Taking Care of the People who Matter Most by Sybil Stershic - Book review

Taking Care of the People Who Matter Most

A Guide to Employee-Customer Care

By: Sybil F. Stershic

Published: October 15, 2007
Format: Perfect Paperback, 160 pages
ISBN-10: 1934229040
ISBN-13: 978-1934229040
Publisher: WME Books










"Given the complexity of dealing with rising customer expectations and greater workplace demands, managers are challenged with the need to continually motivate employees to sustain high levels of customer satisfaction", writes internal marketing expert, and Founder and CEO of Quality service marketing, Sybil F. Stershic, in her insightful and landmark book Taking Care of the People Who Matter Most: A Guide to Employee-Customer Care. The author describes the critical importance of employee engagement to nurture and build the crucial employee-customer connection.

Sybil F. Stershic recognizes that companies who focus only on the customer are not achieving the organization's fullest potential. This outward marketing approach is just one piece of the overall marketing puzzle. Missing from the total marketing picture is what the author calls internal marketing within the company itself. The target of internal marketing is the organization's employees. Sybil Stershic guides the way to increasing employee engagement levels, through low cost and effective techniques, that translate directly to increased customer service and customer satisfaction. This inside-out marketing concept, serves as a powerful means to differentiate a company, in today's highly competitive marketplace.



Sybil F. Stershic (photo left) understands that companies face difficult challenges in the current business environment. Instead of the all too frequent approach of cutting back on staff as well as employee engagement efforts, the author suggests a practical and low cost alternative solution. Through the strategies presented in the book, a manager can leverage the marketing and brand building power of the entire organization. The concept of internal marketing builds in the existing strengths of the staff, as well as their existing relationships with customers. Engaged employees are far more likely to present the brand in a positive light, resulting in greater sales and more profitability. Rather than set their sights on only the customers, Sybil Stershic shares the common sense means to engage employees, who then pass that enthusiasm along to the customers. Engaged employees are not only more motivated to excel in their jobs, but will also be more loyal to the company, and more willing to go that extra mile to achieve greater customer satisfaction.

For me, the power of the book is how Sybil F. Stershic presents a very logical and practical approach to strengthening the employee-customer relationship. The author provides a holistic concept that considers both internal marketing and external marketing to exist in a symbiotic relationship. Without the blending of employee engagement with customer service, the result will be much lower customer brand loyalty and reduced profitability. The building of relationships between employees, as a renewing force in the company culture, is reflected outside of the business as well. More engaged employees are not only more loyal to the company, but are also important brand ambassadors to build stronger connections with customers.

Sybil F. Stershic bolsters the theoretical aspect of internal marketing with a step by step manual to integrate the concepts into the company DNA. The book is packed with ready to apply advice, including questionnaires and forms for conducting internal company employee engagement audits. These techniques enable a company to obtain objective analysis of how well employees are really being engaged. The internal audit will uncover where employee engagement strengths and weaknesses are found. Armed with this information, the human resource professionals can work with other managers to develop an effective internal marketing plan. The result of the internal marketing program will be more engaged staff members, who will in turn, pass their enthusiasm along to the their customers.

I highly recommend the seminal internal marketing book Taking Care of the People Who Matter Most: A Guide to Employee-Customer Care by Sybil F. Stershic, to any business people who are serious about having truly engaged employees to strengthen their employee-customer connections. Through the internal marketing principles outlined in this fine book, any company can boost its existing employee engagement levels to new heights.

Read the essential and organizational transforming book Taking Care of the People Who Matter Most: A Guide to Employee-Customer Care by Sybil F. Stershic, and unleash the power of engaged employees as never before. The more engaged workforce will better represent the company's brands, and strengthen ties with customers, creating a powerful employee-customer connection. The hidden power of internal marketing and engaged employees provides a critical competitive advantage in any economy.

Tags: Taking Care of the People Who Matter Most: A Guide to Employee-Customer Care, Sybil F. Stershic, internal marketing, business book reviews.

Roger Connors & Tom Smith: Change the Culture, Change the Game - Author interview

Co-founders of Partners In Leadership, Inc., Roger Connors and Tom Smith, were kind enough to take the time to answer a few questions about their landmark and organization renewing book Change the Culture, Change the Game: The Breakthrough Strategy for Energizing Your Organization and Creating Accountability for Results.

Roger Connors and Tom Smith describe how creating a culture of accountability results in a game-changing transformation of the entire organization.

Thanks to Roger Connors and Tom Smith for their time, and for their very comprehensive and informative responses to the questions. They are greatly appreciated.

What was the background to writing this book Change the Culture, Change the Game: The Breakthrough Strategy for Energizing Your Organization and Creating Accountability for Results?



Roger Connors and Tom Smith: Change the Culture, Change the Game is totally revised and re-written from our previous bestselling book on culture change, Journey to the Emerald City. Over the last decade, we have learned a great deal about how to speed up the culture change process through integrating the use of the key culture management tools that are used in the everyday work of people throughout the organization. The methodology we present is simple, straight-forward, practical and it works.

Managing organizational culture is a leadership competency every management team must master. To not manage culture is to leave the low-hanging fruit of optimizing organizational performance on the table. We have seen our clients achieve remarkable game-changing “wow” kind of results through managing their culture, like a stock price increase from .31/share to $22.35 in just three years.

One of the main focuses of your work is that of accountability. What do you mean by accountability, and why is it so important?


Roger Connors and Tom Smith: How you do accountability defines the working relationships fundamental to every activity that occurs within your organization. Accountability is the guiding principle that defines how we make commitments to one another, how we measure and report our progress, how we interact when things go wrong, how much ownership we take to get things done… It is, in essence, the nerve center that runs throughout every part of the organization, through every working relationship to every member of every team.

In many organizations, accountability is often done in a way that can actually sabotage your ability to get results. When we start working with a client, we often hear people describe accountability as something that happens to them when things go wrong, rather than something they do to themselves to ensure results and success. How you go about creating accountability matters. Often, it leads to what we call the Accountability Paradox: the harder you try to create accountability, the less accountable people actual become. This happens because people are reacting to the manner in which accountability is approached.

Accountability, done effectively, is a skill you can develop just like any other skill, and while it is not a difficult skill to acquire and hone, it does require a high degree of conscious effort. When you do it right, you’ll also find it the fastest way to improve morale. A Conference Board survey of American workers revealed that over half the American workforce does not feel engaged at all. The results of this survey reported job satisfaction at 45 percent, its lowest level since 1987. In addition, 64 percent of employees under age twenty-five express dissatisfaction with their jobs. Getting people engaged in their work so that they invest in and take personal ownership of the results of the organization can turn these numbers around. That’s what accountability is all about. And that’s why getting people to take personal ownership is the most important cultural shift an organization intent on culture change can make.



Roger Connors (photo left)

Is it possible to create a culture of accountability as a strategy for strengthening an organization?


Roger Connors and Tom Smith: We like to say, “Either you will manage your culture, or it will manage you.” Every company has a culture that is working full time sending cues to people on how to think and act in that organization. Culture never takes a holiday or vacation; never calls in sick. It’s always working, whether you know it or not, whether you like it or not. The question isn’t, do we have a culture? The question is, does our current culture supercharge our efforts to achieve the results we are held accountable to get? Is our culture helping or hindering? Culture produces results. The results you currently get are produced by your current culture. A Culture of Accountability is a workplace culture where people are accountable to think and act in the manner necessary to achieve desired results. If you need to get different results, then you probably need a shift in your culture.

You build your culture around the results you need to achieve. If a key result is growth, then there are certain workplace beliefs you need people to hold about what is important, how to get work done, how to resolve conflicting priorities, etc… Those beliefs are cultural beliefs and should be well defined and fostered. Unfortunately, we often see culture as the last place managers and leaders go to work, usually when everything else is not working. It ought to be the first place we focus on. A recent 50-store pilot of the culture change effort with a large retail client demonstrated an 8-point gain in same-store sales in just 30 days, where 10 other initiatives had failed. Why? You can change the structure of the organization, you can change the processes people use, you can even change the people, but if you don’t change the way they think, then you probably will fall short of the true ownership and individual initiative that is necessary to achieve results.

We think the reason that Change the Culture, Change the Game hit all the bestselling lists as the No. 1 leadership book in the last few weeks (New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, etc…) is that it strikes a chord with leaders. They know their culture is not working for them and they want to fix it. We think they also fundamentally believe that they can fix it with the right approach. They are dead-on correct.

Your work describes the methodology you call the Results Pyramid. Briefly, What is this strategy all about?



Roger Connors and Tom Smith: The Results Pyramid presents how the three essential components of organizational culture—experiences, beliefs, and actions—work in harmony with each other to achieve results. They pyramid not only tells you why the culture is the way it is, but also how you can accelerate a shift in that culture to create competitive advantage. At the top of the pyramid are results. Those results come from the Actions people take, the next level down on the pyramid. Those actions stem from the beliefs people hold. Those beliefs are born from the experiences they have, both in and out of the organization or team. These experiences form the base of the pyramid. In sum: experiences foster beliefs, beliefs influence actions, and actions produce results. The experiences, beliefs, and actions of the people in your organization constitute your culture, and as the Results Pyramid demonstrates, your culture produces your results.

Most leaders work with just the top of the pyramid and focus on the actions they need people to take. This tends to create a tell-me-what-to-do, command-control style of accountability that people resist and, ultimately, resent. How many times have you personally been involved in a restructure that did not work? You can change where people sit, but that does not necessarily change the way they think. Learning to work with the bottom of the pyramid, the beliefs and experiences people have, helps leaders speed up culture change. It also helps leaders create lasting change in a way that has positive impact on morale. You can either tell people what to do or you can help people understand how to think about getting results. The latter approach engages people at every level in the process of asking, “what else can I do?” to overcome obstacles and achieve results.



Tom Smith (photo left)

You begin the process by defining the desired results first. While this would seem obvious to many people, why do so few organizations do that?



Roger Connors and Tom Smith: In our research, surprisingly 9 out of 10 leadership teams cannot give a consistently aligned answer between team members as to the top three key results they need to achieve. They always have a general idea, but are unable to provide the details. Accountability begins by clearly defining results. You build a Culture of Accountability around the results you need to achieve. A clear definition of results, one that everyone throughout the entire organization can understand and repeat, are essential to getting your accountability system to work.

In a leadership workshop, we asked the European management team of a large pharmaceutical company we worked what the top result was that they needed to achieve. They told us it was “BUC,” which stood for Business Unit Contribution. We asked the team, “what’s the number?” Everyone went silent. No one wanted to say. We asked them to write down the number on a piece of paper and pass it to the CFO in the back of the room. There was a $300 million dollar variance between the high number and the low number.

Why don’t leaders get clear about results? We think leaders make a lot of assumptions that people already know, don’t need to know or will come to know at some point what the results should be. They tend to focus on actions, as we said before, and what people need to do, as opposed to focusing on how people should think. Accountability begins by clearly defining results and that always yields alignment, engagement and achievement.

You talk about the leadership competency of working with the bottom of the pyramid, how do you do that?

Roger Connors and Tom Smith: The real power of the Results Pyramid is when leaders learn to work with the bottom of the pyramid. That is, establishing the beliefs you need people to hold so that they think and act in a way that produces the new results you want to achieve and then providing the needed experiences that will foster those beliefs.

Leaders do this by first developing a set of Cultural Beliefs. A Cultural Belief is a needed belief that is prioritized as being essential to how people need to think and act in the desired culture in order to achieve the desired results. For example, a Cultural Belief would sound like this: “Lets Talk: I seek, listen, and share to foster an open and honest exchange.” These Cultural Beliefs become a roadmap for everyone in the organization and act as a guide to the shifts that need to occur in the culture and will be the basis of the leaders efforts to work at the bottom of the pyramid. Now, the focus becomes creating experiences for people that foster the formation and creation of these beliefs in the organization.

You describe three culture management tools. What are they, and why are these so important?



Roger Connors and Tom Smith: We know leaders who have grown quite frustrated over their inability to change the cultures of their organizations. That disappointment stems directly from working with just the top of the pyramid. It is compounded by the fact that they lack the essential tools for working with the bottom of the pyramid and creating the desired change. Without the proper tools, leaders will struggle to accomplish meaningful change. With them, leaders speed up the change process and promote results in game-changing ways. The culture management tools help to shape the right experiences that foster the adoption of the desired Cultural Beliefs. These tools are Focused Feedback, Focused Storytelling and Focused Recognition.

Focused Feedback is feedback focused around the Cultural Beliefs. It is a candid exchange of where you see the person demonstrating the Cultural Belief and where you feel they could do it better. And then they do the same for you. This has to happen everywhere with everyone in the organization. Focused Storytelling is looking for examples of people living the Cultural Beliefs and then telling that story. In every meeting, the first few minutes is devoted to telling stories about where we see people living the Cultural Beliefs. The third tool is Focused Recognition. This is where people, regardless of department, job rank or anything else, publicly recognize others for living the beliefs. One client instituted what they called, “Caught in the ACT,” (The acronym “ACT” stood for the Alaris Cultural Transition), on their manufacturing floor. They took Polaroid’s of people and wrote the Cultural Belief they demonstrated on the bottom of the picture and the story on the reverse side. They taped them on a wall in the plant. In their morning safety meetings, they would tell the stories. These tools, properly applied, accelerate culture change.

With culture change in mind, how can the entire process be accelerated to prevent inertia and the previous culture reasserting itself?



Roger Connors and Tom Smith: Accountability is key to acceleration. When people externalize the need for change, they focus on what everyone else should be doing differently. However, when they internalize the change process, they focus on what they personally can do differently. This improves morale during the change process because people are focused on what they can do. It’s also more effective, as you are engaging the hearts and minds of people everywhere in the organization. Introducing a correct understanding of what it means to be accountable helps to lay this foundation where people are asking, “what else can I do?” to live the Cultural Beliefs and demonstrate that way of thinking and acting in my own daily work. Getting people to buy-in, invest and engage in the cultural transition is key to sustainability. They live it because they want to live it, because they believe it is essential to succeeding, both personally and for the entire organization.

With that foundation, your focus has to be on integration. Integration means integrate. That is, you have to build a focus on the Cultural Beliefs and the use of the Culture Management Tools into everything you currently do. Existing meetings, one-on-ones, performance review systems, etc… all of these activities and processes provide the opportunity to reinforce the culture. More importantly, they are things we are already doing. If the culture change effort becomes an “extra” initiative, it will likely fail. It needs to be integrated into the things we are already doing on a daily basis. Of course, we outline all of this in our book, Change the Culture, Change the Game.

Whether managers and leaders realize it or not, they are creating experiences every day that help shape their organizational culture. From promoting someone or implementing new policies to interacting in meetings or reacting to feedback, these experiences foster beliefs about “how we do things around here,” and those beliefs, in turn, drive the actions people take. Collectively, their actions, with few exceptions, produce their results. It’s really that simple, and it happens every minute of every day. Whether your organization is a robust and healthy one or one that needs to change, learning how to make sure the culture is working for you will result in creating greater competitive advantage and will help you ensure that you achieve your desired results.

Change the Culture, Change the Game®; Cultural Beliefs®; Culture of Accountability®; Focused Feedback®; and Results Pyramid® are trademarks of Partners In Leadership.

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My book review of Change the Culture, Change the Game: The Breakthrough Strategy for Energizing Your Organization and Creating Accountability for Results by Roger Connors and Tom Smith.

Tags: Change the Culture, Change the Game: The Breakthrough Strategy for Energizing Your Organization and Creating Accountability for Results, Roger Connors, Tom Smith, change management, business author interviews.

Change the Culture, Change the Game by Roger Connors & Tom Smith - Book review

Change the Culture, Change the Game

The Breakthrough Strategy for Energizing Your Organization and Creating Accountability for Results

By: Roger Connors, Tom Smith

Published: January 4, 2011
Format: Hardcover, 240 pages
ISBN-10: 1591843618
ISBN-13: 978-1591843610
Publisher: Portfolio/Penguin











"We begin by introducing our core belief: Either you will manage your culture, or it will manage you", write co-founders of Partners In Leadership, Inc., Roger Connors and Tom Smith, in their brilliant and organization renewing book Change the Culture, Change the Game: The Breakthrough Strategy for Energizing Your Organization and Creating Accountability for Results. The authors describe how creating a culture of accountability results in a game-changing transformation of the entire organization.



Roger Connors (photo left) and Tom Smith recognize that the greatest assets in any organization are its people. While every company makes that same statement regarding its employees, not every organization capitalizes fully on their abilities. The authors define a corporate culture as the way that people think and act. That organizational culture, can be a positive one that works for the organization, or it can be a negative one that stifles and works against the company. To create a culture that energizes the organization, the authors present the concept of accountability. Instead of the usual application of of accountability, as a principle that that is only used when there is a problem, the authors share how accountability can become a positive force within the company. To create an accountable organization, everyone must embrace the principle. Without that commitment to accountability, there can be no effective or sustainable change process.



Tom Smith (photo left) and Roger Connors understand that without a process for creating an accountable organization, no meaningful change will take place. To achieve that goal of an accountable culture, the authors provide a step by step systematic approach to generating change. The process is based on what the authors call the Results Pyramid®. It presents in graphic form how experiences, beliefs, and actions form a holistic balance to achieve positive results. The entire process is built these important core principles:

* Leaders must create the needed culture

* The culture produces the results

* The most effective culture is a Culture of Accountability®

* The Results Pyramid® will accelerate the transition to a Culture of Accountability®

For me, the power of the book is how Roger Connors and Tom Smith provide both a strong theoretical background for the need to create a Culture of Accountability, and a thorough and effective system for generating the necessary cultural change. The theory and practical applications of the accountability principle are supported and illustrated through examples in the real world. The authors offer an essential modification to the usual idea of accountability as punishment for failure. Instead, the concept of accountability is transformed from a debilitating drag on the organization, to a positive and guiding principle that facilitates change within the culture. That resulting cultural change involves the people within the company taking ownership of their own actions, and becoming accountable to themselves, to other employees, and to the organization as a whole.

With the necessary change in the cultural belief system in place, the change process will move toward the desired goals seamlessly, and with much less resistance and fewer obstacles. Unlike many books on cultural change, this book offers both the reasons for change, and the means to make that desired change a reality. The authors point to the critical importance of changing internal cultural beliefs and actions as essential to enabling change to occur across the entire company. With the idea of accountability fully embraced and internalized, the very unique and useful Results Pyramid® process can then guide the change both naturally and effectively.

I highly recommend the landmark and organizational energizing book Change the Culture, Change the Game: The Breakthrough Strategy for Energizing Your Organization and Creating Accountability for Results by Roger Connors and Tom Smith, to anyone who is serious about effecting positive and lasting change to an organizational culture. As the authors emphasize in the book, the need to create a company culture based on accountability is not just another management fad, but a crucial element of building a competitive and successful organization.

Read the essential and approachable book Change the Culture, Change the Game: The Breakthrough Strategy for Energizing Your Organization and Creating Accountability for Results by Roger Connors and Tom Smith, and transform your organization from one where a negative culture reigns supreme, to an organization based on accountability. The resulting new company culture will be an unstoppable force in your industry.

Tags: Change the Culture, Change the Game: The Breakthrough Strategy for Energizing Your Organization and Creating Accountability for Results, Roger Connors, Tom Smith, change management, business book reviews.

Wayne Rogers: Make Your Own Rules - Author interview

Actor, former star of the classic TV series M*A*S*H and successful entrepreneur Wayne Rogers, and co-author with journalist and bestselling author Josh Young, took the time to answer a few questions about their inspirational and delightfully unconventional business book Make Your Own Rules: A Renegade Guide to Unconventional Success.

Wayne Rogers describes how to operate a successful business within an economic system that they consider stacked against the entrepreneur, through a combination of creative thinking, realistic plans, sound business practices, and confidence that one's own abilities will find success.

Thanks to Wayne Rogers for his time, and for his comprehensive and highly informative responses to the questions. They are greatly appreciated.




While you are widely known for your work as an actor, including your role as Trapper John on the now-classic TV series M*A*S*H, you have had a rewarding career beyond show business. Would you share a few highlights?

Wayne Rogers: Over the past four decades, I have been a founding shareholder in six banks, produced movies and Broadway plays, managed the finances and investments of others, and served on the boards of several companies. I have developed residential, commercial, and office real estate in five states. I have co-owned a convenience store chain, a film distribution company, a vineyard, a restaurant, and a hotel or two.

I have helped turn around numerous distressed businesses, notably Kleinfeld, the largest bridal retailer in the country. Somehow, I even ended up owning a minority interest in a Major League baseball team. And, yes, I have also acted in numerous films, television shows and series, and stage plays. This will surprise you, but the common thread to the various businesses in which I have been involved is that I had never previously been in them.

So that explains the title of your debut as a business author, Make Your Own Rules: A Renegade Guide to Unconventional Success?

Wayne Rogers: Yes, and as I admit in my book, I have never read a business book; therefore, I did not write a conventional business book.

What can people who are aiming to launch or grow a successful business hope to learn from your defiantly original business book?

Wayne Rogers: I have no step-by-step plan for success or surefire tips to becoming a millionaire. Instead, I tell anyone who is interested in exploring ideas and willing to take risks what has worked for me in business over the past four decades, what has not worked, and why. It may offer some useful lessons and provoke some readers, positively I hope.



Wayne Rogers (photo left)

Would you explain how lack of previous experience has worked for you in business?

Wayne Rogers: Most people would think that the lack of previous experience in a particular business would be a sure formula for failure. However, because I didn’t have a specific educational background—for example, a degree in medicine or law—I was not predisposed to make career choices based on that criterion. In fact, it was an advantage in that I had no rules to follow, no pre-made decisions, no ‘books’ to tell me how to find success. This allowed me to take a creative approach rather than an administrative one.

I have also tried to avoid being part of the system, which is not the same thing as trying to change it. You don’t have to be ‘against the system’ to succeed; you just don’t want the system to systematize you, as it were. The goal is to maintain your individuality while functioning within the system.

In the book, you make a compelling argument for recognizing creativity as a major player in the business world. Why?

Wayne Rogers: My contention is that the business world and the artistic world are not opposites. When they are both functioning at their best, they draw on the same mental process—it is all creative. Business can be like art, and it should be just as creative. So, I make a case for the entrepreneur, the small businessperson—the one who takes a risk to initiate an enterprise, the one who provides much of the economic impetus in the United States, the one who creates most of the jobs in the workforce today. The creative process as applied to business must be unencumbered, and you should approach it by asking not only ‘why?’ but also, and more important, ‘why not?’ This leads to solutions that are not obvious or burdened by policy, tradition, and corporate regulation.

Almost every business depends on at least some established practices and standards. Does being creative in business require questioning, rethinking, and overhauling everything?

Wayne Rogers: In business, creativity is typically exemplified by someone who challenges convention and finds a new way to do something, as opposed to someone who tries to create something from nothing. The creative process begins with research—‘homework,’ if you will. You must start with all the available research, some good, some bad, but gather it all, try to understand it, make your choices, and test them. I put this kind of creativity into practice at a vineyard I developed, Rancho Tierra Rejada.

One of the first things I learned in the wine business was that conventions, like installing a frost protection system, are sometimes necessary, and, to improve on them, you must understand them. In business, being creative requires imagination plus reason. In order to get anything done, you have to maintain a semblance of reality. Often, people will look at a business and think, ‘If I ran this place, I would…’ and imagine ways to improve that business. But you need to find the limit where creativity becomes fantasy and respect that limit.

In your book, you credit show business for your impressive success as a business entrepreneur. Would you explain why?

Wayne Rogers: Everyone must start somewhere, and having a passion for a field is critical to finding your own voice in business. Acting wasn’t my life’s plan when I started out, but it fulfilled a lot of my needs to be creative. It also became the steppingstone for everything else that I have done. Above all, getting into acting was my first major lesson in making my own rules in order to succeed. I started my career as a theater actor in New York, or, rather, as an actor looking for work in the theater.

I worked a variety of odd jobs to pay the rent while searching for acting roles. I waited tables at Schraff’s Restaurant on 42nd Street; I even drove a cab. Every theater actor goes through that, as do others pursuing their business dreams. You do what you have to do to earn enough to pay the rent and eat until you can bring your idea to fruition. My show business experience also taught me much about managing people and gave me the confidence to bet on myself. People often ask me why I continued to act once I had other business interests. The simple answer is that I am fascinated by it. Like any out-of-work actor, if someone offered me a terrific part today, I would take it in a heartbeat.

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My book review of Make Your Own Rules: A Renegade Guide to Unconventional Success by Wayne Rogers with Josh Young

Tags: Make Your Own Rules: A Renegade Guide to Unconventional Success, Wayne Rogers, Josh Young, business philosophy, business book reviews.

Make Your Own Rules by Wayne Rogers with Josh Young - Book review

Make Your Own Rules

A Renegade Guide to Unconventional Success

By: Wayne Rogers with Josh Young

Published: February 8, 2011
Format: Hardcover, 224 pages
ISBN-10: 0814416578
ISBN-13: 978-0814416570
Publisher: AMACOM













"The fundamental structure of the economy has been so radically altered over the past thirty years that everything has been turned upside down and inside out for the entrepreneur, the small business owner, and those entering the workforce", write actor, former star of the classic TV series M*A*S*H and successful entrepreneur Wayne Rogers, and journalist and bestselling author Josh Young, in their inspirational and delightfully unconventional business book Make Your Own Rules: A Renegade Guide to Unconventional Success. The authors describe how to operate a successful business within an economic system that they consider stacked against the entrepreneur, through a combination of creative thinking, realistic plans, sound business practices, and confidence that one's own abilities will find success.



Wayne Rogers (photo left) writes that he has never read a conventional business book, and along with co-author Josh Young, he shares his personal experiences in the business world. Wayne Rogers understands that what worked for him might not work for all aspiring entrepreneurs, but that is one of the points of the book. Every business person must choose and create their own special path to creating and building a strong business venture. In place of the usual step by step process for developing a company, the authors share what worked for Wayne Rogers, and how his experiences can inspire others to take the entrepreneurial plunge. For Wayne Rogers, all business start-ups contain an element of risk, which he embraced as part of the entrepreneurial ideal. He describes how he managed risk, and avoided the ever present danger of being too reckless, to achieve his business goals. Since the authors consider the economic system to be difficult to navigate, they offer ideas about how Wayne Rogers leveled the playing field through learning how both the written and unwritten rules and regulations affected his companies.



Josh Young (photo left) and Wayne Rogers recognize the value of operating a business with one's own personal style and creative thinking. The authors challenge the entrepreneur to have self confidence and the motivation to succeed, through facing the status quo head on, and accepting that the rules and regulations exist. At the same time, Wayne Rogers cautions that while creative thinking can transform an idea into a prosperous company, it's critical to not cross the dangerous boundary that separates creativity from unrealistic fantasy. At all times, an entrepreneur must keep the real world and the real economy in mind. Since all business people need to work with others, whether as employers or with advisers, it's important to work with people who can be trusted completely. While the advice is often given in many business books, Wayne Rogers also brings a unique perspective to importance of talking with customers and addressing their real needs and desires.

For me, the power of the book is how Wayne Rogers and co-author Josh Young combine business philosophy with a lively account of how the author achieved entrepreneurial success. The authors combine Wayne Rogers' unique perspective on achieving entrepreneurial success through working within a difficult economic system through challenging the status quo and ignoring conventional wisdom. Along with the philosophical aspects of the book, there are two other intriguing parts to the book. The book serves as an account of how Wayne Rogers developed his own businesses, and used the creative thinking process that came naturally to his as a result of his well known acting career. At the same time, his life in the entertainment industry provided the insights that a person must always do their homework, understand the landscape, and to not make reckless decisions.

The other fascinating area covered by the book, setting it apart from other business books, is how Wayne Rogers shares stories and anecdotes, from the movie and television industries, that have a direct relationship to the business concepts that made Wayne Rogers successful in entertainment and in business. It is a rare treat to discover a book about business that entwines the Hollywood celebrity world with lessons for entrepreneurs. Of course, the crucial lesson shared by Wayne Rogers is for business people to follow their own dreams and create their own destiny. The author shared how he overcame the odds and developed many prosperous companies. Wayne Rogers encourages and exhorts other people do make their own rules, and build their own successful entrepreneurial future.

I highly recommend the entertaining and motivational book Make Your Own Rules: A Renegade Guide to Unconventional Success by Wayne Rogers with Josh Young, to any aspiring or current entrepreneurs seeking an inspirational business success story. As Wayne Rogers points out, he never read any business books. That unconventional approach to entrepreneurship and life, matches the his philosophy, and accounts for much of his success.

Read the fascinating and unconventional business book Make Your Own Rules: A Renegade Guide to Unconventional Success by Wayne Rogers with Josh Young, and discover how defying convention and setting yourself apart from the crowd can lead to both entrepreneurial and career success. Making your own rules is about doing things your way.

Tags: Make Your Own Rules: A Renegade Guide to Unconventional Success, Wayne Rogers, Josh Young, business philosophy, business book reviews.

Richard Schroder: From a Good Sales Call to a Great Sales Call - Author interview

Recognized thought leader in win-loss analysis and sales training, and President of Anova Consulting Group, a leading market research, sales training and consulting firm, Richard M. Schroder, was kind enough to take the time to answer a few questions about his opportunity creating and game changing book From a Good Sales Call to a Great Sales Call: Close More by Doing What You Do Best.

Richard M. Schroder describes how to develop and utilize an effective debriefing process to provide detailed analysis about why sales were really closed or lost.

Thanks to Richard M. Schroder for his time, and for his very comprehensive and thoughtful responses to the questions. They are greatly appreciated.

What was the background to writing this book From a Good Sales Call to a Great Sales Call: Close More by Doing What You Do Best?

Richard M. Schroder: My company has been performing institutional Win / Loss Analysis programs for large companies for over 13 years. Typically we are hired by a head of sales to conduct independent in-depth phone interviews with prospects after buying decisions have been made on behalf of an entire sales team. However, only 18 percent of companies currently have a formal Win / Loss program in place for their sales teams, with an independent third party conducting in-depth interviews with prospects. This means there are over 20 million salespeople who have no access to an independent post-decision review on their behalf.

This book was written to fill that gap and bring our institutional coaching, expertise and knowledge to the everyday salesperson or small business owner. It shows individual salespeople how to better conduct post-decision debriefs on their own so they can improve their sales effectiveness and win more business.

What is the difference between a good sales call and a great one?

Richard M. Schroder: Our research shows that there are five key themes that prospects typically express when speaking about a winning sales effort vs. a loss:

1) Consultative: The salesperson did research, asked the right questions, listened and then was consultative in their pitch and focused on the prospects’ unique needs.

2) Differentiation: The salesperson was distinctive / stood out in some way by clearly articulating how they were different from the competition.

3) Treated the prospect as important: The salesperson showed enthusiasm and made it clear that they wanted the business.

4) Rapport: The salesperson worked to build chemistry with the prospect and found common ground in a personal way.

5) Cohesiveness (in team selling situations): The most important word a prospect can say about a sales team is that they were cohesive (as opposed to coming across as disjointed or unprepared).

Why do so many salespeople lose the sale that seemed so near to it being closed?

Richard M. Schroder: One of the biggest things we’ve learned in all our research is that the main reason salespeople lose is because they are not actually selling to the decision maker. If a salesperson loses a deal and they never met with the actual decision maker then that alone is the reason they lost.

Most salespeople just look at a lost sale as gone, and then move on to the next prospect. Why do you consider this the wrong approach?

Richard M. Schroder: I’ve always believed that you learn more from your failures than from your successes. The best way to improve your sales effectiveness is to learn why you win and lose, so that you can reinforce your successful behaviors and rectify the selling deficiencies that are holding you back. It is only after you obtain accurate and candid feedback on your sales performance that you can institute meaningful change. By implementing a process for conducting better debrief calls, you will unlock a vast source of prospect information that will allow for continuous sales improvement and ultimately increase your close rate for years to come.



Richard M. Schroder (photo left)

You share seven steps for a successful post-decision debrief process. What are those seven steps?

Richard M. Schroder: There is a lot to be learned from losing a deal, yet most salespeople do not know how to gather accurate and meaningful information from prospects to learn from their losses. Salespeople often ask prospects why they lost a deal, but they typically don’t get a straight answer. In fact, according to proprietary sales research data, prospects tell salespeople the complete truth about why they lost less than half the time. In fact, research has shown that salespeople learn the complete and accurate truth about 40% of the time. In other words, in 60% of new business situations, salespeople do not have a complete and accurate understanding of why they lost. This situation begs the question: If salespeople don’t understand why they lose, how are they expected to improve their performance and ultimately win more business?

Below are seven ways for salespeople to improve their post-sales etiquette and get more candid feedback from prospects post-decision:

1) Give early notification that you will conduct a debrief (regardless of the outcome of the sale): In order to make the prospect comfortable and illicit honest and, more importantly, actionable feedback, you should let the prospect know early in the sales process that regardless of the outcome, you will be conducting a post-decision debrief call at the end of the process.

2) Schedule a separate debrief call: Do not debrief on the same call as when you hear about a loss. When you hear about a loss, prospects have one goal in mind: to get you off the phone as quickly as possible. Therefore, getting good feedback is always challenging. Instead, schedule a separate debrief call after you have accepted the loss and let the prospect know that you will not try to change their decision.

3) Use a debrief guide: Using a questionnaire maximizes feedback and keeps the conversation focused. As a result, research has shown that salespeople who use a debrief questionnaire have a 15% higher close rate than those who do not. Sample debrief guides can be downloaded at www.theanovagroup.com/debriefguide.htm.

4) Take responsibility: Make sure that you really want candid feedback; prospects will be able to tell if you don’t. Don’t get defensive or angry, don’t debate with the prospect and don’t try to resell the prospect.

5) Take notes: Tell the prospect that you’ll be taking notes. This will make them feel important and make them feel compelled to talk more. Your average debrief should last about 10-15 minutes.

6) Probe for specifics: Ask “How do you mean?” or “Say more.” Other great ways of getting candid feedback include asking, “How can I improve on this”, “How can I make it better?” or “Can I get your advice?”

7) Consider having someone else conduct your debriefs: Once you have a debrief guide, you could have someone else within your company conduct the debrief (such as an inside wholesaler or cold caller). You could also find someone outside of your company to do this work for you. If you are running a sales team, consider hiring an outside third party to conduct Win / Loss interviews on behalf of your entire sales team.

There are a number of steps in the program that differ from the usual concept of debriefing prospects. What are those differences and why are they important?

Richard M. Schroder: The big thing I tell salespeople is not to debrief on the same call where the prospect tells you that you have lost the deal. This is a major mistake and in most cases, you will not get any meaningful feedback from prospects during this discussion. Why are prospects not forthcoming when they call to tell you that you lost the business? One reason for this is that when a prospect calls to tell you that you lost the deal, his primary concern is to tell you the decision and get you off the phone as quickly as possible. No one likes to give someone bad news; therefore, prospects feel uncomfortable during these conversations and are looking to get the call over with as quickly as possible.

Another problem with trying to conduct a debrief interview at this time is that as the salesperson, you will typically feel rejected, defeated, deflated and defensive. That’s a lot of emotions to handle all at once, and no one enjoys going through rejection. Whatever emotions you have at this point will prohibit your ability to successfully debrief a prospect. You need time to reflect and allow yourself to gain composure after defeat. It is virtually impossible for you to have all the right questions to ask at this particular moment and to ask them in the right frame of mind.

Here is an example of how to ask for a debrief interview:

“Mr. Prospect, I understand your decision and I respect it. I’m disappointed, because I really wanted to work with you and your company but I’m not going to try to change your mind. I wish you all the best in the future. If you recall, I had mentioned to you that my company conducts debriefs at the end of every sales cycle and you agreed to debrief with me. We do this so that we can continually improve our sales process and product and service offering. Can we set up a time in the next week or so to speak for 15 minutes? It would really be helpful to me. Do you have your calendar handy?”

There are many key points to be aware of in the above example. For one, it is important to let the prospect know that you are not going to try to change his mind. By letting the prospect know that you have accepted the loss and that you will not try to change his decision, you are putting the prospect at ease and as a result, he will be more willing to talk to you. Also, you have let them achieve their main objective for the call and they will be calmed by this. Make sure to let them know that you don’t like to lose but that you do like to learn as much as possible from every loss.

How can a sales representative and a company create a tool to debrief prospects more effectively in the future?

Richard M. Schroder: As I mentioned, sample debrief guides can be downloaded at www.theanovagroup.com/debriefguide.htm. Any salesperson or sales team can start with these tools and customize them for their company’s products and services and their own sales process. If a company wants to take it to the next level, they should consider implementing a formal Win / Loss Analysis Program whereby an independent third party conducts the interviews on behalf of the sales team.

You describe a Win/Loss Analysis program. What is that program and why should sales managers consider adding it to their sales process?

Richard M. Schroder: One proven way to improve a sales team’s close rate is to implement what is popularly known as a Win / Loss Analysis program, whereby an independent third party interviews prospects after buying decisions have been made. Through this type of process sales teams can learn the true, candid reasons why they win and lose.

Below are a few reasons why every sales manager should consider implementing a formal, independent Win / Loss program for their sales team:

1) A third party interviewer can get the complete truth from prospects during post decision debriefs. Prospects are more candid when giving feedback and criticism to an independent third party because they don’t have to worry about hurting the salesperson’s feelings or fearing confrontation, criticism or reselling efforts from sales reps (who often become defensive while receiving feedback). Given the option to remain anonymous, a prospect can feel at ease with a third party interviewer inviting the prospect to share any issues he or she might have had with the salesperson, sales process or a company’s products or services.

2) Tailoring sales training with actual data and feedback from prospects is a huge opportunity for sales teams to improve their selling efforts. Every year, sales managers spend significant time and money training their salespeople. However, most companies do little to verify that salespeople are actually implementing the right tactics in their interactions with prospects. A Win / Loss Analysis program ensures that sales training focuses on the most critical and actionable sales performance issues.

3) Third party Win / Loss feedback can become a comprehensive senior management tool. A Win / Loss program delivers a reliable, objective and consistent tool that can be used by senior management to improve its products and services, as well as provide competitive intelligence. This information transcends the sales process and can become a critical conduit for strategic decisions.

The most important long-term goal and benefit of a Win / Loss Analysis program is to increase a company's new business win rate. This is achieved through an improved understanding of how a company's sales effectiveness, products and services compare with the competition.

There is significant opportunity for many sales managers to improve their sales teams’ close rates by better understanding prospect perceptions. Over time, Win / Loss Analysis can allow a sales team to charge ahead of its competition by continually keeping a pulse on industry trends, the competition, and needed enhancements to the sales process.

What is the first step that an organization should take toward having more great sales calls?

Richard M. Schroder: The first step to be taken is to fully understand why your sales team is winning and losing. This is the basis for winning more business.

What is next for Richard M. Schroder?

Richard M. Schroder: Writing a book while trying to grow a business is like trying to fix a flat tire while your car is still moving! I plan to regroup now and speak as much as possible on the subject to train salespeople on this overlooked final aspect of the sales process. I also plan to spend more time with my family since I spent many Sundays writing over the last year.

* * * * *

My book review of From a Good Sales Call to a Great Sales Call: Close More by Doing What You Do Best by Richard M. Schroder.

Richard M. Schroder is president of Anova Consulting Group, a leading market research, sales training and consulting firm. He is a sought-after speaker and a recognized thought leader in win/loss analysis and sales training. He is the author of a new book, From a Good Sales Call to a Great Sales Call: Close More by Doing What You Do Best (McGraw-Hill, October, 2010). www.theanovagroup.com.

Tags: From a Good Sales Call to a Great Sales Call: Close More by Doing What You Do Best, Richard M. Schroder, enhanced sales techniques, business author interviews.

From a Good Sales Call to a Great Sales Call by Richard M. Schroder - Book review

From a Good Sales Call to a Great Sales Call

Close More by Doing What You Do Best

By: Richard M. Schroder

Published: October 2010
Format: Softcover, 256 pages
ISBN-10: 0071718117
ISBN-13: 9780071718110
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Professional












"Understanding why a deal is won or lost is critical, yet most salespeople have little (if any) understanding of the true reasons for winning and losing" writes recognized thought leader in win-loss analysis and sales training, and President of Anova Consulting Group, Richard M. Schroder in his opportunity creating and game changing book From a Good Sales Call to a Great Sales Call: Close More by Doing What You Do Best. The author describes how to develop and utilize an effective debriefing process to provide detailed analysis about why sales were really closed or lost.

Richard M. Schroder recognizes that all too often salespeople leave a prospect not ever knowing why the sale was never completed. Most sales representatives, and even their sales managers, simply move on to the next prospect, seeking the next sale. What is not understood by the sales team is that the same mistakes can be repeated over and over again, resulting in even more lost closing opportunities. Richard Schroder provides a comprehensive system for re-examining the lost sale to analyze what went right, and also to determine what also went wrong. This debriefing process provides the sales person with deeper insights into their own sales strategy, helping them to continue using the techniques that worked well. At the same time, and perhaps even more importantly, the debriefing concept will uncover mistakes that can be corrected and avoided in future sales presentations.



Richard M. Schroder (photo left) understands that all sales representatives possess strengths and weaknesses that vary from person to person. Without a thorough assessment of these strengths and weaknesses, the salesperson will never move past the status quo position of the potential customer. For Richard Schroder, the status quo is as much of a competitor for sales representatives as the products and services offered by another company. Richard Schroder presents a logical step by step procedure, for learning the real reasons, that goes far beyond the features and benefits of the product or service. The author seeks to uncover the much more important relationship between the buyer and the seller. For the authoor, a good salesperson solves an important problem for the customer through open and honest discussion. The book focuses on the critical relationship between the salesperson and the customer, and not on the technical mechanics of the sales process.

For me, the power of the book is how Richard Schroder describes the crucial factor of open and honest communication between the seller and the buyer. Unlike many other sales books that teach tactics and techniques, the author helps the sales person build a positive and open sales conversation. Should the sale fall through without completion, Richard Schroder provides a complete debriefing process to uncover the real reasons for the failed sale. Since this debriefing concept is important, the process must be conducted using the best practices and proper etiquette. The book contains valuable chapters on how to debrief the client honestly and with mutual respect. Through the procedure outlined by Richard Schroder, honest feedback can be obtained, and mistakes can be avoided in the future.

I highly recommend the unique and insightful book From a Good Sales Call to a Great Sales Call: Close More by Doing What You Do Best by Richard M. Schroder, to anyone involved in sales from entrepreneurs, to sales representatives, to sales managers who are serious about understanding what really went right and wrong in a sales conversation. This book enters into the seldom discussed, but extremely important, area of the post-sales conversation debriefing process.

Read the sales building and very practical book From a Good Sales Call to a Great Sales Call: Close More by Doing What You Do Best by Richard M. Schroder, and discover the best practices for utilizing the sales debriefing concept. The book contains all of the tools and ideas necessary to design, develop, and utilize the very valuable debriefing procedure. The end result will be more closed sales, a much more effective sales team, and many more satisfied customers.

Tags: From a Good Sales Call to a Great Sales Call: Close More by Doing What You Do Best, Richard M. Schroder, enhanced sales techniques, business book reviews.

Use What You Have To Get What You Want by Jack Nadel

Use What You Have to Get What You Want

100 Basic Ideas That Mean Business

By: Jack Nadel

Published: February 1, 2011
Format: Perfect Paperback, 128 pages
ISBN-10: 0984628207
ISBN-13: 978-0984628209
Publisher: JNJ Publisher







"The American Dream is best when shared by many", writes recognized world leader in the worldwide sales promotion industry, and founder of Jack Nadel International, Jack Nadel in his engaging and wisdom filled book Use What You Have to Get What You Want: 100 Basic Ideas That Mean Business. The author shares the truisms that he not only discovered and championed, but also lived by in his highly successful sixty-five year career as a global product creator and marketer.

Jack Nadel doesn't simply repeat the usual tired business homilies from rote. He shares the concepts in this delightful book from his heart. Each of the ideas presented is based on the author's vast experience in the real world of global business. The result is a book of proven advice that will benefit any business person achieve success in the real world. Jack Nadel starts his business journey with a recommendation of a change in attitude to one of success of achievement. For the author, without a true deeply held belief and conviction that success is not only possible, but will definitely happen, success will remain elusive. The author not only encourages reading the aphorisms, but internalizing them to become part of the business person's inner belief system. With these ideas becoming part of the business person's personal and company DNA, then success will follow.



Jack Nadel (photo left) learned his business concepts through real world experience. When discharged from the US Army Air Corps as a decorated veteran in 1946, the author lacked both money and formal education. What he did possess was drive, conviction, and a belief that business success was not only possible, but inevitable. What jack Nadel learned over his decades of business life was that good business is also fair and ethical business. business success is more than creating good products and making money. Those are only the outcome of business practices based on ensuring that everyone benefits from every transaction. Good products and services mean very little if the business person and organization lack integrity. A successful business person, writes the author, also expresses humility and recognizes that there is always more to learn, and that there will always be others who possess more knowledge and experience in any aspect of business or of life. The author also recognizes that a successful and sustainable business depends, not only on having great people, but also in helping those employees take pride in their work. For Jack Nadel, the guiding principles of honesty, ethics, and sharing the American Dream extend to everyone within and outside of the organization.

For me, the power of the book is how Jack Nadel summarizes his sixty-five years of business experience into a very enjoyable book that expresses his philosophy very well. Along with the philosophical basis for his convictions, the author also shares some very important concepts for operating a successful business. What is really unique about Jack Nadel's blending of the practical with the philosophical, is how the two schools of thought are entwined into one consistent whole. For Jack Nadel, it's not enough to just conduct business. It's critical that one live the ideals of the business as well. For the author, one cannot survive without the other. In this yin and yang concept of business, true success is not achievable if one or the other element is missing from the personal and organizational vision.

I highly recommend this beautiful and timeless gem of a book Use What You Have to Get What You Want: 100 Basic Ideas That Mean Business by Jack Nadel, to anyone who is truly interested in achieving complete success in their business and in their life. The author discards completely the idea that making money or creating good products constitutes success. In place of that incomplete vision, Jack Nadel proposes a holistic and completely internalized system where a belief in principle and action work together to reach the pinnacle of success.

Read the wonderful and idea packed book Use What You Have to Get What You Want: 100 Basic Ideas That Mean Business by Jack Nadel, and put the author's sixty-five years of business experience to work for you. This action oriented book will help to create a vision of the American Dream that benefits everyone.

Tags: Use What You Have to Get What You Want: 100 Basic Ideas That Mean Business, Jack Nadel, business philosophy, business book reviews.

William Davidow: Overconnected: The Promise & The Threat Of The Internet - Blog Business Success Radio

Listen to Wayne Hurlbert on Blog Talk Radio



High technology industry executive, venture capitalist and author of the thought provoking and insightful book OVERconnected: The Promise and Threat of the Internet, William H. Davidow, describes how the explosive growth of the internet has also created some unique hazards. With everyone being connected to the point of perhaps being overconnected there are serious challenges being created for government, business, social institutions, and entire economies. Along with the benefits of being connected, being overconnected creates systems with excessive feedback leading to greater volatility and potential for accidents. William Davidow places the potential dangers of overconnection into a unique historical and real world perspective, and offers suggestions to prevent possible future problems.

William Davidow is my internet radio show guest on Blog Business Success; hosted live on BlogTalkRadio.

The show airs live on Thursday, March 3, at 8:00 pm Eastern Time; 5:00 pm Pacific Time.

High technology industry executive, venture capitalist and author of the thought provoking and insightful book OVERconnected: The Promise and Threat of the Internet, William H. Davidow, describes how the explosive growth of the internet has also created some unique hazards. You will learn:

* Why the Internet is accident prone due to being so interconnected

* Why everything being connected to everything poses a real societal risk

* How the systemic feedback accelerated the Icelandic financial meltdown

* How the Internet can be made less volatile and pose less risk to everyone



William H. Davidow (photo left) has been a high-technology industry executive and a venture investor for more than 30 years. He has been directly involved in building pivotal companies in Silicon Valley including FormFactor, MIPS, Rambus, and Vitesse.

Bill continues as an active advisor to Mohr Davidow. He is the author of Marketing High Technology and a co-author of Total Customer Service and The Virtual Corporation. His new book, OVERconnected: The Promise and Threat of the Internet, launched January 4, 2011.

While at Intel Corp., Bill served as senior vice president of marketing and sales, vice president of the microcomputer division and vice president of the microcomputer systems division. Prior to Intel Corp., Bill worked in various managerial positions at Hewlett Packard and General Electric.

Bill earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Dartmouth College, a master's degree in electrical engineering from both Dartmouth College and the California Institute of Technology, and a doctorate in electrical engineering from Stanford University.

His community involvement extends to serving on the boards of California Institute of Technology, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. He also sits on the Foundation Board of UCSF Medical Center.

My book review of OVERconnected: The Promise and Threat of the Internet by William H. Davidow.

Listen live on Thursday at 8:00 pm Eastern, 5:00 pm Pacific time.



If you miss this very informative show, it will be available for free download as a podcast for iPod, iTunes, and MP3 players; or play it right on your computer. To download this, or any other of my guest interviews, go to the Blog Business Success host page and click on Archived Segments. Once there, click on the podcast icon at the end of the episode description, to download the show free of charge for your listening enjoyment. You can also subscribe to the show feed.



To call in questions for my guest, the number is: (347) 996-5832

Let's talk with high technology industry executive, venture capitalist and author of the thought provoking and insightful book OVERconnected: The Promise and Threat of the Internet, William H. Davidow, as he describes how the explosive growth of the internet has also created some unique hazards. With everyone being connected to the point of perhaps being overconnected there are serious challenges being created for government, business, social institutions, and entire economies. Along with the benefits of being connected, being overconnected creates systems with excessive feedback leading to greater volatility and potential for accidents. William Davidow places the potential dangers of overconnection into a unique historical and real world perspective, and offers suggestions to prevent possible future problems on Blog Business Success Radio.

Tags: OVERconnected: The Promise and Threat of the Internet, William H. Davidow, systems analysis, Blog Business Success, Blog Talk Radio.

OVERconnected: The Promise and the Threat of the Internet by William H. Davidow - Book review

OVERconnected

The Promise and Threat of the Internet

By: William H. Davidow

Published: January 4, 2011
Format: Hardcover, 240 pages
ISBN-10: 1883285461
ISBN-13: 978-1883285463
Publisher: Delphinium Books








"By 2007, the Internet had become so much a part of our way of life that we were no longer conscious of the ways it was affecting us", writes former Silicon Valley executive and successful entrepreneur William H. Davidow, in his thought provoking and insightful book OVERconnected: The Promise and Threat of the Internet. The author describes how the very ubiquitous nature of the Internet masks a myriad of dangers to both individuals and to society; along as providing its many benefits.

William Davidow recognizes the success of the Internet in creating connections that work toward making the world a much smaller place. The World Wide Web has made business and communications more efficient, effective, and wider reaching than ever before in history. The range and depth of the Internet connects people and business on a global scale that is unprecedented in the course of human endeavor. At the same time, William Davidow points to another potentially societal damaging side to the Internet. Paradoxically, the connections created and enabled through the Web can also become too deep and too wide in scope. The same effects that transformed the Internet into a link between people and organizations also sow the seeds of potentially devastating consequences.



William H. Davidow (photo left) deconstructs the form of the Internet as containing both strong and weak connections. Through the effective use of systems theory, the author presents the case that the massive web of connections creates excessive amounts of positive feedback. The result of this ever growing feedback loop is increasing levels of instability within the system at both the macro and micro levels. With so much additional instability, the entire system becomes prone to accidents and growing amounts of volatility. Using historical and modern examples of systems feedback, William Davidow demonstrates how the increases in volatility accelerates system breakdown. While the Internet connectedness didn't cause the 2008 financial crisis, or cause the financial default in Iceland, the system did contribute the often overlooked aspects of speed and continual feedback. This positive feedback and information exchange efficiency can work rapidly to create more economic activity, but also works to leverage the damage to ever higher levels in a downturn.

For me, the power of the book is how William Davidow provides a powerful and passionate description of the Internet as positively reinforcing system, based on feedback and information efficiency. The author presents a balanced view of both the benefits and the inherent dangers of the modern connected world. As a pioneer of the Internet and its technology, William Davidow shares a perspective that understands how the system operates from the inside. Along with this systems knowledge is a deeper insight into the many ways that even the most seemingly successful systems. In the case of the Internet, its very success increases its vulnerability to systems failure. Along with this rich and rewarding theoretical background, the author offers some practical ideas to reduce the overall risk to the Internet as a system.

William Davidow points to the dangers to privacy of being connected in so many places simultaneously, and in real time. This loss of privacy is not only dangerous to the individual, but also presents another touch point of volatility to the system through efficient information exchange. When problems arise in the Internet, the entire system reproduces those issues, and magnifies their potential for disaster. In the case of the financial crisis, the efficient information exchange created feedback that multiplied the contagion of collapse. To prevent this problem recurring, the author offers some practical and common sense solutions. The author also bolsters his recommendations through placing the Internet system within a solid historical context. The examples given, ranging from the 1720 South Seas Bubble to the Iceland financial failure, show how the aspect of positive feedback loops increase system volatility, ending in collapse. Being overconnected through the Internet is the latest, and the most complete, feedback system in history.

I highly recommend the landmark and groundbreaking book OVERconnected: The Promise and Threat of the Internet by William H. Davidow, to anyone serious about understanding how the Internet operates as a volatile feedback system. The author provides an excellent dissection of the Internet from the inside out, and shares some very workable strategies to reduce the danger presented by being overconnected at the personal, organizational, and global levels.

Read the seminal and essential book OVERconnected: The Promise and Threat of the Internet by William H. Davidow, and learn how the Internet really works. The findings and conclusions will both surprise and shock you. The author points the way to utilizing the overall advantages of the Internet to modern society, while offering techniques to reduce the overall systemic, as well as the personal risk.

Tags: OVERconnected: The Promise and Threat of the Internet, William H. Davidow, systems analysis, business book reviews.