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Summary: STERN'S MANAGEMENT REVIEW FINDS THIS AN EXCELLENT BOOK!
Review: Based on a study of highly successful companies, the authors have identified nine domains of differentiation, all of which can be copied. What is unique are new ways to create a positive chemistry with customers through four major areas of behavioral differentiation. These are: 1) Operational: institutionalizing behavior through practices, policies, procedures, and employee education and training. 2) interpersonal: interpersonal skills and attitude. 3) Exceptional: when employees go out of their way to help customers; 4) symbolic: behavior that reflects the company's key product, service, or messages and values (aligning the company's behaviors with it's intended image and promises). The book gives examples that show ways winning organizations create these behavior differentiations. While most of the book is devoted to B2C companies, a chapter also addresses B2B firms. The authors provide a treasure trove of illustrations. An excellent work, rich in real-life details.
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Summary: Behavioral Differentiation - What The Best Do Differently
Review: How long has it been since you've picked up a business book and read it in just three sessions. Terry Bacon's and David Pugh's recently published book on "Winning Behavior - What the Smartest, Most Successful Companies Do Differently" is one of those books you won't be able to set down until you've finished reading it from cover-to-cover. "Winning Behavior" is a multi-case analysis of "Behavioral Differentiation" and its role in the success of the best companies in the industry. This book contains a wealth of great examples of BD in The Most Successful Companies in business and a section titled "Challenges For Readers" at the end of each chapter, with a number of soul-searching questions relative to one's appreciation of how to achieve behavioral differentiation. Why was Edward Jones Brokerage rated No. 1 on the 2002 Fortune List of Best Companies to Work For ?; Why was the Men's Warehouse named one of America's Best 100 Companies To Work For in 2002 ?; Why was Harley-Davidson named company of the year in 2001 ?; and Why have Southwest Airlines and the other successful companies highlighted in this book been so successful in their business and with their employees ? How are company procedures and hiring processes important to companies that excel in behavioral differentiation ? This book, which is a "must read", answers these and many more questions relative to what is described as the final frontier in competitive strategy and what separates the best from the rest.
Rating:
Summary: Behavioral Differentiation - What The Best Do Differently
Review: How long has it been since you've picked up a business book and read it in just three sessions. Terry Bacon's and David Pugh's recently published book on "Winning Behavior - What the Smartest, Most Successful Companies Do Differently" is one of those books you won't be able to set down until you've finished reading it from cover-to-cover. "Winning Behavior" is a multi-case analysis of "Behavioral Differentiation" and its role in the success of the best companies in the industry. This book contains a wealth of great examples of BD in The Most Successful Companies in business and a section titled "Challenges For Readers" at the end of each chapter, with a number of soul-searching questions relative to one's appreciation of how to achieve behavioral differentiation. Why was Edward Jones Brokerage rated No. 1 on the 2002 Fortune List of Best Companies to Work For ?; Why was the Men's Warehouse named one of America's Best 100 Companies To Work For in 2002 ?; Why was Harley-Davidson named company of the year in 2001 ?; and Why have Southwest Airlines and the other successful companies highlighted in this book been so successful in their business and with their employees ? How are company procedures and hiring processes important to companies that excel in behavioral differentiation ? This book, which is a "must read", answers these and many more questions relative to what is described as the final frontier in competitive strategy and what separates the best from the rest.
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Summary: Hard-Won Wisdom
Review: In a marketplace where everyone claims to be the best, anyone can sell for less, and no-one can maintain the lead on new technologies, Pugh and Bacon demonstrate that the only way to beat the competition is to out-behave them. Your mission statement means nothing if you don't make it your way of life. The authors place a wealth of hard-won wisdom at your fingertips in the eloquently-written Winning Behavior. Exercises at the end of each chapter lend an interactive feel to the book, making the information more pertinent to the reader's experience. A pleasure to read and packed with profound insights, this book is a must-have for anyone wishing to succeed in any market.
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Summary: Do you want to Win More than Your Fair Share?
Review: In a world where new offerings are commoditized as soon as they are recognized - differentiation quickly vanishes. This is true for widgets and professional services alike. So how do you overcome the reality of excess capacity of most everything? Bacon and Pugh bring us an antidote for overcoming the excesses of a market that is characterized by Darwinian behavior. Here the authors provide a portal into Winning More Than Your Fair Share via a very special intangible - WINNING BEHAVIOR. While behavior isn't centric to the ether filled business theory books that are being cranked out by the score, here Bacon and Pugh present clear and concise recommendations that are backed up with something that rings true in every board room, in every country - the evidence of PROVEN RESULTS. As one who has been in the successful driver seat of deals reaching from a few million to more than a billion dollars the wisdom and guidance of the authors has made a difference for my sales force not to mention my career. Seeing the resulting delta between those that have established the quality relationships at each touch point in the customer's organization along with their solid offering compared to those that merely reverse engineer their "copy and paste" proposals quickly clarifies which is the smart path to follow. Seeing is believing! There's nothing quite like putting up that PowerPoint slide that shows the addition of a third comma in the backlog of profitable contracts at your quarterly or annual performance review. Trust that the Gods of the Board Room are far friendlier when the numbers are heading north rather than south. Buy it. Read it. Implement it. Deliver it. The process is simple. The discipline is the tough part. Perhaps that is why we all heard mom say more than once - BEHAVE!
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Summary: Winning Behaviors - it really is about differentiation
Review: In todays' fast paced world of bigger is better and aquire work as fast as you can, this book takes the time to explore the aspects of being the best - not necessarily the biggest (in industry). Being the best is truly about differentiation - how you set yourself apart from the competition and how much more value the client/customer receives as a result. This book is a must have for any company wanting to achieve success beyond it's wildest dreams. The strategies are easily integrated into any business and don't require a complete overhaul of existing strategies; rather an enhancement of those already in place. If a company is really serious about wanting to be best, the ideas in this book should become the "standard of measure" by which success is gauged.
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Summary: Nicely written, but it's been done
Review: Not a whole lot new here. The book is well written and uses examples and research to back up its major points, but the lessons aren't new ones. Sometimes the same points made in a different way can make the light turn on. If any part of the success of your company depends on your actions, this could be an inspiring book. Read it, then have your boss read it.
Rating:
Summary: Nicely written, but it's been done
Review: Not a whole lot new here. The book is well written and uses examples and research to back up its major points, but the lessons aren't new ones. Sometimes the same points made in a different way can make the light turn on. If any part of the success of your company depends on your actions, this could be an inspiring book. Read it, then have your boss read it.
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Summary: A Winning Concept and Book!
Review: Terry Bacon and David Pugh have a real "winner" with this book. Using interviews and other detailed research, they make a compelling case for the understanding of organizational behavior as a foundation for business success. The book is easy reading, contains great narratives, and gives us the "inside story" on companies and executives that have found success in very competitive markets. Every manager and business owner NEEDS to read this book!
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Summary: Clients Needed? Then you need this book!
Review: The name says it all..."Winning Behavior". Pugh and Bacon provide real life examples of why behavior towards our clients cannot be turned on and off like a lightswitch. Their book expands on those studies to show why and how today's best companies have sucessfully developed an understanding of their clients needs amd made them "their own." WINNING BEHAVIOR shows why that understanding is crucial in today's highly commoditized world. Pugh and Bacon walk through the finer points of what today's most successful companies do to exemplify Winning Behaviors. Evidence the large change in the contracting landscape today. Great names from the past that were once giants in industry are no longer. Why? Terry and David provide the answer. They lead you through why the companies that have endured are the ones that have subscribed to the principles David and Terry write about. Winning Behavior truly is a "Must Read" for anyone wanting the insight into today's way of developing long-term relationship based clients. In order to develop that relationship, one must take the steps necessary to acheive the type of behavioral change required - Terry and David's book provide the roadmap!
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