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: #190446 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

Solid And Straightforward
Everything you ever wanted to know about success in retail in jammed into this one book. This author covers it all, not just by focusing on the brand or location, but real solid ideas on people management, property management, finance and long term strategy. Somehow the author covered both how an upstart company can get it done and how a big and bland organization can get back on the right track. The books main focus is helping a retail business expand into becoming the next Starbucks.

The author starts out by detailing some rather hard facts. Most new business owners jump into the enterprise. They do little planning and as a result over half fail within the first year. The author details that the real issues are not always a lack of cash, but that the entrepreneur had a lack of knowledge of how to avoid mistakes, how to efficiently operate a business, and how to think through business issues. The author believes that you need a holistic approach to conceiving, designing and carrying out a retail business plan. This book gives you real world examples on how to keep your brand fresh and relevant. On top of all this the book is also well written and easy to read. The pages fly by. Overall I thought the book was wonderful. It had a ton of insight and more good ideas then you can possibly use. This is one of those books that you keep handy and keep going back to.

Required reading for those in the retail industry
If you are working in the retail industry this book will be of interest to you. In it the authors detail how to start or buy a retail business as well as how to revive a failing one. This is not just another book on retail theories. Arthur Rubinfeld has worked with the likes of Starbucks, Oakley, Gateway, and many other highly successful retailers. Co-author Collins Hemmingway also co-authored Bill Gates' best selling book Business @ the Speed of Thought.

The authors provide a step-by-step process focusing on all aspects of a successful retail business including branding, location, employees, customers, finance, and business planning. The book is well organized and follows the normal business growth model from planning and implementing your first store through expansion to using innovation as a way to grow beyond the limits of your current product line or customer profile. Of course such a book would not be thorough if it didn't include information on pitfalls to avoid and the authors do not disappoint the reader in this area either. With solid advice in how to be a success in your retail business Built for Growth is a recommended read.

Sound ideas for opening or expanding a business.
Arthur Rubinfeld is the person given the credit for managing the expansion of the Starbucks chain from 100 stores to almost 4,000 worldwide. Therefore, his ideas for how to successfully expand a business should be taken seriously on that basis alone. However, his ideas are so sound that they would be worth considering even if he did not have the track record of success.
One of the primary ideas is the obvious one that location matters. His examination of the value of location deviates from what most people would consider sensible. For some businesses, he points out that having competitors nearby is an asset. For example, if you have a coffeeshop, then having similar shops nearby can be an advantage. Your area can then be known as a place to hang out, so people will travel to that area and the increase in overall traffic will lead to more business for yourself.
Another idea is that the external and internal ambience of your business can make a big difference. The overall customer experience can be substantially altered by simple changes in design, so one must be very careful to do it right. Or if you do it wrong the first time, do not hesitate to correct your error. Rubinfeld puts forward some case studies of how businesses organized the presentation of their goods and the flow of their customers. Some business strategies that appear sound can be counter-productive. For example, having a cashier ask the customer that is checking out if they found everything they were looking for will often have negative consequences. If the customer replies in the negative and there is a long line, there is little the cashier can do to rectify the situation. Any attempt to aid the customer will only annoy the other customers standing in line to pay. By this time, the customer is also probably too frustrated to want to go back and find what they were looking for. Therefore, the time to aid the customer is when they are in the retail area and not in the check out line.
For many, success can be a curse, as the adjustments that need to be made when a business grows too rapidly can be very difficult to manage. There are many cases where a business was initially successful, only to struggle to manage the rapid growth. Most of these businesses are eventually purchased by larger organizations that have experience in managing growth or who are so large that the growth of the small business is tiny relative to their overall organization.
This is an excellent book on how to open a new business as well as how to expand the number of elements in a chain. If there is one thing that must be kept in mind when an additional store is opened, it is that each one is different. It is only by knowing that each one is in some sense a new business that it is possible to expand from 100 to nearly 4,000 stores. A well-known brand can get you started, but it is the quality of the product and the way it is delivered that will keep you going. Rubinfeld understood this and after reading the book, you will as well.