by Rebecca Cooper
From Entrepreneur Magazine, May 28 2002
abstracts prepared by Hugh Fisher

Cooper takes a hard, honest look at how successful companies should analyze their markets - and themselves - to ensure success. She focuses on three important steps: analyzing your customer base, analyzing your competition and customers' choices, and understanding the operations and ethics of your own business to see how you might serve your customers better.

The third step is perhaps the most important. While you must understand the place of your company in the market for your particular product or service, Cooper also says that a company's first goal should not be solely to generate a profit: "A company that understands and operates from its ethical core will also produce a sustainable business with satisfied customers, fulfilled employees, industry respect and the potential to do great things." By examining the philosophy behind a well-run company, and by being frank and objective when considering your own quality next to your competitors', you will create a more productive and profitable enterprise; Cooper's common-sense advice may be the first step you take toward growing a successful company

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/0,4621,300281,00.html