ABSTRACT
This chapter is about scene setting. This is not an excuse for you not to read it! Here I make a case that focusing on the process of going to market as a set of value-defi ning, value-creating and value-delivering activities that is more useful and realistic than talking about marketing departments and conventional marketing programmes. I also argue that one of the critical issues in market-led strategic change is about implementation capabilities that cross traditional functions and organizational boundaries. This sets the agenda for management focus and action somewhat differently to the traditional approach, which you may like or you may not. In case you are not convinced by my compelling prose of the need for radical change in how companies go to market, I then attempt to frighten you with some of the huge challenges we face in rethinking the process of going to market. These themes pervade the rest of the book. Finally, I provide a route map which identifi es the rationale and logic for how the book develops and should help anyone who gets lost on the way! The structure of the chapter is explained in Figure 1.1.
