February « 2009 « 800 CEO Read

February 18, 2009

Titles Now in Spanish!

Filed under: Advertising,Foreign Titles,General Business,General Management,Global Business,Leadership,Marketing,Personal Development,Safety, Health, and Wellness,Sales — Roy @ 9:24 am

Here are some new titles that are currently from Urano and Roca publishers. If you don’t speak/read Spanish, then perhaps you know someone that does. I’ve linked to the English versions where applicable – check them out as well!

Mate a Sus Vacas Sagradas or Death to All Sacred Cows by David Bernstein, Beau Fraser and Bill Schwab: Written by the owners of advertising agency The Gate Worldwide, this book aims to take the sacred cows of business out to pasture, showing how adages like ‘always trust your research’, ‘success breeds success’ and ‘the customer is always right’, are not only old and tired but may lead a business completely astray.

Planeta Sediento, Recursos Menguantes or Thirsty Planet, Dwindling Resources by Michael T. Klare: Recently, an unprecedented Chinese attempt to acquire the major American energy firm Unocal was blocked by Congress amidst hysterical warnings of a Communist threat. But the political grandstanding missed a larger point: the takeover of a new structure of world power, based not on market forces or on arms and armies but on the possession of vital natural resources.

Mejora esa Actitud or Improving this Attitude by Jerry Minchinton: Each of us, without exception, is born with innate talens and skills that too often are not developed due to be blocked by negative thougths and attitudes. The purpose of this book is to encourage those talents and help open new opportunities and ideas. If you have mental or emotional patterns that stop you from active participation in life, now you know how to change them. To achieve the changes you want, you must look after the seeds of your future care and feeling well.

Happy Reading and/or Referring these Titles!

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Article from Tony Jeary, author of Strategic Acceleration

Filed under: Finance and Economics,Strategy — Tom Ehrenfeld @ 9:18 am

Thanks to Tony Jeary, author of Strategic Acceleration: Succeed at the Speed of Life, for the following article.
Exceeding Expectations: The Key to Value
By Tony Jeary
OK, the economy is ‘bad‘. In spite of that, most of us still have to put food on the table, manage our business and produce a profit! One thing I’ve learned during my life is that even though the economy may go up and down, some things never change. One of the things that never changes is that even in tough times when most of us cut back on spending, nobody can completely stop spending. That means somebody is always buying and somebody is always selling. In tough economic times, you just need to make sure you are one of those doing some selling! My father taught me a great truth when I was growing up: “Give value, do more than expected”. I have lived by that principle and it has been the key to my own success — in good times and bad. Exceeding expectations is the means by which value is created and things get sold! You can exceed expectations in price, quality or service and possibly all three — but you must understand what it really means to exceed expectations before you can actually do it.
The first thing to understand about exceeding expectations is this: The expectations you exceed today become the seed for new opportunities in the future. This may seem to be an obvious fact, but many people fail to connect today’s actions with future opportunities. By that I mean they approach exceeding expectations as a one-off special event rather than a way of life. Exceeding expectations is a foundational attitude and something that you have to pursue daily. Exceeding expectations is a proactive effort that is always looking for a way to express itself. Exceeding expectations is a completely voluntary activity and when it becomes foundational to the way you think it has the power to elevate value and become the seed for new opportunity.
It is rare for anyone to exceed expectations unless they do it on purpose. To exceed expectations on purpose means that you have an understanding of expected performance, and you realize that expected performance is in no way extraordinary. It becomes tougher when you realize that exceeding expectations requires more effort to surpass what might be described as “acceptable performance.” Acceptable performance is in fact mediocrity and mediocrity is usually the norm. The problem is that it’s hard to sell mediocrity!
Understanding how expectations are created is the first step in being able to exceed them in a positive way. Expectations come from our experience. As our experience changes, our expectations change, too. To illustrate how this happens, let me share an example. It involves a tool that has changed the way we all work and communicate: voice mail. Prior to voice mail, when you dialed a phone number, your expectation was to hear a live person answer the phone. When voice mail first appeared, however, that expectation was suddenly shaken by an invitation to leave a personal recorded message. The first time I encountered voice mail, I hung up! It was such a departure from my expectations, I didn’t know how to respond to it.
The original intent and strategy of voice mail was to create a positive tool that would exceed expectations by significantly improving the speed and results of telephone communication. Prior to voice mail’s the expectation of callers was to get caught up in a process that can best be described as message-slip phone tag. The message slips were created by switchboard operators and receptionists who handed the message slips off to the people being called. Typically, the message slips merely reflected the name and number of the caller and the reason for their call was fairly short and cryptic. Message-slip phone tag was the standard of telephone use until the advent of voice mail.
As with most good ideas, voice mail as it was originally intended accomplished a great positive result. It enabled people to leave personal recorded messages for specific people, who could return their calls more efficiently. Voice mail helped synchronize telephone communication to the real-world work environment. The ability to leave content-rich messages allowed people to engage the purpose of their call much faster and reduce the time it took to resolve problems. Prior to voice mail, only one in four calls made through a switchboard connected in real time to the person being called. Getting a message of content through via message slips was a hit-or-miss possibility. Voice mail allowed callers to leave a message directly with the person they needed 100% of the time. Clearly, voice mail exceeded expectations of business callers in a positive way and led the way to superior results, faster.
The voice mail story reveals two things about exceeding expectations. First, voice mail in its real-time use exceeded the expectations of the businesses that purchased voice mail and the customers of those businesses who were able to use voice mail to communicate with the business. The fact that voice mail exceeded expectations of the business and the callers to those businesses created enhanced value for both parties. It was the enhanced value that changed the status quo of using the telephone. Those facts give us a formula for exceeding expectations. If you can do something for your customer that not only exceeds their expectations, but also empowers them to exceed the expectations of their customers you have enhanced your value tremendously.
So, if you are concerned about the economy take heart! There are still plenty of prospects out there who will buy your product or service if you deliver enhanced value. The way to do that is to exceed their expectations! Do something positive in their behalf they do not expect.
(c) 2008 Tony Jeary, author of Strategic Acceleration: Succeed at the Speed of Life
Author
Tony Jeary, author of Strategic Acceleration: Succeed at the Speed of Life, has been and continues to be the coach to the world’s top CEOs and high achievers for more than 20 years. His clients include the Presidents of Wal-Mart, Firestone, Shell, Samsung, New York Life, and the United States Senate, to name only a few.
Learn more about Strategic Acceleration at www.strategicacceleration.com
Visit Tony Jeary at www.tonyjeary.com

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February 17, 2009

POW! Andy's trying out to be a rock bottom remainder.

Filed under: Marketing — Curt Rosengren @ 2:30 pm

Andy’s book is due out at the end of the month. More Andy can be found here.

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Dan Pink interviewed by Oprah

Filed under: Big Ideas,Personal Development — Tom Ehrenfeld @ 12:59 pm

In case you missed it, here is Oprah’s interview with Dan Pink, featured in the December 2008 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine. Oprah interviewed Dan about “how right-brain thinkers are wired for 21st-century success,” a concept from his groundbreaking book A Whole New Mind.
Dan Pink is also the author of Free Agent Nation, The Adventures of Johnny Bunko, and the forthcoming DRIVE: The Surprising Truth About Human Motivation and How It Can Change Your Life (out in December ’09).
Read the entire interview on oprah.com.
Here’s a snippet from the dialogue:
Oprah: Let’s talk about a right-brain ability you think we should all develop.
Daniel: I’d say “design.” Design is the ability to create something that has significance as well as usefulness. Even hospitals are bringing in designers to redo waiting rooms. A young designer in New York re-created the prescription bottle because she noticed that her grandparents were getting their medications confused. She put the medicine’s name in large type at the top instead of the doctor’s name, and Grandpa gets a green band on his medicine bottle and Grandma gets a yellow band so they can see the difference more clearly. That’s an example of how design can literally save lives.
Oprah: How do we begin to create more design in our lives?
Daniel: Carry a notebook and write down examples of good and poor design. After a week, you’ll begin to realize that nearly everything is the product of a design decision. The type of lid you put on the cup of coffee you bought this morning was a design decision. So were the shoes you’re wearing.
Oprah: Before reading your book, I’d always thought of design in terms of fashion. But then I started noticing the plates that I chose for my home, the kinds of kitchen counters, the knobs, the cabinets, all were about the design.
Daniel: I’m not trying to turn everyone into star designers. I’m trying to help people become more literate about design.
(Photo by George Burns. Source: www.oprah.com.)

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February 16, 2009

Article from Stephen M. R. Covey, author of The Speed of Trust

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tom Ehrenfeld @ 1:06 pm

Thanks to Stephen Covey and the folks at FSB Associates for the following article. Mr. Covey will be the keynote speaker at Linkage’s 11th Annual “Best of Organization Development Summit” in Chicago, May 12-14, 2009.
How the Best Leaders Build Trust
By Stephen M. R. Covey
Almost everywhere we turn, trust is on the decline. Trust in our culture at large, in our institutions, and in our companies is significantly lower than a generation ago. Research shows that only 49% of employees trust senior management, and only 28% believe CEOs are a credible source of information. Consider the loss of trust and confidence in the financial markets today. Indeed, “trust makes the world go ’round,” and right now we’re experiencing a crisis of trust. This crisis compels us to ask three questions. First, is there a measurable cost to low trust? Second, is there a tangible benefit to high trust? Third, how can the best leaders build trust in and within their organizations to reap the benefits of high trust?
Most people don’t know how to think about the organizational and societal consequences of low trust because they don’t know how to quantify or measure the costs of such a so-called “soft” factor as trust. For many, trust is intangible, ethereal, unquantifiable. If it remains that way, then people don’t know how to get their arms around it or how to improve it. But the fact is, the costs of low trust are very real, they are quantifiable, and they are staggering.
In 2004, one estimate put the cost of complying with federal rules and regulations alone in the United States — put in place essentially due to lack of trust — at $1.1 trillion, which is more than 10% of the gross domestic product. A recent study conducted by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners estimated that the average American company lost 6% of its annual revenue to some sort of fraudulent activity. Research shows similar effects for the other disguised low-trust taxes as well.
Think about it this way: When trust is low, in a company or in a relationship, it places a hidden “tax” on every transaction: every communication, every interaction, every strategy, every decision is taxed, bringing speed down and sending costs up. My experience is that significant distrust doubles the cost of doing business and triples the time it takes to get things done.

(more…)

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inBubbleWrap – Leadership is an Art

Filed under: 100 Best,InBubbleWrap — dylan @ 1:00 pm

Contrary to last week’s cautionary tale of Enron, we have a book this week that is sure to be uplifting. Heck, it’s got a picture of a soaring bird on the cover. It’s Max De Pree’s Leadership is an Art, a staple of any leader’s literary diet. The incomparable Tom Peters calls the book “Thoughtful, personal, human, persuasive… Give it to a daughter, son, or Fortune 500 chairman. They should bless you for years to come.” Tom’s right, and though I highly doubt that any of you are my son or daughter, and I don’t know if anyone reading this is a Fortune 500 chairman, I’d like to give you a copy of this book anyway. I have 25 available.

Head on over to inBubbleWrap and win yourself one. Then, please, bless me for years to come. Please?

Jack’s take on the book is below.

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Discovering the Soul of Service, an interview with Dr. Leonard Berry

Filed under: 100 Best — Curt Rosengren @ 10:20 am

My purpose in this book is to identify, describe, and illustrate the underlying drivers of sustainable success in service businesses.
– Dr. Leonard Berry

Len Berry is the disciple of service. He has studied, researched and dissected what good service means from the likes of the Mayo Clinic, Charles Schwab, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, and Midwest Express Airlines. The results of which, were printed in his book, Discovering the Soul of Service: The Nine Drivers of Sustainable Business Success.
Today we posted an interview with Jack and Len. This is another in the series of interviews with authors featured in Jack and Todd’s book The 100 Best Business Books of All Time.
You can find the interview here.

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100 Best: Jack interviews Dr. Leonard Berry, author of Discovering the Soul of Service

Filed under: Audio,The 100 Best — Kate @ 9:57 am

You may have heard Len Berry’s name come up in our conversation. He is the disciple of service. He has studied, researched and dissected what good service means from the likes of the Mayo Clinic, Charles Schwab, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, and Midwest Express Airlines. The results of his findings were printed in Dr. Berry’s book, Discovering the Soul of Service: The Nine Drivers of Sustainable Business Success. It’s one of the best guides there is to understanding and delivering good customer service.
This book is one of the books in Jack and Todd’s book The 100 Best Business Books of All Time.

Today’s interview is between Jack and Len Berry. Tune in.

[podcast]http://800ceoread.com/blog/audio/len_berry_discovering_the_soul_of_service_9780684845111.mp3[/podcast]

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February 13, 2009

The 100 Best: Two interviews with the authors of Financial Intelligence

Filed under: 100 Best,Audio — Todd Sattersten @ 11:05 am

“If we are to truly understand business and the effects financial firms have on the world, we must understand the rules and the principles of accounting,” starts Todd with his review in The 100 Best of Financial Intelligence: A Manager’s Guide to Knowing What the Numbers Really Mean.
What’s happening in the market shows just how important understanding the numbers can be. That’s where Karen Berman, Joe Knight and their writing partner, John Case come in. They set out to teach business people financial basics by writing this book.

Karen Berman:
[podcast]http://media.800ceoread.com/view/karen_berman/audio/karen_berman_financial_intelligence_9781591397649.mp3[/podcast]

Joe Knight:
[podcast]http://media.800ceoread.com/view/joe_knight/audio/joe_knight_financial_intelligence_9781591397649.mp3[/podcast]

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Jack Covert Selects – Rebound

Filed under: Jack Covert Selects — 800-CEO-READ @ 11:00 am

Rebound: A Proven Plan for Starting Over After Job Loss by Martha I. Finney, FT Press, 208 pages, $16.99, Paperback, February 2009, ISBN 9780137021147
The current economic climate carries with it certain unpleasant realities that we are now all too well aware of. We have felt it hit especially hard in our little corner of the world, where our sister company is closing its four bookshops, succumbing to both the economic downturn and massive shifts in the publishing industry. Regrettably, for many people, the changes in their employer’s fortunes ends in job loss. Martha I. Finney’s Rebound: A Proven Plan for Starting Over After Job Loss is an invaluable resource that the newly unemployed worker can use to make sense of his or her situation, confront the mixed feelings that come along with it, and understand the new rules of careers so that he or she will be well-equipped to develop a plan of action and find a new job.
Finney, a workplace consultant and expert in employee engagement and leadership communications, offers readers relevant, immediately applicable advice on how to deal with a job loss, from understanding your rights, to protecting your reputation, to determining how to talk about the loss in your next interview, and even to knowing what to tell family and friends. Each chapter ends with a three-part summary: “The best thing you can do,” “The worst thing you can do,” and “The first thing you should do.” Readers are encouraged to take proactive steps in anticipating and managing this difficult change, such as controlling spending, using social networking to find a new job, and guarding against future unemployment.
Finney’s tone is personal and sympathetic. For instance, she writes: “You’ve been laid off. And your career is the accordioned wreckage joining the heaps of thousands of other careers piled up at this very same wall. Your job may have come to an unexpected, abrupt halt. But your heart and mind continue to surge forward at the same rate of speed as before, and you’re in for some internal damage” (4). Her words don’t sugarcoat, but all is not hopeless; in fact, Finney acknowledges that her stories intentionally end on a positive note because “your own laid-off saga can also end on an up note” (xx). It is unfortunate that the times necessitate such a thing, but Rebound is an excellent companion to have during these uncertain, difficult times.

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