WIN Mindshare’s Peter Steidl’s book Survive, Exploit, Disrupt

One can watch all the business television channels and read all the pink papers each day. While they tell you that India is going through a slowdown (and large parts of the world through a recession), there is little by way of advice on how to deal with it.
 
Steidl gives us a lot of advice in the first of a proposed series of books from Mindshare Strategy.Applied, Survive, Exploit, Disrupt – Action guidelines for Marketing in a Recession.
 
It’s less of a book than a guide, and I warm to Steidl immediately after I read that he will spend no time on why the recession is upon us. If he did tell the reader the whys and hows of it, I would have certainly lost interest in a matter of seconds. I look forward to the book more because it deals with the recession in a context that is relevant to me.
 
The recession, he says, is our Karma and how we choose to deal with it is our Dharma. There are choices available to all in how to deal with the recession, and each choice could  lead to different outcomes. The fact of the recession, the Karma, though, is common to all.
 
Steidl debunks the popular mantra for outspending competition in times such as these, highlighting that outspending alone (whether in advertising or in R&D, to name two areas), cannot be the reason for increased sales and market-share. “The most successful companies have taken multiple steps and the combined effect of (some of) these steps is likely to have contributed to the outcome, rather than a simple increase in spending in a particular area,” he says.
 
He also highlights the one-size fits all kind of solutions, warning that each recession, each industry sector and each company is different.
 
Since there is no common solution, Steidl’s book attempts to get you to find your own, after first letting you decide whether you are a Survivor (concerned with keeping your company alive), Exploiter (looking for areas to exploit and grow) or Disrupter (one who sees the massive changes as opportunities to review business or marketing concepts and then innovate to win).
 
One needs to spend some time to figure out what, indeed, your company is and then move on to the action guidelines defined for your classification.
 
The action guidelines are reminiscent of text books at B-Schools, but the major difference lies in the continuous references to brands and advertising and marketing, words that do not pop out with such frequency in the average B-School tome.
 
The book, I understand, is not available for sale in India, but costs a whopping AUS$32.95. Not a very friendly price in a recession, is it, Messrs John Wiley and Sons?
 
However, fret not, as Mindshare India has given us 10 copies to give away to readers of Campaign India. How do you win it? Send a mail to [email protected] and tell us why you deserve a copy. Mukta will forward entries to Mindshare India’s R. Gowthaman who will decide on the deserving readers.