Product Description

If there’s one thing that’s consistent in today’s business world, it’s rapid change. So how do you not only stay steady but actually grow—and quickly enough to stay safely ahead of your competitors? Built for Growth delivers specific solutions to create a brand and presence that generates true customer passion, as you lay a solid foundation for long-term success. Author Arthur Rubinfeld was a major driver in Starbucks' unprecedented retail expansion from 100 stores to more than 4000-- and its transformation into one of the world's most recognized brands. Here he draws on his singular expertise to present a proven, holistic approach to conceiving, designing, and executing your business plan: creating exciting concepts, growing them to fruition in local markets, expanding rapidly, and keeping your brand fresh and relevant as it matures. His revolutionary approach to business strategy embodies strong personal values, promotes exceptional creativity, leverages scientific methodology in finance and market analysis, and brings it all together with 'old-time' customer service. Each lesson is clearly distilled with detailed examples from one of the best business writers, Collins Hemingway, co-author with Bill Gates of the #1 bestseller Business at the Speed of Thought. So whether you're seeking to reignite growth or planning your first store, Built for Growth will be utterly indispensable. Foreword by Jeff Brotman, Co-founder and Chairman of Costco, the world's #1 warehouse club.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #301699 in Books
• Published on: 2005-03-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 368 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Ever walk into a Starbucks and wonder: why didn't I think of this? But, honestly, do you really understand the merchandising mechanics of getting a million people to line up for a tall vanilla latte, or of matching up a dark green mug and a Norah Jones CD with a drink order? Rubinfeld, Starbucks's former executive vice president of store development and an advisor to other well-known brands, has given it all quite a bit of thought, and with a writing assist from Hemingway-who also co-authored Bill Gates's book Business @ the Speed of Thought-he painstakingly shares his blueprint for creating financial and cultural retailing success. This is by no means a relaxing corporate history on the rise of a global coffeehouse. It's an intense examination of what goes into conceptualizing a viable retail plan. Whether it involves serving sushi on a conveyor belt or selling sunglasses, he explains how to grow a franchise into a powerful marketing presence. From the initial "ideation" and differentiation of the concept, to choosing the right location for the first store, making the design and merchandising decisions, and attracting venture capital-Rubinfeld walks anyone who wants, or needs, to understand retailing through the thought process at every decision-making opportunity. He does so while continuously drawing examples from the local mall, explaining concepts in terms of what retailers like Oakley, Chico, Potbelly Sandwiches and, of course, Starbucks have done right. He also shares his insights on what others, like the bankrupt candle company Illuminations, did wrong. Rubinfeld sidesteps jargon and avoids cute or memorable phrases... save one: "retail is detail." The phrase aptly summarizes the contents of this book-which in its latter chapters even delves into the minutia of real estate management. This is an intricately detailed game plan for becoming the retailing world's next Starbucks.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Online sales and the big-box stores have knocked down prices for consumer goods, essentially squeezing out the "general retailer"--everybody else. So is it crazy to open a bricks-and-mortar retail store now? Rubinfeld, who helped transform Starbucks into one of the world's most recognized retail brands, and Hemingway, best known as the coauthor with Bill Gates on the number-one best-seller Business @ the Speed of Thought (1999), present solid concepts for keeping a brand fresh and innovative. Their book is based on four fundamental principles of retail strategy but built on a holistic, integrative approach to designing and implementing a retail business plan. All national brands, they tell us, started out as small, family-owned enterprises. Borrowing from the football phrase "go long," they talk about how to plan big and prepare to expand quickly. The specifics they provide--such as merchandising, licensing, and actual site plans--are valuable tools to both existing retailers and start-ups. David Siegfried
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

From Kirkus Reports, February 10, 2005  Volume 2, Issue 1

Built for Growth: Expanding Your Business Around the Corner or Across the Globe
By: Arthur Rubinfeld and Collins Hemingway
Publisher: Wharton School Publishing
Pub Date: March 2005

With a first section titled “Make No Little Plans,” Rubinfeld makes clear his philosophy of viable business expansion. As the man instrumental in taking Starbucks to the nearest corner, he knows from expansion. He also knows about the mainstays of any successful business: functional design, staying on budget, maximizing profits, and customized customer service (each of which is treated in its own section). From this strong foundation, the business person can begin to think big, or “Go Long,” in Rubinfeld’s parlance. The first step is to create a business plan, which the author explicates in detail. After assuring that the economic plan is rock-solid, then make sure that employees will remain motivated. Rubinfeld also has plenty of ideas on how to maximize revenue with a minimum investment: a pizza chain can market its sauce, a crafts store can offer lessons to shoppers for a premium, and so on. Although the sections on real estate and “locationing” are particularly valuable given the author’s experience, nearly every page has a concrete idea, suggestion, or caution. Rubinfeld delivers serious value for money here, and small business owners and managers would do well to take advantage of it.

 

Financial Times

March 28 2005

Book review: Blend that brought the world Starbucks

By Jonathan Birchall

BooksBUILT FOR GROWTH

Expanding your business around the corner or across the globe

By Arthur Rubinfeld and Collins Hemmingway

Wharton School Publishing $25.95

Ever wondered what happened to the glass and metal storage bins full of coffee beans that used to stand around in Starbucks' coffee shops? The design team, apparently, thought they would give customers a subliminal connection to old-world in-store coffee roasters, but without that old-world fire risk.

But the company's operations people never liked the idea. The staff didn't use them. The storage bins became just a store decoration. And then they were slowly phased out.

The hand-made pendant lampshades over the curved wooden platform used to present drinks to the customer, on the other hand, are still around - spotlighting each beverage as if it were something more than, well, just a coffee.

After 10 years leading Starbucks' store development programme, during which time the company expanded from 150 stores to more than 4,000, Arthur Rubinfeld has an eye for that kind of detail.

Trained as an architect, his early career included working as construction manager on a hotel building in Manhattan; he moved on to directing workers on the building site of one of the most successful retail brands in recent business history.

So, appropriately for a man whose made his name in bricks and mortar, or at least in terracotta tile and modular countertops, he has written a very hands-on manual for the would-be entrepreneurial retail brand builder. Strangely, for a book that celebrates original thinking, Wharton Publishing (an imprint of Pearson, owner of the Financial Times) opted for a title that echoes Jim Collins' best selling Built to Last. But this is a far more wildly discursive production, ranging from tips on signing a good lease, to the importance of a unified concept of design, to plain old-fashioned business street smarts.

Trying to get a grip on the economic demographics of a potential location for a new store or restaurant? Check out the clothes hanging in a local dry cleaners (too many shirts is bad news). Or assess the range of ethnic foods available in a local supermarket - greater variety in an up-market supermarket means more adventurous shoppers.

But it is the anecdotes from Starbucks' evolution, and from Rubinfeld's subsequent career as a brand development consultant, that drive the book forward. From store design and location to "high touch" customer service, the brand's expansion provides the paradigm for the value of combining imaginative planning with hard-nosed execution.

The author describes, for instance, how a design team came up with the concept of using design "touchstones" of earth, fire, water and air that were supposed to evoke the development of the coffee bean (growth, roasting, brewing and aroma). Sounds zany, perhaps, but it inspired the palette of colours used and the organic feel of the stores, and in turn shaped other decisions, such as the choice of round, rather than square tables, aimed at creating a less formal mood that made customers more relaxed.

Taken all together, the design concept worked in a way that the company's rivals found impossible to emulate with attempts to mimic any individual element such as the wallpaper, or the lighting.

The process also resulted in a kit-of-parts approach, where 80 per cent of every new store could be fitted with a selection of mass produced standard components, with local designers then given leeway to customise the remaining 20 per cent to meet the conceptual requirement of individuality. The stores in turn were being directed to areas selected by both economic and educational demographics, with the exact location of each initial bridgehead outlet individually chosen for its high-profile impact.

Sometimes the authors' principles seem self-evident, such as seeking staff who are prepared to make eye contact with the customers. But there are also enough failures around the world's shopping zones to suggest there's a pretty big market for instruction, and he tells his stories with the enthusiasm of a man who clearly loves the detail of retail.

You can feel his pain over the foolishness of a cashier at the head of a long check-out line asking customers whether they had found everything they wanted. Or his discomfort over dirty tables in an ice-cream parlour, or chefs cooking out front in an Italian restaurant wearing tatty sneakers and scruffy beards.

This is the nitty-gritty of the competitive retail war being waged across the US, and elsewhere too, in the battle to persuade customers to differentiate. At its heart, he argues, is the struggle between two visions of the retail future - "the death spiral of commoditisation and price wars or the life spiral of creativity, quality and differentiation".

The big brands are increasingly seeking to personalise the impersonal - Wal-Mart already has its greeters at the door whose job is to make customers feel wanted.

For Rubinfeld, the smaller retailer will only survive in what he calls the "New Age of Retail" by defining a defensible lifestyle or speciality niche. And once there, they need to secure a position with "high touch and human engagement". After all, that's how Starbucks persuaded people to spend all that money on what is, well, just a cup of coffee.

 Review in Library Journal, May 1 2005

RUBINFELD, ARTHUR & COLLINS HEMINGWAY. Built for Growth: Expanding Your Business Around the Corner or Across the Globe. Wharton. 2005. c.256p. index. ISBN 0-13-146574-0. $26.95. BUS

Creating and developing a retail brand can be challenging, but as businessman Rubinfeld and coauthor Hemingway maintain, it must be done properly. Rubinfeld knows whereof he speaks, having played a role in Starbucks's retail expansion and worked on Oakley, Gateway, Adidas, and Washington Mutual brand-building campaigns. The authors intend the book to

be "a valuable primer on all aspects of retail: brand, location, people, finance, property management, expansion strategy and long-term thinking." To that end, they advocate a three-step approach-ideate, create, and execute-which, in a nutshell, translates into formulating ideas for a business, creating viable business solutions, and then successfully

following through. While the importance of "location, location, location," high-quality retail design, and optimal customer service may seem obvious, the authors stress that these are in fact vital and often overlooked retail

building blocks. An informative read for both beginners and seasoned retailers, this outstanding book abounds with insightful case studies and expert advice that should enhance the success of any retail brand.

Recommended for public libraries and all business collections.

- Richard Drezen, Washington Post/New York City Bureau

 

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Customer Reviews

Strategy and planning
Learn from a guy who took a coffee retailer from 14 locations to over 3,500 in just a few years and created the momentum for the Starbuck's Brand. One who glamorized a cup of coffee and got America to culturally change and willing to pay over $4.00 for something they previous purchased for a under a $1.00. A huge shift in what is possible. This is a great read for those interested in leadership, strategic thinking and knowing your demographic. Good enough to pass on to a friend or colleague, but better kept as a resource for future projects.

For Big And Small
Rubinfeld has credibility, being the person who commanded the domestic and global expansion of Starbucks. Here, Art Rubinfeld gives very specific advice on not only the "what" but the "how." His well-rounded and varied background has has enabled him to perceive things the way he does and then implement his ideas. He worked as an architect and as a construction manager. Later as Brand Development Consultant for Adidas and Washington Mutual Bank, prior to joining
Starbucks. He took Starbucks From 100 stores to over 4,000
worldwide. The concept of Starbucks is, and has has been unique. Who thought, back in the early 1990s that this new coffee outlet would do what it has done? I didn't.

Rubinfeld presided over and directed the Starbucks corporation's
growth in the 1990s, but he's also served as an independent
consultant for many other companies, so this adds to a more
multi-dimensional level of knowledge and numerous experiences of which to draw from. He specifically sites successes - and failures - with specific and detailed examples. Because of his background he can apply theory and also apply actual practice: from upper-lever strategy to front-line consumer. ( E.g. the 80:20 rule.)

Another concept: location plus people. The emphasis is on the
concept of retail and retail expansion, and the author doesn't stray from this as the foundation. Even of course, down to the store design which (Starbucks contains elements of the natural Earth, and presents the entity of the coffee bean and it's progression to the cup of java you get in-store). The complete retail puzzle involves many pieces. Strongly integrated throughout this book on retail is the concept of brand.

This book is categorized into 4 categories, with each category having a couple, to seven chapters. The Chapters zero-in on such areas as creativity, and customer loyalty; finding the best locations for your brand, management, staff and organization, for the big or small operations; implementation (translation: doing it). How to adapt, and continue to being dynamic and change, to maintain your customers. One useful term is what Rubinfeld calls "ideation." This is the
creation of new ideas. In the changing market place, this is the corner stone separating those who stay, from those who fade. Lots of proven ideas and concepts in this book.

Expert advice on retail chain locationing
Rubinfeld is one of the masters in the retail locationing process. I own about 50 books in English and German on retail management, but none has included the expert advice on the very specialized retail locationing process. At least not compared to Rubinfeld's understanding. Both from a very strategic point-of-view and down to the nitty-gritty details of the legal agreement.

Rubinfeld's experience from Starbuck's rapid expansion in the 90s is very helpful, but he also adds a lot of other interesting retail cases from his work as an independent consultant.

The book's website includes very interesting checklists, but is not as impressive as you would expect based on the references made in the book.

The title's focus on "Expanding your business ... across the globe" is misleading in my opinion. Rubinfeld's advice hardly crosses the Atlantic nor the Pacific Ocean. But if you are interested in his ideas and concepts, you'll soon see that it doesn't matter. The principles remain the same with some adjustments for local responsiveness...

Being a chairman of a small retail chain, I have already put the author's advice into practice in the negotiations for a new retail location. They are easy to follow.

I also highly recommend the book's excellent chapters on retail chain financials. It is one of the first books that clearly distinguish between retail chain earnings and store earnings. Rubinfeld's focus on having a robust proforma economic model is key - also in my experience. And this is irrespective of whether you own all the stores yourself or also include a franchise system.

Peter Leerskov,
MSc in International Business (Marketing & Management) and Graduate Diploma in E-business