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eCustomerServiceWorld.com recommended reads
(NB Check out our Top Ten and our New Books as well!)Browse through and click on a title for a review. 
 | | The Speed of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything
Author: Stephen M R Covey
UK Publisher: Free Press
ISBN: 074329730X
Publisher’s Weekly:
Trust is so integral to our relationships that we often take it for granted, yet in an era marked by business scandals and a desire for accountability this book by leadership expert Covey is a welcome guide to nurturing trust in our professional and personal lives. Drawing on anecdotes and business cases from his years as CEO of the Covey Leadership Center (which was worth $160 million when he orchestrated its 1997 merger with Franklin Quest to form Franklin Covey), the author effectively reminds us that there's plenty of room for improvement on this virtue. Following a touching foreword by father Stephen R. Covey (author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and related books), the junior Covey outlines 13 behaviors of trust-inspiring leaders, such as demonstrating respect, creating transparency, righting wrongs, delivering results and practicing accountability. Covey's down-to-earth approach and disarming personal stories go a long way to establish rapport with his reader, though the book's length and occasional lack of focus sometimes obscure its good advice.
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| | The Spirit To Serve: Marriott’s Way
Author: By J W Marriott Jr and Kathi Ann Brown
UK Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
ISBN: 0066621143
Phil Dourado writes: Marriott is one of Jim Collins’ ‘Built to Last’ companies: Collins includes them in his book of the same name as part of his list of exemplary companies that consistently exceed the performance of their competition in the long term. In this book Bill Marriott, the son of the founder, outlines the twelve lessons that he says are at the root of the Marriott success story since his father began with an A & W Root Beer franchise stall in 1927.
The author took over the business from his father in 1964, growing the company from a $50 million into a $12 billion company.
Particularly useful in this book is Marriott’s determination to create an honest business that is open about its mistakes and learns from them. So many organizations fail because they emphasise the positive and play down the negative – as if being honest about your failings is somehow betraying the organization or showing a lack of loyalty. The result is that the gap between what the organization says and thinks about itself (“Aren’t we great!”) and what the customer experiences becomes so large that the organization becomes a dishonest one – denying reality.
Marriott quotes Demosthenes: “Nothing is easier than self-deceit. For what each man wishes, that he also believes to be true.”
Here’s Marriott, from the introduction to his book, on how to avoid that common syndrome:
“You might wonder why I would intentionally shine a spotlight on the places where we’ve stubbed (or even chopped off) our toes. Why emphasize the negative when it would be a snap to celebrate the triumphs and sidestep the failures?
“That’s easy. Successes and failures both have a great deal to teach. And I wanted this book, above all, to be about learning.”
Marriott’s twelve eternal truths, which he explains in the book, are:
1. Road-tested research: The benefits of being a hands-on manager
2. The Devil is in the Details: Success is in the systems
3. Give to your employees: And they’ll give back to you
4. He who listens well learns well
5. Preserve order amid change
6. Preserve change amid order
7. No tree grows to the sky
8. Never believe your own hype
9. Value the organization more than individual players
10. Success is a team sport
11. Listen to your heart – and don’t look back
12. Decide to decide
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| | The Starfish & The Spider, The unstoppable power of leaderless organizations
Author: Ori Brafman & Rod A. Beckstrom
UK Publisher: Portfolio
ISBN: 1591841437
Phil Dourado: This is a very timely book. By ‘leaderless organizations’ they actually mean organizations full of leaders at all levels rather than leaders gathered at the top of the organization. To be customer-focussed you have to push leadership out to the front-line so people can take the initiative in dealing with customers. Powerful book. Rightly challenges traditional notions of leadership. Recommended read by us here at www.ecsw.com From the publisher: This work provides an understanding of the amazing force that links some of today's most successful companies. If you cut off a spider's leg, it's crippled; if you cut off its head, it dies. But if you cut off a starfish's leg it grows a new one, and the old leg can grow into an entirely new starfish. Or even al Qaeda, which is so hard to destroy because its cells function independently. "The Starfish and the Spider", based on groundbreaking research into decentralised organisations, proves that this type of leadership is primed to change the world. Major companies like eBay, IBM, Sun, and GE are starting to decentralise, with great results. Decentralisation isn't easy for people who are used to the classic chain of commence organisation. But as readers will learn through this book's fascinating stories - ranging from the music business to geopolitics - it can be a very dangerous trend to ignore. buy UK() buy US($)
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| | The Stimulus Factor
Author: David Freemantle
UK Publisher: Financial Times Prentice Hall
ISBN: 0273649949
Quick Review: Customers expect to be satisfied, people are bored of being managed, and we"re all looking for something fresh stimulation is the new motivation customers no longer buy just because the product works people no longer work just because they have to you can no longer succeed just by turning up we al need stimulation the art of turning need into want.
This book presents a new approach to motivation, based on recent research. Reveals insights into what really motivates people and the steps needed to stimulate the motivation of customers and employees. For managers and business owners interested in creating a highly motivated business environment.
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| | The Strategy-Focused Organization: How Balanced Scorecard Companies Thrive in the New Business Environment
Author: Robert S. Kaplan & David P. Norton
UK Publisher: Harvard Business School Pr
ISBN: 1578512506
Quick Review: In The Strategy-Focused Organization, Kaplan and Norton explain how companies like Mobil, CIGNA, and Chemical Retail Bank have effectively used this approach for nearly a decade, and in the process present a step-by-step implementation outline that other organizations could use to attain similar results. Their book is divided into five sections that guide readers through development of a completely individualized plan that is created with "strategy maps", then infused throughout the enterprise and made an integral part of its future.
Howard Rothman for Amazon.com
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| | THE SUPPORT ECONOMY - Why Corporations Are Failing Individuals and the Next Episode of Capitalism
Author: Shoshana Zuboff and James Maxmin
UK Publisher: Penguin Putnam
ISBN: 0670887366
Quick Review: Today's capitalism is in crisis. Senior managers plunder billions of dollars while shareholders end up with nothing. Employee retirement accounts are in disarray. Customer satisfaction is at an all time low. "The current model of managerial capitalism is dying. We are at the threshold of a new era of capitalism," say Shoshana Zuboff and James Maxmin, authors of this title.
The main premise of the book is that people have changed far more than the corporations upon which they depend. The chasm that now separates individuals and organizations is marked by deep frustration and mistrust, but it also harbours the possibility of revolutionary economic growth. This is the first
book to identify the vast new opportunities for wealth creation arising out of today's social and technological realities.
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| | The Ten Deadly Marketing Sins: Signs and Solutions
Author: Philip Kotler
UK Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Inc
ISBN: 0471650226
Quick Review: In this clear and comprehensive guide, renowned marketing expert Philip Kotler identifies the ten most common-and most damaging-mistakes marketers make, and how to avoid them. But these ten mistakes are much more than simple mess-ups; they're glaring deficiencies that prevent companies from succeeding in the marketplace. In Ten Deadly Marketing Sins, Kotler covers each sin in-depth in its own chapter and offers practical, proven guidance for reversing them. Marketers will learn how to stay market-focused and customer-driven, fully understand their customers, keep track of the competition, manage relationships with stakeholders, find new opportunities, develop effective marketing plans, strengthen product and service policies, build brands, get organized, and use technology to the fullest.
Covering crucial topics every marketer must understand, Ten Deadly Marketing Sins is a must-have for anyone who want to remain competitive in an increasingly challenging marketplace. Packed with the kind of marketing wisdom only Kotler can provide, this is an indispensable resource for every company-and every marketer-who wants to develop better products, better marketing plans, and better customer relationships.
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| | The Tipping Point. How little things can make a big difference
Author: Malcolm Gladwell
UK Publisher: Abacus
ISBN: 0349113467
US Publisher: Back Bay Books
ISBN: 0316346624
Gladwell’s Tipping Point is primarily about how some ideas are tipped into going ‘viral’ – spreading like wildfire – while others don’t. There’s a sub-text, too, for readers based in customer-facing functions. Which is, of course, that there is no such thing as a little thing in customer service or CRM. Any minor irritation for a customer can be their ‘tipping point – the legendary last straw that breaks the camel’s back or, in our context, gets the customer to think “I’ve had it with them”, defect without telling you why, and become a negative voice dissing you to friends, family and colleagues whenever you come up in conversation or your TV ad appears – all without you knowing. Gladwell writes entertainingly and forensically, applying his scientific journalist’s mind to getting us to step back and re-think. buy UK() buy US($)
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| | The Tom Peters Phenomenon: Corporate Man to Corporate Skunk
Author: Stuart Crainer
UK Publisher: Capstone Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 1900961016
Quick Review: This biography uncovers the real Tom Peters behind the mythology. It demystifies the "guru" industry and attempts to explain why managers continue to put such faith and money into a select few individuals. Links:
Tom Peters is a keynote presenter at the European Conference on Customer Management. Visit the eEvents Store for more information. buy UK() buy US($)
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| | The Training Manager's Yearbook 2001
Author: Laura Storr (Editor)
UK Publisher: AP Information Services
ISBN: 1902202295
US Publisher:
ISBN:
Quick Review This new edition of The Training Manager’’s Yearbook contains over 3,000 advisers and suppliers to training managers. This is a great tool for competitor research and knowing who’’s who in your industry. buy UK() buy US($)
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