andreweverett360 Book Review, Management

Bottom Line Tales


Bottom Line Tales: 30 Lesser-known Ways to Build Sales, Profits, and Cash Flow
by Alastair Thomson

This book reads like practical advice from a mentor. Alastair Thomson is a board-level executive with experience as a CEO and CFO in a variety of industries. In 30 chapters, he shares his wisdom about such topics as fixing operational bottlenecks, improving customer service, and minimizing bureaucracy. He shares a story of a company that grew revenues rapidly by making unprofitable deals. In a counter example, another company turned down profitable business below an arbitrary minimum order. He observes that companies claiming to be data-driven often make decisions without understanding what the numbers mean. He also shares his views on AI and semi-skimmed milk.

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andreweverett360 Book Review, Marketing

Hillstrom’s Pricing


Hillstrom’s Pricing: A Practical Guide to Understanding and Optimizing Customer Behavior via Prices
by Kevin Hillstrom

This fascinating booklet is about how the mix of price levels a retailer offers in its selection of merchandise affects customer behavior. In his 30-year career in retail, Kevin Hillstrom worked for Nordstrom, Eddie Bauer, and Land’s End as well as 225 clients in his consulting practice.

The author examines sales data by price range, merchandise category, channel, and customer life cycle (new customers vs. repeat customers) over a span of five years. Most pages include a spreadsheet or graph showing data from a hypothetical company with declining sales, along with commentary on how the author analyzes the numbers to figure out what’s going on. The target audience for the booklet appears to be catalog and ecommerce retailers.

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andreweverett360 Book Review, Management

The Tyranny of Metrics


The Tyranny of Metrics
by Jerry Z. Muller

“This book argues that while they are a potentially valuable tool, the virtues of accountability metrics have been oversold, and their costs are often underappreciated.” There are chapters on the dysfunction of “metric fixation” in colleges and universities; schools; medicine; policing; the military; business; and philanthropy. Problems include gaming the system, costs exceeding benefits, and diverting effort from the core mission. A major theme is metrics as a substitute for competent judgment. 

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