Who Says Elephants Can't Dance? sums up Lou Gerstner's historic business achievement, bringing IBM back from the brink of insolvency to lead the computer business once again.Offering a unique case study drawn from decades of experience at some of America's top companies -- McKinsey, American Express, RJR Nabisco -- Gerstner's insights into management and leadership are applicable to any business, at any level. Ranging from strategy to public relations, from finance to organization, Gerstner reveals the lessons of a lifetime running highly successful companies.
Since the end of the Cold War, and especially since September 11, 2001, the United States has faced daunting challenges in the areas of foreign policy and national security. Threatened by failing states, insurgencies, civil wars, and terrorism, the nation has been compelled to re-evaluate its traditional responses to global conflict. In this timely book, John T. Fishel and Max G. Manwaring present a much-needed strategy for conducting unconventional warfare in an increasingly violent world. In the early 1990s, Manwaring introduced a new paradigm for addressing low-intensity conflicts, or conflicts other than major wars. Termed the Manwaring Paradigm or SWORD (Small Wars Operations Research Directorate) model, it has been tested successfully by scholars and practitioners and refined in the wake of new and significant “uncomfortable wars” around the world, most notably the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. Uncomfortable Wars Revisited broadens the definition of the original paradigm and applies it to specific confrontations
The Undiscovered Consumer . . .and the Mistake of Universal Excellence What do customers really want? And how can companies best serve them? Fred Crawford and Ryan Mathews set off on what they describe as an "expedition into the commercial wilderness" to find the answers. What they discovered was a new consumer -- one whom very few companies understand, much less manufacture products for or sell products or services to. These consumers are desperately searching for values, a scarce resource in our rapidly changing and challenging world. And increasingly they are turning to business to reaffirm these values. As one consumer put it: "I can find value everywhere but can't find values anywhere." Crawford and Mathews's initial inquiries eventually grew into a major research study involving more than 10,000 consumers, interviews with executives from scores of leading companies around the world, and dozens of international client engagements. Their conclusion: Most companies priding themselves on how well they "know" their customers aren't really listening to them at all. Consumers are fed up with all the fuss about "world-class performance" and "excellence." What they are aggressively demanding is recognition, respect, trust, fairness, and honesty. Believing that they are still in a position to dictate the terms of commercial engagement, businesses have bought into the myth of excellence -- the clearly false and destructive theory that a company ought to be great at everything it does, that is, all the components of every commercial transaction: price, product, access, experience, and service. This is always a mistake because "the predictable outcome [is] that the company ends up world-class at nothing; not well-differentiated and therefore not thought of by consumers at the moment of need." Instead, Crawford and Mathews suggest that companies engage in Consumer Relevancy, a strategy of dominating in one element of a transaction, differentiating on a second, and being at industry par (i.e., average) on the remaining three. It's not necessary for businesses to equally invest time and money on all five attributes, and their customers don't want them to. Imagine the confusion if Tiffany & Co. started offering deep discounts on diamonds and McDonald's began selling free-range chicken and tofu. The Myth of Excellence provides a blueprint for companies seeking to offer values-based products and services and shows how to realize the commercial opportunities that exist just beyond their current grasp -- opportunities to reduce operating costs, boost bottom-line profitability, and, most important, begin to engage in a meaningful dialogue with customers.
Award-winning speaker and business consultant Joey Coleman teaches audiences and companies all over the world how to turn a one-time purchaser into a lifelong customer. Coleman's theory of building customer loyalty isn't about focusing on marketing or closing the sale: It's about the First 100 Days® after the sale and the interactions the customer experiences. While new customers experience joy, euphoria, and excitement, these feelings quickly shift to fear, doubt, and uncertainty as buyer's remorse sets in. Across all industries, somewhere between 20%-70% of newly acquired customers will stop doing business with a company with the first 100 days of being a new customer because they feel neglected in the early stages of customer onboarding. In Never Lose a Customer Again, Coleman offers a philosophy and methodology for dramatically increasing customer retention and as a result, the bottom line. He identifies eight distinct emotional phases customers go through in the 100 days following a purchase. From an impulse buy at Starbucks to the thoughtful purchase of a first house, all customers have the potential to experience the eight phases of the customer journey. If you can understand and anticipate the customers' emotions, you can apply a myriad of tools and techniques -- in-person, email, phone, mail, video, and presents -- to cement a long and valuable relationship. Coleman's system is presented through research and case studies showing how best-in-class companies create remarkable customer experiences at each step in the customer lifecycle. In the "Acclimate" stage, customers need you to hold their hand and over-explain how to use your product or service. They're often too embarrassed to admit they're confused. Take a cue from Canadian software company PolicyMedical and their challenge of getting non-technical users to undergo a complex installation and implementation process. They turned a series of project spreadsheets and installation manuals into a beautiful puzzle customers could assemble after completing each milestone. In the "Adopt" stage, customers should be welcomed to the highest tier of tribal membership with both public and private recognitions. For instance, Sephora's VIB Rogue member welcome gift provides a metallic membership card (private recognition) and a members-only shade of lipstick (for public display). In the final stage, "Advocate," loyal customers and raving fans are primed to provide powerful referrals. That's how elite entrepreneurial event MastermindTalks continues to sell-out their conference year after year - with zero dollars spent on marketing. By surprising their loyal fans with amazing referral bonuses (an all-expenses paid safari?!) they guarantee their community will keep providing perfect referrals. Drawing on nearly two decades of consulting and keynoting, Coleman provides strategies and systems to increase customer loyalty. Applicable to companies in any industry and of any size (whether measured in employee count, revenue, or total number of customers), implementing his methods regularly leads to an increase in profits of 25-100%. Working with well-known clients like Hyatt Hotels, Zappos, and NASA, as well as mom-and-pop shops and solo entrepreneurs around the world, Coleman's customer retention system has produced incredible results in dozens of industries. His approach to creating remarkable customer experiences requires minimal financial investment and will be fun for owners, employees, and teams to implement. This book is required reading for business owners, CEOs, and managers - as well as sales and marketing teams, account managers, and customer service representatives looking for easy to implement action steps that result in lasting change, increased profits, and lifelong customer retention.
From the author of The Strangest Secret, based on the motivational speech heard by millions We become what we think about. Earl Nightingale was in a lookout tower on the Battleship Arizona at Pearl Harbor and was one of only a few hundred who survived. He felt that he had been spared for some reason and became obsessed with learning why some people were successful and others were not. He knew that millions of people around the world are frightened, confused, and surprised in life—they don't understand the basic law for success, which is this: we become what we think about. Filled with equal parts inspiration and practical advice, this book is for anyone seeking their "true north" and reveals how you should go about discovering what that is in order to achieve meaningful success in life. Not the kind based on wealth, fame, and popularity, but the kind that you feel inside your soul, that intrinsically drives you to be the best version of yourself, each and every day. In The Six-Word Secret to Success, you will find decades of motivation packed into a short volume that you'll want to read over and over again.
More than ten years after his first bestselling book, The E-Myth, changed the lives of hundreds of thousands of small business owners, Michael Gerber椮trepreneur, author, and speaker extraordinaire楩res the next salvo in his highly successful E-Myth Revolution. Drawing on lessons learned from working with more than 15,000 small, medium-sized, and very large organisations, Gerber has discovered the truth behind why management doesn′t work and what to do about it. Unearthing the arbitrary origins of commonly held doctrines such as the omniscience of leader (Emperor) and the most widely embraced myth of all擨e E-Myth Manager offers a fresh, provocative alternative to management as we know it. It explores why every manager must take charge of his own life, reconcile his own personal vision with that of the organisation, and develop an entrepreneurial mind-set to achieve true success.
“Most great people have attained their greatest success just one step BEYOND their greatest failure.” -Napoleon Hill This remarkable business allegory tells a fascinating story in presenting the key principles of Napoleon Hill’s revolutionary bestseller Think and Grow Rich. While you follow a struggling young entrepreneur through a life-changing series of encounters with some of today’s foremost business leaders and inspirational figures, you’ll find encouragement and motivation to believe in yourself, discover your own Personal Success Equation™, and to never give up. You are just three feet from gold! A century ago Napoleon Hill began the research that ultimately resulted in his extraordinary bestseller Think and Grow Rich. Since its publication in 1937, with more than 100 million copies sold worldwide, the book has inspired generations of men and women to turn their dreams into reality with its wise and effective principles of self-motivation, leadership, service, and achievement culled from Hill’s interviews with visionaries of his day. Now, a hundred years later, in Three Feet from Gold, a young entrepreneur whose life is falling apart finds himself retracing Hill’s steps after a serendipitous encounter with a powerful businessman who sees the young man’s potential and sets him on a challenging journey of personal, spiritual, and financial growth. Sharon L. Lechter—co-author of the #1 New York Times best-seller Rich Dad Poor Dad—and Greg S. Reid— a successful author, and in-demand motivational speaker—have given us more than the story of one man’s dogged pursuit of success. They deliver an effective equation for accomplishing goals that calls for combining passion and talent, taking action with the right association, and above all else, having faith that you are on the right path.
In today's highly competitive realm of professional service firms, the quest for individual stardom is at an all-time high. The temptation to rack up the most billable hours and out-perform one's fellow advisers is often irresistible. But it is also shortsighted and terribly counterproductive, according to world-renowned authority and acclaimed author David Maister. In this groundbreaking book, Maister issues a much-needed wake-up call to today's professional service firms. Arguing that a far greater contribution to a firm's success can come from those who find fulfilment in seeing other's succeed rather than those who assume the role of "most valuable player". The author outlines and discusses in detail the nine key "people" issues upon which successfully managed and profitable organisations rely. Supporting his findings with a range of compelling data, Maister demonstrates how and why firms that emphasise the highest standards of employee professionalism are invariably more financially successful than those that don't.