Jeanne Bliss: I Love You More Than My Dog - Blog Business Success Radio

Listen to Wayne Hurlbert on Blog Talk Radio



Speaker, consultant, President of CustomerBliss, and author of the transformational and passionate book "I Love You More Than My Dog": Five Decisions That Drive Extreme Customer Loyalty in Good Times and Bad, Jeanne Bliss, describes how being respected as a business is fine, but to be really successful, a company needs loyal and passionate customers. Jeanne Bliss provides ideas about how, in the new social marketplace, customer loyalty is more important than ever before. Jeanne Bliss points out that companies who combine their humanity and their passion, with their business decisions will outperform those companies that don't. Creating ideas and making decisions that create a lasting bond is critical. Jeanne Bliss offers the advice that there are no shortcuts to achieving beloved status, and she shares her five proven decisions that drive success.

Jeanne Bliss is my internet radio show guest on Blog Business Success; hosted live on BlogTalkRadio.

The show airs live on Tuesday, January 10, at 8:00 pm Eastern Time; 5:00 pm Pacific Time.

Speaker, consultant, President of CustomerBliss, and author of the transformational and passionate book "I Love You More Than My Dog": Five Decisions That Drive Extreme Customer Loyalty in Good Times and Bad, Jeanne Bliss, describes how being respected as a business is fine, but to be really successful, a company needs loyal and passionate customers. You will learn:

* Why it's so important to be a beloved company to win customer loyalty

* Why being a respected company is not enough to retain loyal customers

* How the five crucial decisions build customer loyalty

* Why there are no shortcuts or quick fixes to being a beloved company



Jeanne Bliss (photo left) is not an evangelist or observer of companies; she is a customer experience expert.

As the Customer Leadership Executive for five large US market leaders, Jeanne fought valiantly to get the customer on the strategic agenda, redirecting priorities and creating transformational changes to the brands’ customer loyalty. She has driven achievement of 95 percent loyalty rates, changing customer experiences across 50,000-person organizations.

Jeanne developed her passion for customer loyalty at Lands’ End, Inc., where she reported to the company’s founder and executive committee as leader for the Lands’ End customer experience. She was Senior Vice President of Franchise Services for Coldwell Banker Corporation. Jeanne served Allstate Corporation as its chief officer for customer loyalty & retention. She was Microsoft Corporation’s General Manager of Worldwide Customer & Partner Loyalty. At Mazda Motor of America she initiated the brand’s retention effort.

After 25 years as the Customer Experience Executive in five major US Corporations, Jeanne founded CustomerBliss in order to create clarity and an actionable path for driving the customer loyalty commitment into business operations.

My book review of "I Love You More Than My Dog": Five Decisions That Drive Extreme Customer Loyalty in Good Times and Bad by Jeanne Bliss.

Listen live on Tuesday 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 speaker, consultant, President of CustomerBliss, and author of the transformational and passionate book "I Love You More Than My Dog": Five Decisions That Drive Extreme Customer Loyalty in Good Times and Bad, Jeanne Bliss, as she describes how being respected as a business is fine, but to be really successful, a company needs loyal and passionate customers. Jeanne Bliss provides ideas about how, in the new social marketplace, customer loyalty is more important than ever before. Jeanne Bliss points out that companies who combine their humanity and their passion, with their business decisions will outperform those companies that don't. Creating ideas and making decisions that create a lasting bond is critical. Jeanne Bliss offers the advice that there are no shortcuts to achieving beloved status, and she shares her five proven decisions that drive success on Blog Business Success Radio.

Tags: "I Love You More Than My Dog": Five Decisions That Drive Extreme Customer Loyalty in Good Times and Bad, Jeanne Bliss, transformational business strategies, Blog Business Success, Blog Talk Radio.

"I Love You More Than My Dog" by Jeanne Bliss - Book review

"I Love You More Than My Dog"

Five Decisions That Drive Extreme Customer Loyalty in Good Times and Bad

By: Jeanne Bliss

Published: October 25, 2011
Format: Paperback: 224 pages
ISBN-10: 159184441X
ISBN-13: 978-1591844419
Publisher: Portfolio Trade/Penguin










"Beloved companies decide differently than everybody else. Acutely aware of how their every action impacts how customers feel and respond to them, they take the time to make purposeful decisions about the contacts they have with customers", writes customer service pioneer and expert, and President of CustomerBliss, Jeanne Bliss, in her transformational and passionate book "I Love You More Than My Dog": Five Decisions That Drive Extreme Customer Loyalty in Good Times and Bad. The author describes how simply being respected as a company is not as critical as being loved as an organization, and shares the strategies for creating long term customer loyalty and customer evangelism.

Jeanne Bliss understands deeply the real value of customer loyalty to any company. She points out how making the decisions that commit the company to the goals of excellence in customer service and customer experience, create and enhance those objectives. Becoming a beloved company is not an easy task, and the author warns decision makers that that there are no shortcuts or quick fixes to achieving beloved status. The good news, writes Jeanne Bliss, is that organizations blending their humanity with business, in every one of their decisions, and always keeping the customers in mind, is possible for any company. For Jeanne Bliss, making the commitment to excellence through always making the customer focused decision, will create that long term bond with customers.



Jeanne Bliss (photo left) recognizes that it is very possible for a company can become a beloved organization. The essential requirement is that the company leadership make the commitment to base their conduct and behavior on five active and purposeful decisions. By changing the way people live their lives, and through understanding how their products, services and actions improve people's lives, a company can become a beloved company.

The five important decisions are as follows:

* Decide to believe the employees and customers
* Decide with clarity of purpose about the unique promise to customers
* Decide to be real and break down barriers to become authentic
* Decide to be there for when customers need the company
* Decide to say "sorry" and be accountable for mistakes

For me, the power of the book is how Jeanne Bliss demonstrates how companies can become beloved through a change in their decision making, and through a transformation that alters the entire outlook and culture of the organization. Very importantly, the author emphasizes that there are no shortcuts to becoming a beloved company. This is not a book for those looking for magic bullets, as each of the five decisions demands a complete reappraisal and evaluation of how the company approaches its business, how it treats and handles customers and their overall experience, and the company's need to become authentic and accountable. Those changes to company culture don't happen overnight, and they require focus and and clarity of action.

Jeanne Bliss shows businesses how to build a loved company through dedication to living and internalizing the five key decisions. The author provides additional background through the positive experience of beloved companies through insights and cases studies. Huge marketing and promotional budgets are not the solution, but instead becoming purposeful and focused on the employees and customers will transform the company.

I highly recommend the insightful and game changing book "I Love You More Than My Dog": Five Decisions That Drive Extreme Customer Loyalty in Good Times and Bad by Jeanne Bliss, to any company decision makers and business owners and leaders who are prepared to dedicate their organization to that of a beloved company. Should that competition beating, employee engaging, and customer loving company be your goal and vision, then this is the must read book for you and your organization.

Tags: "I Love You More Than My Dog": Five Decisions That Drive Extreme Customer Loyalty in Good Times and Bad, Jeanne Bliss, transformational business strategies, business book reviews

Fundamentals of Supply Chain Theory by Lawrence V. Snyder & Zuo-Jun Max Shen - Book review

Fundamentals of Supply Chain Theory

By: Lawrence V. Snyder, Ph.D., Zuo-Jun Max Shen, Ph.D.

Published: August 23, 2011
Format: Hardcover, 400 pages
ISBN-10: 0470521309
ISBN-13: 978-0470521304
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.













"We wrote this book to help codify the foundations of this emerging supply chain theory and to demonstrate how recent developments build upon the classical models. Our focus is primarily on the seminal models and algorithms of supply chain theory - the building blocks that underlie much of the supply chain literature", write Associate Professor in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Lehigh University, Lawrence V. Snyder, Ph.D.; and Chancellor's Professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research at the University of California, Berkeley, Zuo-Jun Max Shen, Ph.D., in their comprehensive and authoritative book Fundamentals of Supply Chain Theory. The authors describe the strategic and tactical foundations of supply chain management, and provide the key mathematical models that combine the classical models and leading edge algorithms and modeling concepts.



Lawrence V. Snyder (photo left) and Zuo-Jun Max Shen understand that supply chain management provides a competitive advantage to firms that understand the strategy and tactics of the field. The authors provide mathematical models and algorithms that provide the building blocks for both study and application of supply chain theory. The authors take a wide, overall perspective of supply chain management that spotlights the connections between various supply chain models. To build on the classical supply chain theory, the authors offer a mathematical approach for the study of supply chains, including a wide range of disciplines and individual specializations. Because of this multi-disciplinary audience, the book includes a wide array of tools including operations research, mathematics, and computer science.



Zuo-Jun Max Shen (photo left) and Lawrence V. Snyder demonstrate the crucial models for optimizing all aspects of the supply chain from planning, design, operation, and system evaluation. The authors offer guidance in understanding both centralized and decentralized supply chains, including the models for optimizing both types.

The centralized supply chain models include:

* Forecasting and demand modeling
* Deterministic inventory models
* Stochastic inventory models
* Multi-Echelon inventory models
* Processes for dealing with uncertainty in inventory optimization and facility location
* Facility location models
* Process flexibility

The decentralized supply chain models include:

* The bullwhip effect
* Supply chain contracts
* Auctions

For me, the power of the book is how Lawrence V. Snyder and Zuo-Jun Max Shen recognize that a complete understanding of modern and classical supply chain theory requires a mathematical background. The authors point out that it's not necessary to be an expert in all areas of mathematics, programming, game theory, and simulations. They do expect a familiarity with basic optimization theory, know how to formulate a linear program, understand how branch and bound works, and that the reader can perform a simple line search method. An understanding of probability distributions and calculus is also necessary, but the authors provide the information, of what the reader or student needs to know, so as to facilitate a more rapid grasp of the principles and methodology.

With a solid level of mathematical maturity, concepts and models will be understandable and supportive for the student or practitioner. The book contains the essential formulas,and is presented in a step by step format that guides the student and other professionals toward a complete understanding of the subject material. The core of the book is the inventory-theoretical material. Extensive and easy to use appendices offer additional models, formulas, and basics of advanced mathematics. A useful set of homework problems follow each chapter, with additional problems available in the appendices.

I highly recommend the landmark and mathematics based book Fundamentals of Supply Chain Theory by Lawrence V. Snyder, Ph.D., and Zuo-Jun Max Shen,Ph.D., to anyone with an interest in a solid mathematical approach to supply chain management. These readers include students, graduate students, faculty, researchers, business leaders, managers, engineers, and practitioners of supply chain management. This book will provide a very strong mathematical basis for all decision making, through all phases of a supply chain, in any industry.

Tags: Fundamentals of Supply Chain Theory, Lawrence V. Snyder, Ph.D., Zuo-Jun Max Shen,Ph.D., mathematical models for supply chain strategies, business book reviews

Fundamentally Different by David J. Friedman - Book review

Fundamentally Different

By: David J. Friedman

Published: June 17, 2011
Format: Hardcover, 300 pages
ISBN-10: 0741466805
ISBN-13: 978-0741466808
Publisher: Infinity Publishing









"After years of observation and personal experience, it's abundantly clear to me that an organization's culture, more than any other single factor, is responsible for influencing the behavior of its people; and it's the behavior of its people on a day-to-day basis that most influences whether or not the organization reaches its goals" writes speaker, seminar leader, and consultant, David J. Friedman in his groundbreaking and very practical book Fundamentally Different. The author describes the critical importance of organizational culture in determining the behavior of the company's employees and their success or failure in achieving the overall goals of the organization.

David J. Friedman recognizes the deeper need, within every company, of examining its overall commitment to its values as the foundation of its organizational culture. The author provides compelling evidence that there must be alignment between the professed values of a company, and the daily practices of its employees, both within and outside the organization. If the company claims one set of values, and the management and staff practice a contradictory form of behavior, the entire organization breaks down. Failed company goals, decreased productivity, a less engaged workforce, and lower profits are the result of this discrepancy between statement and reality.



David J. Friedman (photo left) understands that the values and principles, held by the management and staff of an organization, show up and are played out in daily activities of the employees. If the organizational culture holds strong ethical values, and acts with high principles, these core practices will form the basis of the everyday employee behavior. On the other hand, less scrupulous values and a lack of honorable principles, will be reflected in the daily employee decision making and actions as well. David Friedman points out that achieve sustainable company success, strong values must be institutionalized into the organizational culture, and become the touchstone of every decision and action taken by the managers and staff.

David Friedman outlines eight key steps, that organizations must take, to institutionalize values firmly into their culture: Those eight steps are:

* Defining the values
* Selecting the values
* Integrating the values into the culture
* Making them visible
* Using ritual
* Coaching* Leading by example
* Creating accountability

For me, the power of the book is how David J. Friedman describes his crucial insight that organizational culture is the fundamental driving force behind company success or failure. The author describes how the culture of the company determines the behavior of the employees. When there is a misalignment between what the company claims are its values, and their real values as practiced daily by the management and staff, the organization will not achieve its goals and objectives.

David Friedman shares his eight step program for institutionalizing the right values into the company culture, and aligning words with actions. To further facilitate this values and principles institutionalization process, the author provides thirty fundamentals to ensure that daily practices match the stated value principles. A culture that places values first will achieve greater employee engagement, better meet the needs of customers, enhance overall performance, and increase profitability.

I highly recommend the hands on and insightful book Fundamentally Different by David J. Friedman, to any business leaders who seek to transform their organizational culture to one that lives and breathes its stated values. With the organizational core principles entwined into the company culture and DNA, the success rate of the business in achieving all of its goals will be improved to the point of overwhelming the competition.

Tags: Fundamentally Different, David J. Friedman, transformational business strategies, business book reviews

Beyond the Lean Revolution by Deborah Nightingale & Jayakanth Srinivasan - Book review

Beyond the Lean Revolution

Achieving Successful and Sustainable Enterprise Transformation

By: Deborah J. Nightingale, Jayakanth Srinivasan

Published: August 15, 2011
Format: Hardcover, 270 pages
ISBN-10: 0814417094
ISBN-13: 978-0814417096
Publisher: AMACOM












"Enterprise transformation is the taking of an enterprise from its current state to an envisioned future state, a process that requires a significant change in mindset, the adoption of a holistic view, and execution to achieve the intended transformational goals and objectives", write Professor of the Practice of Engineering Systems and Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT, and director of MIT’s Center for Technology Policy and Industrial Development, Deborah J. Nightingale; and Research Scientist at MIT’s Lean Advancement Initiative, Jayakanth Srinivasan, in their comprehensive and visionary book Beyond the Lean Revolution: Achieving Successful and Sustainable Enterprise Transformation. The authors describe how real and sustainable organizational change must consider the entire organization and its overall goals, and that effective change cannot be implemented successfully in a piece meal or siloed manner.



Deborah Nightingale (photo left) and Jayakanth Srinivasan recognize the importance of lean business strategies for companies, but they consider their application by business leaders to not be in concordance with the big picture. The authors consider the minimizing of resource use and the removal of waste of all types to be good business decisions. The problem, according to the authors is lack of coordination and often conflicting goals and results of utilizing the lean business techniques. The authors propose the realignment of traditional lean business practices with a holistic and overall view of the company's goals and objectives. In place of a siloed and often ad hoc approach to putting lean strategies in place, the authors recommend considering looking beyond lean to achieve lasting change within the organization.



Jayak Srinivasan (photo left) and Deborah J. Nightingale understand that companies focus on removing the waste from their organizations and budgets. While the authors consider such activities as being beneficial, they simply don't go far enough toward facilitating real and sustainable change within the company. The authors emphasize that the overall company, like any other system, is intertwined and interconnected in many and complex ways. As a result, actions taken in one department can work against the goals of another department, and even against the objectives of the entire organization.

To facilitate an overall and holistic vision of change, and to prevent the cross purposes often arising from piece meal approaches, the authors propose their seven guiding principles. Those seven principles are:

* Adopt a holistic approach to enterprise transformation
* Secure leadership commitment to drive organizational behavior
* Identify relevant stakeholders and determine their value propositions
* Focus on enterprise effectiveness before efficiency
* Address internal and external interdependencies
* Ensure stability and flow within and across the company
* Emphasize organizational learning beyond formal training programs

For me, the power of the book is how Deborah Nightingale and Jayakanth Srinivasan combine both a theoretical framework for developing a holistic framework to organizational transformation, with a practical blueprint to guide business leaders in achieving effective and long term change. The authors provide real world research and practical case studies of holistic change in action, and where enterprise wide transformation was the result.

The authors guide decision makers through the entire transformational process, picking up the threads of change where standard lean solutions leave off and break down. As demonstrated in the book, lean concepts provide an excellent starting point for beginning the change process, but they simply don't go far enough in creating lasting change within a company and its culture.

I highly recommend the very practical and lasting results oriented book Beyond the Lean Revolution: Achieving Successful and Sustainable Enterprise Transformation by Deborah Nightingale and Jayakanth Srinivasan, to any business leaders and decision makers who are seeking an enterprise wide, and big picture approach to effective organizational change. If your company has already tried, or is considering the lean approach to change, this book will take you beyond that starting point, and into the realm of lasting transformation.

Tags: Beyond the Lean Revolution: Achieving Successful and Sustainable Enterprise Transformation, Deborah Nightingale, Jayakanth Srinivasan, transformational business strategies, business book reviews

Ed Frauenheim: Good Company: Business Success In The Worthiness Era - Blog Business Success Radio

Listen to Wayne Hurlbert on Blog Talk Radio




Journalist and co-author of the groundbreaking and research based book Good Company: Business Success in the Worthiness Era, Ed Frauenheim, describes how companies that are viewed as worthy, in the new social marketplace, are more successful than their less worthy competitors. Ed describes how people are losing patience with bad companies, and prefer to do business with companies that do the right thing for employees, customers, and society. This is the dawn of what Ed Frauenheim calls the Worthiness Era. The author provides the unique and research based Company Index that demonstrates how companies that are deemed worthy have higher share values than bad companies.The world is changing, and Ed offers evidence that bad companies will lose out to their worthy competitors, and shows how ethical and sustainable business models are the way of the future and the choice of customers all around the world.

Ed Frauenheim is my internet radio show guest on Blog Business Success; hosted live on BlogTalkRadio.

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

Journalist and co-author of the groundbreaking and research based book Good Company: Business Success in the Worthiness Era, Ed Frauenheim, describes how companies that are viewed as worthy, in the new social marketplace, are more successful than their less worthy competitors. You will learn:

* Why bad companies are no longer successful and are out of favor with customers

* Why we are now in the Worthiness Era where good and worthy companies are rewarded

* How to read and understand the Company Index that ranks worthy companies

* How to become a worthy company and succeed in the Worthiness Era



Ed Frauenheim (photo left) is a journalist with 15 years of experience writing about topics including technology, work, business, and education. He currently is Senior Editor at Workforce Management magazine, where he helps lead the magazine’s coverage of people management and business strategy. Ed has written extensively about outsourcing, the rise of emerging economies, and employee engagement. His stories have earned awards from the Associated Press News Executive Council of California and Nevada, the American Society of Business Publication Editors, and American Business Media.

Ed previously has worked at CNET News.com and the Oakland Tribune chain of newspapers. He has written freelance stories for publications including Salon.com, Wired magazine, The Dallas Morning News, and Knowledge@Wharton, the online magazine of The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Ed earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Princeton University and a master’s degree in education from the University of California at Berkeley.

My book review of Good Company: Business Success in the Worthiness Era by Laurie Bassi, Ed Frauenheim, Dan McMurrer, and Larry Costello.

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 journalist and co-author of the groundbreaking and research based book Good Company: Business Success in the Worthiness Era, Ed Frauenheim, as he describes how companies that are viewed as worthy, in the new social marketplace, are more successful than their less worthy competitors. Ed describes how people are losing patience with bad companies, and prefer to do business with companies that do the right thing for employees, customers, and society. This is the dawn of what Ed Frauenheim calls the Worthiness Era. The author provides the unique and research based Company Index that demonstrates how companies that are deemed worthy have higher share values than bad companies.The world is changing, and Ed offers evidence that bad companies will lose out to their worthy competitors, and shows how ethical and sustainable business models are the way of the future and the choice of customers all around the world on Blog Business Success Radio.

Tags: Good Company: Business Success in the Worthiness Era, Laurie Bassi, Ed Frauenheim, Dan McMurrer, Larry Costello, ethical business practices, Blog Business Success, Blog Talk Radio.

Good Company: Business Success in the Worthiness Era by Laurie Bassi, Ed Frauenheim & Dan McMurrer, with Larry Costello - Book review

Good Company

Business Success in the Worthiness Era

By: Laurie Bassi, Ed Frauenheim, Dan McMurrer, Larry Costello

Published: September 6, 2011
Format: Hardcover, 264 pages
ISBN-10: 160994061X
ISBN-13: 978-1609940614
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers











"The "good" companies show the tremendous power of seeking win-win relationships with all their stakeholders - employees, customers, shareholders, and the communities where they do business. A business ethic of real reciprocity, in other words, reaps rich rewards", write co-authors Laurie Bassi, Ed Frauenheim, Dan McMurrer, and Larry Costello in their groundbreaking and research based book Good Company: Business Success in the Worthiness Era. The authors describe how the being a bad company, with bad treatment of employees, customers, and the wider community, is not a sustainable business model. Instead, the authors provide real world data as compelling evidence that being a good company is both more profitable and more sustainable over the long term.



Laurie Bassi (photo left), Ed Frauenheim, Dan McMurrer, and Larry Costello understand that the bad behavior business model has some remaining support, but that view is changing rapidly. Employees, customers, and society as a whole are demanding that companies demonstrate worth behavior or those businesses will lose their support. A combination of forces including economic, social, and political pressures are forcing companies to reexamine how they manage and operate their business. People are demanding that businesses become good companies, and customers are not fooled any longer by half hearted attempts at social responsibility or green=washing. The era of catering only to shareholder and top executive interests is disappearing, and being replaced by what the authors call the Worthiness Era.



Ed Frauenheim (photo left), Dan McMurrer, Larry Costello, and Laurie Bassi recognize that worthiness involves having a sustainable and ethical business model, and a vision and purpose that extends beyond simply making money. The concept that the sole purpose of a company is to maximize profits is passing into the dustbin of history. The idea of enriching shareholders at the expense of everyone else, including employees, customers, the environment, and the community has been replaced by the more sustainable goal of benefiting all stakeholders. Placing worthiness at the core of their company vision and business model is the new imperative. Worthiness moves beyond a sustainable business plan and a worthy purpose. It must also include being a worthy employer, a worthy seller, and a worthy steward of the environment and the community.



Dan McMurrer (photo left), Larry Costello, Laurie Bassi, and Ed Frauenheim provide real evidence that good companies not only fulfill their worthiness imperatives, but outperform their bad behaving competitors on the stock market as well. The authors created what they call the Good Company Index, which takes systematic examination of Fortune 100 companies' records as employers, sellers, and stewards of the environment, their communities, and the global society. The companies obtained and sustained higher share values than their less worthy competitors in their own industries. The Company Index presents real and tangible proof that worthy and ethical business is profitable business, benefiting a much wider group of stakeholders, as well.

To facilitate deeper understanding of the principles of the worthy company, the authors divide the book into four overall sections:

* The Worthiness Era and what it means
* Evidence and ranking of the company using empirical data
* Good employer, seller and steward, and what these concepts mean
* The future of the Worthiness Era and its vision for the future



Larry Costello (photo left), Laurie Bassi, Ed Frauenheim, and Dan McMurrer offer a very compelling case, complete with strong empirical evidence, that being a worthy company is good business. The power of the book, for me, is how the authors demonstrate how and why companies that observe good employment practices, treat their customers well, and hold a strong ethical commitment to the stewardship of the community and of the planet, are the leaders in their industries now and in the future.

The authors share their important Company Index that ranks each company in comparison to its industry peers, including the methodology used in creating the index itself. The authors add to their position through the addition of real world case studies of worthiness in action. Worthy business is good business, and any business leaders who fail to understand that new reality are destined to fall further and further behind their competition.

I highly recommend the pioneering and must read book Good Company: Business Success in the Worthiness Era by Laurie Bassi, Ed Frauenheim, Dan McMurrer, and Larry Costello, to any business leaders, activists, policy makers and anyone else who values the importance of ethical and worthy business practices. This book proves, with the utmost clarity, that the old slash and burn business paradigm is well past its time. It's replacement will be the vastly superior and more sustainable Worthiness Era.

Tags: Good Company: Business Success in the Worthiness Era, Laurie Bassi, Ed Frauenheim, Dan McMurrer, Larry Costello, ethical business practices, business book reviews

Applied Urban Ecology: A Global Framework Edited by Matthias Richter & Ulrike Weiland - Book review

Applied Urban Ecology

A Global Framework

Edited by: Matthias Richter, Ulrike Weiland

Published: January 3, 2012
Format: Paperback, 240 pages
ISBN-10: 1444333402
ISBN-13: 978-1444333404
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell










"Urban ecology plays an important role in understanding urban systems" write environmental scientists and ecologists Matthias Richter and Ulrike Weiland, in their diverse and systems oriented anthology Applied Urban Ecology: A Global Framework. The editors provide a well rounded series of articles, written by leading global authorities, that cover the wide range of topics and issues relating to urban ecology and urban ecosystems.

Matthias Richter and Ulrike Weiland offer a multi-disciplinary approach to the study and understanding of urban ecological systems. The widely diverse essays, that comprise the core of the book, recognize and consider the very heterogeneous nature of cities around the world. The global perspective, chosen by the editors, offers insights into the shared and different ecological challenges faced by old and new cities on different continents. Te essays cover the gap between theory and practice, demonstrating the many successful approaches to overcoming urban ecological challenges, faced by cities across the globe. The editors take a modern approach to urban ecology, and share the many variations on the contemporary study of urban ecology and urban natural systems.

Ulrike Weiland and Matthias Richter recognize that it's important for urban planners in all disciplines to have a solid grounding in the fundamentals of urban ecology. As a result, the editors provide articles that have both a wide range of subject matter and a full global perspective. The book is divided conveniently into four overall sections:

* Part I: Introduction to the concepts and societal context
* Part II: Urban ecology overview of related disciplines, tools, and techniques
* Part II: Selected fields of urban ecology
* Part IV: Synthesis of the cross-disciplinary approaches into an overall framework

For me, the power of the book is how Matthias Richter and Ulrike Weiland provide a comprehensive overview of the breadth and depth of issues and challenges relating to urban ecology. The editors provide important articles that address each of the critical issues in urban ecology, and offer viable and proven solutions from around the world. The goal of the book is achieved by creating an overall framework for guiding urban planners, business people, scientists, students, and other practitioners toward a solutions oriented approach to the subject. The book and its articles are approachable and understandable for the non-professional, yet are in depth enough to be of real value to students, graduate students, and professional scientists.

I highly recommend the very hands on and engaging book Applied Urban Ecology: A Global Framework edited by Matthias Richter and Ulrike Weiland, to any field researchers, scientists, practitioners, urban planners, policy makers in government, business leaders, educators, and students at all levels who are seeking a clear and understandable guide to urban ecology, its challenges, and its potential solutions. This book will transform the way decision makers approach urban ecological issues, and provide students with a firm foundation in applied urban ecology.

Tags: Applied Urban Ecology: A Global Framework, Matthias Richter, Ulrike Weiland, environmental science, science book reviews.

Jack Beauregard: Finding Your New Owner - Blog Business Success Radio

Listen to Wayne Hurlbert on Blog Talk Radio



Successful entrepreneur, speaker, CEO Of the Successful Transition Planning institute, and author of the purpose driven and new life building book Finding Your New Owner: For Your Business, for Your Life, Jack Beauregard, describes how to plan and execute a successful transition from business CEO to CEO of your life. Jack Beauregard provides ideas for developing an entirely new approach to selling a company, keeping it successful after succession, and moving into the next phase of your life. Jack describes how the same skills that made a person a successful CEO can also be applied to developing a positive transition to life after business. The next step in life need not be one of boredom or even traditional retirement. Instead, as CEO of your life, the next step will be full of meaning and purpose, and be a life well worth embracing and enjoying to its fullest.

Jordan Goldman is my internet radio show guest on Blog Business Success; hosted live on BlogTalkRadio.

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

Successful entrepreneur, speaker, CEO Of the Successful Transition Planning institute, and author of the purpose driven and new life building book Finding Your New Owner: For Your Business, for Your Life, Jack Beauregard, describes how to plan and execute a successful transition from business CEO to CEO of your life. You will learn:

* Why so many business owners have difficulty letting go of the company

* How to prepare a plan for exiting the business and transitioning to the next step

* How to become the CEO of your life

* How to live a life of purpose after the business is sold



Jack Beauregard is nationally recognized expert in transition planning. Jack's strategic planning steps, proprietary principles and decision making techniques have been helping people experience lives filled with meaning and purpose for over 20 years.

In 1983, Jack founded Designer Orthopedics, the first cost-containment company in the US which he built into a multi-million dollar company. During a personal crisis, Jack decided to transition out of that company and subsequently founded InnerVisions Associates in 1988. InnerVisions originally focused on integrating the human and cultural issues in mergers-and-acquisitions. Associates of InnerVisions were involved in the integration of 140 mergers.

While helping executives of merged companies and owners who sold their businesses determine what they wanted to do after they left their companies, the "what next" question started to get traction. Jack expanded the application, redeveloped the programs, and Successful Transition Planning Institute took flight.

Jack has presented his unique approach on many radio and television programs, including National Public Radio and the Voice of America worldwide business program. He has also been a keynote speaker at conferences, seminars and workshops.

Jack's personal story of leaving the world of perfectionism to discover who he really is the key to knowing what one really wants to do in life - is told in his book The Power of Balance: Seven Principles for Transforming Mind, Spirit, and Self. He is currently working on a new book that will revolutionize retirement and become the "Bible" for baby boomers and future generations.

Jack is an alumnus of Harvard University and holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA.

My book review of Finding Your New Owner: For Your Business, for Your Life by Jack Beauregard.

Listen live on Tuesday 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 successful entrepreneur, speaker, CEO Of the Successful Transition Planning institute, and author of the purpose driven and new life building book Finding Your New Owner: For Your Business, for Your Life, Jack Beauregard, as he describes how to plan and execute a successful transition from business CEO to CEO of your life. Jack Beauregard provides ideas for developing an entirely new approach to selling a company, keeping it successful after succession, and moving into the next phase of your life. Jack describes how the same skills that made a person a successful CEO can also be applied to developing a positive transition to life after business. The next step in life need not be one of boredom or even traditional retirement. Instead, as CEO of your life, the next step will be full of meaning and purpose, and be a life well worth embracing and enjoying to its fullest on Blog Business Success Radio.

Tags: Finding Your New Owner: For Your Business, for Your Life, Jack Beauregard, Baby Boomer transition strategies, Blog Business Success, Blog Talk Radio.

Switched-On Networking by Jerry V. Teplitz & Donna Fisher - Book review

Switched-On Networking

Balance Your Brain For Networking Success

By: Jerry V. Teplitz, J.D., Ph.D.,
Donna Fisher, with Norma Eckrote

Published: November 20, 2011
Format: Paperback, 288 pages
ISBN-10: 0939372231
ISBN-13: 978-0939372232
Publisher: Happiness Unlimited Publications














"Successful networkers communicate with others easily. They enjoy the process of connecting with people and have mentally trained themselves to "think as a resource" in order to effectively accomplish goals.For effective networkers, setbacks are not failures; they are simply opportunities to continue to network to find the appropriate resources", write networking experts and speakers Jerry V. Teplitz and Donna Fisher, in their insightful and very hands on book Switched-On Networking: Balance Your Brain For Networking Success. The authors describe how to switch back on any areas of your networking that you may have stopped using, or may have neglected or avoiding using entirely.



Jerry Teplitz (photo left) and Donna Fisher understand the critical importance of networking with others for success in business, a career, a profession, or in one's personal life. The authors provide the essential tools for improving a person's networking skills, whether the individual is new to networking or is a very experienced networker. The authors point out that not everyone utilizes their natural internal abilities for connecting with other people. They describe those innate skills as being switched off for many people; including many very experienced networkers. To counter this problem, the authors share their techniques for switching those internal skills back on through a behavior changing series of tools, techniques, and exercises.



Donna Fisher (photo left) and Jerry Teplitz understand that networking is not as simple as meeting people and giving out your name and a business card. For the authors, networking is about making and developing deep and trusting relationships with other people. In that sense, the authors present networking as being a whole body and mind interaction and experience. The mind is very often switched off during interpersonal relationships, and prevents networking from achieving its full potential for interaction. As a result, the authors share their holistic approach to Switched-On Networking™ which includes their unique Brain Gym concept that exercises both the brain and the body.

The authors divide the book into sections for switching on the brain, having the body synchronized to the brain and the voice, and techniques for improving overall networking skills and results. The three overall parts of the book are:

* Brain optimization: Re-wiring and re-balancing your brain for networking success
* Networking strategies
* Reinforcement

For me, the power of the book is how Jerry Teplitz and Donna Fisher take a complete and comprehensive approach to networking success. Going far beyond simply providing their enhanced networking strategies and techniques, the authors also offer exercises and methods for re-wiring your brain to be more expressive and receptive during and after networking. The authors identify being switched off and failing to fulfill the full potential of your mind and body, as the reason so many networking efforts are less than successful. The book not only contains the exercises necessary to get the mind and body back into focus, but contains valuable photographs to illustrate the exercises in action. This book will definitely change and improve anyone's approach to networking, as well as boost their overall success rate at building long lasting connections.

I highly recommend the very practical and engaging book Switched-On Networking: Balance Your Brain For Networking Success by Jerry V. Teplitz and Donna Fisher, to anyone seeking a fresh and comprehensive approach to networking. Instead of concentrating only on networking techniques, this book will increase your overall awareness and skills as your brain and body become switched-on, and more attuned to others around you.

Tags: Switched-On Networking: Balance Your Brain For Networking Success, Jerry V. Teplitz, Donna Fisher, enhanced networking techniques, business book reviews