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Title: If it Ain't Broke...Break It! : And Other Unconventional Wisdom for a Changing Business World by Robert J. Kriegel, Louis Patler ISBN: 0-446-39359-2 Publisher: Warner Books Pub. Date: 01 March, 1992 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.57 (7 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: If you read one business book, make it this one!
Comment: If you read one business book this year, you won't go wrong with HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT WORKING SO
HARD by Robert J. Kriegel . . . it is packed with ideas that will help you stop working so hard--and start working better.
Kriegel, author of the equally excellent IF IT AIN'T BROKE . . . BREAK IT, contends that it is not a badge of honor to work 100 hours per week . . . rather, he points out that it's the innovators, visionaries and new-thinkers who love their work who rise to the top.
I particularly liked his 90 Percent Rule, which says that a relaxed atmosphere produces better results than a tense one . . . he then described his experiments with over 150 salespeople . . . those who made less calls had at least 20 percent better results, largely because they felt more relaxed and were able to listen better.
There were many memorable passages; among them:
* In my programs, I always ask, "How many of you get your best
ideas--barn burners, lightbulbs, the aha's--while at work?" No one ever raises their hand. "Which room in your house do you get your best ideas in?" I ask, The response is always the bathroom or bedroom. "Why is that?" "Because no on bothers me and I get time to think" is the usual response.
* Ray Evernham, with driver Jeff Gordon, used this flip-of-the-rules strategy in NASCAR racing to win the Winston Cup Championship several times. Evernham says, "If conventional wisdom say the corner is the best place to pass, we practice passing on the other end of the track, because nobody is expecting to get passed there."
* Whether it is a book or a proposal, many people have difficulty starting a writing project. That first step seems like an insurmountable hurdle. The first line seems impossible to get right.
One way to get yourself going is to begin at the end or the middle. I have started out writing my last three books with those chapters that I am most excited and clear about. I will often begin writing a chapter, not necessarily at what I think should be the beginning, but with a great story or example that I enjoy relating and that clearly illustrates the point I want to make. Once started, momentum builds and the rest
becomes much easier, whether you have to go forward of backward
of both.
Rating: 1
Summary: So easy to misapply
Comment: More so than any other business-advise book I have come accross, this one lends itself to misinterpretation and mishandling by the well-intentioned but dim or by the unscrupulously mischievous. If you are, and know you are, an effective manager, you probably are already doing what this book "dares" you to try. ... you can safely read it and it will cause no harm... you know what to take and what to leave, how to challenge conventional wisdom and how to hedge your bets. You know instinctively most if not all of it. .... after all... most importantly, you also know no real-life situation is identical with edited examples on a book (which of course are always tailored to illustrate a point). Mediocre to self-serving nefarious managers may become equally prone to cite these pages as remedy for their own shortcomings. You want those people out.... not taking advise from Mr. Kriegel. In their hands this work becomes a cookbook for disaster. I've seen it operate at its worst.
There are better ways of spending [money] than buying this book ... including having drinks with a timid supervisor who could use your personal encouragement.
Rating: 4
Summary: If it ain't broke . . . BREAK IT!
Comment: Robert Kriegel and Louis Patler provide an interesting look at Conventional Wisdom and how it applies to business as usual. The focus of this book is to give a business manager "permission" to challenge the status quo in order to make paradigm changes. This book can provide insights into professions outside of the business community. Educators can benefit from the numerous examples of challenges to Sacred Cows that inhibit change that could enhance the educational opportunities for all students.
This book empowers the reader to be creative in seeking solutions to everyday problems. I would recommend this book to anyone who would like a jump-start in looking outside the box make his/her workplace a more productive environment.
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Title: Sacred Cows Make the Best Burgers : Developing Change-Ready People and Organizations by Robert Kriegel, David Brandt ISBN: 0446672602 Publisher: Warner Books Pub. Date: 01 April, 1997 List Price(USD): $14.99 |
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Title: How to Succeed in Business Without Working So Damn Hard by Robert J. Kriegel ISBN: 0446679860 Publisher: Warner Books Pub. Date: September, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Think Out of the Box by Mike Vance, Diane Deacon ISBN: 1564142787 Publisher: Career Press Pub. Date: February, 1997 List Price(USD): $14.99 |
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Title: Promoting Yourself : 52 Lessons for Getting to the Top . . . and Staying There by Hal Lancaster ISBN: 0743213645 Publisher: Free Press Pub. Date: 05 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: The Pursuit of Wow! by Tom Peters ISBN: 0679755551 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 22 November, 1994 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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