Despite everything
you've probably ever heard about efficiency, businesses may be
doing themselves damage by trying to be too efficient, according to
a contrary view of efficiency presented by bestselling author and
project management expert Tom DeMarco in his book Slack (Broadway, $23).
DeMarco, who sharpened his management skills in the software
development industry, takes on practically every management trend
of the last century when he declares, among other things, that
working too efficiently isn't working very smart. His central
point: When everybody works at 100 percent efficiency, they
don't possess the time, energy or leisure to be flexible. In
this age, when lack of flexibility is considered a serious business
failing, DeMarco's criticisms ought to be well-received,
notwithstanding their iconoclastic tone.
DeMarco offers some good ideas for making sure your organization
has the requisite slack, which he defines as time during which
people are zero percent busy.
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One of the most common mistakes businesspeople make, he says, is
to aggressively schedule delivery dates, promising customers that a
product or project will be ready at a speed that requires
extraordinary effort. This kind of situation stresses people and
organizations, making them less able to be innovative and agile, he
argues persuasively. So instead of promising the moon and then
trying to figure out how to get there, he says, offer due dates you
know are achievable with reasonable effort. That way, you'll
protect your credibility while maintaining everyone's ability
to engage in some slack.
Customer Winback
Jossey-bass, $28.95
It's one
thing for you to engender customer loyalty-but what about regaining
the loyalty of customers you've already lost? That's a
tougher problem, but one that marketing consultants Jill Griffin
and Michael W. Lowenstein tackle effectively.
The book prescribes a step-by-step process for returning strayed
customers to the fold, beginning with how to determine whether
they're worth winning back and ending with techniques to make
your company defection-proof. But you don't have to follow the
book's steps in order: If you've got a specific problem
today, you can also profit by simply picking an appropriate trick
from the repertoire provided. For instance, one method that can
help you regain disaffected customers is to ask-or even
require-them to give you notice before they actually cut you
loose.
Once they've started patronizing another supplier, customers
are especially difficult to get back. It's much easier if you
have a little advance warning and can halt a defection before it
happens. Many Internet service provider agreements, for example,
require customers to give 30 days notice when canceling their
accounts. Having 30 days to figure out what's wrong and fix it
can make the difference between keeping a customer and losing one,
Griffin and Lowenstein argue. If your business doesn't allow
for similar notification obligations, then analyze your sales
figures to keep track of waning customer loyalty. Then, act now to
save later.
Building Trust
Oxford University Press, $22
According to
CEO Fernando Flores and philosopher Robert C. Solomon, trust is a
big commodity that you can win, retain and regain only with a
combination of communication, self-confidence and understanding.
The book is pragmatic: Its "trust" includes accepting the
possibility of betrayal; that is, with some people, you just want
to minimize the chances of treachery.
30 Days to a Happy
Employee
Fireside, $12
The most likely reason you lose an employee is failure to
acknowledge his or her contribution, says entrepreneur Dottie Bruce
Gandy. But it doesn't have to be that way, she adds, outlining
a quick campaign to make sure everyone in your company feels
valued. Start with what Gandy bills as the 30-Day Process. For one
month, share with your employee every day a quality or trait that
you admire about him or her. If you run out of admirable
characteristics halfway through, don't blame the employee.
Blame your own inability to appreciate-and look harder. Gandy's
book is filled with similarly high-impact, low-cost tools.
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| WHAT ARE YOU READING? |
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| | Katie
Lukas
CEO of StickyData LLC, a Web-development firm
New York City
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big
Difference by Malcolm Gladwell
Little Brown, $24.95 "The Tipping Point is about that point at which
little movements become big trends-any of those things that catch
on like wildfire. As a marketing concept, the tipping point is
extremely powerful, and it's also a great conversation piece-I
can't say how many times I've found myself paraphrasing
Gladwell since I read [this book]." | |
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