Top Market Strategy: Applying The 80/20 Rule by Elizabeth Rush Kruger - Book review

Top Market Strategy

Applying the 80/20 Rule

By: Elizabeth Rush Kruger

Published: July 23, 2011
Format: Paperback, 150 pages
ISBN-10: 1606493108
ISBN-13: 978-1606493106
Publisher: Business Expert Press











"The 80/20 rule summarizes a universal law that predicts the relationship of inputs to outputs - and even governs the impact of customers on your business profit", writes speaker, educator, marketing consultant, and software developer Elizabeth Rush Kruger, in her concise and very hands on book Top Market Strategy: Applying the 80/20 Rule. The author describes how the most profitable 20 percent of a firm's customers generate 80 percent of the company's profits, and shares strategies for replacing the customers in the bottom 20 percent of customers with those with the characteristics of those of the top 80 percent.

Elizabeth Rush Kruger recognizes that not all customers generate the same amount of revenue or profits for the business. As with almost every endeavor, 20 percent of the people produce 80 percent of the results. Using this axiom as a guide, the author proposes that companies target more customers, with similar traits and purchasing habit,s to the most profitable 20 percent of existing customers. Instead of seeking just any customer, Elizabeth Rush Kruger provides strategies and tactics for locating, attracting, and retaining customers similar to the existing top 20 percent. The author points out that quadrupling the best customers will also result in a quadrupling of profits.



Elizabeth Rush Kruger (photo left) understands that not everyone is aware of the power of the Pareto Distribution that holds that 20 percent of inputs results in 80 percent of the outputs. With this principle in hand, Elizabeth Rush Kruger describes how business decision makers can forecast their most important customers prior to the purchasing event. To increase the level of profitability, the authors recommends replacement of the bottom 20 percent of the customer base with customers who behave like the top 20 percent of that base.

To find and attract the ideal top market customer, Elizabeth Rush Kruger presents the following best practices:

* Understand the Pareto distribution and how it works
* Segment existing customers by profitability
* Interview and survey diverse customers
* Define the profitability segments
* Distinguish the top market segment
* Create marketing strategies based on the research
* Quadruple overall customer profitability

For me, the power of the book is how Elizabeth Rush Kruger utilizes the Pareto Distribution Principle as a guide to increasing total customer profitability. The author takes the bold step of recommending that the existing customer base be examined, segmented by profitability, and that the most profitable 20 percent of customers be replicated throughout the entire customer list. Elizabeth Rush Kruger provides the very practical and results oriented tools, worksheets, and graphics to guide the reader toward a deeper understanding of which customers are creating the most profit for the firm. The author also shares some powerful and effective market segmentation tools in the book's useful appendix.

I highly recommend the practical and company profit boosting book Top Market Strategy: Applying the 80/20 Rule by Elizabeth Rush Kruger, to anyone seeking an engaging and useful guide to transforming a moribund customer base into one bursting with profitability. This book will renew and revitalize the profitability of any size of company.

Tags: Top Market Strategy: Applying the 80/20 Rule, Elizabeth Rush Kruger, customer market segments, business book reviews

The View From Lazy Point by Carl Safina - Book review

The View from Lazy Point

A Natural Year in an Unnatural World

By: Carl Safina

Published: January 3, 2012
Format: Paperback, 416 pages
ISBN-10: 1250002710
ISBN-13: 978-1250002716
Publisher: Picador












"So this story is also about the tension created when those things mistakenly called "the real world" - thought they are entirely artificial - continually intrude on the real real world. In a real place, the mysteries of ages pile thick with enduring truths and complex beauties", writes prominent ecologist, marine conservationist, and president of Blue Ocean Institute, Carl Safina, in his lyrical and passionate book The View from Lazy Point: A Natural Year in an Unnatural World. The author describes how environmental problems result from failures of social justice and the politics of greed. He invites the reader to tour the natural world of his home on eastern Long Island, New York, and those discovered on his journey to the four corners of the globe.

Carl Safina understands the critical importance of conserving and protecting the natural world, and its wide variety of fauna and flora, for both ourselves and for future generations. Unlike many environmentalists who provide only bleak forecasts, Carl Safina guides the reader through the beauty of the world, and invites people to share his message of hope. Through asking the very difficult, and very often unsettling questions about the inter-relationship between the challenges facing the the environment and the human created catalysts of greed and politics, the author seeks answers to those queries.



Carl Safina (photo left) expresses a love and an appreciation for the natural beauty of the world, and all of its plants and living creatures, that offers a backdrop of optimism despite the difficult problems that demand compassionate resolution. The author recognizes the interconnectedness of the planet and of all living things. Carl Safina's holistic approach to ecology is guided by a genuine love of life's diversity and for the natural worlds of the planet. For the author, the dramatically inadequate global economic system abuses both nature and human rights.

Carl Safina takes Albert Einstein's concept of the "circle of compassion" as his guiding principle, and takes into consideration the interdependency of humans and the natural world. The author offers a message of hope that people will recognize and understand the critical importance of environmental sustainability as vital to continued human existence as well. To achieve a balance with the natural world, Carl Safina recommends a balance in all human activities including economics, social justice, and political equality.

For me, the power of the book is twofold. Carl Safina writes in poetic and powerful prose that expresses his genuine passion and love for the natural world. The author also shares his concerns that a lack of social and economic justice, and political greed and lack of long term thinking, pose a real threat to the environment and to all of humanity. The author writes poetically, and shows a real joy in in observing the natural world first hand. The detail expressed in Carl Safina's eloquent writing transports the reader to a new time and place, and instills fresh insights and ways of looking at the environment.

This book is a testament to environmental sustainability, the natural world, and for the need for human political and economic justice. The author addresses the challenges facing the environment and the world's people head on, sharing his views on the need for compassion for all living things and for the entire planet. Carl Safina is a voice of hope that humanity will see the need for compassion and for environmental protection. The author is a modern day Henry David Thoreau or Aldo Leopold, and a voice that must be heard by everyone.

I highly recommend the landmark and destined to become classic book The View from Lazy Point: A Natural Year in an Unnatural World by Carl Safina, to anyone seeking a brilliant and heartfelt examination of the problems and possibilities offered by environmental sustainability and social justice. These two concepts are often separated, but in this deeply philosophical book, it becomes obvious that they are intertwined as one. This book will give you a fresh and personal impression of the natural world, in all of its tender lyricism and hope.

Tags: The View from Lazy Point: A Natural Year in an Unnatural World, Carl Safina, environmental science, science book reviews.

Changing Cold Enviroments: A Canadian Perspective Edited by Hugh French & Olav Slaymaker - Book review

Changing Cold Environments

A Canadian Perspective

Edited by: Hugh French, Olav Slaymaker

Published: January 3, 2012
Format: Paperback, 340 pages
ISBN-10: 0470699698
ISBN-13: 978-0470699690
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell













"The aim of this book is to simply document the changing nature of Canada's cold environments and, by implication, outline the possible global effects. We restrict the broader outline to the northern hemisphere", write editors Professor Emeritus, University of Ottawa, and Adjunct Professor, Department of Geography, University of Victoria, Hugh French; and Professor Emeritus, University College of Wales, Aberystwyth and the University of British Columbia in the Department of Geography, Olav Slaymaker, in their comprehensive and well structured book Changing Cold Environments: A Canadian Perspective. The editors provide a complete overview of how the physical attributes of the cold environments of Canada are changing, and how these changes have an impact on cold environments around the globe.



Hugh French (photo left) and Olav Slaymaker recognize that global climates are changing, and that those dramatic changes are affecting the fragile norther cold climates, The authors provide essays by leading experts in the field, and also from respected researchers in cold region research. In this book, the cold regions under study are the high latitudes of the northern hemisphere in general, and the Canadian north in particular. The editors focus on issues of environmental science and sustainability, in light of current an ongoing global climate change. The editors, and the contributing experts, express real concerns as to the effects of climate change on the cold environments in Canada, and around the world.



Olav Slaymaker (photo left) and Hugh French present research based evidence that global climate change is having a profound effect on Canada's cold regions, and on the planet's cold environments as well. The clear focus on global climate change forms the central theme of the book, with Canadian cold environments providing examples and research findings.

The editors provide a clearly structured approach to the study of global climate change on the cold environments most affected by it. The book examines the following Canadian environments that are facing the most impact:

* The Canadian tundra region
* The northern Canadian sub-arctic and boreal forest regions
* Western Canadian mid-latitude mountain regions
* Additional global studies of similar regions

For me, the power of the book is in the high quality of the research based contributions, written by acclaimed experts, and structured by the editors into a clear and logical format. The book is packed with photographs, graphs and diagrams that illustrate the points presented by the contributing writers. The book is both timely and important, and examines one of the most important environmental issues of our time. The editors avoid the controversies surrounding the causes of global climate change, and instead offer the field based research evidence of the results of that environmental transition. This book is a good one for study in the upper levels of undergraduate study in environmental science, geography, and earth sciences.

I highly recommend the research based and well structured book Changing Cold Environments: A Canadian Perspective edited by Hugh French and Olav Slaymaker, to any undergraduate students, journalists, policy makers, business leaders, and engineers seeking a complete overview of the impact of environmental change on cold climates. This book forms a solid knowledge base that has real value beyond the classroom, and into the boardrooms of business and the halls of government.

Tags: Changing Cold Environments: A Canadian Perspective, Hugh French, Olav Slaymaker, environmental science, science book reviews.

Linda Edgecombe: Shift...Or Get Off The Pot - Blog Business Success Radio

Listen to Wayne Hurlbert on Blog Talk Radio



Internationally renowned award-winning humorous speaker, trainer, consultant, and author of the straight talking and engaging book Shift or Get off the Pot: 26 Simple Truths About Getting a Life, Linda Edgecombe, shows people how to laugh at themselves and have some fun in their lives, while also encouraging individuals to take an honest look at themselves. Linda guides people to shift their perspective and examine themselves and their lives in entirely new and exciting ways.

Linda helps people to answer the question are you doing the best you can, considering everything on your plate right now. She asks if you are on the deferred life plan, waiting for something better to come along. She also has you consider when was the last time you did something for the first time so your stories don't get old. Discover how to reflect on yourself and your life, with humor and a with an eye toward a more spontaneous and exciting life starting now.

Linda Edgecombe is my internet radio show guest on Blog Business Success; hosted live on BlogTalkRadio.

The show airs live on Thursday, February 9, at 8:00 pm Eastern Time; 5:00 pm Pacific Time.

Internationally renowned award-winning humorous speaker, trainer, consultant, and author of the straight talking and engaging book Shift or Get off the Pot: 26 Simple Truths About Getting a Life, Linda Edgecombe, shows people how to laugh at themselves and have some fun in their lives, while also encouraging individuals to take an honest look at themselves. You will learn:

* How to examine your life to find your real purpose

* How to decide if you are doing the best that you can

* If you are on the deferred life plan

* When was the last time you did something for the first time



Linda Edgecombe, CSP, (photo left) is an internationally renowned, award-winning humorous speaker, trainer, and consultant. As a professional with a degree in physical education, Linda brings 20 years of recreation, employee wellness, lifestyle, and corporate consulting experience to her programs and her clients.

Linda was a consultant for PARTICIPACTION, promoting healthy living to Canadians, and is known for being one of the country's most popular speakers. She was most recently featured in the Wall Street Journal as an expert in "Shifting Perspectives."

She lives in Kelowna, B.C.

My book review of Shift or Get off the Pot: 26 Simple Truths About Getting a Life by Linda Edgecombe.

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 internationally renowned award-winning humorous speaker, trainer, consultant, and author of the straight talking and engaging book Shift or Get off the Pot: 26 Simple Truths About Getting a Life, Linda Edgecombe, as she shows people how to laugh at themselves and have some fun in their lives, while also encouraging individuals to take an honest look at themselves. Linda guides people to shift their perspective and examine themselves and their lives in entirely new and exciting ways.

Linda helps people to answer the question are you doing the best you can, considering everything on your plate right now. She asks if you are on the deferred life plan, waiting for something better to come along. She also has you consider when was the last time you did something for the first time so your stories don't get old. Discover how to reflect on yourself and your life, with humor and a with an eye toward a more spontaneous and exciting life starting now on Blog Business Success Radio.

Tags: Shift or Get off the Pot: 26 Simple Truths About Getting a Life, Linda Edgecombe, seeking life's purpose, Blog Business Success, Blog Talk Radio.

Shift...Or Get Off the Pot by Linda Edgecombe - Book review

Shift or Get off the Pot

26 Simple Truths About Getting a Life

By: Linda Edgecombe

Published: June 1, 2009
Format: Paperback, 256 pages
ISBN-10: 1897178654
ISBN-13: 978-1897178652
Publisher: Insomniac Press









"It's about remembering what you already know; it's about finding the simple truths about what it takes to get a life and be happy", writes internationally renowned award-winning humorous speaker, trainer, and consultant. Linda Edgecombe, CSP, in her straight talking and engaging book Shift or Get off the Pot: 26 Simple Truths About Getting a Life. The author describes how a person can meet themselves, know themselves, love themselves, and how to rediscover what it means to have a fulfilling and and happy life.

Linda Edgecombe understands that the pressures of people's lives cause them to lose focus and feel that their lives are beyond their own control. The author advising slowing life down to a more human and liveable speed, and shares the techniques for making that shift in speed. Linda Edgecombe demonstrates that everyone knows the answers to how they can fulfill their life's purpose. Those answers just get lost in all the noise and demands of everyday life. Linda Edgecombe offers a restful oasis to rest and refresh oneself, and to make the changes that will get an individual's life back into their own hands.



Linda Edgecombe (photo left) recognizes that a person can only be successful if they know who they are and what they really want to do in their lives. To assist people on this voyage of self discovery, the author shares some intriguing tools and has the individual ask their inner selves some deep and probing questions. Instead of living a fantasy, the author shares ideas for making those dreams a reality.

Linda Edgecombe presents three core questions, that everyone must ask and answer for themselves, as they keys to the shift. Those core questions are:

* Are you doing the best you can?

* Are you living on the deferred life plan?

* When was the last time you did something for the first time?

For me, the power of the book is how Linda Edgecombe combines the often difficult questions of one's life's direction with good humor and spontaneity. The author asks the reader to reflect on their own life, and on their future, and shares some engaging and fun practices for making what she calls a shift. Unlike many books on finding life's purpose, this book avoids the pain so often associated with and resulting from that introspection process. Through a healthy injection of humor and laughter, this book is a pleasure to read, and the practices a joy to consider for everyone.

I highly recommend the joy filled and inspirational book Shift or Get off the Pot: 26 Simple Truths About Getting a Life by Linda Edgecombe, to anyone seeking to make changes in their lives, or is looking for their life purpose, but lacks the guidance on their inner voyage. This book sets the course for a fresh new approach to life, filled with spontaneous events, laughter, and an exciting new lease on life.

Tags: Shift or Get off the Pot: 26 Simple Truths About Getting a Life, Linda Edgecombe, seeking life's purpose, business book reviews

Are You Smart Enough to Work at Google? by William Poundstone - Book review

Are You Smart Enough to Work at Google?

Trick Questions, Zen-like Riddles, Insanely Difficult Puzzles, and Other Devious Interviewing Techniques You Need to Know to Get a Job Anywhere in the New Economy

By: William Poundstone

Published: January 4, 2012
Format: Hardcover, 304 pages
ISBN-10: 031609997X
ISBN-13: 978-0316099974
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company










"Today's army of unemployed has made every company a Google. Unsexy firms now find themselves with multiple well-qualified applicants for each position. That is very good for the companies that are able to hire. Like Google, they get to cherry-pick the top talent in their fields. It's not so good for the applicants. They are confronting harder, ruder, more invasive vetting than ever before", writes respected author and journalist William Poundstone, in his strategy filled and must read book Are You Smart Enough to Work at Google? Trick Questions, Zen-like Riddles, Insanely Difficult Puzzles, and Other Devious Interviewing Techniques You Need to Know to Get a Job Anywhere in the New Economy.

William Poundstone describes how employers, inspired by the famous Google interviewing techniques, are utilizing those methods into their own search for employees. The author also provides real world examples, of the trickiest Google interview puzzles and riddles, to give employment seekers a head start on succeeding in the latest interviewing process.

William Poundstone recognizes that the interviewing techniques pioneered by Google, designed to uncover job applicants with superior creative thinking skills, are becoming mainstream tools in the corporate interview process. Companies seek creative thinkers as employees, and are valuing the creative problem solver more highly than an applicant with high academic grades. The author shares many of the most frequently encountered puzzles, describes their reasoning, and offers various solutions. William Pounstone notes that there is no real correct answer to any of these puzzles and riddle; only possibly better or alternative solutions. The problems and brain teasers my seem like child's play, but rather they are deadly serious measuring tools for sorting and hiring today's job seekers.



William Poundstone (photo left) guides the reader through a labyrinth of seemingly unsolvable and unusual problems, and offers insights into how and why they are so popular with Google; and now with other employers as well. The author points out that in the recession, there is an abundance of qualified applicants available for every job. That vast increase in potential employees accelerated the necessity of finding fresh techniques to screen out some of the many candidates. The interview tactic of choice was the mainstream acceptance of the Google creativity quiz based interview. Google utilized the puzzle method to find an average of one hire out of a typical pool of one hundred and thirty.

For me, the power of the book is how William Poundstone combines the reasoning behind the Google creativity based interview, with the typical mind bending puzzles that make up that interview process. William Pounstone describes in detail how the questions are posed, how to recognize the key elements of the puzzle, and ways to formulate creative solutions. The book is more than a cataloging of Google's most famous puzzles, but is also a guide to how and why this revolutionary interviewing method gained popularity across the corporate world.

At the same time, William Poundstone provides evidence that hiring managers utilize the Google method to mask various types of hidden agendas, and demonstrates how to decode those more subtle motives as well. Overall, the book is a well balanced discussion of a fascinating and controversial approach to applicant pre-screening, interviewing, and the final hiring of new employees. It remains to be seen if this interview approach will last; or if it's best suited to the hiring process at Google.

I highly recommend the engaging and intriguing book Are You Smart Enough to Work at Google? Trick Questions, Zen-like Riddles, Insanely Difficult Puzzles, and Other Devious Interviewing Techniques You Need to Know to Get a Job Anywhere in the New Economy by William Poundstone to anyone seeking a new job or career change, to hiring managers interested in the latest interviewing techniques, and to people who love to solve puzzles. This book will change the way you approach the interview, from either side of the desk, and prepares job applicants for meeting the challenge of the puzzle based interview. They are not found only at Google anymore.

Tags: Are You Smart Enough to Work at Google? Trick Questions, Zen-like Riddles, Insanely Difficult Puzzles, and Other Devious Interviewing Techniques You Need to Know to Get a Job Anywhere in the New Economy, William Poundstone, Google interviewing techniques, business book reviews

Yael Zofi: A Manager's Guide To Virtual Teams - Blog Business Success Radio

Listen to Wayne Hurlbert on Blog Talk Radio



Founder and CEO of AIM Strategies®, Applied Innovative Management®, and author of the authoritative and practical advice filled book A Manager's Guide to Virtual Teams, Yael Zofi, describes how virtual teams are reshaping the way we do business. Combining technology and globalization, virtual teams are the new face of teamwork in business. Yael Zofi offers advice for managing teams of people who are not in the same building, the same city, or even in the same country.

Yael Zofi shares real answers to the most frequently asked questions about virtual teams, and provides best practices to ensure peak performance from all team members. Discover how to set up a virtual team the right way from the very beginning of the project, and learn how to avoid the most frequent pitfalls and mistakes made in virtual team management. Yael Zofi demonstrates how to maximize the benefits of virtual teams, including how to manage trust, communication, defusing conflict, and managing the deliverables successfully.

Yael Zofi is my internet radio show guest on Blog Business Success; hosted live on BlogTalkRadio.

The show airs live on Tuesday, February 7, at 8:00 pm Eastern Time; 5:00 pm Pacific Time.

Founder and CEO of AIM Strategies®, Applied Innovative Management®, and author of the authoritative and practical advice filled book A Manager's Guide to Virtual Teams, Yael Zofi, describes how virtual teams are reshaping the way we do business. You will learn:

* Why virtual teams are being ever more important for companies

* How to set up and manage a virtual team the right way

* How to ensure that teams produce results and deliver the goods on time

* What is the future of virtual teams for business and for management



Yael Zofi (photo left) s the Founder and CEO of AIM Strategies®, Applied Innovative Management®. For 20+ years she has applied behavioral science techniques to organizations and teams and has dedicated her efforts to improving productivity in the areas of global leadership development, virtual team effectiveness and cross cultural communications.

Throughout her career, Ms. Zofi worked with clients in the high-tech, financial services, pharmaceutical, healthcare, electronics and media industries as well as non-profits and educational institutions. Her organizational development work focuses on helping leaders and teams become more successful through strategic alignment and guided change. She created assessment tools, facilitated global team strategy retreats, designed international talent management programs and lead merger integrations with three global organizations. Ms. Zofi also implemented process improvement, talent retention and performance management programs across three continents.

Prior to forming AIM Strategies®, Applied Innovative Management®, Ms. Zofi was Senior Vice President of Performance Management, Leadership and Organizational Development with J.P. Morgan.

While at Morgan, Ms. Zofi facilitated several global transformation initiatives, including working with senior management to implement performance, customer and organizational strategies aligned with new business directions, technologies and public policies. She worked in Asia (Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia), Latin America (Argentina, Brazil and Mexico) and Europe (UK, France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, as well as the Eastern Block). Prior to Morgan, she spent several years with Accenture (Change Management) and Price Waterhouse Coopers (Post-Merger Integration) working on business process re-engineering and leadership development assignments.

My book review of A Manager's Guide to Virtual Teams by Yael Zofi.

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 founder and CEO of AIM Strategies®, Applied Innovative Management®, and author of the authoritative and practical advice filled book A Manager's Guide to Virtual Teams, Yael Zofi, as she describes how virtual teams are reshaping the way we do business. Combining technology and globalization, virtual teams are the new face of teamwork in business. Yael Zofi offers advice for managing teams of people who are not in the same building, the same city, or even in the same country.

Yael Zofi shares real answers to the most frequently asked questions about virtual teams, and provides best practices to ensure peak performance from all team members. Discover how to set up a virtual team the right way from the very beginning of the project, and learn how to avoid the most frequent pitfalls and mistakes made in virtual team management. Yael Zofi demonstrates how to maximize the benefits of virtual teams, including how to manage trust, communication, defusing conflict, and managing the deliverables successfully on Blog Business Success Radio.

Tags: A Manager's Guide to Virtual Teams, Yael Zofi, virtual team management, Blog Business Success, Blog Talk Radio.

Results Without Authority - Second Edition by Tom Kendrick - Book review

Results Without Authority, Second Edition

Controlling a Project When the Team Doesn't Report to You

By: Tom Kendrick

Published: January 29, 2012
Format: Paperback, 276 pages
ISBN-10: 0814417817
ISBN-13: 978-0814417812
Publisher: AMACOM











"Projects are everywhere. Some of these projects succeed; others do not. Many projects fail because the project leader lacks sufficient control to keep things moving toward a successful conclusion". writes respected consultant, program manager, educator, and speaker Tom Kendrick, in his very systematic and results oriented book Results Without Authority, Second Edition: Controlling a Project When the Team Doesn't Report to You. The author describes why projects can and do fail, why so many teams operate under managers to whom they don't report, and provides the tools and techniques to ensure that any manager can achieve superior results even when lacking direct authority.

Tom Kendrick understands that managers who don't have direct authority over team members face difficult challenges in achieving the desired outcomes. For the author, this lack of control is a problem, but it's a problem with viable and practical solutions. Tom Kendrick guides the manager through the entire project management process spectrum, and shares his best practices and strategies for achieving successful results, regardless of the manager's authority level. The techniques offered by the author work for all types and sizes of projects, whether small and on site, or spread across several locations around the world.



Tom Kendrick (photo left) recognizes that managers who lack formal authority require additional tools and techniques to achieve project success. At the same time, the author also offers strategies, for managers who do have the formal authority, to avoid resorting to the counter-productive tactic of pulling rank on team members in order to gain the illusion of control. Tom Kendrick takes the manager through the entire project management process, revealing that the manager has more techniques to leverage for control, than are often thought to exist.

Tom Kendrick presents what he calls the three core elements of control. The core elements are as follows:

* Project processes where the manager defines clearly the project objectives and the term of its duration
* Influence where managers establish effective communication to build trust
* Metrics for measuring the progress of the project toward its goals

The author then takes those three core elements and applies them to improve processes, enhance influence, and creating metrics through the five universal phases of projects. The five phases are as follows"

* Initiating the project
* Planning the process and goals
* Executing the plan
* Monitoring the process and its outcomes
* Closing down the process

For me, the power of the book is how Tom Kendrick combines a very effective project management framework, with the strategies needed, for any manager to succeed on any size or type of project. The author provides the best practices for managers to gain and maintain control over projects and project teams, regardless of their formal authority level. The tools offered work well for a manager who has no authority; or for a manager who has full authority, but seeks to avoid the problems arising from pulling rank.

Tom Kendrick provides a useful and universal road map for navigating through entire projects from the very earliest planning stages to the final closing down of the project and the ending of the team. With this guide in hand, an experienced or first time manager will have the tactics needed to maintain control of the team, and achieve successful results every time.

I highly recommend the very hands on and essential project team management guide book Results Without Authority, Second Edition: Controlling a Project When the Team Doesn't Report to You by Tom Kendrick, to managers of any experience level, on any size or type of project, who seek to gain and maintain control over their teams to ensure superior results. This book will change the way all managers approach team management, even if they lack formal authority or are located far from the project management site.

Tags: Results Without Authority, Second Edition: Controlling a Project When the Team Doesn't Report to You, Tom Kendrick, project management teams, business book reviews

Punching Out: One Year In Closing An Auto Plant by Paul Clemens - Book review

Punching Out

One Year in a Closing Auto Plant

By: Paul Clemens

Published: January 17, 2012
Format: Paperback, 288 pages
ISBN-10: 0767926935
ISBN-13: 978-0767926935
Publisher: Anchor Books













"The trip to Mexico would cap a process that had begun two and a half years before, on May 15, 2006, when ThyssenKrupp Budd, citing the declining sales of the Ford SUVs for which it supplied components, announced that it would close its Detroit plant by year's end", writes award winning journalist Paul Clemens, in his thought provoking and often heart breaking book Punching Out: One Year in a Closing Auto Plant. The author describes the process of how the venerable and iconic Budd Company Detroit plant was dismantled and transported to Mexico, and shares stories of people's lives, the state of the auto industry, and of the future of work in America.

Paul Clemens understands the historic significance of the dismantling of the Budd Detroit plant as part of a larger decline in America's once unchallenged supremacy in manufacturing. The Detroit based auto industry was the symbol of that manufacturing might. Paul Clemens points to the pride of Detroit, and its central position in American industry, and how that place and its proud moments are now a fading memory. The taking apart, piece by piece, of the Budd plant in Detroit represents a microcosm of the end of an era in America. The author presents the plant closing as the slow death of American industry, and the removal of heart and dignity of the American working class.



Paul Clemens (photo © Elizabeth MacDonald left) presents an account that is both personal and a painful metaphor for the unsettling story of America's decline. Bit by bit, piece by piece, the entire Budd plant disappeared from Detroit, symbolizing the death of the American Dream. For working class Americans, the auto industry offered a middle class wage scale that was the key to the door of that Dream. With the piecemeal removal of the plant, the working class hopes vanished along with the factories.

Along with the ongoing decline of the former industrial power centers of America, the author raises troubling questions about the future of the United States. With the ending of the Industrial Era, the replacements which include the service and retail economies don't provide the same level of income, benefits, or security found in the auto plants. The author talks to the displaced auto workers, who expressed pride in their jobs and their desire to work hard to build a nation. Those once proud employees are no longer on the assembly lines, but are often in unemployment lines. For Paul Clemens, the American Dream wasn't intended to end that way. As a result, the author asks some painful questions about where middle class income based jobs will come from in the future.

For me, the power of the book is how Paul Clemens presents the story of one dismantled auto plant in Detroit, Michigan as a metaphor for the de-industrialization of America and the ending of the American Dream for the working class. The intense pride of the working people of Detroit, and of the United States as a whole, have taken a severe blow in the new harsh reality of globalization. Paul Clemens offers a human story, filled with real people, who felt that reality making an impact on their lives.

In a series of pieces of a single plant, is encapsulated the piece by piece dismantling of Industrial America. The lost jobs on the auto assembly lines represent the loss of power of trade unions and working class in late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Industrialization moves across the globe, but the decay, unemployment, and shattered American Dream remain very much at home. This story continues today, as the book is also a prophetic vision of the future for other cities, towns, factories, and working people awaiting their turn for a piece by piece removal of their lives.

I highly recommend the insightful and very frightening book Punching Out: One Year in a Closing Auto Plant by Paul Clemens, to anyone seeking a real world view inside the dismantling of industrial America. This book will take you to Detroit, to the new location in Mexico, and into the lives of the displaced workers whose stories of loss are still being written. How that story ends is yet to be determined.

Tags: Punching Out: One Year in a Closing Auto Plant, Paul Clemens, decline of American industry, business book reviews

Conversations for Creating Star Performers by Shawn Kent Hayashi - Book review

Conversations for Creating Star Performers

Go Beyond the Performance Review to Inspire Excellence Every Day

By: Shawn Kent Hayashi

December 12, 2011
Format: Paperback, 256 pages
ISBN-10: 0071779949
ISBN-13: 978-0071779944
Publisher: McGraw-Hill










"Imagine yourself having fun - what comes to mind? Now consider what causes you to perform well at work. Does work trigger the same emotions that playing does for you", writes executive coach and founder of The Professional Development Group, Shawn Kent Hayashi, in her engaging and very practical book Conversations for Creating Star Performers: Go Beyond the Performance Review to Inspire Excellence Every Day. The author describes managers want to develop star performers, and provides the skills and strategies for sharing the most insightful conversations to enhance job performance.

Shawn Kent Hayashi recognizes that many otherwise top performing employees are not producing results at their peak potential. For many employees, motivation and engagement on the job are lacking, and the author provides the reasons why those excellent employees are not inspired on a daily basis. At the same time, Shawn Kent Hayashi presents the managerial skills necessary to really connect, in a meaningful way, with employees that goes far beyond the employee review level. The author points out that performance appraisals are only one of many aspects of being a successful manager or coach, and how engagement starts with having meaningful conversations with employees.



Shawn Kent Hayashi (photo left) demonstrates how to transform the workplace into one where employees are engaged, motivated, and performing at the very highest levels, as well as receiving high grades on their performance reviews. The author offers the alternative approach of coaching, in place of that of helper, to initiate and sustain real change in employee behavior. Shawn Kent Hayashi shares strategies for coaching employees to not only achieve a higher skill level, but also how to coach team members to grow and expand their abilities into other high value areas.

Shawn Kent Hayashi shares strategies for developing new and enriching conversations with every employee to enhance engagement and release the latent star within them. By asking the right questions, and teaching the right skills, the coaching manager will:

* Build effective teams
* Engage team members to initiate their own growth and learning
* Build new and rewarding skills
& Develop high producing performers
* Help those new star performers achieve even greater success levels

For me, the power of the book is how Shawn Kent Hayashi provides a strong and viable framework for developing star employees. The author combines that theoretical base with the hands on strategies and daily practices for engaging and motivating team members. The author's coaching model for employee skill development transforms the team culture into one that creates and rewards winners. The author also goes beyond the traditional employee review process and replaces it with meaningful conversations that engage and inspire employees to achieve success.

I highly recommend the essential and game changing book Conversations for Creating Star Performers: Go Beyond the Performance Review to Inspire Excellence Every Day by Shawn Kent Hayashi, to any managers seeking a road map toward engaging employees and transforming them into the star performers needed in today's highly competitive marketplace. This book will change the way you view employee engagement, and turn the often feared employee review process into productive and inspirational conversations with your new superstar performers.

Tags: Conversations for Creating Star Performers: Go Beyond the Performance Review to Inspire Excellence Every Day, Shawn Kent Hayashi, employee engagement strategies, business book reviews