To our delight, we’ve also discovered that great demand creators are endlessly varied. They include Fortune 500 CEOs and Nobel Prize–winning scientists as well as corner store proprietors, aspiring entrepreneurs, and frontline employees in modest-size companies and nonprofit organizations. They range from Reed Hastings, dreaming up a new way of renting movies that grew into a multibillion-dollar business, to Yoona Kim, teaching kids in a Harlem classroom how to measure the perimeter of a pentagon; from Danny Wegman, sending a cheese manager to Europe to learn more about the delicious products she sells, to a CareMore clinician, visiting an elderly patient’s home to make sure the area rugs won’t cause her to slip and fall; from Robin Chase, dreaming of a world where millions of people can enjoy the freedom of driving without the expense, inconvenience, and environmental costs of car ownership, to Tracy Gingell, climbing a ladder to make sure the chandelier in his Pret A Manger store is sparkly enough to meet his exacting standards for cleanliness; from Henk Kwakman, recruiting designers to make the Nespresso coffee maker not just fast and easy but stylish and sexy, to Joe Skenderian, noticing a young mom’s swollen leg and helping her remedy a potentially dangerous blood clot; and from Jonathan Dean, introducing fifth graders to the magic of opera as he leads them in a new production of Siegfried and the Ring of Fire, to Russ Wilcox, working for almost a decade to achieve the breakthrough that would turn the vision of an electronic book into a practical reality.
Looking at this remarkable roster of quiet heroes and so many others like them, it’s hard to imagine a more varied group—except that all are amazing demand creators, making life better for their fellow human beings in ways big and small, and helping to spur economic growth and social progress in countless forms.
So the next time you find yourself fretting over the latest discouraging news on cable TV or in your local newspaper, and perhaps wondering, “Where will we find the demand we need to make our nation grow, expand prosperity, and give the next generation the same chance at a better life that we enjoyed?” we hope you’ll think about the demand creators profiled in these pages, and take a leaf from their book.
Don’t look up. Look in the mirror.
SOURCE NOTES
For each story told in this book, we provide below a list of books, articles, websites, and other sources from which significant information was drawn. These sources are listed in chronological order by date of first publication. Other specific factual details, quotations, or ideas that readers may be interested in tracking are cited by source, linked by brief phrases (in italics) to the main book text.
“Author interviews” refers to interviews with named individuals conducted by either or both of the two listed authors or by one or more members of our research team, whose names appear in the acknowledgments. “Oliver Wyman consumer interviews” refers to interviews with individuals conducted by one or more members of our research team as part of the continuing background study of consumer behaviors, preferences, and opinions by Oliver Wyman, a leading global management consulting firm, of which author Adrian J. Slywotzky is a partner.
INTRODUCTION: THE MYSTERY OF DEMAND
1. Netflix story: “Netflix CEO Reed Hastings Profile,” interview with Lesley Stahl on CBS 60 Minutes, reprinted by Technology Wire, December 4, 2006, online at http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-28805727_ITM. Also see chapter 4, “Trigger,” below.
2. Nokia 1100 story: Kevin Sullivan, “For India’s Traditional Fishermen, Cell-Phones Deliver a Sea Change,” Washington Post, October 15, 2006. Also see chapter 9, “The Biggest Spark,” below.
1. MAGNETIC
1. Zipcar story: Fred Bayles, “A Hot Import: Communal Cars for Congested Streets,” USA Today, July 21, 2000; Kit J. Nichols, “A New Option for Drivers Who Don’t Want to Own,” Consumers Research, August 1, 2003; Shawn McCarthy, “Zipcar a Vehicle for Thrifty Urban Existentialism,” Globe and Mail (Toronto), April 11, 2005; Brian Quinton, “Zipcar Goes the Extra Mile,” DIRECT, September 15, 2005; Stephanie Clifford, “How Fast Can This Thing Go Anyway?” Inc., March 1, 2008; Mark Levine, “Share My Ride,” New York Times Magazine, March 8, 2009; Paul Keegan, “The Best New Idea in Business,” Fortune, September 14, 2009; Zipcar website, http://www.zipcar.com/.
2. Mary Morgan, a journalist in Ann Arbor, Michigan: Mary Morgan, “MM Does Zipcar,” Ann Arbor Chronicle, March 9, 2009.
3. As a deadly accurate 2000 headline: The Onion, http://www.theonion.com/articles/report-98-percent-of-us-commuters-favor-public-tra,1434/.
4. Not-for-profit car-sharing services: See Bringing Carsharing to Your Community, City Car Share, http://www.citycarshare.org/download/CCS_BCCtYC_Short.pdf.
5. One early adopter remarked: Carpundit (blog), April 11, 2005, http://carpundit.typepad.com/carpundit/2005/04/zipcar_a_review.html. Other user comments in this paragraph from Insiderpages, http://www.insiderpages.com/b/3715573336/zipcar-incorporated-cambridge.
6. “This has to be a lifestyle choice”: Quoted in Lisa van der Pool, “Scott Griffith: Zipping Ahead,” Boston Business Journal, August 27, 2007.
7. As one Zipcar member told us: Oliver Wyman consumer interviews.
8. Suddenly people by the thousands began to discover: Comments in this paragraph and the four that follow are from Oliver Wyman consumer interviews.
9. As one Zipster puts it, “I like the idea of being green”: Oliver Wyman consumer interviews.
10. Even seemingly unpredictable hassles: Stories in this paragraph and the three that follow are from Oliver Wyman consumer interviews.
11. “We use information as a competitive advantage”: Scott Griffith, “Zipcar: Selling Cars, One Ride at a Time,” What Matters, October 27, 2009, McKinsey & Company, online at http://whatmatters.mckinseydigital.com/internet/zipcar-selling-cars-one-ride-at-a-time.
12. Wegmans story: Beverly Savage, “Want a Wegmans? Many Shoppers Do,” New York Times, April 27, 2003; Matthew Swibel, “Nobody’s Meal: How Can 87-Year-Old Wegmans Food Markets Survive—and Thrive—Against the Likes of Wal-Mart?” Forbes, November 24, 2003; “Wegmans Tops Fortune’s ‘100 Best Companies to Work For’ List,” Progressive Grocer, January 11, 2005; Matthew Boyle, “The Wegmans Way,” Fortune, January 24, 2005; Warren Thayer, “Wegmans Still Rules,” Refrigerated & Frozen Foods Retailer, May 16, 2008, http://www.rffretailer.com/Articles/Cover_Story/2008/05/16/Wegmans-Still-Rules; Joe Wheeler, “Wegmans Food Markets: How Two Halves Make More Than a Whole,” Progressive Grocer, August 11, 2009; Wegmans website, http://www.wegmans.com/.
13. If you ever have the opportunity to meet our friend Stephen: Oliver Wyman consumer interviews.
14. From 1950 to 1976, the stores multiplied: See “Robert B. Wegman: A Great Merchant 1918–2006,” Wegmans website, http://www.wegmans.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10052&partNumber=UNIVERSAL_2706
&catalogId=10002&langId=-1.
15. When the economic downturn hit in 2008: “Profile: Danny Wegman,” from “SN Power 50, 2009,” Supermarket News, online at http://supermarketnews.com/profiles/danny-wegman-2009/.
16. The difference lies in what social psychologists: See Dan Ariely, Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions (New York: HarperCollins, 2008), chapter 4, “The Cost of Social Norms,” pp. 67–88.
17. In early 2008, Wegmans launched an online shopping tool: See “Wegmans Revamps Online Shopping Tool,” Brandweek, February 5, 2009, http://www.brandweek.com/bw/content_display/news-and-features/shopper-marketing/e3id425eb6001d58ee74c7da4827b5afcc3.
18. Wegmans is equally innovative beyond technology: See “Wegmans Reverses Supermarket Supply Chain, Starts Organic Farm,” GreenBiz.com, September 12, 2007, http://www.greenbiz.com/print/1498.
19. The explanation for Wegmans’ economic success: See William J. McEwen and John H. Fleming, “Customer Satisfaction Doesn’t Count,” Gallup Organization, March 13, 2003, http://www.adobe.com/engagement/pdfs/gmj_customer_satisfaction.pdf.
2. HASSLE MAP
1. 1908 New Y
ork–Paris auto race: Julie M. Fenster, Race of the Century: The Heroic True Story of the 1908 New York to Paris Auto Race (New York: Crown, 2005).
2. Or consider another observer’s comment: “Steve Jobs Speaks Out: On the Birth of the iPhone,” Fortune website, http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/fortune/0803/
gallery.jobsqna.fortune/index.html.
3. Bloomberg story: Ken Auletta, “The Bloomberg Threat,” New Yorker, March 10, 1997; Davis S. Bennahum, “Terminal Velocity,” Wired, February 1999; Felicity Barringer and Geraldine Fabrikant, “Coming of Age at Bloomberg L.P.,” New York Times, March 21, 1999; Michael R. Bloomberg, Bloomberg by Bloomberg (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2001); Ken Kurson, “Emperor Mike,” Money, October 1, 2001; Carol J. Loomis, “Bloomberg’s Money Machine,” Fortune, April 5, 2007; Jon Meacham, “The Revolutionary,” Newsweek, November 3, 2007; Ian Austen, “The New Fight for Financial News,” New York Times, June 23, 2008; Seth Mnookin, “Bloomberg Without Bloomberg,” Vanity Fair, December 2008; Bloomberg website, http://www.bloomberg.com/.
4. CareMore story: Author interviews (August 18, 2010, and October 28, 2010) with CEO Alan Hoops, Dr. Charles Holzner, nurse practitioner Peggy Salazar, Dr. Balu Gadhe, Dr. Ken Kim, Dr. Henry Do, and Dr. Sheldon Zinberg. Other sources: “Delivering Integrated Patient Care for Seniors,” CareMore, November 2008; Gilbertson Milstein, “American Medical Home Runs,” Health Affairs, September/October 2009; Bonnie Darves, “Physicians Who Work with Health Plans Are Testing a Wide Range of Post-Discharge Innovations,” Today’s Hospitalist, February 2010; “The Way Healthcare Should Be Delivered,” CareMore, February 25, 2010; “Palliative Care Extends Life, Study Finds,” New York Times, August 18, 2010; CareMore website, http://www.caremore.com/.
5. One of the chief goals of the Extensivist: Lisa Girion, “Keeping Tabs on Patient Can Cut Costs,” Los Angeles Times, September 20, 2009.
3. BACKSTORY
1. E Ink and Kindle: Author interviews (December 17, 2009) with E Ink CEO Russ Wilcox and E Ink team members Pete Valianatos, Harit Doshi, Joanna Au, Lynne Garone, Karl Amundson, and Jenn Vail. Author interview (February 27, 2010) with Yoshitaka Ukita of Sony. Other sources: Iddo Genuth, “The Future of Electronic Paper,” The Future of Things, October 15, 2007; David Talbot, “E-Paper Comes Alive,” Technology Review, November 20, 2007; Erich Schwartzel, “E Ink Writes a New Chapter,” Boston Globe, September 1, 2008; Maureen Farrell, “Is E Ink Publishing’s Savior?” Forbes.com, September 15, 2008; “Insight Into E Ink,” Printed Electronics World, September 25, 2008; Wade Roush, “Kindling a Revolution: E Ink’s Russ Wilcox on E-Paper, Amazon, and the Future of Publishing,” Xconomy Boston, February 26, 2009; Michael V. Copeland, “The End of Paper?” Fortune, March 3, 2009; Julia Hanna, “E Ink’s Wild Ride,” HBS Alumni Bulletin, September 2009.
2. He summarizes his business strategy this way: Julia Kirby and Thomas A. Stewart, “The Institutional Yes: The HBR Interview—Jeff Bezos,” Harvard Business Review, October 2007.
3. They apply this principle even when: Alan Deutschman, “Inside the Mind of Jeff Bezos,” Fast Company, December 19, 2007.
4. One reviewer wrote in 2007: Nate Anderson, “Down with Paper: A Review of the Sony Reader,” Ars Technica website, http://arstechnica.com/hardware/reviews/2007/11/sony-reader-review.ars/3.
5. Tetra Pak: Author interview (March 1, 2011) with Phil Mazza and Nick Marsella, Byrne Dairy. Author interview (March 14, 2011) with Matthew Cain, president of J. Soif, Inc. Other sources: “Tetra Pak and Chef Creations Whip Up Solution for Creamy Gourmet Specialties,” CulinaryConceptsInc.com, May 2004, http://www.culinaryconceptsinc.com/new_1_popup.htm; Clara Carlsson and Johan Rasmusson, “Control and Synergies in the Outsourced Supply Chain: Recommendations for How to Improve and Organize Tetra Pak’s Supply Chain,” Lund Institute of Technology, Industrial Management and Logistics, Lund University, Lund, Sweden, January 17, 2005; Jon Bonne, “Wine in a Box, One Serving at a Time,” MSNBC, April 19, 2006, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12374800/; Joel Stein, “New Wine in … Uh, Juice Boxes,” Time, August 30, 2007; Finn Hjort Christensen and Torben Vilsgaard, “Churning Out Cold Treats,” Asia Food Journal, August 1, 2008; “The History of an Idea,” Tetra Pak, February 2009, http://www.tetrapak.com/Document%20Bank/About_tetrapak/the_history_of_an%20_idea.pdf; “MJR Media Crafts a Striking Vendange Wine Rendering on Tetra Pak’s Aseptic Prisma?” Package Design, April 2009; Kelly Kass, “Tetra Pak Gives Employees a Programme to LiVE For,” Simply Communicate website, September 17, 2009, http://www.simply-communicate.com/news/tetra-pak-gives-employees-programme-live; “All That Is Fluid Becomes Solid,” Meijling.net, http://meijling.net/fluid_solid.html; “Tetra Pak Expands Support for School Milk Programmes Around the World,” company press release, September 29, 2009; “Turnaround at Tetra Pak Converting Technologies (CT),” Dilipnaidu’s Blog, March 21, 2010; Tetra Pak website, http://www.tetrapak.com/Pages/default.aspx.
6. The first Tetra Pak Classic Aseptic machine outside Europe: “Tetra Pak—Development in Brief,” Tetra Pak, June 2008, http://www.tetrapak.com/Document%20Bank/About_tetrapak/9704en.pdf.
7. Chief among them is the early U.S. adoption: David Landes, The Unbound Prometheus: Technological Change and Industrial Development in Western Europe from 1750 to the Present (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1969), pp. 438–39; Richard S. Tedlow, New and Improved: The Story of Mass Marketing in America (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1990), p. 347.
8. For an example of how Tetra Pak’s unique design: See “Tetra Harmony Together With the Dairy Industry Chain,” Frbiz.com, December 4, 2008.
9. Ulla Holm, the director of Tetra Pak’s Food for Development program: Dean Best, “When CSR and the Need for New Business Meet,” Just-Food website, August 23, 2007, online at http://www.just-food.com/the-just-food-blog/when-csr-and-the-need-for-new-business-meet_id1314.aspx.
10. Talk to Tetra Pak customers and you begin to get a sense: Author interview, op. cit.
11. Hear me, know me, grow me: Janet Shaner and Kamran Kashani, Tetra Pak (B): Hear Me, Know Me, Grow Me: The Customer Satisfaction Initiative (Lausanne, Switzerland: International Institute for Management Development, 2002).
12. As CEO Dennis Jönsson points out: Calle Froste, “Rausings nya stadare” [“Rausing’s New City”], Affars Varlden, March 14, 2006, online at http://www.affarsvarlden.se/hem/nyheter/article271169.ece.
13. One approach has been to seek a foothold: See “History of Soy Products,” Soyfoods Association of North America website, http://www.soyfoods.org/products/history-of-soy-products.
14. Soon thereafter, Kate Murphy: Kate Murphy, “Thinking Outside the Can: A Fresh Look at Food in a Box,” New York Times, March 14, 2004.
15. Marketing director Chris Kenneally describes the mission: Chris Kenneally, “Making an Impact: How Package Design Influences Consumer Choice,” Food Engineering & Ingredients, September 1, 2009, online at http://www.fei-online.com/featured-articles/making-an-impact-how-package-design-influences-consumer-choice/index.html. 128 The story of Tetra Recart is a particularly vivid example: Kevin T. Higgins, “Diced Tomatoes in a Carton? Now, That’s Italian,” Food Engineering, March 1, 2007, online at http://www.foodengineeringmag.com/Articles/Departments_and_Columns/
BNP_GUID_9-5-2006_A_10000000000000059828.
16. Matthew Cain, founder and president of wine importer J. Soif, Inc.: Author interview, op. cit. Also see “Yellow + Blue Make Green: A New Organic Malbec in TetraPak,” Dr. Vino (blog), April 21, 2008, http://www.drvino.com/2008/04/21/yellow-blue-make-green-a-new-organic-malbec-in-tetrapak/.
17. In fact, for a time, Tetra Pak and other companies: Dennis Jönsson and Warren Tyler, “Thinking Out of the Box: Competitors Join Forces to Save an Industry,” Chief Executive, June 1997.
4. TRIGGER
1. Netflix: Author interviews (March 8, 2010, and January 11, 2011) with Steve Swasey of Netflix. Other sources: Jim Cook, “Five Customer Focused Lessons from the Netflix Startup Story,” Allbusiness, July 25, 2006, http://www.allbusiness.co
m/operations/3878629-1.html; “Reference Guide on Our Freedom & Responsibility Culture” [“The Netflix Culture Pack”], slide presentation, Netflix, 2009, http://www.slideshare.net/reed2001/culture-1798664; Christopher Borrelli, “How Netflix Gets Your Movies to Your Mailbox So Fast,” Chicago tribune.com, August 4, 2009; Daniel Roth, “Netflix Inside,” Wired, October 2009; “An Evening with Reed Hastings, in Conversation with Michael Eisner,” video, February 25, 2010, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKba6FWYSz4.
2. Netflix worked on designing a unique, ingenious envelope: See G. Pascal Zachary, “The Evolution of the Netflix Envelope,” Business 2.0, April 21, 2006, http://money.cnn.com/2006/04/20/technology/
business2_netflixgallery/index.htm.
3. The consumer review website Gizmodo: Jason Chen, “Blockbuster Gimps Total Access Plan, Now Only 5 Free Exchanges a Month, $1.99 Each After,” Gizmodo, July 27, 2007, http://gizmodo.com/#!283286/blockbuster-gimps-total-access-plan-now-only-5-free-exchanges-a-month-199-each-after.
4. Nespresso: Author interviews (February 9, 2011) with former Nespresso CEO Henk Kwakman and CEO Richard Girardot. Other sources: Thyra Porter, “Nespresso’s Caffe Battle,” Business and Industry, February 9, 1998; Joyce Miller, Innovation and Renovation: The Nespresso Story (Lausanne, Switzerland: International Institute for Management Development, 2000); Reg Butler, “The Nespresso Route to a Perfect Espresso,” Tea & Coffee Trade Journal, May 20, 2000; Richard Tomlinson, “Can Nestlé Be the Very Best?” Fortune, November 13, 2000; “Planet Nestlé … and the Seven Commandments You Need to Observe to Live There,” Facts, May 12, 2004; Jennifer White, “Something’s Brewing,” Business and Industry, March 21, 2005; Jennifer White, “Pouring It On,” Business and Industry, October 9, 2006; Edouard Tintignac, Nespresso, What Else? Nespresso’s Customer Profile and Behavior (Geneva, Switzerland: IFM University, 2007), http://www.zamaros.net/Nespresso_What_Else.pdf; Rob Sharp, “The Cult of Nespresso,” Independent, October 4, 2007; John Gapper, “Lessons from Nestlé’s Coffee Break,” Financial Times, January 2, 2008; Matthew Saltmarsh, “A Cup of Coffee, Enriched by Lifestyle,” New York Times, February 20, 2009; Viviane Menétrey, “Jean-Paul Gaillard: ‘I Do Not Copy, I Innovate,’ ” Le Matin, March 14, 2010; Christina Passariello, “Nestlé Stakes Its Grounds in a European Coffee War,” Wall Street Journal, April 28, 2010.
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