Book Description

Lead and Succeed in Both Business and Life!

• See opportunity amid change and crisis
• Lead with communicaiton, encouragement, and promotion
• Assemble and maintain a top-notch team
• Recognize the ten telltale behaviors of true leaders

Reviews (4)

Leaders Are Not Born But Made--It Begins Here!!
It's an easy read and can be applied immediately to you situation. The book brings the basics of leadership traits and principles to the reader similar to the military leadership books I've read in the USMC. So many times have I held jobs where a manager, although excellent in managing projects, through some lack of sensitity or judgement created an uproar that cause moral to fall and people to become resentful and leave. There are many stories in the press of managers and CEOs restricting "bathroom breaks", playing favorites, freezing wages and laying off employees while taking huge "bonuses" like American Airlines and ENRON. What's present here is basic but essential information for anyone in a leadership roll whether at work, church functions, or managing a family trip. This should be required reading for everyone BEFORE you find yourself in a situation as leader. The boss could be out for a whole month tommorrow. Can you keep the team working smoothly while the boss is out or is it party time?

Leadship for the Dumb
This is a remarkably barren book, perhaps the worst I have ever read. The author considers the epitome of leadership to be a left wing american-football-quarterback save-the-whale ban-the-bomb activist. If you are not athletic nor overly sentimental with the obsessions of nanny-state socialism you will find this book patronozing and offensive.

It is also without content - the discourse within being bluff, baffle, waffle, twaddle and blag. There is no inspiration or insight to be gleaned, not even to the degree of a crude platitude.

A better book for leadership is Henry V with its lessons in luminous articulation and its ideal of the noble spirit. It doesnt pretend to have the breadth of Leadership for Dummies, but then what use is an ocean of salt water when you are begging for a cup of tea. ;oD

Not Managing, but Leading
The authors do a great good of presenting leadership principles and not managing theories.

Leadership for Dummies
Having just completed a "Leadership" MBA program at at local University, I was pleased to find this "Dummies" book.

The book introduces many different aspects leadership, in a interesting manner, similar to all of the other "Dummies" series.

The book tells us what it takes to be a leader, the leadership process, the art of leadership, vision and team building.

at 358 pages the book provides an good understanding of what it takes to be a leader, and how we can develop our own skills to develop into effective leaders.

The book was exteremely effective in reinforcing the same leadership principles discussed in my MBA program...but for those of you who don't want to spend the $5K on an MBA leadershiop course..thsi book will get you there!

Strong recommendation...does that mean I am a Dummy? ... Read more

Book Description

"The transformation of corporate culture…has largely

eluded the recent wave of performance improvement

innovations. Connors and Smith fill this gap by…outlining

how their processes for culture change work not only in

theory but also in practice. This volume provides hands-on,

concrete tools for helping organizations fulfill their

potential." — Chairman and CEO, Eli Lilly and Company ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Long Term Success Must Read
One of the most challenging things for people to do is open their minds and accept new ideas and/or new thoughts about old ideas. Journey To the Emerald City affords readers the rare opportunity to overcome this challenge.

Following the metaphor developed in their best-selling book, The Oz Principle, Connors and Smith dive into the core issue surrounding the achievement of results in organizations...the company's culture. Simply put, the culture of the organization actually determines the results the company will achieve. Connors and Smith clearly let us know that the company culture is how the company both thinks and acts.

As readers of The Oz Principle found, the answers to the problems that plague most of us are most often found within ourselves. Journey To The Emerald City picks up where Oz left off. This is a step-by-step guide to first understanding your current culture and then defining what it needs to become in order to attain and even exceed your expected levels of achievement.

As a former TEC Chair, I had the privilege of working intimately with CEO's and Presidents of companies ranging in revenue from just under $2M to over $60M. One of the hardest steps any of these successful leaders had to take was creating a Culture of Accountability within their organizations. The reason for the challenge was painfully clear, most leaders do not know how to create a culture of accountability, let alone really understand what such a culture looks and acts like. More and more senior leadership teams are searching for the "magic program" to make people "more accountable." Happily, Journey provides just that program, but it isn't magic. It's practical and simple to understand. It's implementable, right now. It doesn't require any special training to understand, and in the face of potential return on investment of time, it stands head and shoulders above all other ideas on the subject.

In Journey, you will find a model called "The Results Pyramid." To borrow a phrase, this model is profoundly simple and simply profound. Readers will find their thoughts leading to circumstances and situations that exemplify and validate the model without effort. The beauty of the model is that it helps leaders define their business case for change, as well as defining the path along which the organization must be aligned in order to achieve success.

Readers are introduced (or reintroduced for readers of Oz) to the best practices that actually define "The Steps to Accountability," See It, Own It, Solve It and Do It. It is these best practices that, when applied and practiced within an organization, will lead to success. Connors and Smith clearly define the path and the processes necessary to change an organizational culture.

The final section of the book deals with accelerating the culture change within the organization. It's no secret that certain activities will impede and others will accelerate any change. Connors and Smith promote the use of what they call, "Focused Feedback" to accelerate and achieve the desired changes. Leadership is the key and the entire organization needs to be enrolled.
In making my decision to delve into this book, several things are worthy of note. First, as I mentioned, I have dealt with senior leadership for several years and believe they know they don't have all the answers. I wanted to have another tool to give them. Second, I read a review by someone who was frustrated with the book because he felt it was merely a promotional piece for the authors to sell their consulting services. This intrigued me because I have yet to meet an author of business and leadership books (myself included) who didn't want to be contacted by their readers and hopefully create some business relationship between these readers and themselves.

Lastly, I read The Oz Principle when it was first published in 1994. I have yet to find another business book that created as deep a feeling about "the right thing to do" as Oz did for me. Journey To The Emerald City runs a very close second. Having been exposed to authors writing about accountability from T.J. Rodgers to Jack Welsh and back to Andrew Grove and the Marines and our service academies, I understand the subject quite well (both as a service academy graduate and as a consultant). This book is a must in today's business environment. The stories support and motivate. The process is direct and clearly defined.

If you have the least concern for how to evolve, grow and define your company's future success, Journey To The Emerald City is required reading.

Gain a competitive Edge
In Journey to the Emerald City, Connors and Smith present the principles that make organizational culture THE competitive edge for the 21st Century. They describe in useful, applicable, and concrete ways how to blast away boundaries, create ownership, and drive performance by creating a culture of accountability. Applying the process found in Journey will give any organization a competitive edge!

David Mathisen
Sr. Vice President & General Manager
Orbital Transportation Management Systems

Good Content, Don't Need Toto
In 1998, the authors wrote The Oz Principle around the concept that "an organization will perform at its highest potential if, and only if, each of its members assumes personal accountability for achieving its results." Thus, Conners and Smith emphasize a corporate culture that is based on personal accountability, with leaders, goals, tasks, teams, and every aspect of organizational life connected to that theme.

I will admit to being put off by the title and the cover. Wizard of Oz? Dorothy and her red shoes? The Cowardly Lion? Do I have time for fables and games? There are some mentions of Frank Baum's classic, some quotes, and some relationships like explaining that managers don't have magic. Overall, however, this book is a solid management book on changing organizational culture. And that's a vital issue for a lot of companies today.

The book is organized into three sections whose titles give good insight into the value and flow of the text: Understanding Company Culture, Shifting to a New Culture, and Accelerating Culture Change. The ten chapters explain the concepts and a process for moving forward in an organized, results-oriented fashion. The book is filled with practical approaches that can open a company to achievements that have been trapped inside by a dysfunctional culture. The key is accountability that starts at the top of the organization with an open and complete style of leadership. No games: communication.

The authors show us how to change the way people think and act. They show how to get people involved in a positive way so transformation can occur. Culture change is a journey, a journey that can be taken at an agonizingly slow pace, a normal flow (whatever that is), or moved to a higher level of velocity and enthusiasm. Graphics and an index enhance the book's value, which is far beyond the connection to the Oz story.

You'll learn from consultants who have "been there" and achieved results. The knowledge you gain will enable you to achieve some change in your organization based on what these men have learned and share in this book.

It's to Laugh
Many business books are a form of utopian literature and should be treated as such. Given this premise, one would think that a book with a title like "Journey to the Emerald City" would be a top-notch business book as it suggests the authors might have a certain awareness of this genre.

Unfortunately, this in not the case here. Instead, this is yet another entry in the "book as selling tool" sweepstakes. In this sub-genre of the business book, the book is the foot-in-the-door for selling consulting services. Little more than a powerpoint presentation fleshed out with the usual miscellaneous facts and figures, these books are short on everything but jargon. They offer middle managers cozy, self-evident insights and simplistic advice that most company employees find insulting or at least insipid. (Around our office, the charts in the first chapter that show "non-aligned" and "aligned" processes and goals are considered a fine example of this facile and fallacious sub-genre as they keenly demonstrate the obvious in the most obvious fashion possible.)

Business books are not known for their sense of humor, certainly, because as we all know, business is extraordinarily serious. Yet, lack of wit and self-awareness are not virtures either. Nor is the plodding purposefulness with which the authors describe their "innovative" approach, although again, they are clearly in good company in this genre.

A shame really, especially since clearly the publishers felt strongly enough about the book to spend some extra bucks on shiny green foil on the jacket. Then again, perhaps the title is more apt than I take it to be. Like in the Wizard of Oz, we find there is no wizard behind the flashy curtain and special effects, but rather the usual seller of snake oil.

An Excellent Book!
An Excellent Book.. A must for all the mangers in any organisation. ... Read more

Book Description

Who are people pleasers? They are the people who say yes, when they want to say no¿the perennial nice person whose resentment is concealed behind their public ¿happy face.¿ Now best-selling author and frequent Oprah guest Dr. Harriet Braiker offers help for anyone who has ever felt the resentment of giving 100% of themselves to others and getting nothing in return. The Disease to Please explodes the dangerous myth that ¿people pleasing¿ is a benign problem. It is the first book to treat people pleasing as a serious psychological syndrome and it breaks new ground in its approach to offer a cure. Dr. Braiker offers a 21-Day Action Plan for curing the Disease to Please. A daily psychological workout and skills-training program, it will help readers replace the compulsion to comply with a more conscious and reasoned choice to care. The Disease to Please includes: ¿ Extensive case studies ¿ Diary and journal formats to help recovery ¿ An effective three-stage short-term therapy approach ... Read more

Reviews (3)

A+ for Harriet Braiker
I have recommended this book to so many people. I only hope that whoever reads it will follow the message.
This is an important book. I think it is a critical read for anyone who has been abused, used or taken advantage of. It is important for the individual to understand why and how they got to be in the position and how they aquired the "Disease to Please".

Insightful!
Why do some people try so hard to please others that end up pleasing no one - including themselves? Harriet B. Braiker anchors this phenomenon in early childhood problems, such as guilt or low self-esteem, and shows how it harms adult relationships, including those at work. Although she emphasizes interpersonal relationships off the job, executives, managers and employees at all levels will still find her book helpful in life and in work. Braiker describes three primary manifestations (compulsive behavior, distorted thinking, and avoidance of negative feelings) of being a people-pleaser, and notes that this problem can stem from a personal mind-set, a habit or an intense aversion to conflict. Most helpfully, she explains strategies for more productive behavior. Sometimes the explanations and self-help quizzes become repetitive, but her examples keep the book's pace flowing. Thus we [...] recommend this book as - dare we say it? - a real crowd pleaser.

THE DISEASE TO PLEASE
This book is one of the most important and helpful self help books which I have ever read. I felt as if it were written directly with me in mind. The author has been a practicing clinical psychologist for 25 years and gives examples through her patients' history's of problems and how they have been helped. In addition to that, she gives very specific ways that you, the reader, can apply these principles to your daily life. You might think that women have this problem more than men but that is not necessarily true. My husband is now reading this book and my grown children are also. You find that it helps you to understand not only yourself better but others as well. She writes in an easy to understand way. This is a book where you find yourself reading every word. There is nothing here which is not relevant or to the point. It has become, for me, a kind of textbook which I refer back to. In fact, she encourages the reader to read with a highlighter and to use the book as you would a textbook. I recommend this book to everyone except those who already feel that they know everything. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Excellent Confidence Builder
This audio book was one of the best I have ever listened to. It was very informative and keeps you on your seat to learn more. ... Read more

Book Description

1 cassette / 90 minutes
Read by the Author

Tom Peters--brilliant, original, and perhaps the most inspiring and listened-to business thinker of our time--has a lot on his mind these days. And he wants to share it in The Circle of Innovation.

The world of business is in a permanent state of flux, he argues, a state of chaos in which constant innovation is the only survival strategy--for the individual and for the organization. And he presents here a lifesaving handbook--both provocative and practical--designed to turn any organization into a perpetual innovation machine.

In 400 seminars in 47 states and 22 countries in the last five years, Peters has reexamined, refined, and reinvented his views on innovation. Now he brings those seminars--and his passion--to the reader in a landmark book. It is meant, he writes, to both "terrify" and "enlighten." These are "times of matchless peril for those who fail to grasp the nettle...and times of matchless opportunity for those who do."

To keep us alert, limber, and ready for action, he provokes and cajoles in chapter after chapter. Among his institutions and revelations:

• We Are All Michelangelos. He shows how to transform every "jobholder" into a full-fledged businessperson.
  
• All Value Comes from the Professional Services. How to convert sluggish staff units into Vital Centers of Intellectual Capital Accumulation.
  
• The System is the Solution. How to build great systems--which go far beyond nuts and bolts.
  
• Create Waves of Lust. Quality is not the automatic advantage it recently was. There is a pressing need to reverse the rising tide of product and service "commoditization."
  
• Tommy Hilfiger Knows. In a crowded marketplace, branding is far more important than ever before.
  
• It's a Woman's World. How to capitalize on the fact that women purchase/are purchasing agents for well over half of U.S. commercial and consumer goods.
  
• Little Things Are the Only Things. As the Blight of Sameness encroaches on market after market, design is often the best tool in services or manufacturing for sustainable differentiation.
  
• We're Here to Live Life Out Loud. Why transformational leaders of the future must have laser-like focus, tell the truth, and live on the lunatic fringe.
  

Reviews (48)

Plenty of P. T. Barum pizazz, breaking all book 'rules'.
Peters zeros in on innovation as the touchstone for success, along with a passionate presentation of fifteen other related ideas such as: distance is dead; destruction is cool; we are all Michelangelos; welcome to the white - collar revolution; the intermediary is doomed; and the system is the solution. The book's visual layout model's its theme which is - It is the end of the world as we know it, so whatever made you successful in the past won't in the future. What, then, can you do? The answer is...innovation! This is another WOW book, exuding the excitement and novelty that makes Tom Peters, himself, a living example of what he passionately and entertainingly writes about. Peters delivers content in a form that breaks all book 'rules,' using a plethora of P. T. Barnum pizazz. Among business books, that's innovative! I don't think Peters expects or wants you to read this book, but to experience it. It is a bit more like a roller-coaster than a book, with zigs and zag! s and lots of zip. Still, for all its flare, this is not a ground-breaking work, falling short of Peters' Liberation Management.

Wow! Innovate the Tom Peters Way
Be warned that if you like unusual formats, you'll find this book refreshing. If you hate anything unusual, you may not like this book.

The Circle of Innovation is written in slide book form. This is the form that consultants use for seminars. Each exhibit that the seminar attendees will see is included, along with a page of script that covers the content of the exhibit. The result is highly enjoyable, as you vicariously imagine being in the room with Tom Peters, the world's most sought-after business speaker.

The exhibits are wonderfully funny and evocative, and use all kinds of visual tricks to get and keep your attention. I had people all over the plane looking over my shoulder to see them, as I read the book on a recent flight.

Tom Peters also walks his talk, and really lives with passion -- which strongly comes through in this book. His interpretations of the world are almost always tied to quotes from important thinkers and business leaders, which gives the book a relevance and immediacy that a more intellectual book would have lacked.

I found this book to be very satisfying to read. It affected me at a very fundamental level, so I could tell that I was "getting" the message. The result is a most impressive example of a way to communicate through books. The principles seem to be sound in most cases (although not all markets are dominated by women purchasers -- such as boxing gloves, football tickets, Viagra, etc. -- but many are, such as cars), and they should stimulate your thinking to expand the scope of the innovations you think about.

The book could have been improved with a consideration of processes that work better than others for getting the innovation work done. For that assistance, you will have to look elsewhere. In the meantime, do read, think about, enjoy, and apply the lessons of The Circle of Innovation.

Another good book on innovation is Peter Drucker's Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

Decent reading
Don't be overwhelmed by the size of this book. You can go through it rather quickly since most of the pages have graphical text - big fonts and just like PPT presentations. If you are not used to or don't like graphics and presentations, you may have a hard time with this book (as you can see from other reviews). But it is kind of a breakthough book in terms of the style.
Most of the ideas are very useful, most of the examples are very genuine in how it relates to the theory.

For those who may be annoyed with the style of this book, my only request is, look beyond the style for the content or the gist.

Good and original
This book is both good and original. The part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good.

WOW!!!
"The Circle" was recommended to me by a colleauge just a few short weeks ago and I must say it has changed my life in a way I would not have thought possible. It has changed the way I look at my job, my customers, people in other service industries and life in general. I firmly believe that you would be hard pressed to not find some sort of nugget in this book that would make each and every one of you say "WOW!!! I never thought of this like that!?!?!" It is an awesome guide to business and to life, the only warning I have is to be careful if you decide to pick it up because it holds the power to forever change the way you do business or live life and if you aren't ready for the changes that will come they could be mindboggling. To all who choose to grab this and embrace it - I wish you Good Luck and hope it affects you in the same ways it has me. ... Read more

Book Description

Success can be yours with Zig Ziglar's Sell Your Way To The Top!
Learn from America's sales mentor

Drawing on his own proven selling strategies that build successful sales careers, mega-bestselling author Zig Ziglar (Goals, How To Get What You Want) tells you how to turn every no into a yes and improve your prospecting, overcome price objections, and close more deals with finesse and style.

Combining vivid scenarios and crystal clear instructions, Ziglar will motivate you to reach your peak as a sales star. You'll learn how to add the personal touch to client relations making you more effective than ever at demonstrating the need for your product or service. With these important skills, you'll become a word merchant who paints verbal pictures that capture your client's full attention.

More than a guide to closing one single sale, Sell Your Way To The Top will help you open the door to a profitable sales career -- because no one can teach you how to make your sales percentages skyrocket like Zig Ziglar can. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Zig is an excellent presenter
An Excellent and easy listen. I've listened to my casettes over and over - his tips are simple and very useful, his analogies clear and very humerous. All in all - very well worth having.

Doesn't do much!
Maybe good enough when you need a quick pep talk. Hardly anything new or interesting. Don't waste your money.

Zig gets me going!
Im in my 5th year selling housewares at Macys and I sometimes turn to Zig before I go to work to help remind me of what Im supposed to be doing at work--selling! I recomend the tapes for anyone considering a sales career or actually in a sales career.
Thanks Zig.

Easy to listen to
This tape kept my interest and made me laugh while giving me great sales tips. As a salesperson I found it motivating.

zig is cheesy but effective
When i started listening to the book my first thought was that this guy is an absolute cheese ball. but then i was taken back... i realized while his examples were all cheesy, they proved to be effective examples... they give you an idea of what you should do at that point in the sale... while i dont recomend using his lines, i do recomend this book, and understanding the points he is making with his cheesy lines... ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (6)

On Target
Bert Decker is on target with "You've got to be Believed..He helps us understand how our mind works and what works with the people we speak to. Its more than just saying the words. Mr. Decker gives the reader critical insight into the communication process. This is a must read for those who truly want to connect .The information learned is based on proven principles that are timeless.Effective communication is the lifeblood to effective living. This book nails it!

Repetitive and a bore!
The main premise of this book is that you, as a speaker, must speak in such a manner that the listener will believe you on a subconscious level, that is, with their "first brain," the primitive brain consisting of the brain stem and limbic system and opposed to the "new brain," that advanced, intellectual, conscious part developed later in our evolution and known as the cerebral cortex. This is accomplished by speaking naturally, comfortably, and with animation, speaking the truth. Unfortunately, the author takes the first 70 pages to establish this premise, something that could easily have been done in 10 pages. He provides example after example of speakers who do and do not speak to the first brain.

I could not finish this book because it was so dreadfully boring, repetitive and annoying! The editor should have slashed through half the text and tightened it up. An example of unnecessary writing follows: "If one is telling the truth there is nothing to be nervous about. And confidence will show. And listeners will see it. The continuous mind chatter of the listener will tell him or her about the behavior of the communicator. And what will be believed and trusted. Or not..." (Two paragraphs later) "So we need to establish trust immediately if we are to be believed. In your first meeting with a huge potential client in a selling situation-you need to establish trust. When you are in a seemingly compromising situation that is perceived erroneously-you need to establish trust. When you are the leader of a new group-you need to establish trust. You must get to trust, or you get nowhere." What's that again? Trust, you say? This type of writing goes on for PAGES!

If you, as a speaker, stand behind a podium, move very little, speak in a monotone voice, and recite facts from a piece of paper, then this book could not hurt you. If you are already adept at speaking to an audience from your heart with animation, then pass this up. It will be painful. I tried for several days to finish this book and just couldn't. And for me, that is rare.

Bert Decker Knows How to Talk
This book provides the reader with a wonderful series of insights about how public speaking works. There are none of the old stereotypes -- and there is none of the usual advice (ie seeing the audience in their underwear). This is fresh information, delivered by a master. The kind of book that will make a difference in your life if public speaking is occasionally important to you.

An excellent how-to guide to persuasive public speaking
One of the greatest fears the average person has is public speaking.Most people end up reading presentations,voices racing in a monotone,sweaty hands gripping a podium. This book gives both a conceptual and practical guide to persuasive public speaking.It explains why certain techniques are more interesting to listeners and how to adapt those techniques to develop your own style. The authors don't have any magic, no effort tricks.Like most things,to look effortless in public speaking requires practice,practice,practice.BUt the time spent will reap immeasurable returns.

Break through book teaches young and old how to be heard
This book teaches the young and the old to communicate to their full potential. You learn how to not only convince other people, but to convince yourself as well. This book touches on everything from sitting posture to language spoken. A must read to suceed in business and in life!!!! ... Read more

Book Description

"We have little tolerance for the politics, the pettiness, the fixation on rank and status, or the insensitivity to employees' needs that people in most big companies endure as a matter of course."

Ken Iverson, the Chairman of Nucor Corporation, says many things you wouldn't expect to hear from a Fortune 500 executive. But then, few top executives are such fervent champions of the front-line worker. Now, in Plain Talk, this visionary maverick shares valuable lessons about what it takes to build a super-competitive, world-class business.

Nucor -- a $3.8 billion dynamo of profitable growth -- disdains committees, job descriptions, performance appraisals, and everything else bearing the taint of bureaucracy. Nucor has never laid off an employee or shut down a facility for lack of work. Instead, the company has followed Iverson's controversial "painsharing" approach. When times get tight, everyone takes paycuts -- starting with the executives at the top.

Iverson led Nucor Corporation from near oblivion to its current place as America's third-largest steel company. In the process, he showed a once-faltering U.S. steel industry the road back to global competitiveness.

Plain Talk is unlike any business book you've ever listened to before. No pat leadership formulas. No intricate management models. Just a legendary business maverick, speaking straight to you.

Reviews (8)

Packed With Knowledge!
Perhaps the highest praise for this refreshing little memoir is this: if certain other captains of industry had read Ken Iverson's book when it was published in 1998 and heeded its advice, investors would have been spared billions in losses and a slew of corporate scandals would have been averted. Iverson, head of steel maker Nucor Corporation, injects much-needed common sense into the often-bureaucratic, hierarchical world of corporate boardrooms and corner offices. This persuasive text, written in the sort of clear, muscular prose you'd expect from a steel man, will make you want to give up your executive parking space and embrace an egalitarian corporate structure. We recommend this engaging work to managers who want to look at their jobs a new way.

In Headlong Pursuit of a Shared Purpose...
Ken Iverson has truly earned the right to be called a "Business Maverick".In this book he explains how the culture he created at Nucor became "60% of their competative advantage".He explains how breaking down hierarchy and opening the lines of true communication in all directions can propel a business to success.

His unique, but successful, techniques at time agree with, and at times flies in the face of, McGregor, classical management theorists, and others who have studied management, communications and human resources.

In chapters entitled, "A Higher Cause", "Trust Your Instincts", "Destroy the Hierarchy", "A Simple Stake in the Business", "The Virtues of Smallness", "Ethic Over Politics", and others Mr. Iverson relates how you too, if you are willing to work hard enough at it, can "turn a confused, tired old company on the brink of bankruptcy into a star player...", while learning that "many of the so-called 'necessary evils' of life in corporate America are, in fact, not necessary".

Brilliant
This is a fantastic and priceless book, by a man who turned an almost bankrupt company around, to a company doing over $4 billion a year in business, with much profit. It's an inspiring book, that gives you faith in human nature...all you have to do is appeal to peoples' best impulses to get them to perform well and enthusiastically (the MANAGERS had to rescue a union organizer from the WORKERS, who wanted nothing to do with unions. Imagine that! WORKERS being hostile to the union representative, and MANAGERS, rescuing him from a hostile group!) This may be the greatest business book ever written, frankly!! I'm almost loath to recommend it, God forbid my competitors should read it!....

simple, effective framework for a profitable company
Ken details the mechanics of a simple, effective, decentralized framework that aligns the goals of the employees, management, and customers. Base salaries are below industry median. The bonus of a manager depends on the return on equity (capital + equipment + human) that s/he generates. Each team's bonus is tied directly to what they produce.

The higher up the manager (there are four layers including CEO), the higher the proportion of of paycut during down times.

Has simple effective metrics to monitor the health of each decentralized unit (half a dozen including sales, productivity, expenses).

A good mechanism to set goal and measure performance for a business generating tangible goods. Not sure how this could beapplied to more intangible value added activities such as IT and software engineering

Hits Home
The bottom line? Ken Iverson has essentialy created the magic of Einstein. How? Well Einstein's genius was in the abilty to simplify things, hence E=MC squared. Ken has taken the complicated corporate structure and makesit amazingly simple, but you will have to work.I just bought another 10copies. ... Read more

Book Description

1997 BDD Audio. Audio tape discussing a method that goes beyond the old rules of competition and cooperation to combine the advantages of both toward a highprofit means of leveraging business relationships. The term co-opetition coined by the author. Audio Tape. ... Read more

Reviews (32)

Stellar business strategies with real world examples!
Co-opetition debuted before the net arrived commercially, however it could easily have been written about today's hyper-speed corporate environment. (Many companies in the Dot-bomb dead-pool may have benefited from this kind of rational strategic thinking.) As the title indicates, the book is about competition and cooperation in the marketplace. Much of that discussed in the book stems from game theory, determining what moves to make in a game (or marketplace) based on the anticipated actions of the other players. The book presents numerous case studies from a variety of businesses. Each example provides a background of the competitive environment, the implications of different possible moves, and ultimately explains the results of each particular decision. It's a fantastic book, and contains valuable lessons for decision-makers in virtually any capacity.

Co-opetition is especially for those interested in game theory and business strategy. It brings to light the fact that no decision is made in isolation, and demonstrates that a win at all costs mentality is often not the most successful plan of action. Learn to analyze a situation, understand the scenarios that may result because of particular actions, move forward with a better understanding, and well thought out contingency plans for anticipated counter moves.

Creating better strategies using game theory
Just out of college I was very enthusiastic to use game theory to solve business problems. But never found a way to use it. That was forty years ago. This is the first book that transforms a wonderful theory into something you can apply. The three key concepts are the "value net", PARTS and role-playing. The value net is a simple model of the players to consider. Not just your business and your client, but also the competitors, suppliers and complementors (a complimentor adds value to your product like mustard to hot dogs). PARTS are five ways to look at the game. P from players-who are they; may be add new ones, A from Added Value- how much value do you add to the game, if any, R from Rules-can the rules be changed, T from tactics, and S from Scope- making the game bigger. With role-playing I refer to putting yourself in the shoes of all the other players. How do they see the game? The book contains many practical examples. Some of these do not require game theory to think of them but without game theory you would never see all the interesting options. The book also has "spiritual" content. It shows how to find "win-win" theories and avoid price wars that are "lose-lose".Very worthwhile.

Outstanding for developing an effective competitive mindset
This is an important book to read for anyone involved in competitive strategy development and/or negotiations. Businesses are realizing that striving for a win-win situation in competitive negotiations is the preferred long-term approach as opposed to "crushing the competition at all costs". This book helps to develop the "gaming" mindset and does so in an easy to read, example filled way. Good addition to a business strategy library.

A ¿must-read¿ for sure
First of all I should state that this book is the kind that will make you ask yourself "Why have I not read it before?"! I strongly recommend it and shortly I will try to explain whom I recommend it and why.

In fact, we are not talking about some recent business book, and therefore the potential reader should not expect to see very recent cases as support to arguments discussed. But still, the issues are very systematically, clearly and simply explained, although the examples that are used to support the arguments are "old".

I met this "potential classic business book" (or maybe already a "classic business book") as I began to be interested in game theory. Therefore I can easily declare that "Co-opetition" is very appropriate for a person who would like to see solid, practical and especially business-oriented application areas of game theory. With this book, a "101 game theorist" can try and improve herself easily. But on the other hand, this doesn't mean that the only target readers of the book are the ones that are interested in game theory. The authors have achieved to develop and illustrate practical recommendations for business world by utilizing game theory concepts. So anyone who is business life will benefit from the concepts for sure.

The language and the methods of explanation are very clear, far from being complicated and straightforward. The authors have supported all the major concepts and conclusions by using real-life examples. This way, the reader has more "reasons" to learn and remember the arguments discussed throughout the book. The logical order and the simple modular approach used to lead the discussions also help the reader understand everything explained easily. Although the book is in fact a "strategy book", the reader does not have to be someone with background information on strategy. But still, if the reader already has some background in strategic analysis, then the book offers a much more beneficial and enjoyable read. On top of everything, the nice but "not-so-difficult-to-handle complexity" of game theory itself is the real pleasure of the book.

I recommend this book to college students who are to enter business life shortly, to people with active roles in strategic decision making processes of their corporations and to people who are interested in game theory but who don't want to cope with the mathematical models of it. Have a nice read...

Change the game a bit more than this, please
The name of the game in this book is 'get the biggest possible slice of the biggest possible pie'. '90% of $2,300 is a lot better than 50% of $2,600'. Says who? Says Barry Nalebuff.

They acknowledge that people instinctively start out by trying to get an equitable slice of a reasonably sized pie, and protect everyone else's pie at the same time - but you know what? With a little judicious ridicule, you can cure people of that attitude.

Suppose we don't want to be cured?

Nalebuff & Brandenburger regard business as both war and peace. But they see war only in its 'territory & asset-grabbing' sense, and peace, well, only in its 'territory & asset-grabbing' sense.

War on want? What's that? Real peace? What's that?

One person, in one of their audiences, proposed that business was neither war, nor peace, but marriage. Note that 'marriage' is not mentioned in the index. Note that 'divorce, threat of' is.

Co-opetition is what happens if you use co-operation to serve competition. If you'd like to see - in the interests of fair-mindedness - what happens if you put competition in the service of co-operation (comperation?), go read 'Banker to the Poor' by Mohammad Yunus. If you'd like to see the friendly face of big business, go to Amazon.co.uk (this edition not listed on Amazon.com) and put 1854105779 in the search field.

Better yet, put 'grameen' into Google, and find out why 2,300,000 people of a whole variety of faiths remember this man in their daily prayers. I'm a Quaker, and I do.

In short, while these guys were trying to teach people to make a killing, Muhammad Yunus was busy trying to help people make a living.

Comperation forever. ... Read more