The Big Idea

The Big Idea by Robert Jones. Hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780002571999.

Nowadays anyone can copy your product, or even your business model. What they cant copy is your worldview, your attitude, your special way of doing things. So in the future, the war in the marketplace will be a war of ideas. "The Big Idea maps" this new territory and shows how big ideas make great companies. Unlike business models, product ideas or the catchphrases of management gurus, a big idea is emotional. And unlike corporate ideologies, vision or brand, it is shared between customers and employees alike. Customers dont just buy from these companies, they buy into them - they choose them not through economic logic, but through emotional logic. As products and services become more and more similar, emotional logic will become the single most important business driver. The benefits of appealing to it can already been seen: Orange has a much lower turnover of customers than Cellnet and Ikea operates in over 23 countries while MFI only does business in Britain. Based on the authors interviews with CEOs and his experience shaping big ideas at companies such as Andersen Consulting and the National Trust.