Optimizing Growth: Predictive and Profitable Strategies to Understand Demand and Outsmart Your Competitors

Leverage big data and demand into sustainable profitable growth

Optimizing Growth is a handbook for how to succeed in the age of big data. Today’s business environment looks dramatically different than it did even a decade ago, and it continues to evolve at an increasing rate; macroeconomic shifts, consumer trends, technological advances, and changing competitive dynamics are accelerating the pace of change, and businesses are struggling to grow amidst the turbulence. This book provides insightful guidance, real-world success stories and practical tools to achieve growth in this new era, utilizing big data to achieve a deeper understanding of demand, customers, competitors, and opportunity. With disruption around every corner, growth now demands innovative new approaches and an improved capacity to meet customer needs; by gaining a stronger grasp of demand, businesses can elevate performance from “survive” to “thrive.”

This book provides the approaches, analytics, frameworks, and organizational capabilities required to gain competitive advantage, and describes the new mindset required to leverage these tools into sustainable growth.

• Develop a deeper understanding of your business’s growth factors
• Re-sync your thinking to gain greater leverage against disruption
• Delve deeper into demand, and boost fulfillment capabilities
• Capture more growth opportunities using precision analytics frameworks

The one thing that will never change about business is the goal of growth—but the paths to growth change continuously. New opportunities forge new routes to the top, while others become obsolete—does your company know the difference? The ability to differentiate between fads and genuine evolution is more critical than ever before. Optimizing Growth provides deep knowledge of what’s out there, and a clear framework for forging ahead.

About the Authors

JASON GREEN is a managing director with Alvarez & Marsal and has almost 30 years of consulting experience. He is the former CEO of The Cambridge Group and was a principal with the firm for over 20 years. Jason has worked with senior management teams at companies across industries and global markets to create and sustain profitable growth in their businesses. Prior to joining The Cambridge Group, Jason was with McKinsey & Company. He holds an undergraduate degree from Yale University and an MBA from the Kellogg School at Northwestern University.

MARK HENNEMAN has delivered profitable growth for more than two decades as a senior partner with The Cambridge Group, a principal with Booz Allen Hamilton (now Strategy &), and an executive with Motorola, Inc. Mark is the architect of the Demand Business System and collaborates with executive teams to unlock new sources of growth by aligning business activities with the most profitable demand in the marketplace. Mark holds a BA and MA in economics from Northwestern University and an MBA from Dartmouth College.

DIMITAR ANTOV is a current director and former principal at The Cambridge Group and previously led IP development at their Economic Center of Excellence. He is also the managing director at Straight Forward Concepts, a consultancy specializing in sales and marketing strategy activation. In this role, he leads teams that heavily utilize quantitative analysis, machine learning, predictive modeling, CRM database scoring, BI reporting, and data visualization; he also speaks at conferences covering state-of-the-art techniques in data mining and consumer research. Dimitar holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Northwestern University.