The Internet of Things, robo investment advisers, wearable fitness devices, remotehealth care operations...business executives in many industries are currently beinginundated with a confusingly and exhaustingly broad range of technologicaldevelopments that enable new business models.

There is, however, a common thread among all of these developments: firms arefundamentally changing how they connect with their customers. Rather than havingoccasional, episodic interactions - where customers realise they have an unmet needand then look for ways to fill it - firms are striving to be continuously connected totheir customers, providing services and products as the needs arise, even beforecustomers become aware of them.

Firms such as Nike, Disney, Progressive Insurance, McGraw-Hill Higher Education,Medtronic, Hewlett-Packard, and Tesco are developing and competing on connectedstrategies: creating superior customer experiences through connectivity whilesimultaneously driving dramatic improvements in operational efficiencies andreshaping their industries.

Strategy and operations experts Nicolaj Siggelkow and Christian Terwiesch reveal theemergence of connected strategies across a broad array of industries and show howthese strategies work, how they eliminate the trade-off between superior customerexperience and low cost, and how companies can formulate, design, and implementthem. In showing how to create a connected strategy, the authors reveal the fourpathways - respond-to-desire, curated offerings, coaching, and automatic