Review of Transforming Your Go-to-Market Strategy: The Three Disciplines of Channel Management (Hardcover)

I really enjoyed this book by Harvard Business School professor Kash Rangan.The authors advocate a disciplined approach to channel strategy that could generate superior returns in almost any industry.In my experience, most manufacturers neither develop careful channel maps nor do they assign executives senior enough to make significant channel resource commitments.As a result, the returns to channel stewardship should be available for any company willing to invest the time and effort.

A major strength of this book is the detailed examples provided in each chapter.Most business books simply provide very short case studies that always leave me wondering what really happened.Here, Rangan and Bell combine company stories with market data.Some of the examples are a bit dated, but that has the advantage of allowing the authors to describe the actual outcomes.The examples include both retail (B2C) and business-to-business channels, showing the strength of channels thinking. They even provide fresh insights into overdone examples such as Dell and Wal-Mart.

The only shortcoming is an over reliance on box-and-arrow diagrams.These are helpful when showing product and information flows within a channel system, but much less interesting when simply summarizing points made in the text.

I highly recommend this book to anyone with channel management responsibilities.This dense and challenging book will reward careful study.

Product Description
Most distribution channels are outdated and unwieldy, serving neither customers nor channel partners adequately. Despite new technologies that have streamlined many transactions and processes, a general lack of leadership combined with flawed and deeply ingrained structures make distribution channels exceedingly difficult to change.

What companies need, says V. Kasturi Rangan, is a new approach to going to market-"channel stewardship"-that simultaneously addresses customers' best interests and drives profits for all channel partners. In Transforming Your Go-to-Market Strategy, Rangan shows how any member of a distribution channel can adopt this role and learn how to shape an effective, constantly evolving, and mutually beneficial channel strategy.

This book outlines three disciplines that companies must master to navigate the complex distribution environment successfully: map the industry channel, build and edit one's own channel continuously to best serve customers, and align and influence one's channel value chain to ensure that all parties reap appropriate rewards. Rangan also provides guidance on managing multiple channels, integrating the Internet into a channel strategy, and overcoming common barriers that impede transformation.

A fresh approach to designing and managing channels for the long term, this book will help firms expand value for customers, partners, and the bottom line.

About the Author
V. Kasturi Rangan is the Malcolm P. McNair Professor of Marketing at Harvard Business School.

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