What do you think?
Rate this book
Pieces for Profit
This book focuses on how high preforming companies achieve greater success by maximizing profitability and productivity. Content provides a breadth of business management for leaders of all levels relating to disciplines of strategic planning, organizational development and human resources, marketing and customer engagement and acqusitions and integrations. Based on more than 15 years of research and experiences, the inter-relationship among these disciplines is discussed to determine how organizations can become more productive and successful. Practical examples in each chapter illuminate the topic areas and graphics make it both instructional and enjoyable for all audiences.
240 pages, Paperback
Published April 15, 2007
1 person is currently reading
3 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 8, 2013
I recently read Pieces for Profit by David Yeghiaian. The author had provided me a copy of this book for review.
The main premise of the book is best summarized by the author in the introduction:"Based on the experiences, I developed an effective organizational model, tested across these industries, with consistent success. The model includes three elements – Strategy, People and Customers. While there are other books and research supporting each of these – Strategy, People and Customers – separately, I do not believe there are any portraying them together as a puzzle. This book provides you with a vision of how the three work interdependently to help you continuously improve by becoming more profitable and successful."
The book is divided into three sections each covering one of the three elements, and how they each in turn support the others. Each chapter ends with a real-world example from the author's experience to support and illustrates the concepts presented. Also a summary of the key points is provided at the end of each chapter.
Below are key excerpts from the book that I found particularly insightful:
1- "Alignment of functional areas is a key outcome of strategic planning. Divisions lacking a shared view of the organization’s ultimate goals are more likely to take on their own agenda. Consider the word division: “di-vision.” The Latin prefix “di” literally means apart. So, unless you plan to prevent it, your divisions are “visions apart.” We will introduce a new term, intervision, to identify your distinct functional areas. To align the functional areas completely, think of your unique functional areas as “intervisions” or “visions together.” Your intervisions work cohesively sharing the same vision; with the strategy as the means and the objective as the end."
2- "There are five characteristics for a main objective: 1. It should be grounded in the reality of your organization’s present situation. 2. It should facilitate creative tension. 3. It should be the result of integrated thinking of the team, rather than a collection of individual objectives. 4. It should represent all key stakeholders – employees, customers, investors, etc. 5. It should invite and inspire people to want to bring it to fruition."
3- "So, the answer to which comes first – people or strategy – presents a third option; your people and your strategy interact in parallel. Determining employees’ needs and executing your strategy are both continuous review processes."
4- "Allowing your steadiest suppliers access to your objective and alignment across your value chain is sensible for forecasting. The same is true with other partners that will be affected by your strategy. Your emotionally connected partners will appreciate knowing their role with the future of your organization."
5- "Innovation as it is being presented here is ultimately a function of your overall strategy. For organizational growth, innovation must be considered as a goal of your strategy. Include innovation as one of the goals. This allows everyone in your company to recognize innovation as the invisible hand moving your organization towards improvement and growth."
6- "The 4 R’s are: recruiting, retraining, rewarding and retention. Roles – the fifth R – is actually the first R as it must be completed before anything else."
7- "AL2A (Ask, Listen, Learn & Act) is a newly created process that provides organizations with an opportunity to assess your people’s and customers’ current reality. It provides the bookends related to People and Customers that surround your overall strategy."
8- "Follow the six-step process to achieve an effective customer strategy with brand and message positioning. • The six steps are: • Assess the current situation • Determine internal touchpoints • Prioritize customers • Evaluate research needs, objectives and budgets • Conduct formal vs. informal research • Develop action plan( s)"
9- "AL2A with customers consists of six steps. 1. Prioritize customers and determine customer-specific teams. 2. Establish attribute criteria. 3. Communicate and implement. 4. Develop and execute action plans. 5. Align the organization. 6. Unite with performance management."
The main premise of the book is best summarized by the author in the introduction:"Based on the experiences, I developed an effective organizational model, tested across these industries, with consistent success. The model includes three elements – Strategy, People and Customers. While there are other books and research supporting each of these – Strategy, People and Customers – separately, I do not believe there are any portraying them together as a puzzle. This book provides you with a vision of how the three work interdependently to help you continuously improve by becoming more profitable and successful."
The book is divided into three sections each covering one of the three elements, and how they each in turn support the others. Each chapter ends with a real-world example from the author's experience to support and illustrates the concepts presented. Also a summary of the key points is provided at the end of each chapter.
Below are key excerpts from the book that I found particularly insightful:
1- "Alignment of functional areas is a key outcome of strategic planning. Divisions lacking a shared view of the organization’s ultimate goals are more likely to take on their own agenda. Consider the word division: “di-vision.” The Latin prefix “di” literally means apart. So, unless you plan to prevent it, your divisions are “visions apart.” We will introduce a new term, intervision, to identify your distinct functional areas. To align the functional areas completely, think of your unique functional areas as “intervisions” or “visions together.” Your intervisions work cohesively sharing the same vision; with the strategy as the means and the objective as the end."
2- "There are five characteristics for a main objective: 1. It should be grounded in the reality of your organization’s present situation. 2. It should facilitate creative tension. 3. It should be the result of integrated thinking of the team, rather than a collection of individual objectives. 4. It should represent all key stakeholders – employees, customers, investors, etc. 5. It should invite and inspire people to want to bring it to fruition."
3- "So, the answer to which comes first – people or strategy – presents a third option; your people and your strategy interact in parallel. Determining employees’ needs and executing your strategy are both continuous review processes."
4- "Allowing your steadiest suppliers access to your objective and alignment across your value chain is sensible for forecasting. The same is true with other partners that will be affected by your strategy. Your emotionally connected partners will appreciate knowing their role with the future of your organization."
5- "Innovation as it is being presented here is ultimately a function of your overall strategy. For organizational growth, innovation must be considered as a goal of your strategy. Include innovation as one of the goals. This allows everyone in your company to recognize innovation as the invisible hand moving your organization towards improvement and growth."
6- "The 4 R’s are: recruiting, retraining, rewarding and retention. Roles – the fifth R – is actually the first R as it must be completed before anything else."
7- "AL2A (Ask, Listen, Learn & Act) is a newly created process that provides organizations with an opportunity to assess your people’s and customers’ current reality. It provides the bookends related to People and Customers that surround your overall strategy."
8- "Follow the six-step process to achieve an effective customer strategy with brand and message positioning. • The six steps are: • Assess the current situation • Determine internal touchpoints • Prioritize customers • Evaluate research needs, objectives and budgets • Conduct formal vs. informal research • Develop action plan( s)"
9- "AL2A with customers consists of six steps. 1. Prioritize customers and determine customer-specific teams. 2. Establish attribute criteria. 3. Communicate and implement. 4. Develop and execute action plans. 5. Align the organization. 6. Unite with performance management."
September 2, 2013
In Pieces for Profit, author David Yeghiaian explains--from his research and experience--what makes organizations successful. The 182-page book is split into three sections, all of which are represented in puzzle as the foundation for a successful business strategy. The three sections are: Strategy, People and Customers.
My opinion is that this book is made for a few different types of business people: a small business CEO or President, a high-ranking executive at a medium or large company, future business leaders, and students in business school. I am personally in the future business leader category, and I found this book to be extremely relevant given where I am in my career and my overall knowledge of business.
Without giving too much away about the book I will say that this book is much different than the other business books I tend to read. The others are conceptual in nature and spend most of the pages supporting the thesis of the book, whereas "Pieces for Profit" is, in a sense, a how-to guide for growing a business or identifying a current problem in its operations. It is packed for of information and is easy to understand if you come from the business world.
I personally work in the human resources industry, so I found the "People" section to be extremely spot on. More specifically, the performance variability chart is helpful in determining key players in an organization--employees you should continually develop and employees you terminate immediately. Additionally, the section on communication and performance management was an excellent chapter and I took away a lot of good information that will ultimately result in action on my part.
Overall, Pieces for Profit is an easy read and is packed full of great content and how-to's for each of the areas covered in the book (Strategy, People and Customers).
My opinion is that this book is made for a few different types of business people: a small business CEO or President, a high-ranking executive at a medium or large company, future business leaders, and students in business school. I am personally in the future business leader category, and I found this book to be extremely relevant given where I am in my career and my overall knowledge of business.
Without giving too much away about the book I will say that this book is much different than the other business books I tend to read. The others are conceptual in nature and spend most of the pages supporting the thesis of the book, whereas "Pieces for Profit" is, in a sense, a how-to guide for growing a business or identifying a current problem in its operations. It is packed for of information and is easy to understand if you come from the business world.
I personally work in the human resources industry, so I found the "People" section to be extremely spot on. More specifically, the performance variability chart is helpful in determining key players in an organization--employees you should continually develop and employees you terminate immediately. Additionally, the section on communication and performance management was an excellent chapter and I took away a lot of good information that will ultimately result in action on my part.
Overall, Pieces for Profit is an easy read and is packed full of great content and how-to's for each of the areas covered in the book (Strategy, People and Customers).
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews