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Business Is a Contact Sport

Business Is a Contact Sport

List Price: $24.95
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This is not your average business strategy book!
Review: 'Business Is a Contact Sport' is the most important book I have read in the past five years! I have read most of the major self-help, sales and business skills books out there. This book goes beyond the remedial 'goal setting', 'confidence building' or 'motivation' skills taught in most other business books.

'Business Is a Contact Sport' changed the way I view the people in my life. The results were immediate and significant. This book outlines common sense skills and strategies that work.

I am richer emotionally and financially after employing what I learned. And now I am back at Amazon.com to buy this book for my newest sales associate.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Relationship management taken seriously
Review: At first blush, Tom Richardson and Gus Viduarreta's book seems only to tell you things you already knew. I built a large computer-consulting firm (600+ employees) using many of the same principles described in the first chapters of the book. My first reaction was "Why do I need this book?" After reading it through to the end my feelings changed drastically: "Why didn't I have this book ten years ago?"
What Vidaurreta and Richardson do so well is provide an effective framework for organizing and harvesting a company's relationship management techniques - techniques that we all tend to use, but only in a haphazard and slipshod fashion. The book, in a practical "what to do on Monday morning" fashion, outlines how, with a little thinking and organization, you can vastly increase return on the relationship management techniques that you may already have in place. It then goes on to point out techniques you probably never thought of...
In my opinion a lotta bang for very little buck!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "Contact Sport" helped me - now I give it to my clients
Review: During my 14 years as a business attorney I have seen clients rise and fall, succeed and fail - and one thing always stands out. The most successful clients are not threatened by the competition, have loyal employees and love what they do. I have read this book 3 times and it has helped me in reshaping my practice. Now, I give it to clients, especially those who have backed themselves into a corner and need the rest of the world to get out and succeed. Contact Sport lays it out clearly and the value system it presents works. As a business woman, I'm not crazy about the macho sports paradigm though. Not everyone does sports ball guys!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Not just for the top execs
Review: I guess I'm one of the fortunate ones. I had the opportunity to work with Tom and Gus for a few years back when they first birthed Systems Consulting Group. I spent quite a bit of time with Gus and noticed from day one that he had an uncanny way with people. So I paid close attention and began to soak up all I could. I'm not wired like Gus is motivationally, nor am I gifted with his charismatic personality. I'm a software consultant, I'm still thrilled with the technical side of IT, and that's where I want to remain...but the competition is getting more and more fierce.

I recently discovered that Gus and Tom had written, "Business is a Contact Sport" so I rushed to Amazon[.com] and purchased it...more from curiosity than anything else. What I never would have realized had I not read the book was just how much I had gleaned from my time with them. I've actually been using many of their principles for more than a dozen years and greatly benefiting from them. I've had numerous long-termed engagements as I watched people with more expertise and more years of experience than myself being laid off. I've been able to cultivated relationships with key individuals at many of the clients I've worked at and have frequently been able to leverage these relationships into longer term or repeat engagements. Along the way I've always tried to help people in every way I could, even when I knew there would be no chance for reciprocation.

Maybe you're like me, you're not CEO material (or CRO for that matter) and you don't have the desire to IPO new companies, you're happy with your career but want a edge at being able to land the longer term or more lucrative job assignments. This new book is not just for the top executives, it's for the average person like myself who just wants a leg up in this new economy.

By the way, my wife and I attended the first Christmas party that SCG gave back in 1988, the one that cost 10% of that year's profits. They didn't have to invite me, they knew I'd never be a large source of income for the business, but they cultivated the relationship anyway. Relationships truly are circular aren't they...here I am fourteen years later giving a rave review on their book!

Of course you don't have to buy the book to benefit from their knowledge, you could begin your career under their tutelage like I did!

Kurt Sligh
Software Consultant

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A fresh look at relationships as assets
Review: I have spent the past several evenings with the recently published book, "Business is a Contact Sport," and re-reading many parts of it.
As the Director of Corporate Relations of a publicly traded corporation (annual revenues of $2.5 billion), I am responsible for public rleations, investor relations, community relations, relations with government officials, etc. I have previous experience as a government public affairs officer. From this perspective, I found the book and its principles on "relationship management" to be a well-organized treatise for any CEO or management executive to use as a guide in reviewing and managing the intricate and complex relationships of his or her own total organization.
It is a truly excellent, thought-provoking and inspired work that gives us a fresh reminder that relationships (with whomever) are critically important assets. Many of the ideas are not only original (creating a Chief Relationship Officer, or CRO position, for example), but also border on the revolutionary, and are presented in an interesting and thoroughly readable fashion. The real-world examples from recent successes and failures in both the business and sporting worlds bring relevance the arguments and reinforce the principles being espoused.
I am sure many business people will keep this book handy as a reference book and as a source from which to steal some good quotes when doing their own business writing. I know I will.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The way to go for business
Review: I was one of the lucky individuals in my organization that received a copy of Business Is
a Contact Sport. This was part of an assigment to prepare for an upcomming Relationship Building meeting. I couldn't have received a better book. The Relationship Management strategies (RAM) described by the authors made sense and once applied they made my relationships turn 360. The incorporation of RAM into my business practices has made me much more successful!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Business is a contact sport
Review: This book is a must read for anyone looking to secure lasting relationships with clients and employees. It provides a great framework and reference on how to approach prospects and retain key people necessary for building a successful organization. I found the book to be grounded in reality versus theoretical management speak. It's about time someone put in writing what some people have been trying to pass along by word of mouth for many years. This will definitely be a must read for everyone in my organization, support staff and consultants alike.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent, practical business book
Review: This book is a must-read for any manager or business owner. The authors explain the importance of relationships in business and the necessity of actively managing these relationships as the valuable assets they are. They identify many of the important relationships that should be developed and cultivated. They explain how to approach potential "stakeholders" and the steps needed to build trusting relationships. They also examine the critical features required for lasting, profitable relationships.

What makes the book more than just a theoretical how-to book, is that these two men have used the techniques described in the book to build several successful businesses. Throughout the book, they give real-life examples of each of their "crucial RAM principles," and how they can be applied in the business world.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This is a "breakout strategy" book with values orientation
Review: This book is really a must read for anyone interested in developing a "breakout strategy" for their business, especially if you want a strong ethics/values orientation. When it comes to most business books today, the suggestions that they make are often add-ons to existing ways of doing business, so implementing the suggested strategy or system will still rely on access to significant capital or technology to achieve a successful result. In reading "Business is a Contact Sport", I found a fundamentally different perspective that guided me to create a completely unique competitive approach based on developing relationships with other businesses that should be willing to promote expansion of my business because it will also help them expand their business. The more I let my imagination wander, the more different types of businesses I came up with that could have an interest in this approach because they could benefit in a unique way too. It was exciting. On a practical level, the authors provide very good methods for organizing the "relationship management" process in order to keep a company focused on getting good business results from using this approach.

In addition to the "breakout" value for businesses, I would suggest that this book is worthwhile for anyone who is looking for a way to make their personal work more meaningful and challenging. The book is full of good advice on how to build good business relationships. Even if the company you work for is not into this approach, you can use it for your own benefit. There is a lot of uncertainty in the job market these days and good relationships will always be the most valuable way to find another job, so the advice is good on a personal level as well as corporate level.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Business is a Contact Sport
Review: This is the most revolutionary business book of the last twenty years! Not since Tom Peters masterpiece, "In Search of Excellance" has a book captured a message so profond, yet so simple. This book can change the course of American business and re-establish our country's confidance in corporate America. Timely, Powerful, Necessary!!!


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