In 1997, Michael Treacy & Fred Wiersema wrote a book called The Discipline of Market Leaders: Choose Your Customers, Narrow Your Focus, Dominate Your Market. At a wedding in Vermont this past weekend, it was the talk among a number of the entrepreneurs present on the Roth farm.

Scott Soifer, a previous strategy consultant with Accenture in the hospital / healthcare field, made the initial recommendation. He said:

Coming on the heels of the then-revolutionary book "Reengineering the Corpooration" by Hammer and Champy, fellow Index Group partners Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema took business process reengineering to the next level. In their book, "The Discipline of Market Leaders" they start by agreeing that reengineering is key because it demand that you look across the functions of a business - e.g., R&D, Manufacturing, Distribution, Marketing, Sales - and focus them on specific, customer-focused processes, such as "put customer behind the wheel of our new car." But the "Discipline" authors go one step further: They argue that a business should "tune" its processes to achieve one of three disciplines - Operational Excellence (i.e., lowest cost), Product Innovation (i.e., most new, valuable products), or Customer Intimacy (i.e., total solutions that lead to loyalty). Using examples of companies that embody each discipline, Treacy and Wiersema show that while all companies must be competitive in each discipline, they must emphasize one if they are going to tune business processes and differentiate themselves in their customers' eyes.

Initially released into a controversy - the book vaulted to the New York Times best-seller list, but it was found that The Index Group purchased thousands of copies, perhaps to artificially inflate their ranking on the list - the book has ended up enduring. It is still common to use the simple Discipline choices to frame and discuss a company's strategies and operations - something that can't be said for many business books over 10 years old. As history has shown, reengineering is a far more complex undertaking than originally envisioned - old cultures and habits die hard - but the thinking in this book provides a solid strategic foundation for executives to consider when steering their company.

Thank you Scott! And good luck Bill, Leo and all fellow entrepreneurs out there.

Here's to healthy, adventuresome, soulful and focused living!

~ Jennifer King