"The hottest word in business lingo today is
branding
. Koehn has entered the scene to write a book that explains the meaning of this overused term. In this lucidly and entertainingly written book, Koehn traces how six great companies created enduring brands. In each case they thought first not of an ad campaign or catchy sales pitch but of the ingredients that would make their product distinctive. A valuable addition to any business collection."
-Ken Auletta, Author and Communications Columnist,
The New Yorker
"
Brand New
is an unforgettable collective portrait of six entrepreneurs and the great companies they founded. With brilliant insight and vivid prose, Koehn takes the reader inside the minds of her entrepreneurs and analyzes the reasons their companies prospered even as most of their competitors failed. With a memorable mix of old and new, Koehn is able to accomplish that rarest of historical feats: rigorous use of the past to inform the present, and vice versa. Her book is simply an outstanding achievement."
-Thomas K. McCraw, Straus Professor of Business History, Harvard Business School
felicitously blends biography, business history, and conceptual analysis in a book that gives the vogue word
a rich and surprising past. Koehn writes with lively prose and has the historian's eye for illuminating detail. From Wedgwood and Heinz to Estée Lauder and Dell, her entrepreneurs created lasting brands, but always in a context of their own choosing. While giving due credit to their enterprise, Koehn brings out the interplay between vision and the historical forces that make it realizable."
-Jack Beatty, Senior Editor,
Atlantic Monthly
and Author,
Colossus: How the Corporation Changed America
is absolutely essential reading for anyone who has ever aspired to build a successful business. Countless "new new thing" technologies end up not making it to companyhood because their creators fail to appreciate basic lessons of businesses and brands past. In all moments of great economic change, technology matters. But understanding customers and meeting their needs effectively and meaningfully matter just as much-sometimes more. Using a range of compelling historical and modern companies,
lays out a series of critical lessons that no businessperson operating in today's turbocharged environment can afford to ignore."
-Jonathan Bush, Chairman, CEO and Co-Founder, Athenahealth
"Koehn has opened a new field of business history-one that focuses on the demand side rather than the supply side in technologically new industries. She brilliantly records the careers of six entrepreneurs who, by defining customer needs, became leaders in their rapidly growing markets. By combining past and present, she joins her talents as a historian, case writer, and teacher to provide a new perspective on branding."
-Alfred D. Chandler, Jr., Straus Professor of Business History, Emeritus, Harvard Business School
"Today's literature on brand building is replete with simpleminded platitudes and prescriptions generally divorced from any context other than someone's most recent success story. With
, Koehn has successfully described the complex evolution of modern consumer brands. In viewing contemporary business behavior through six of the world's great brand developers, she provides the reader with an interesting set of tales with significant take-home value. A superb read!"
-Len Schlesinger, Executive Vice President, The Limited, Inc.
"In a world where many companies are built to sell,
shows how companies can be built to last-and that is where value is created. Unlike the recent spending frenzy, history shows that brands are built by giving value to customers, suppliers, capital sources, and employees-and by doing so at a margin that preserves the economic engine. The entrepreneurs in this book built enduring best-of-class businesses by creating change
and
living through it. Their stories contribute to an inspiring book."
-Howard Stevenson, Senior Associate Dean and Sarofim-Rock Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School
"Nancy Koehn understands how markets reward quality brand names, which is the essence of honorable capitalism. Indeed, in this field of study she is the quality brand name."
-Ben Wattenberg, Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute and Moderator, PBS's weekly discussion program
Think Tank