Money Follows Excellence

By Bill Lamb • Hardcover • 5.5 x 8.5 • 216 pages

After more than 30 years of working in and managing television stations, Bill Lamb has learned first-hand that running a business is a complex endeavor with many moving parts and conflicting agendas. But he has also learned that at every successful organization's core are some simple, basic principles, the most basic of which is that Money Follows Excellence.

Bill has had success at each level of his career, and every sales team or organization he has managed has grown both market and revenue share. It didn't happen by accident. It was a result of a disciplined application of the principles he shares in Money Follows Excellence.

In this instructive and insightful new book, Lamb suggests that managers, if they hope to be successful, must ground their organization's core principles in a solid foundation and ensure — always — that excellence comes first.

He advises managers to forget about being number one (a short-term goal) and to focus instead on being the best, which will lead to long-term sustainability.

He stresses the importance of developing the right culture in an organization, and shares his own experiences and advice on how to change a bad culture into a great one; how to convert a group of disparate people into an enthusiastic team; and how to take calculated risks that can reap great rewards.

Lamb also demonstrates how to shed the vice-grip of skilled and powerful competitors by changing the rules and, sometimes, even the game itself; and he suggests when you should ignore what customers are telling you and trust your own experience and gut instincts.

Bill Lamb's Money Follows Excellence is sprinkled with stories and interesting examples of how the organizations he has managed and the teams he has quarterbacked have seen their quest for excellence translate, time and time again, into success, industry awards and, most importantly, personal pride and self-satisfaction in the workplace.

In the words of John Schnatter, CEO and Founder of Papa John's International, Inc., "Every chapter is a must-read."

Bill Lamb is the president and general manager of WDRB and WMYO television in Louisville, Kentucky, and the vice president of broadcast operations for Block Communications, Inc., overseeing nine television stations. His management style is one of innovation and calculated risk-taking.

Bill began his career in radio as a disc jockey while still in college, but in 1976, he transitioned into radio sales. In 1980, Bill made the move to television where he sold for WJRT in Flint, Michigan. His success was rewarded with a promotion to a sister station in Nashville, WKRN, in 1984. As his career progressed, he had stops in Birmingham, Alabama; Miami, Florida; and Peoria, Illinois, before joining WDRB and WFTE (now WMYO) in Louisville. In June 2002, WDRB became the first Louisville station in decades to air editorials with Bill's "Point of View." In 2007, WDRB televised the first all-high-definition broadcast in Louisville television history with Thunder Over Louisville. Bill believes it's the largest and most complex telecast ever undertaken by a local television station in the history of American television.

In 2006, the International Union of Police Associations AFL-CIO awarded Bill the Quill and Badge Award for Excellence in Communication. He joined Dan Rather, Mickey Spillane, and John Walsh as recipients of this prestigious award.