Management Consultants

Sales Effectiveness: Sales Force, Channels, Web

Recommendations

Here are thoughtful books we think are worth your time.

Wind, Yoram and Colin Crook, The Power of Impossible Thinking.  Transform the Business of Your Life and the Life of Your Business.  Wharton School Publishing, N.J., 2005.

Well-reviewed how-to plan to get unstuck from obsolete business thinking and personal behavior.  Wharton professors suggest ways to manage old and new mental models to minimize risk of over-doing change.

Bernstein, William J.,  The Birth of Plenty.   How the Prosperity of the Modern World Was Created.  McGraw-Hill, New York, 2004.

First, it's a terrific economic history review.  Second, Bernstein develops a         strong analytical case about four factors that suddenly in 1820 began to change the world and the way we live.

Cialdini, Robert B., INFLUENCE, Science and Practice.  Allyn & Bacon, Needham Heights, MA., 2001 Fourth edition.

Enormously insightful for sales reps and marketers.  Understand why we are so compliant to client requests and quick to do things even against our better judgment.  Well researched and written.

McGrath, Rita Gunther and Ian MacMillan.  The Entrepreneurial Mindset.  Strategies for Continuously Creating Opportunity in an Age of Uncertainty.  Harvard Business School Press, Boston, 2000.

 Two professors present the critical success factors for any size business with easy to implement tools that  can  keep your business model as fresh as your environment.

Minto, Barbara.  The Pyramid Principle.  Logic in Writing and Thinking.  Bookcraft Limited, Great              Britain, 1987.

               Heavy work, but worth the strenuous effort to produce your complex ideas clearly in writing.

Margulies, Nancy.  Mapping Inner Space.  Tucson, Zephyr Press, 2002 

 She is a student of Buzan’s Mind Mapping and goes further to create more expressive         visual maps in vivid color.  Fun to learn and it works.

Sonnemann, Milly R.  Beyond Words.  A Guide to DRAWING Out Ideas.  Berkeley, Ten Speed Press, 1997. 

Teaches simple and effective techniques to express ideas visually.  Particularly good for those of us who are drawing impaired! 

Friedman, Lawrence G., Go To Market Strategy.  Boston, Butterworth Heinemann, 2002. 

Larry is a channels expert.  He writes with the insight and confidence only available to someone who actually spends time in the field with real reps and customers. 

Landsburg, Steven E., The Armchair Economist.  Economics and Everyday Life.  New York, The Free Press, 1993.

 Explains things such as why corporations lavish enormous pensions on failed executives,  why box seats sell out before bleachers and other of our economic idiosyncrasies you may wonder or smile about 

Zander, Rosamund Stone and Benjamin Zander.  The Art of Possibility.  Transforming Professional and Personal Life.  Boston, Harvard Business School Press, 2000. 

The conductor of the Boston Philharmonic combines psychology and music to discuss some unusual ideas for innovation and improved performance in ourselves and those we manage.

 Hogarth, Robin M.  Educating Intuition.  Chicago, The Chicago University Press, 2001. 

Hogarth lays intuition naked and strips away its entire mystique.  His work is well researched, meaty, and interesting.  Finally he tells us how to improve our intuition through some down to earth drills.

 Shoemaker, Paul, J. H., Profiting from Uncertainty.  Strategies for Succeeding No Matter What the Future Brings.  New York, The Free Press, 2002.

Demonstrates the value of combining scenario planning with your annual strategic plan.

Schrage, Michael.  Serious Play.  How the World's Best Companies Simulate to Innovate.  Boston, Harvard Business School Press, 2000.

A well-written handbook for product, process, and project leaders ready for some non-conventional wisdom to achieve cost-effective, creative results.

Spencer, Miles and Cliff Ennico.  Money Hunt.  27 New Rules For Creating And Growing A Breakaway Business.  New York, HarperCollins, 1999.

What it really takes to succeed as an entrepreneur.  Well crafted case studies present powerful lessons.

Beckwith, Harry.  The Invisible Touch.  The Four Keys to Modern Marketing.  New York, Warner Books, Inc., 2000.

Harry does it again.  Another insightful marketing book, this time focusing on Price, Brand, Packaging, and Relationships.

Pine, Joseph and James Gilmore.  The Experience Economy.  Work is Theatre & Every Business is a Stage.  Boston, Harvard Business School Press, 1999.

You are what you charge for.  Suggests creating experiences that engage customers in a personal way.

Evans, Philip and Thomas Wurster.  Blown to Bits.  How the New Economics of Information Transforms Strategy.  Boston, Harvard Business School Press, 1999.

Your competitive advantage is up for grabs.  Your suppliers will exploit direct access to your customers, and your competitors will pick off the most profitable parts of your value chain.

Wells, Stuart.  Choosing the Future.  The Power of Strategic Thinking.  Boston, Butterworth-Heinemann, 1998.

Wells believes that good strategy involves the ability to see the future, determine possibilities, and choose your direction.

Ulrich, Dave.  Results-Based Leadership.  How Leaders build the business and improve the Bottom Line.  Boston, Harvard Business School Press, 1999.

New view that leadership is more than the gift of attributes such as style and character.  Real leaders produce results, not just model attributes.

Fritz, Robert.  The Path of Least Resistance for Managers.  Designing Organizations to Succeed.  San Francisco, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 1999.

Everything Robert does is brilliant.  See your company through a new paradigm.  

Dodd, Annabel Z.  The Essential Guide to Telecommunications.  Second edition. Upper Saddle River, Prentice Hall PTR, 1999.

Great review and perspective builder for pros.  Essential information for those new to the  industry.  Well written.

Tarlow, Mikela.  Navigating the Future, A Personal Guide to Achieving Success in the New Millennium.  New York, McGraw-Hill, 1999.

 Talented wife and husband team share their thoughts on "psychological futurism".  8 tools with which to navigate the future.

Stoltz, Paul, G.   Adversity Quotient, Turning Obstacles into Opportunities.  New York, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1997.

Just as your IQ and EQ are critical to your success, so now is your AQ.  New, important concepts.

Williams, William B.  Future Perfect, Present Empowerment, Lisle, Patriot's Publishing, 1995.

Self-made millionaire shares some original thinking on how to apply his ideas to solve our social, political, and economic problems.

Thurow, Lester C.  Building Wealth, The New rules for Individuals, Companies, and Nations in a Knowledge-Based Economy.  New York, HarperCollins, 1999.

Pretty much, just as the title implies.

O'Rourke, P. J.  Eat the Rich, A Treatise on Economics.  New York, Atlantic Monthly Press, 1998.

Well written and hilarious book on wealth.  "Why do some places prosper and thrive, while others just suck."

Spinosa, Charles, Flores and Dreyfus.  Disclosing New Worlds.  Entrepreneurship, Democratic Action, and the Cultivation of Solidarity.  Cambridge, MIT Press, 1997.

Human beings are at their best when innovating and changing everyday practices that shape history.  Heavy reading.

Thomas Petzinger, Jr. The New Pioneers, The Men and Women Who are Transforming the Workplace and   Marketplace.  New York, Simon & Schuster, 1999.

It's the entrepreneurs like you and me who are really responsible for market innovation, not the big companies with their mega mergers and takeovers.

Globalization is the new theme of our economic world.  Democritization of information, capital,  and  technology are its hallmarks.

This little gem has scores of ideas, in a fast-read, practical approach to service marketing fundamental concepts

Senior Economist Editor with a sharp view about how the communications revolution will change our lives.

Their innovative view on our world at the speed of change, well done, and specific suggestions on what to do to make our interconnectedness work for you

Emery, Vince. How to Grow Your Business on the Internet. 3rd Ed. Scottsdale, The Coriolis Group, Inc., 1997.

A terrific reference to have on the shelf. Hefty paperback. Practical and hands-on.

A senior Fortune editor crafts innovative view of that most important corporate asset: intellectual capital. Provides some practical ideas on improving your return on intellectual capital.

Profit models, business designs, and how the big guys like Welch, Schwab, Grove et al. make strategic choices. Advances their concepts from their excellent book Value Migration.

Strauss, William and Neil Howe. The Fourth Turning. What the Cycles of History Tell Us About America's Next Rendezvous with Destiny The Fourth Turning. What the Cycles of History Tell Us About America's Next Rendezvous with Destiny America's Next Rendezvous with Destiny.   New York, Doubleday, 1998.

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