Chris Zook > Quotes

“The key to sustained and profitable growth is to find a repeatable formula that utilizes the most powerful and differentiated strengths in your core and applies them to a series of new "adjacent" markets.”
― Chris Zook, Profit from the Core: A Return to Growth in Turbulent Times

“Consider this: on average, new companies that reach Fortune 500 scale today are doing so more than two times faster than just two decades ago, and the fastest—the world record holders for scaling—are exceeding prior records by a wide margin.”
― Chris Zook, The Founder's Mentality: How to Overcome the Predictable Crises of Growth

“Since 1990, we’ve found that the returns to shareholders in public companies where the founder is still involved are three times higher than in other companies”
― Chris Zook, The Founder's Mentality: How to Overcome the Predictable Crises of Growth

“Only after that final question do you finally get to the fundamental capabilities”
― Chris Zook, The Founder's Mentality: How to Overcome the Predictable Crises of Growth

“Nokia sat on top of one of the biggest growth markets the world had ever seen, and on top of one of the biggest piles of cash in history. But instead of thinking like an insurgent and investing in the future, it gave out 40 percent dividends and used its cash to buy back large quantities of its own stock. Within just a few years, Apple, Samsung, and soon Google had seized the smartphone market, and Nokia, once a model of innovation and insurgent-style thinking, was in steep decline. A board member, when interviewed about what happened, pointed to internal factors, not competitive moves, and concluded simply, “We were too slow to act.”6”
― Chris Zook, The Founder's Mentality: How to Overcome the Predictable Crises of Growth

“That is why 85 percent of executives perceive that the key barriers to sustained and profitable growth that they face are on the inside.”
― Chris Zook, The Founder's Mentality: How to Overcome the Predictable Crises of Growth

“Define the Profitable Core In our experience, business definition is one of the most frustrating activities for senior executives. Although business leaders know that they should have a clear answer to the question, “What is our core business?” it is difficult to arrive at a fully satisfying statement. Part of the problem arises from blurring several distinct but related topics that need to be considered one at a time and then integrated in a consistent manner or within a single framework. In working toward a useful business definition, executives need to ask themselves the following questions: What are the boundaries of the business in which I participate, and are those boundaries “natural” economic boundaries defined by customer needs and basic economics? What products, customers, channels, and competitors do these boundaries encompass? What are the core skills and assets needed to compete effectively within that competitive arena? What is my own core business as defined by those customers, products, technologies, and channels through which I can earn a return today and can compete effectively with my current resources? What is the key differentiating factor that makes me unique to my core customers? What are the adjacent areas around my core, and are the definitions of my business and my industry likely to shift, changing the competitive and customer landscape?”
― Chris Zook, Profit from the Core: A Return to Growth in Turbulent Times

“He had a reputation for clearing his desk of every file before leaving every day. Without a haystack, he felt, you can’t lose any needles.”
― Chris Zook, The Founder's Mentality: How to Overcome the Predictable Crises of Growth

“The better performing of your business units are likely to be those operating the furthest below their full potential.”
― Chris Zook, Profit from the Core: A Return to Growth in Turbulent Times

“The odds of success (surviving and reestablishing a profitable trajectory) in redefinition are extremely low, less than one in ten. The exceptions—such as Marvel Entertainment (from comics to movies), IBM (from hardware to services and software), and De Beers (from mining to consumer focus and retail)—were able to rebuild their core model around “hidden assets,” deep strengths in the core business that had not been previously utilized.”
― Chris Zook, Repeatability: Build Enduring Businesses for a World of Constant Change