Match

Perfect Biz Match is about seeing markets and organizations in an entirely new way.

At the heart of Perfect Biz Match is an understanding that each type of market has its own terrain. Just as mountains differ from plains, one type of market differs vastly from another, and any organization that wishes to make its way in it must adapt to prevailing conditions. Just as you would not build an igloo to survive in the Arabian Desert, the wise manager does not try to lead a ruler organization into a frontier market. Instead, they adapt to the organization, spin off a desperate division, find a way to distribute outside the frontier, or sell of that product to another organization more suited to the frontier.

The Match section will get you thinking differently about what it means to be competitive -- and what it means to lead.

Four Types of Markets

Perfect Biz Match is built on the premise that any effective organizational strategy must begin by identifying the market environment in which it operates (or seeks to operate). Once this environment has been identified, leaders are faced with a key decision: either transform the organization so that it is able to compete effectively in that environment, or make the equally -- difficult transition of moving into an environment for which the organization's current structure is well suited.

Although these responses may seem to form a pair of opposites, they exemplify the same basic strategy: as challenges present themselves, the organization must respond by creating an appropriate match between its people, structures, culture, and practices and its market environment.

Four Market Archetypes

Each of today's organizations operates in one or more of these four distinctly different market environments: the kingdom, the battleground, the jungle, and the frontier. Read More

Some Real World Examples

One way to better understand these four market environments is to look at some companies that routinely do business in them. Read More

Market Dynamics

Each of the four market environments requires its own organizational structure and set of behaviors. Furthermore, each must follow a unique strategic style if the company is to survive, succeed, and excel. In short, what will work for Coca-Cola will spell disaster for amazon.com, and vice versa. Read More

Product Evolution and Market Flow

No one product or industry remains in a single market environment forever. Like any other dynamic system, the market for any product or service is always in some flux. Read More

Product Life Cycles

Yet another crucial dynamic involves the life of each particular product or service. Each starts out in the frontier as something new to the world and, thus, more or less proprietary. As it becomes better known and more widely accepted, however, it turns slowly (and sometimes not so slowly) into a commodity. In other words, it has gone through the crucible of business consolidations that lead to low margins and high volume. A good example is personal computers. These were essentially new products until the late 1980's, but are now commodity items with few differences between brands. Read More

Making the Right Match

It has, I hope, become clear by now that in order to successfully market any product or service, a company must first identify which of the four market environments the product will be sold in. Then it needs to adapt (or create) a marketing strategy to suit that environment. Read More

Transforming a Kingdom Mentality

As little as two decades ago, a large number of American companies operated in kingdom environments. Most of those environments are gone, transformed into battlegrounds or jungles by the pressures of globalization, technology, increased efficiency, and the ever-increasing demands for improved quality and low prices. Read More

Organizational Archetypes

There are four Organizational Archetypes: Pioneers, Hunters, Warriors, and Rulers. Each organizational archetype should be designed and run according to the needs and demands of the particular type of market it serves.

Organizational Fitness

In nature, successful organisms - whether they're sharks, orchids, or impalas - are designed to survive and thrive in their particular environments. Paradoxically, however, the same characteristics that make a creature so successful in its natural environment also restrict its ability to survive elsewhere. A shark can't live even an hour on dry land; an orchid won't survive a single winter in Tennessee.

The same principles hold true for businesses and markets. There needs to be a fit between the dynamics of an organization and the market environment in which it operates. Indeed, this fit is crucial to the company's survival. Read More

Four Organizational Ways of Life

Archetypes are ways of describing the world, not limiting it. The four organizational archetypes presented here are not clear-cut categories into which all businesses neatly fit at all times. While many organizations are classic pioneers, or hunters, or rulers, others are better described as hybrids of two different archetypes. Still others closely fit one archetype in many ways, yet have a handful of elements of one or more of the others. The point here is not to put companies into pre-fabricated boxes and then provide black and white "solutions" for any organization that's been dumped into that box. In fact, my purpose is quite the opposite: to provide you with a useful framework for examining your own organization and its market environment, so that you can devise your own unique answers based on the skills and information you'll acquire from Perfect Biz Match. Read More

Systems and Behavior

The organizational pattern in each archetype is largely determined by two factors: its natural and appropriate organizational structure, and the nature of professional relationships among its leaders and employees. Read More

Culture and Values

Each archetype requires a particular type of culture, which supports the organization and enables it to thrive (or at least survive and compete) in its market. Read More

Each Archetype Needs Its Own Type of Leader

Traditionally, people who write and talk about leadership have attempted to identify a set of qualities that typify effective leaders. By now I hope it has become clear that no one style of leadership can possibly be effective in all four organizational archetypes. Each archetype needs - in fact, demands - its own particular style of leadership. Read More

The Structure of Leadership

There is yet another crucial aspect to matching leadership styles, organizational archetypes, and market environments: each archetype has its own ideal type of leadership structure. Read More

Snapshots

This section provides a series of one-page snapshots of the four different market environments, and the organization archetypes that are best suited to each. My intent is to bring the key concepts and distinctions of the previous ideas into sharp, clear focus.

Each snapshot provides the following for one of the four essential market ecosystems:
-A brief description of the market
-The central characteristics of that market
-The organization requirements for success in that market
-What tends to create a successful business strategy in this market
-The key elements of an organization culture that thrives in this market
-The primary dynamics of the market
-The most appropriate structure for an organization competing in that market

This serves two purposes: first, it distills and codifies what has come before; second, it provides an easy reference to return to as you make your way through this book. You will find these models part

Rulers in Kingdom Markets

These organizations are designed to

1) deliver widely-desired products or services to customers;
2) generate ample profit; and
3) maintain dominance over their markets through innovation, acquisition of their competitors, and aggressive pricing practices. Read More

Warriors in Battleground Markets

These organizations are designed to deliver commoditized products or services to very large numbers of customers while earning very limited profit margins. Warriors compete with a small number of well-known companies offering similar products or services. Read More

Hunters in Jungle Markets

These organizations are designed to compete for a niche against many competitors whose products are highly sought-after. The market has not consolidated, though it may do so in the future. Read More

Pioneers in Frontier Markets

These organizations are designed to introduce new, significantly different products into existing markets, or to create an entirely new market around those products. Read More