The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

In the ever-changing
capitalistic, new-age world we live in, everything changes with maximum speed,
including consumption and buying behaviours and so the market changes with
them. It’s hard to predict if a new idea will find success within the market or
not; as the standards that were once certain are now constantly changing.

In his book Trade-Off,
author Kevin Maney suggests that there are two secret words that can settle
this dilemma: fidelity and convenience. Every purchasing choice we make is dependent
on at least one of these two pillars; if something is of high quality, we might
be willing to suffer a bit of inconvenience to get it. And vice versa; if a
product presents a high level of convenience, we may settle for less quality.

Maney also stresses
that companies that fall in between those two pillars, with medium convenience
and quality, are the ones least expected to survive in such a competitive
market – one that grants the customer a great variety of options to choose
from. He goes on to present examples from our daily lives supporting this
approach; why we choose to watch sports on TV instead of going to playgrounds,
and why some still don’t fully trust online shopping though it’s more convenient
– these are the simple questions that ultimately matter.

Trade-Off  tries to break down the complex
theories of the economic system into simple relatable concepts anyone can
understand, and it succeeds. Yet the subject may only be deemed interesting if
the reader seeks it out specifically; the general points might be engaging for
someone with a general interested in marketing, but the details and graphs might
not be as enticing otherwise.

At the end of the
book, readers might intuitively review their own buying habits, and in doing
so, a lot of said habits would be put into perspective. Trade-Off is
written in a very simple style that anticipates the readers thought process and
addresses it clearly, with detail, in advance. The interesting stories and
examples Maney uses from famous companies that succeeded
or vanished, in relation to the concept of quality and convenience, illustrate the theories perfectly and put them into context.