Starting out as a support function for sales in the 1990s, marketing has evolved over the past four decades into the driving force behind business strategic planning for the 1990s. The past decade has brought a proliferation of rediscovered management concepts, including the quality movement, corporate culture, customer-orientation, strategic alliances, and network organizations. Now, in the hypercompetitive global economy of the '90s, when the number one priority is to develop customer-focused, market-driven organizations, the crucial next step is to fuse the best of the old and new ideas into one cohesive model for doing business. In Market-Driven Management, Professor Frederick E. Webster of the Amos Tuck School of Business, takes that next big step. Combining cutting-edge research with the latest advances in a wide range of industries around the world, he offers managers a bold new approach to integrating the marketing concept with all phases of corporate strategy, structure, and culture - from R & D and manufacturing, to finance, human resources, and sales. And, most importantly, he shows you exactly how to make it work in your company today! In addition to being a respected business scholar and educator, Frederick Webster is also an extremely successful international business consultant. All of the ideas in this book are based on his decades of research at leading companies worldwide, and they have been tested with thousands of managers in his world-famous seminars and through his consulting practice. Over the course of nine chapters, using dozens of case studies and real-world examples, Professor Webster offers his incisive analysis of what works, what doesn't, and why, and he provides workable solutions that can easily be adapted to virtually any organization. Like all of the books in The Portable MBA Series, Market-Driven Management is dedicated to bringing sharp business people the brightest and best ideas now being taught in top business schools. While this book requires no prior education in marketing, it maintains the level of academic excellence you'd expect to find in an MBA-level course.