As businesses across the world struggle hard to remain in business, and as managers seek newer answers to classic problems such as retention of customers and preservation of profitability, Jack Trout’s latest book, In Search of the Obvious, provides a soothingly simple antidote to what he himself states as “today’s marketing mess” — the first principles of managing business successfully haven’t really changed much in the last 100 years and hence the solutions to most of the recent malaises of hitherto successful icons such as General Motors, Starbucks and Kodak are actually fairly obvious ones.
Read in the background of an unprecedented proliferation of literature and esoteric theories on management of businesses, most of which have been based on an overkill of interpreting the impact of phenomena such as increased globalization, advancements in information technology, and the rise of China and other BRIC and some non-BRIC economies to name a few, Jack Trout’s book is refreshingly basic. In fact, many not-so-young MBA and non-MBA managers’ reaction may well be the one quoted by Trout himself from a book titled Obvious Adams: The Story of a Successful Businessman written by one Robert R Updegraff, who stated (in 1916) that “the trouble is, the obvious is apt to be so simple and commonplace that is has no appeal to the imagination. We all like clever ideas and ingenious plans that make good lunch-table talk at the club. There is something about the obvious that is, well, so very obvious.”
Interestingly, Trout has managed to address an amazingly wide spectrum of business disciplines in a single book that include leadership, business strategy, marketing, sales, advertising, market research and branding. Less successfully, he has even tried to provide simplistic solutions to some political quagmires such as Iraq. In sometimes acidic and sometimes didactic tones, Trout provides interesting insights into the common mistakes being committed by managers practising these varied business disciplines and then, equally importantly, provides his solutions in an easy-to-appreciate manner. For instance, he is rightfully derisive of the jargon that has crept in day-to-day management citing oft-abused terminology such as “risk-reward ratio”, “discounted cash flow” (and I may add one or two of my own, eg valuation and value-creation), and recommends thinking in simple, commonsensical and obvious terms. To those companies (and their legions seem to be increasing) that seem to lead their businesses through mountains of market and consumer research, he very aptly states that “a flood of data should never be allowed to wash away your common sense and your own feeling for the market.” He makes light of mega bucks being spent (or wasted) by marketers on ultra-high cost TV commercials and effect-less celebrity endorsements (read “brand ambassadors” in the Indian context). Like millions of customers, Trout is confused by the never ending brand-extensions and self-cannibalizing product variations. He has good examples to support his angst against such obviously unproductive shenanigans of marketers which can be easily related to even by managers operating outside the US.
Having said this, there are a few jarring notes. While he has chosen good examples to make his points, there is too much repetition in highlighting the follies and strategies of a few companies such as General Motors, Coca Cola and BMW. Trout has been one of the most successful authors of business books. He does not need to take potshots at others in the same business, but surprisingly, he is not able to resist the temptation of putting down peers such as Tom Peters (In Search of Excellence), Seth Godin (Purple Cows) and W Chan Kim (Blue Ocean Strategy). His most acidic (and non-sequitur) outburst is reserved for Stephen Covey: Trout runs down his peer by writing that “one of the secrets of the buzzword gurus is to start with a simple, obvious idea and make it complex.” Trout could be accused of the same, mercifully in a small measure — he has used almost 200 pages to communicate an otherwise very simple but powerful premise. Thankfully, he has not meandered much and this makes this latest book from him another pragmatic and timely “must-read”.
The reviewer is Chairman, Technopak Advisors, a leading management consulting firm
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IN SEARCH OF THE OBVIOUS
THE ANTIDOTE FOR TODAY’S MARKETING MESS
Jack Trout
Wiley
224 pages; $27.95
