New directions and new strategies for selling

The corporate world is in the midst of a significant shift in business strategy. It's a shift so visible that it seems almost trite to catalog it. The management gurus who chronicle business trends each have their own way to describe it. Michael Hammer of reengineering fame, whose work has generally been associated with the cost side of the business equation, talks of it as a shift to “long‐term growth on the revenue side.” John DeVincentis, leader of McKinsey's Worldwide Sales and Channel Management practice, calls it “a new focus on the top line.” In essence, the established strategic emphasis on bottom‐line efficiency that gave the business world such familiar techniques as downsizing, restructuring, overhead value analysis, and reengineering is being replaced by a new interest in strategies for boosting growth.