
"Professors Kaiser and Young bring a unique, entertaining and irreverent approach to teaching executives what it really means to create value - including the dangers of relying on conventional wisdom about performance measurement."
Tim Koller, author of Valuation: Measuring and Managing the Value of Companies
"Kaiser and Young introduce a fresh perspective on what value really means and how to manage toward it. This is an indispensable new look at the most important business issue all companies face."
Merlin Swire, Director, John Swire & Sons, Ltd
"In our firm, we implemented a new culture emphasizing that Each of Us Counts to get everyone motivated to contribute. When we added the focus on value creation as outlined by Kaiser and Young in The Blue Line Imperative, it ensured those contributions were oriented in the right direction for long-term success!"
Alberto Grua, Senior Vice President, Grünenthal Europe, US & Australia and Management Board member
"The Blue Line Imperative provides valuable lessons about what value is, how to measure it, and how to create it. Many companies follow the red line, thinking it is the right thing to do. This book explains why the red line ultimately does not work and why the blue line does."
Steve Kaplan, Neubauer Family Distinguished Service Professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business
"The Blue Line Imperative is insightful, impactful, humorous and unique – and the first guide that I have ever come across that gets to the core of why leaders, managers and companies fail. Embrace and apply these concepts."
Douglas Rosefsky, Managing Director at Alvarez & Marsal and two time winner of the Turnaround of the Year Award (Turnaround Management Association, 2003 and 2010)
"Kaiser and Young's The Blue Line Imperative connects the dots in the customer–shareholder value puzzle and delivers a resonating message on the necessity of building a data-driven company. In other words, stop chasing KPIs and start focusing on value creation that lasts."
Martin Heijnsbroek , Managing Partner, MICompany
