Distinguishers: Lessons from innovative leaders to make your own business a winner

Stephen Grootes is joined by regular book reviewer Ian Mann on The Money Show.

Every week The Money Show interviews the author or reviewer of a new or trending business book.

This week Stephen Grootes talked to regular reviewer Ian Mann, MD of Gateways Business Consultants.

Mann reviewed Distinguishers: Winning Customers at Speed, Scale & Lower Costs.

It's co-authored by well-known South Africa business figure Professor Sandra Vandermerwe, extraordinary professor at GIBS Business School.

Those eponymous 'distinguishers' are described as the people, brands and businesses that win customers 'at speed, scale and lower costs'.

It's the book for you 'if you want to excel in the digital world, whether you're a startup or a mature organisation', writes one reviewer.

"It's an unusual book in the sense that it's almost an encyclopaedia of where the world is moving to. Vandermerwe analyses what she's seeing and she breaks it up into four stages: Shake Up, Shape Up, Speed Up and Scale-up."

"The beauty of this is you can actually understand where it's all going to and get a sense of where you should be positioning yourself... and how you should be looking at your company and what more it can do."

"It covers about 100 different companies, both local and international, and examples from all of them."

"It's a fascinating book and reads very easily."

Ian Mann, MD - Gateways Business Consultants

Description on Amazon:

This business book is different, going beyond digital disruption and business transformation.

The authors introduce Distinguishers – people, brands and businesses that win customers at speed, scale and lower costs. Distinguishers displace mature, stale brands & enterprises – who the authors call Extinguishers.

Distinguishers change consumer behaviour, delivering better outcomes for an expanding customer stakeholder universe. They open up space and create wealth using less resources better, that last longer. They use the technology differently. They know that customers won’t pay for baggage that adds no value or humanity.

It examines over 100 cases from all over the globe, revealing the recipe on how to become a Distinguisher. The formula they offer is practical, potent and progressive:

Shake up – disrupt the status quo: Many examples to see why and how it’s done.
Shape up – frame the emerging future: Existing and emerging global trends, projecting a future world with fascinating new ideas and concepts to help frame the next normal.
Speed up – make things happen faster: Trends, tools, tactics and practices being used and still evolving to do better what they can also do faster.
Scale-up – get and stay ahead: Tools and tactics used to scale up at low cost gets and keeps the enterprise ahead.

Scroll up to the audio player to listen to Mann's review