How to Make a Buck and Still Be a Decent Human Being: A Week With Rick Rose at Dataflex

Looks at the revolutionary sales management practices of the computer company by following the president through a busy week

In today's highly competitve personal-computer market, Dataflex Inc., listed by Forbes in 1989 and 1991 as one of America's best-managed small companies, generates from its modest New Jersey headquarters $100 million in annual revenues by buying PC hardware from IBM, Apple and others and by selling it with benefits added to such top clients as Squibb, Merck, Exxon, Price Waterhouse and Prudential. According to this gung-ho report from its president, ex-Navy footballer and super-salesman "I'm Just Rick" Rose (with business writer Garrett), the firm's 200 sales associates, managers and other employees work in an almost evangelical atmosphere of group dedication to hard work and ethical behavior as they provide systems planning, product oversight, inventory management, performance measurement, follow-up maintenance and on-site training to demanding customers. This virtual manual for competitors describes, among other things, morale-building encounter sessions, one-on-one meetings with the boss, sales competitions, high-ticket company outings and a method of "team order processing" that eliminates inter-departmental snags. The authors even provide a chapter on tension-reducing pranks and practical jokes.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This interesting book combines management and sales philosophies with insight into how a business is actually run. Garrett chronicles one week in the life of Dataflex Corporation, a small company that specializes in selling computers to businesses in the New York City area. He focuses on Rose, president of the company, who offers his comments and observations upon a number of topics, including management, motivation , and competition. Brash and opinionated, Rose comes across as a principled man dedicated to applying his ideas to the operation of his business, which has frequently been ranked as one of the best-managed small companies in the United States. Recommended for larger libraries.
- Robert Logsdon, Indiana State Univ. Lib., Indianapolis
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.