Business Think: Rules for Getting It Right-Now, and No Matter What! - Hardcover

Marcum, Dave; Smith, Steve; Khalsa, Mahan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0471219932 ISBN 13: 9780471219934

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, 2002

Synopsis

Research shows that over fifty percent of all business decisions fail; sixty percent of all businesses fail before the sixth year, and eighty-two percent go under before their tenth anniversary; and eight out of every ten new products fail. In direct contrast, research also shows that ninety-one percent of all businesspeople are as confident as ever in making decisions. Decision confidence is up. Success is down. While we are an inventive, entrepreneurial society, an innovation explosion has also been tagged with a business implosion. What gives?

businessThink is a revolutionary new method that bridges the monumental gap between the results businesses and people want and the failure they often get. This book is the only business training that tomorrow's leaders will need to consistently create effective solutions and take themselves and their associates into the zone of optimum performance.

businessThink transforms readers into businessthinkers with provocative new rules for accelerating work while revitalizing the enterprise. With rules like "Check Your Ego at the Door," "Move Off the Solution," "Get Evidence," and "Create Curiosity."

businessThink promises to significantly increase results by delivering hard core business thinking and fusing it with high intuition and emotional intelligence that open up, rather than shut down, thinking and collaboration. Effectively blended, these skills become the new business intelligence that is needed to get it right-no matter what.

FranklinCovey is the world's premier leadership development organization, whose client portfolio includes eighty-two of the Fortune 100 companies and more than two-thirds of the Fortune 500 companies. With 45 offices in 38 countries, FranklinCovey employs 3,500 associates.

Dave Marcum has a unique blend of management experience with positions ranging from VP of Sales & Marketing, to Chief Operating Officer in the publishing industry, to Business Transformation Leader at FranklinCovey, a 500 million dollar company. Dave is a respected authority in complex sales and has worked with companies across the globe like EDS, Andersen, Microsoft, and Accenture.

Steve Smith has two degrees in management and psychology. He has been a human resources manager inside a Fortune 500 company, an entrepreneur starting his own consulting firm, and head of development of FranklinCovey's The 4 Roles of Leadership. He has presented management programs to clients such as Nike, Hard Rock Cafe, and the U.S. Air Force.

Mahan Khalsa is a world-renowned expert in business development, whose clients include Arthur Andersen, Microsoft, and Walt Disney. He graduated with honors in economics from UCLA and has an MBA from Harvard. Mahan is Vice President of the Sales Performance Group at FranklinCovey Co.

About this title

Review:

Businesses will only achieve their true potential, according to Dave Marcum, Steve Smith, and Mahan Khalsa, when the people that run them learn to "think business." In businessThink, the authors, all corporate veterans now with the FranklinCovey leadership development organization, propose eight rules that create a framework for cultivating this different thought process. "Most people are just going through the motions of doing (not thinking) business--merely practicing their comfortable old routines," they write. "Others, the really successful ones, are getting killer results through changing their thinking to become more disciplined, rigorous, creative, and sound." Applicable to any position, from staffer to senior executive, the principles are: check your ego at the door (to develop an open, united atmosphere); create curiosity (to uncover new options); move off the solution (to clarify the issue); get evidence (to clarify the problem); calculate the impact (to weigh investment against return); explore the ripple effect (to view the big picture); slow down for yellow lights (to watch for obstacles); and discover the cause (to understand underlying truths). Each element is fleshed out in one or more chapters that showcase them in identifiable, real-world situations. The combination adds up to a logical, feasible program that virtually everyone can follow. --Howard Rothman

From the Publisher:

"businessThink is a gem. Its "common sense" is in fact very uncommon sense. Follow the Eight Rules the authors derived from their research and consulting, and you'll dramatically up the odds of success-and the joy that flows from work well done." --Tom Peters, Author of In Search of Excellence

"businessThink...could very well, in my opinion, qualify as the 8th Habit of Highly Effective People. The book is simply brilliant...a true leader's roadmap in leveraging and maximizing the intellectual capitalism of today's business person." --Pete Beaudrault, President and CEO, Hard Rock Café International.

"businessThink is every person's MBA for the real world. It takes straight aim at the decades of dysfunction in business and hits the mark with a real-world "degree" of pragmatic, new thinking for new times." --Tom Curley, CEO-Publisher, U.S.A. Today

"Thinking is hard. Thinking creatively is harder. Thinking creatively about business is hardest. This book not only enlightens you from hard to hardest but does it with profound simplicity." --Warren Bennis, Distinguished Professor of Business Administration, University of Southern California, Author of Managing the Dream

This is a great book and an easy read. It enhances the productivity of everyone who follows the advice given in it. It will release the energy of people in organizations. It is a must for every leader to have everyone in his organizations practice the principals in this book." --Dr. Ram Charan, Author of What The CEO Wants You To Know

"businessThink focuses on where success starts: with the thinking process. In simple straightforward language authors Dave Marcum, Steve Smith and Mahan Khalsa present a process to transform the way people think about business. A must read for everyone." --Stedman Graham, Author of You Can Make It Happen, Chairman and CEOS. Graham & Associates

"Intelligence and attitude are the only things you need to get ahead in the business world. You can't do much about your intelligence, but you can read businessThink which will do wonders for your attitude." --Al Ries, Co-Author, Positioning

"businessThink is a practical, pragmatic guide to better business decisions. Managers should read the book the book with their teams and use it in leading team implementation of the wisdom it contains." --Bill Hitchcock, Global Director, EDS Digital Learning Services and SmartExecutive E-learning, Executive of the year for 2001

"Lucidly presented, the authors' rules of engagement will unearth the hidden psychology that keeps companies from succeeding despite - -or maybe because of - - their best ideas." --Larry Downes, Co-Author - Unleashing the Killer App.

"businessThink skillfully outlines fundamental business principals for the successful business organization. It offers practical concepts and progressive thinking. Read it for your success!!! (Unless you are comfortable with business as usual - looking forward to playing politics, flexing your ego and pounding your way up the corporate ladder...)" --Horst H. Schulze, Former Vice Chairman, The Ritz- Carlton Hotel Company, LLC

"What makes this book so useful is that it offers a heavy dose of something important but in short supply in business today--common sense." --Jack Trout, Author, Differentiate or Die

"businessThink is insightful, wise, and easy to grasp. I recommend this book to anyone interested in exploring effective problem solving solutions." --Rich DeVos, Co-Founder, Amway Corp., Owner and Chairman, NBA Orlando Magic

"Surveying people on their driving skills. No one admits to less than good practices yet crashes - both business and vehicle -- prove otherwise. businessThink is a deceptively simple, yet insightful reference book, which if honestly applied, has the potential to impact that critical space between think and action or {inaction}. For those who apply the learning's from businessThink, there is as much to be gained in the Public Sector as in the Corporate Community. --Patricia Pelton, CEO, Northern Lights Regional Health Authority, Fort McMurray, Alberta

"This book is needed today more than ever before, in this business climate where every employee in every organization must businessThink, businessAct, and businessWork like they are the CEO!" --Gregory Coleman, Executive Vice President of North American Operations, YAHOO!

"Occasionally there comes a book that doesn't "descend" from on high in academia, but arises from the blood, sweat, and tears of the trenches of reality and makes such a powerful sense that it opens our eyes to how our businesses really should be run. businessThink is that book." --Dr.Charles Roadman, CEO, American Health Care Association, Former Surgeon General United States Airforce

"The lessons of businessThink are understandable and actionable. If your organization- like ours-wants to be recognized as the best, this book should be required reading for all current and future business leaders and managers." --William G. Parrett, President and Managing Partner, Deloitte & Touche LLP

"In today's competitive business environments, businessThink should be required reading for employees at all levels.... it describes how to take responsibility for where you're going and how to get there, relevant for all facets of your life.... businessThink goes places other business books are afraid to go." --Dave Gregory, President and CEO, First Calgary Savings

About this edition

• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0471219932
• ISBN 13: 9780471219934
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 257