After a decade where business looked to downsizing to produce profits, strategic business planning has again become the vehicle of new profitability. Publishers have responded with a multitude of advice, much of which is bland and unhelpful. Now comes The Profit Zone: How Strategic Business Design Will Lead You to Tomorrow's Profits by Adrian Slywotzky and David Morrison with Bob Andelman. Yes, it took three of them to produce the book, but its observations prove that three heads are indeed better than one. The authors contend that "no-profit zones" are everywhere in the economy, and they are growing as more and more products become commodity-like. The zones can take the form of unprofitable products, unprofitable customers, or entire areas of unprofitable business. Businesses, say the authors, have to ask themselves what's important to customers and where the company can make new money, then reinvent themselves to create the next profit zones. While the 12 companies examined in the book are familiar names, previous observers have not dissected the executives' strategies to create lessons that can be taught to anybody. They show how companies predicted no-profit areas and moved into more profitable, often newly developed areas of their businesses. Included are analyses of General Electric, Walt Disney, and the product pyramid of the Swatch, Balmain and Longines watches. The book provides many insights and lessons and gives usable theories about how to win in today's marketplace.

The Profit Zone by Adrian Slywotzky and David Morrison with Bob Andelman. Times Business, 342 pages.
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