"For more than two hundred years companies have based their approach to business on supply-side economics, concentrating on creating products and services and then attempting, through marketing, publicity, distribution, and promotion to stimulate a demand for them. While most companies factor in customer feedback, focus groups, and broad-based market research, their basic approach has remained the same. And it is a mistake." - From the cover of Demand and Supply

A groundbreaking business book for the twenty-first century, The New Law of Demand and Supply overturns the traditional supply-side approach to how business is done, showing why a demand-based approach is essential to success in today's economy.

For more than two hundred years companies have based their approach to business on supply-side economics, concentrating on creating products and services and then attempting, through marketing, publicity, distribution, and promotion to stimulate a demand for them. While most companies factor in customer feedback, focus groups, and broad-based market research, their basic approach has remained the same. And it is a mistake.

In The New Law of Demand and Supply, Cambridge Group CEO Rick Kash argues that in order to succeed in today's market, companies must reverse their approach. For a host of reasons, the market, Kash argues, has fundamentally and permanently changed. As a result, companies must first determine what current and emerging demand exists, and only then create products and services to meet that demand. Kash explains how today's most successful companies, from McDonald's to IBM, from EMC to Pepsi-Cola, have thrived thanks to their commitment to Demand Strategy, while businesses that remain locked in a supply-side mentality are doomed to failure.

In the heart of the book, Kash outlines a specific six-step Demand Strategy on how to implement this new approach. By first determining existing demand and then predicting emerging needs of their targeted markets, companies can create unique products that best meet customer needs. Rather than being forced to compete on price, they can trump the competition by competing on value -- offering the options, features, products, and services that better meet an existing demand. As a result, companies often can actually charge more for what they produce and improve their margins. Diving under the hoods of a score of successful Fortune 500 companies, including Gatorade, Capital One, Sara Lee, and Sears, that have made Demand Strategy central to the way they do business, Kash details how these companies have used this strategy to re-create their businesses.

Ten years ago, Reengineering the Corporation brought about a sea change in the way companies were run. Now, The New Law of Demand and Supply redefines the ground rules of today's economy and gives managers the tools they need to outperform the competition and achieve dramatic growth and profits.

Author Rick Kash is the founder and CEO of The Cambridge Group, one of the premier consulting firms in the United States, whose clients include many of the world's largest and most successful businesses, from Merrill Lynch to Gatorade and from Levi's to Abbott Laboratories. Kash serves on a number of community and corporate boards of directors and is a frequent speaker to corporate audiences on Demand Strategy. He lives in Chicago, Illinois.