The Big Book of Humorous Training Games


Doni Tamblyn - 2000
    Step-by-step instructions work with dozens of reproducible handouts and worksheets help trainers and speakers minimize preparation time­­and maximized training success.

Customer Mania!: It's Never Too Late to Build a Customer-Focused Company


Kenneth H. Blanchard - 2004
    In fact, many experts believe that you build a business from the customer up. With coauthors Jim Ballard and Fred Finch, Blanchard explains why the customer is the right starting place from which to build a successful business. By drawing on examples from the world's largest restaurant company, Yum! -- owner of KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Long John Silver's, and A&W Restaurants -- the authors explain how any company, large or small, can develop a unified, people-first, customer-oriented culture. Packed with practical insights, Customer Mania! emphasizes four critical steps:• Set Your Sights on the Right Target. The bottom line grows from taking care of customers and creating a motivating environment for your people. • Treat Customers the Right Way. Determine the kind of experience you want your customers to have as they interact with every part of the company. • Treat Employees the Right Way. Use strategies ranging from smart hiring to training and development to managing performance and creating a recognition culture. • Build the Right Kind of Leadership. You can't do it all yourself, so let your people put their own brains to work and then support them all the way.By relying on these concepts, businesses everywhere can cultivate passionate and engaged team members who contribute to the company's overall success. From CEO to middle manager to the person facing the consumer, Customer Mania! is a vital tool for enhancing their experience -- and their customer's.

Secret Service: Hidden Systems That Deliver Unforgettable Customer Service


John R. DiJulius - 2002
    These organizations reap the benefits of greater customer loyalty, exponentially expanded referral networks, lower employee turnover, and stronger bottom-line results. By quantifying and examining each phase of the ""Customer Experience Cycle,"" Secret Service reveals clever, practical ideas that can be transformed into repeatable best practices in any organization and at every level. Packed with examples applicable to a wide range of industries, this book provides practical, realistic ways to: * Turn customer complaints into positive experiences * Use marketing to go deeper with existing customers * Increase customer and employee retention, and turn bland customer service into truly memorable customer experiences"

Thinking Like a Boss: Uncover and Overcome the Lies Holding You Back from Success


Kate Crocco - 2020
    Maybe you feel the pull to start a business but deep down you're afraid that you don't have what it takes. Maybe you have a great idea but wonder if you're actually qualified to make it happen. Or maybe you want to expand your business, but you're worried about how it will affect your family. If that's you, it's time to start thinking like a boss.In this practical and encouraging book, Kate Crocco exposes the 12 limiting beliefs that are holding you back from your true potential, such as- I should have it all together and I don't- I'm not ready or qualified to start- I don't have enough time- It's already been done before- and moreWith plenty of inspiring true stories and actionable steps you can take--starting now--Thinking Like a Boss will help you turn your limiting beliefs into limitless opportunity.

The Five Dysfunctions of a team Summarized for Busy People


Patrick Lencioni - 2014
    This summary explores the fundamental causes of organizational politics and team failure.

The Book of Business Awesome: How Engaging Your Customers and Employees Can Make Your Business Thrive


Scott Stratten - 2012
    The Book of Business Awesome is designed as two shortbooks put together--one read from the front and the other readfrom the back when flipped over. Covering key business conceptsrelated to marketing, branding, human resources, public relations, social media, and customer service, The Book of BusinessAwesome includes case studies of successful businesses thatgained exposure through being awesome and effective. This bookprovides actionable tools enabling readers to apply the conceptsimmediately to their own businesses. The flip side of the book, The Book of Business UnAwesome, shares the train-wreckstories of unsuccessful businesses and showcases what not todo.Key concepts include the power of peripheral referrals and howto create content for your "third circle"Explains how to re-recruiting your employees and re-court yourcustomersEnsure that your business remains awesome, instead of unawesome, and apply these awesomely effective strategies to your businesstoday.

The Ultimate Question: Driving Good Profits and True Growth


Fred Reichheld - 2006
    Based on extensive research, 'The Ultimate Question' shows how companies can rigorously measure Net Promoter statistics, help managers improve them, and create communities of passionate advocates that stimulate innovation.

Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust


Chris Brogan - 2009
    Today's online influencers are web natives who trade in trust, reputation, and relationships, using social media to accrue the influence that builds up or brings down businesses online.The book shows how people use online social tools to build networks of influence and how you can use those networks to positively impact your business. Because trust is key to building online reputations, those who traffic in it are "trust agents," the key people your business needs on its side.Delivers actionable steps and case studies that show how social media can positively impact your business Written by authors with over ten years of online media experience Shows you how to build and wield influence online to benefit your brand Combines high-level theory with practical step-by-step guidance If you want your business to succeed, don't sit on the sidelines. Instead, use the Web to build trust with your consumers using Trust Agents.

Be Our Guest: Perfecting the Art of Customer Service


Walt Disney Company - 2001
    Reprint. 25,000 first printing.

Out of the Crisis


W. Edwards Deming - 1982
    Long-term commitment to new learning and new philosophy is required of any management that seeks transformation. The timid and the fainthearted, and the people that expect quick results, are doomed to disappointment.According to W. Edwards Deming, American companies require nothing less than a transformation of management style and of governmental relations with industry. In Out of the Crisis, originally published in 1982, Deming offers a theory of management based on his famous 14 Points for Management. Management's failure to plan for the future, he claims, brings about loss of market, which brings about loss of jobs. Management must be judged not only by the quarterly dividend, but by innovative plans to stay in business, protect investment, ensure future dividends, and provide more jobs through improved product and service. In simple, direct language, he explains the principles of management transformation and how to apply them.Previously published by MIT-CAES

Peak: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow


Chip Conley - 2007
    For relief and inspiration, Conley, the CEO and founder of Joie de Vivre Hospitality, turned to psychologist Abraham Maslow's iconic Hierarchy of Needs. This book explores how Conley's company "the second largest boutique hotelier in the world" overcame the storm that hit the travel industry by applying Maslow's theory to what Conley identifies as the key Relationship Truths in business with Employees, Customers and Investors. Part memoir, part theory, and part application, the book tells of Joie de Vivre's remarkable transformation while providing real world examples from other companies and showing how readers can bring about similar changes in their work and personal lives. Conley explains how to understand the motivations of employees, customers, bosses, and investors, and use that understanding to foster better relationships and build an enduring and profitable corporate culture.

How I Built This: The Unexpected Paths to Success from the World’s Most Inspiring Entrepreneurs


Guy Raz - 2020
    Great ideas often come from a simple spark: A soccer player on the New Zealand national team notices all the unused wool his country produces and figures out a way to turn them into shoes (Allbirds). A former Buddhist monk decides the very best way to spread his mindfulness teachings is by launching an app (Headspace). A sandwich cart vendor finds a way to reuse leftover pita bread and turns it into a multimillion-dollar business (Stacy’s Pita Chips).   Award-winning journalist and NPR host Guy Raz has interviewed more than 200 highly successful entrepreneurs to uncover amazing true stories like these. In How I Built This, he shares tips for every entrepreneur’s journey: from the early days of formulating your idea, to raising money and recruiting employees, to fending off competitors, to finally paying yourself a real salary. This is a must-read for anyone who has ever dreamed of starting their own business or wondered how trailblazing entrepreneurs made their own dreams a reality.

The Fred Factor: How passion in your work and life can turn the ordinary into the extraordinary


Mark Sanborn - 2002
    Because of that, he is constantly going the extra mile handling the mail – and sometimes watching over the houses – of the people on his route, treating everyone he meets as a friend. Where others might see delivering mail as monotonous drudgery, Fred sees an opportunity to make a difference in the lives of those he serves.We’ve all encountered people like Fred in our lives. In THE FRED FACTOR, Mark Sanborn illuminates the simple steps each of us can take to transform our own lives from the ordinary – into the extraordinary. Sanborn, through stories about Fred and others like him, reveals the four basic principles that will help us bring fresh energy and creativity to our life and work: how to make a real difference everyday, how to become more successful by building strong relationships, how to create real value for others without spending a penny, and how to constantly reinvent yourself. By following these principles, and by learning from and teaching other “Freds,” you, too, can excel in your career and make your life extraodinary. As Mark Sanborn makes clear, each of us has the potential be a Fred.THE FRED FACTOR shows you how.

Fish!: A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results


Stephen C. Lundin - 1996
    In Fish! the heroine, Mary Jane Ramirez, recently widowed and mother of two, is asked to engineer a turnaround of her company's troubled operations department, a group that authors Stephen Lundin, Harry Paul, and John Christensen describe as a "toxic energy dump." Most reasonable heads would cut their losses and move on. Why bother with this bunch of losers? But the authors don't make it so easy for Mary Jane. Instead, she's left to sort out this mess with the help of head fishmonger Lonnie. Based on a bestselling corporate education video, Fish! aims to help employees find their way to a fun and happy workplace. While some may find the story line and prescriptions--such as "Choose Your Attitude," "Make Their Day," and "Be Present"--downright corny, others will find a good dose of worthwhile motivational management techniques. If you loved Who Moved My Cheese? then you'll find much to like here. And don't worry about Mary Jane and kids. Fish! has a happy ending for everyone. --Harry C. Edwards

Pretty Good Advice: For People Who Dream Big and Work Harder


Leslie Blodgett - 2020
    As the CEO of the struggling Bare Escentuals, Blodgett shifted the company’s focus and launched bareMinerals. In a move that would revolutionize the beauty industry, she went on QVC and sold $45,000 worth of makeup in the first six minutes. Before long, she was selling $1.4 million an hour. In 2006 Blodgett took the company public in one of the largest cosmetic IPOs of the decade, and in 2010 the company was acquired by Shiseido for $1.8 billion. Pretty Good Advice provides beauty secrets, business tips, life lessons, and lots of personal stories. Some ideas are common sense. Some are pretty unconventional. Most importantly, everything in this book is honest, all tried (and sometimes failed) by Blodgett. Fun, frank, and filled with actionable advice, Pretty Good Advice is a glimpse into the unlikely story of a successful beauty executive who approached her work and life a little bit differently.