Business Book Summaries

We at BusinessSummaries.com are proud to announce that we have selected Al Betz, the esteemed author of the book Outfluence, as Author of the Month for April 2009.

Al Betz is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Outfluence, LLC. He has a nationwide reputation as a realtime reporter, an author, and a leader in the court reporting world. Major legal matters he and his company participated in include the grand jury investigation of the Clinton Administration, and the recent litigation involving alleged accounting fraud of Ernst & Young, WorldCom and Enron.

As an author, Betz has interviewed and transcribed the stories of numerous subjects, including families of 9/11 victims in an effort to preserve their loved ones' life stories. He credits his outfluence approach to life and to business for enabling him to attract positive people to his life and to his business.

Outfluence is defined by Betz as a way to effect real, positive change – even if one doesn’t have all the authority, money, or clout that is usually required to effect such change. Applied consciously, outfluence creates a powerful, irresistible message that promotes growth in personal lives, relationships and businesses.

Outfluence turns conventional thinking about influence upside down – making a powerful force available to anyone who chooses to use it. Betz’s book on the topic, Outfluence, introduces the power of silent communication and teaches principles and behaviors to help people become more effective in their day-to-day interactions. It will also teach them that the effort extended to show others that we care makes an impression – whether our approach is in the form of speaking, writing, listening, or practicing patience and respect. Read more about Betz and his groundbreaking book here.

The BusinessSummaries.com editorial staff interviewed Betz about his book and the story behind it. Key excerpts from the interview are posted here. The summary of Outfluence was released to BusinessSummaries.com’s subscribers on February 9, 2009.

Every week, subscribers enjoy business book summaries of today’s business bestsellers in PDF, PDA, Powerpoint, audio, video and mindmap formats. The latest versions of the book summaries are all available online upon subscription to BusinessSummaries.com.

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We're proud to announce that Gal Borenstein, acclaimed author of the book What Really Counts for CEOs (published by Borenstein Executive University Press in 2009), is our Author of the Month for February 2009.

At the end of the day, every CEO has to be able to find out which marketing strategies and tactics are working for in his or her company. Yet, trapped by old-school marketing practices that don’t fit and perpetuate finger-pointing between sales and marketing departments, it can be hard to find out for sure which marketing practices are really effective. That’s unless a CEO is able to quickly discern What Really Counts.

It’s a brave new world for CEOs. The move from old-school print advertising to Web 2.0 social networks and the emergence of digital strategies has left many CEOs in the lurch. Far too often, many of them have no idea which part of their marketing works and which part doesn’t. And neither do many of them know what they should invest in to enhance their company’s long-term success. This confusion leads to quite a few CEOs spending more marketing budget dollars than necessary – and by doing so, squandering profit margins and resources that could be used elsewhere.

If the CEO does not understand which parts of the marketing effort are producing the best ROI, there is a strong likelihood that in seeking to increase efficiency, he or she will cut the very infrastructure required to maintain or restore the company’s vitality.

In What Really Counts for CEOs, Gal Borenstein, founder and CEO of the Washington, D.C. integrated marketing communications firm The Borenstein Group, seeks to teach CEOs to ask their marketing, sales and communication teams the right questions that will produce better answers, those which lead to meaningful metrics resulting in marketing outcomes that can be repeated and adjusted accordingly. In short, they will find out What Really Counts and make it work hard for their money.

This book will help CEOs uncover the key challenges they must face, and will give them the tools needed to treat marketing as a science.

The BusinessSummaries.com editorial staff interviewed Gal about his book and the story behind it. Key excerpts from the interview are posted on the BusinessSummaries website. The summary of What Really Counts for CEOs was released to BusinessSummaries.com’s subscribers on January 5, 2009.

Every week, subscribers enjoy business book summaries of today’s business bestsellers in PDF, PDA, Powerpoint, audio, video and mindmap formats. The latest versions of the book summaries are all available online upon subscription to BusinessSummaries.com.

Technorati tags: book summaries, business books, business productivity, self improvement, marketing, Gal Borenstein

Miami, Florida, November 6, 2008—BusinessSummaries.com, one of the leading e-commerce sites for business book summaries, announces that Mark Jordan, acclaimed author of the book “Selling Your Business the Hard Easy Way”, is the Author of the Month for November 2008.

Selling a business can be a tough, dicey process in which there are many potential pitfalls, but it doesn’t have to be that way. In “Selling Your Business the Hard Easy Way”, Mark Jordan offers readers down-to-earth insight into the key aspects of what is potentially one of the most momentous decisions of any entrepreneur’s life – deciding to sell one’s business – and everything that follows, from determining if potential sellers are really ready to sell their businesses, to finalizing a deal with the right buyer.

The BusinessSummaries.com editorial staff interviewed Jordan about his book and the story behind it. Key excerpts from the interview are posted on the BusinessSummaries website. The summary of “Selling Your Business the Hard Easy Way” was released on October 20.

Every week, subscribers enjoy business book summaries of today’s business bestsellers in PDF, PDA, Powerpoint, audio, video and mindmap formats. The latest versions of the book summaries are all available online upon subscription to BusinessSummaries.com.

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People are definitely an organization’s most precious asset. This diversity sits side-by-side, shoulder-to-shoulder, cubicle-to-cubicle and warehouseman to warehouseman. This generational diversity can create tension, mistrust and conflict and negate loyalty to the company in general.

Study your staff, understand them, and try to learn what they value most. Try to understand the historical events that shaped their lives. Since we are experiencing the most value-diverse workforce this country has every known, traditional thoughts in the area of Human Resources must be challenged. We must temper our expectations of long term loyalty. As one Generation Xer put it, “If you want loyalty, buy a dog.”

A human resources strategy must be included in your corporate strategic plan. Becoming an employer people would die to work for begins and ends with your Human Resource staff. As an example, consider your company’s current performance in the areas of human relations leadership skills, commitment to treating employees as your most valuable asset, training, credibility of your management team and company vision, communication skills, decision-making skills, benefits, and other employee related support systems.

Once you’ve determined the current state of your human resource function you should create a vision of what your human resource competency should be. You must be committed to becoming an Employer of Choice. The Human Resource professional must move from the “back room” to the “boardroom” if you expect to become Employer of Choice. Emphasis and focus must be placed on the importance of continuous progress and managing change through goal setting.

Once you have established your vision, the next step is to develop your human resource strategy. Your strategy must evolve around that commitment, intelligence, judgment and one more time, it must focus on your most precious asset – your employees.

Managers need to challenge old ways. You must create an environment that makes it fun to go to work. The key to employee retention is not necessarily compensation based. It has been proven time and time again that money is not high on the motivational factor list. However, money can rise to the top of the list of complaints if an employee does not enjoy coming to work every day.

If you develop a definitive Human Resource strategy geared to make your company the Employer of Choice in your markets, Human Resource will become a profit center. Recruitment & Retention alone will create a tremendous return on investment to your company.

Don’t ever underestimate the power of your employees!

Technorati tags: book summaries, business books, business productivity, self improvement

A complete breakdown of communication can happen in an instant and can be silent and deadly, misdiagnosed as it escalates into conflict. Real time conflict tears at the quality of the work environment. What can be done about this conflict? A realistic goal is having a quick, effective way to intervene and explore resolution to small conflicts….while they are small. Below are steps to add value, save money and defuse conflict in your working group. A solid, well-known way to handle workplace complaints is to wait for the EEOC charge to be filed, an attorney letter to be received, or litigation to be commenced before mediation is ever explored. But mediation at these points is when the situation becomes hopeless and a breakdown in communication has occurred. Unfortunately, the mediation then addresses conflicts that have morphed into legal issues.

How many mediations uncover failures in the communications involved in the situation rather than a violation of law?

More often than not, a dispute can be traced back to some relatively minor misunderstandings, miscommunication, mistaken perceptions, and frustrated expectations that have nothing to do with legal concerns. Left unresolved, these seemingly ordinary events can escalate, positions can solidify and the problem will become a legal matter.

Mediation of all types of workplace disputes can happen at any stage in the life cycle of the conflict. Intervention via informal mediation by an impartial third party works and can easily be measured as a cost effective tool.

Any a professional mediator and human resources professional, specializing in employee relations, will tell you that human interactions set the nature of the work environment. A positive work environment is critical to productivity, business reputation, customer service excellence and, indeed, the bottom-line operating costs of any organization.

This is a foregone conclusion by researchers. Therefore, business owners, managers at all levels of the organization, human resources leaders and their legal counsel all have reason to want to mitigate an organization's exposure to conflict and disputes impacting a work group's ability to function well.

This can be a frustrating proposition because employees and managers…..

• bring their entire lives (containing a huge variety of motivations and focal points) with them to work;

• are also being affected by (and react to) what they see, hear, feel, expect, and experience at work every day;

• are human beings who are hard-wired for self-interest and instinctive fight-or-flight responses when confronted with adversity.

In these days of tight budgets, cutbacks, and competition for available resources, what organization can forgo the opportunity to bolster productivity and customer service while receiving the benefits of a positive return on investment (ROI) on the cost of implementing mediation of conflict that drains resources in every work environment?

Steps to add value, save money and defuse conflict in your working group:

1. If you haven't already done so, gain a better appreciation of the need to manage conflict by using one of the free online tools to calculate the costs of workplace conflict now available to estimate many of the real cost impacts to your organization.

2. Provide the employee relations staff with regular mediation training, which includes advance mediation skills. These courses are relatively inexpensive if you have a few employees taking the advanced training at an educational institution. Use these internal resources to identify and resolved conflict in its early stages.

3. Train key managers in basic mediation skills. Then obtain the capability to hire private mediators on an as-needed basis. This can be viewed as similar to other types of outside providers, such as investigators, employee assistance programs, and other specialized consultants.

4. If your budget allows it, provide both an internal and external resource for mediating workplace conflicts.

5. Track expenses for providing mediation (dedicated employee relations staff costs and/or cost of private mediators) and develop a method to compare these mediation costs over time with the costs incurred on resolving formal complaints and litigation via traditional processes. The return on investment (ROI) will become a documented success story.

6. When your organization is ready, inject mediation skill training for managers as a part of any managerial effectiveness training program in order to maximize communication skills in the organization.

7. When you are feeling like increasing your organization's ability to maintain a high quality work environment, add mediation skills training for all employees.

The work environment suffers and costs escalate when you wait longer to use mediation as a regular tool to resolve workplace conflict. Mediation adds value and saves money in these times of budget crisis.

About the Authors: Elizabeth A. Moreno and Mary O'Neil are mediators and arbitrators and are principals of Centurion Mediation, LLC which provides quality mediation for less than $300 per hour at a location convenient to the parties in the Los Angeles and Orange Counties, California. Centurion Mediation practices in the following areas Insurance, Personal injury, Employment, Business Disputes,Real Estate, Malpractice, and Residential Construction Defect.

Technorati tags: book summaries, business books, business productivity, self improvement, mediation, communication, Elizabeth Moreno, Mary O'Neil

These days it seems that chaos is all around us. We are being whipsawed by the wild run-up in energy costs and commodity prices, the pressure on credit markets caused by the mortgage bust, the stock market gyrating seemingly out of control, some large financial institutions and banks are in trouble, historically iconic companies (examples are General Motors and Ford) are facing difficulties considered unthinkable until recently. You and I have no control over any of this!

We do have control over the way we react to it! We can be reactive or proactive. And we better take action because, in unstable times such as this, there are significant opportunities that many businesses can take advantage of and huge threats that can destroy a business.

It is time to look at your strategic plan (if you don't have one or haven't updated it in years please realize that it is like flying an airplane in heavy fog without any navigation aids) and consider if the assumptions you made when it was written are still valid because, in many industries, the playing field has changed. Those sales and cost projection assumptions have probably changed significantly and, if you look at them critically, you may see new patterns emerging that, if used to advantage, can help you weather a storm or profit handsomely in a changing, or changed, environment.

It is time to reconsider every aspect of your business to determine your actions, either defensive or offensive, over both the short term and long term to help you survive and prosper in these uncertain, difficult times.

It is time to ask difficult questions, consider the possible shifts in your customer base as they react to this environment, look at various contingency options by playing a "what if" game to help you make those difficult decisions. One word of advice is to avoid, as much as possible, locking yourself into long-term commitments because we've seen sudden changes turn markets upside down. As much as possible give yourself flexibility so you can be on the right side of chaos.

About the Author: Larry Galler coaches and consults with high-performance executives, professionals, and small businesses since 1993. He is the writer of the long-running (every Sunday since November 2001) business column, "Front Lines with Larry Galler" For a free coaching session, email Larry for an appointment – Larry@larrygaller.com – Sign up for his free newsletter at http://www.larrygaller.com Technorati tags: book summaries, business books, business productivity, self improvement

Every day things go wrong in the service world and we are faced with the challenge of turning service failures into service recoveries. But what does it really take to restore customer confidence and regain goodwill? I began to explore that question more than 10 years ago and since that time I have studied service failure and service recovery from every possible angle and I have benchmarked best-in-service companies throughout the world. My research has led to me uncovering a series of 7 simple, but remarkably effective strategies that will unequivocally position any organization to keep customers coming back after even the worst has happened. Each of the 7 strategies is scientifically proven and surprisingly easy to execute.

I present to you How to Completely Restore Customer Confidence After Things Go Wrong: The 7 Things You Must Do

1. Courtesy. Certainly, anyone in the position of interacting with customers must be friendly, helpful, polite, courteous, and flexible. These attitudes and behaviors are not just nice, but they are indeed expected. But when it comes to complaint handling specifically, we know that employee politeness while addressing the issue helps diffuse the problem in the customer's mind (Liao, 2007).

Research by Hui Liao found that when customers feel like they are being treated with respect, dignity, and sensitivity by employees, they feel a sense of justice and fairness from the company (Liao, 2007).

As simple as it may sound, politeness is a tangible asset that can positively impact customer satisfaction with service recovery. If you solve the customer's issue, but are rude or indifferent in the process, you can still negatively impact the relationship. Simply put, when your employees are polite and courteous, customers will experience more satisfaction and reward you with stronger loyalty.

1. Apology. Making an apology to customers after things go wrong is positively related to satisfaction with the recovery (Liao, 2007). When a service employee apologizes to a customer, she conveys politeness, courtesy, concern, effort, and empathy and this goes a long way (Smith, Bolton, & Wagner, 1999). Consider the following research:

• Gallup research has shown that a genuine apology can actually strengthen a customer's emotional bond to a company, leaving him or her more emotionally connected than customers who never experienced a problem (Fleming & Asplund, 2007).
• Research by TARP has shown that when an apology is perceived as genuine, customer satisfaction increases 10 – 15%. *A revolutionary program appropriately called Sorry Works! encourages doctors and hospitals to apologize quickly when mishaps occur and to offer a fair settlement upfront to families and their attorneys. One of the first hospitals to implement Sorry Works was The University of Michigan Hospital. The results have been astonishing. The University of Michigan Hospital has cut lawsuits in half, reduced litigation expenses by two-thirds (or $2 million annually), and reduced their insurance reserves from $72 million in 2001 to less than $20 million in 2007.(Wojcieszak, 2008).

Offer your customers a heartfelt apology after a service failure and you will not only restore customer confidence and regain goodwill, but you should also realize the benefits of reduced litigation expenses and claims costs.

1. Justification. A vital, but often overlooked element of customer recovery is to provide an explanation for how or why the problem happened. Taking the time to explain to a customer what might have caused the problem helps organizations re-establish trust.

In an article titled, Manage Complaints to Enhance Loyalty, John Goodman says, "In many case, a clear, believable explanation as to why the policy or performance is reasonable will at least mollify the customer and, in some case, satisfy him or her." (Goodman, 2006). Hui Liao had this to say about the importance of providing an explanation, "Explaining to customers what might have caused the service failure may (also) enhance customer satisfaction. Similarly, in the service recovery context, open communication may alleviate customers' bad feelings about the service failure."

Providing an explanation can be as simple as saying, "Thanks for taking the time to let us know about _____. We appreciate customers who let us know when things aren't right. Here's what we think may have happened…"

1. Resolution. One of the gifts of a voiced complaint is that if offers the company an opportunity to re-perform the service. When given this second chance, companies must bend over backwards to fix the problem and restore customer confidence. When a company fails to resolve the issue, the customer is left hanging, she begins to lose trust in the organization, and feels like voicing the complaint was a waste of time.

TARP, Inc. studies have discovered that a customer who goes to the effort to complain, but remains dissatisfied is usually 50% less loyal than someone who did not bother to complain (Goodman, 2006). As a result, a poor problem resolution process will produce a "double deviation" effect and will result in perceived injustice, hence intensifying customer dissatisfaction (Bitner, et al 1990).

Resolving the customer's problem will have a positive impact on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. Failing to fix a problem after a customer has gone through the trouble of voicing a complaint is treacherous because customers have been let down twice and they may not be as willing to forgive you.

1. Immediateness. Not only is resolving the customer's problem obviously important (point # 4), but a speedy recovery response will enhance customers' evaluations of your company (Smith, Bolton, & Wagner, 1999). Your goal with problem resolution needs to be "One and done". What I mean is, your employees need to be equipped with the trust (from you), empowerment, and training to be able to resolve complaints on the first phone call or first visit.

Not only does a speedy recovery improve the customer's perception of the company, but it actually has a greater impact on loyalty than the resolution itself. TARP, Inc. found that ninety-five percent of complaining customers would remain loyal if their complaint was resolved on the first contact. That number dropped to seventy percent when the complaint was not immediately resolved.

The longer it takes for the service provider to provide a full recovery, the greater the customer's perception is that they have been treated unfairly (Smith, Bolton, & Wagner, 1999).

Improve your organization's ability to handle problems quickly and well and you'll undoubtedly realize increases in customer satisfaction and loyalty.

1. Compensation. Reparation (in the form of discounts, free merchandise, refunds, gift cards, coupons, and product samples) after a service failure has been found to restore equity and improve customer satisfaction (Smith, Bolton, & Wagner, 1999).

A Society of Consumer Affairs Professionals customer loyalty study found that 58% of complaining consumers who received something in the mail following their contact with consumer affairs departments were delighted, versus only 40% of those who did not receive anything.

Don't hesitate when it comes to compensating customers after a service failure. Your reward will be increased customer satisfaction, loyalty, and powerfully persuasive positive word-of-mouth advertising.

1. (Bonus) Surprise & Delight. This bonus element is all about going beyond problem resolution and inspiring a feeling of astonishment through unexpectedness.

One of my clients in the beauty industry is maximizing surprise & delight by creatively using gift cards in a way that is generating profits. They used to compensate customers dollar-for-dollar; a $3 overcharge was resolved with a $3 check. Makes sense doesn't it? Well, now they give a $10 gift card for a $3 overcharge. The customer is WOW'd. But not only is the customer WOW'd and telling her girlfriends about the unexpected gift card, but the company is enjoying a redemption rate of 67% with customers spending 2x the gift card amount in the store.

Try a little surprise & delight and you'll get your customers talking and, if you design it right, you'll also enjoy growth as a direct result of the WOW factor.

Closing Discussion Remember, one of the gifts of a voiced complaint is that if offers the company an opportunity to re-perform the service. Don't mess up your second chance with customers who give you the gift of complaints. Take these 7 crucial elements and make them your gold standard. When you do, I promise, customers will reward you with repeat purchases and positive word-of-mouth. Good luck!

About the Author: Myra Golden teaches a customer service transformation system that helps service professionals create warm experiences, surprise and delight customers, and completely restore customer confidence after any service failure. Over 90% of the organizations using the system realize measurable improvements in customer retention rates, customer satisfaction levels, and document drastic reductions in the amount of money it takes to resolve customer problems. For dozens of ideas on how to improve your customer service experience, visit http://www.MyraGolden.ComTechnorati tags: book summaries, business books, business productivity, self improvement

Whether it is a crucial conversation with a board of directors, a rating session with an underperforming employee, or one of several other situations managers handle on a daily basis, difficult discussions are a part of every manager's unwritten job description. What is considered a difficult discussion? It is any conversation where: 1) the stakes are high, 2) emotions can be heated, and 3) personal opinions differ. In recent years, several good books have been written on the subject: Crucial Conversations and Crucial Confrontations, both by Patterson, Grenny, McMillan, and Switzler; Fierce Conversations, by Susan Scott; and Difficult Conversations by Stone, Patton, Heen, and Fisher are among the top.

The Importance of Difficult Discussions Why is this topic so important today? With corporate performance being number one on a company's agenda, tempers flare, stress levels are at an all-time high, and managers find themselves unequipped to handle the high stakes world of verbal judo. Having taught the fine art of interview strategies to federal agents from almost every government law enforcement and intelligence agency, and then reading countless books on difficult discussions in a business setting, it is no surprise that the same techniques are used interchangeably. So, how do managers deal with difficult discussions? I'll use a well-known psycho-physiological term–fight, flight, or freeze.

1) Fight: deal with difficult discussions in a winning fashion.

2) Flight: avoid difficult discussions all together.

3) Freeze: get tongue tied, stutter and do nothing.

First and foremost, managers must embrace the relationship with the other party and set the stage for trust, personalization, and growth. If a difficult discussion is initiated with a tone that is harsh, the conversation will quickly dissipate. If a discussion is entered with a tone that exemplifies caring and empathy, the conversation has a good chance of producing positive results.

Six Strategies to Prepare For a Difficult Discussion 1. Review the Situation When I was young, my mother taught me to think before I spoke. In my adult years, I now know what she was talking about. Before initiating a discussion, ask yourself the following questions: * Why do I need to have this discussion? * What do I hope to achieve? * What is my desired result? Example: I need to have this conversation with Bob, a key marketing manager, concerning his poor job performance. I hope that Bob understands that his poor performance is pulling down his team. My desired results are that Bob realizes his performance has decreased, that it has a reflection on his team, and that he tells me if there is any personal issues he needs assistance with that may be the impetus for his current performance. Going into any difficult discussion having answered these questions will arm you with the ammunition you need to plan your strategy.

1. Deal in Facts, Not Assumptions Are you assuming the other person is acting or thinking in a certain manner without any evidence? Do you know what their intentions are? Often times the wrong approach is used in difficult discussions because someone assumes something that is not true. Make sure your mind is open to the other person's true intentions. Can they be correct? Is some of what they are suggesting true and/or useful? Example: In the case of Bob's diminished performance, you as the manager could obtain copies of statistical analysis reports showing hard numbers a proof of Bob's output. Despite this being proof of reduce output, we as managers may initially assume Bob does not care about his work. Bob may not be aware of his diminished capacity and is only thinking about his wife who was recently diagnosed with cancer.

2. Define Your Wants and Needs What do you need and fear about the discussion? Are you being honest about this? Do you share common ground with the other person? Could you? Your needs are what you actually must have, whereas your wants are nice to have or add-ons. Example: You as the manager need Bob to understand that his low performance is hindering the whole team. You may want Bob to open up to you about what is holding him back, but this is not really essential.

3. Discover Your Emotional Triggers What are your hot buttons? Are they being pushed? Are your emotions piqued more than the situations calls for? Try to discover where this emotional trigger is coming from before entering the difficult discussion. It can be done and you may learn a bit about yourself in the process. Example: Many managers have their emotions piqued if an employee's low performance has had such a large impact that it alerts the attention of the manager's boss. No doubt, many managers would start to get a bit emotional at this point. Are the manager's emotions getting piqued because of the employee, or because the boss became involved?

4. Consider All Sides Is the other person possibly thinking and feeling the same as you? Do they know the discussion is coming? What do you think they are going through? Answer all of the questions above and below from their perspective. Example: The possibility exists that Bob has already considered that his manager has noticed his low performance and will speak with him. If the manager first considers Bob's side, emotions will tend to be diminished. Nothing escalates a situation more than when emotions flair up.

5. Accept Responsibility Is it possible you are somewhat to blame for the situation behind the difficult discussion? If so, accept ownership of your part and let the other person know this during the conversation. Example: Many times an organization develops a culture of produce or peril. In the event an employee knows their performance has been lackluster for some time, not only will their emotions show it, but their self esteem will be lessened. Management must first accept responsibility for setting the stage for this to happen. This is not to say that an employee is still not culpable. By following the suggested six strategies for difficult discussions, not only will you be able to enter into the conversation with a broader sense of understanding, but will also alleviate the potential for emotional flair ups. Consider all sides and possible opinions first and you will be on the way to clearer communication.

About the Author: Dr. Dave Hale is the Founder & CEO of HiPer Solutions, a global business coaching and training firm. Dr. Dave is also the author of The High Performance Entrepreneur: 12 Essential Strategies to Supercharge Your Startup Business and Straight Talk from Corporate America's 10 Most Requested Speakers & Trainers. He can be contacted at http://www.HiPerEntrepreneur.com

Technorati tags: book summaries, business books, business productivity, self improvement

If you have been in business for any time at all, you have heard consultants, coaches, trainers, and gurus say that you must market, market and market. But businesses are not built by marketing alone. Marketing is only one of the foundational components of successful businesses.

Every long-lasting, financially rewarding business is built on the business success triangle – marketing, operations and finances. Striking a balance among these three areas can be challenging particularly for entrepreneurs who are often doing everything themselves. Imbalance occurs when the business owner focuses on the area they feel most competent in and forget or ignore the other areas all together. The good news is with a plan, these components can be built to support exponential growth.

Let's take a look at the three areas and what each is responsible for:

Finance: The first arm of the triangle is finance. Even businesses built on a shoe string budget, must have some financial resources to survive. Responsibilities in this area include developing budgets, handling cash flow, managing taxes, and paying you and vendors. Most entrepreneurs and small business owners find that is is best to outsource this component as soon as possible so that they can focus on the what they do best – product development and marketing.

Operations: Operations focuses on the nuts and bolts of running the business including business structure, business management, legal issues, risk management, implementation and product delivery.

Marketing: Certainly, marketing is the heart of the organization providing the energy that fuels the entire business. Without marketing, there would be no money for finance to manage nor products for operations to deliver. Responsibilities include idea and concept generation, product development, finding and communicating with customers and prospects, managing and developing strategic alliances, joint ventures and affiliates, media, branding and publicity.

When all three components work together in a systematic manner, the business is poised for explosive growth and financial rewards.

About the Author: ExpertPreneur Strategist Amelia Brazell invites you to learn more about building an ExpertPreneurial business at http://AmeliaBrazell.com, the marketing and media source for strategies, tactics and tips for turning your expertise into income.

And while you are there, register for a free ExpertPreneur Teleseminar in which we explore various aspects of building highly successful expertise-based business ventures. Technorati tags: book summaries, business books, business productivity, self improvement

A manager’s work is far from easy, and oftentimes downright tough. By definition managers have to manage people – groups of vastly different individuals, sometimes very large groups of them and/or more than one of these groups, and there are a multitude of issues that managers have to face when they perform their managerial functions.

One of these – the most important one, in the eyes of some management thinkers – is motivation, the motivation of the members of the workforce to do their jobs, and do them well. It falls to the managers to ensure that the people they supervise are indeed motivated to do their best and not simply do the minimum required, or, worse, slack off or even prove to be liabilities to their team and/or company. The big question for managers, therefore is: how does a manager gain the positive commitment of the team he or she manages? What can he do to motivate employees and make them effective members of the organization?

Andrew Sargent, author of How to Motivate People, explains that turning people on starts with managers themselves. Every interaction they have with their employees may have an influence on their motivation, and oftentimes this influence is profound. The loyalty and commitment of the team is a function of the commitment the manager displays for it and the determination he or she has to find out what motivates it.

How to Motivate People focuses on constructive analysis of the challenge of motivation and also supplies practical help to make it happen. It discusses various issues pertaining to motivation, the theories expounded by behavioral scientists, the barriers to motivation, the crucial influence of the personnel expert, and the role of supervisors. Sargent offers positive, practical and informative guidance to achieving harmonization and motivating teams to do their best.

Technorati tags: book summaries, business books, business productivity, self improvement