Awesomely Simple E-Book

John Spence

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2009

Seitenzahl: 258

Beschreibung

The six core strategies to elevate any business-and how to implement them-made simple What do the world's most successful companies and organization have in common? And what can you actually take away and use from their examples? Distilling the best fundamental business strategies, trusted advisor and strategist John Spence helps you take a hard look at your business and together develop specific plans and action steps that will allow you to dramatically improve the success of your company. Delivered in Spence's approachable and straightforward manner, Awesomely Simple reveals the six key strategies that create a foundation for achieving business excellence: Vivid Vision, Best People, A Performance-Oriented Culture, Robust Communication, A Sense of Urgency, and Extreme Customer Focus. * Filled with case studies and clear action items, includes easy-to-follow guidelines for implementing the strategies in any organization no matter its mission or size * After concisely breaking down each strategy, Spence gives specific examples, tips, tools, discussion questions and exercises for how to execute them successfully A perfect resource for business leaders, Awesomely Simple will help you turn ideas into positive action and achieve lasting business success.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Praise

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Introduction

Why I Wrote This Book

What’s Inside This Book

How to Use This Book

CHAPTER 1 - Vivid Vision

Basic Terminology

The Fundamentals of Creating a Vision

Communicating the Vision

One Last Word on Communicating the Vision

CHAPTER 2 - Best People

Find and Keep Top Talent

Creating a Winning Culture

Leading Talent

CHAPTER 3 - Robust Communication

Dysfunctional Organizational Communications

Key Skills for Superior Interpersonal Communications

Dealing with Conflict

CHAPTER 4 - Sense of Urgency

Creating a Clear, Intended Outcome

Urgency Is Allergic to Bureaucracy

Topple the Pyramid

Four-Level Decision Making

When You Do Have to Make a Level 3 Decision

Reward Fast Action

Multiply the Speed of Your Brain

CHAPTER 5 - Disciplined Execution

How Bad Is It?

The Nine Steps to Ensure Disciplined Execution

CHAPTER 6 - Extreme Customer Focus

Attitude Is Everything

Moments of Truth

Own the Voice of the Customer

Engagement Is the Engine

CONCLUSION

Acknowledgements

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

INDEX

Praise forAwesomely Simple

“John Spence understands business. Lucky for us, he wants to share his passion for success. Awesomely Simple is honest, sincere, and written with a commitment to discovering how business can work more effectively, productively, and profitably. We all get caught up in things that don’t matter. John clears the clutter, and then wonderfully illustrates what is truly important to build success in business.”

—Joel Zeff, national speaker and author, Make the Right Choice

“Uncertain times require us to reconnect with the fundamentals. John Spence knows these fundamentals as well as anyone, and his direct and simple style—supported with real-world examples and applications—makes it easy for anyone to understand and implement. There has never been a more important time to revisit the themes in this great book.”

—Peter Sheahan, author, Flip and Generation Y

“Are you looking for the keys to business success? John Spence’s new book helps you to find them! John truly makes the very complex awesomely simple and shows you exactly how to turn your ideas into a perfect winning strategy!”

—Stefan Gubi, president, AKG Acoustics, Vienna, Austria

“What we love about John is his ability to take the complex business and financial services world we live in and make it easy for all of us to understand. Awesomely Simple will help everyone make goal setting, strategy, and vision more focused on relationships and people.”

—Randy Schleeter, agency field executive, State Farm Insurance and Financial Services

Copyright © 2009 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Published by Jossey-Bass

A Wiley Imprint

989 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94103-1741—www.josseybass.com

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400, fax [phone], or on the Web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, 201-748- 6011, fax [phone], or online at www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Readers should be aware that Internet Web sites offered as citations and/or sources for further information may have changed or disappeared between the time this was written and when it is read.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.

Jossey-Bass books and products are available through most bookstores. To contact Jossey-Bass directly call our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 800-956- 7739, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3986, or fax [phone].

Jossey-Bass also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Spence, John.

Awesomely simple : essential business strategies for turning ideas into action / John Spence. p. cm.

Includes index.

eISBN : 978-0-470-50450-5

1. Success in business. 2. Business planning 3. Organizational effectiveness. 4. Business enterprises. I. Title.

HF5386.S7514 2009

658.4’012—dc22

2009018599

HB Printing

To my amazing wife, Sheila. You are my best friend, my business partner, my life partner, my everything—forever.

Introduction

I am totally addicted to business. I have had a two-business-books-a-week habit for nearly twenty years now. I can’t help myself: I love studying business, I love running businesses, and I love working with employees and customers. To me, it is all a huge, fun, exciting game—a game, I might add, that if played well, can make you a lot of money. My greatest joy, though, comes from teaching businesspeople how to run their companies better. I realized a few years ago that most businesspeople are so busy working “in” their companies that they do not take any time to work “on” their companies. Frankly that scares me, because I know that if a businessperson is not taking serious time to study, learn, think, strategize, and innovate, pretty soon he or she will be forced to take some time to learn about something else: bankruptcy.

But in today’s crazy-fast business world, who has time to read the top four hundred or five hundred business books and spend countless hours poring over thousands of pages of research findings to figure out what they all mean? How many business managers, directors, and owners have direct access to dozens of the top business leaders in America and can reach out to them for help and advice? How many businesspeople get the chance to crawl around in literally hundreds of other companies to watch what they do right and what they do wrong so they can apply those ideas in their own company? Well, I do.