Business Think: Rules for Getting It Right-Now, and No Matter What!

by David Marcum, Mahan Khalsa, Steven Smith

Research shows that over fifty percent of all business decisions fail; sixty percent of all businesses fail before the sixth year, and eighty-two percent go under before their tenth anniversary; and eight out of every ten new products fail. In direct contrast, research also shows that ninety-one percent of all businesspeople are as confident as ever in making decisions. Decision confidence is up. Success is down. While we are an inventive, entrepreneurial society, an innovation explosion has also been tagged with a business implosion. What gives? businessThink is a revolutionary new method that bridges the monumental gap between the results businesses and people want and the failure they often get. This book is the only business training that tomorrow's leaders will need to consistently create effective solutions and take themselves and their associates into the zone of optimum performance. businessThink transforms readers into businessthinkers with provocative new rules for accelerating work while revitalizing the enterprise. With rules like "Check Your Ego at the Door," "Move Off the Solution," "Get Evidence," and "Create Curiosity." businessThink promises to significantly increase results by delivering hard core business thinking and fusing it with high intuition and emotional intelligence that open up, rather than shut down, thinking and collaboration. Effectively blended, these skills become the new business intelligence that is needed to get it right-no matter what. FranklinCovey is the world's premier leadership development organization, whose client portfolio includes eighty-two of the Fortune 100 companies and more than two-thirds of the Fortune 500 companies. With 45 offices in 38 countries, FranklinCovey employs 3,500 associates. Dave Marcum has a unique blend of management experience with positions ranging from VP of Sales & Marketing, to Chief Operating Officer in the publishing industry, to Business Transformation Leader at FranklinCovey, a 500 million dollar company. Dave is a respected authority in complex sales and has worked with companies across the globe like EDS, Andersen, Microsoft, and Accenture. Steve Smith has two degrees in management and psychology. He has been a human resources manager inside a Fortune 500 company, an entrepreneur starting his own consulting firm, and head of development of FranklinCovey's The 4 Roles of Leadership. He has presented management programs to clients such as Nike, Hard Rock Cafe, and the U.S. Air Force. Mahan Khalsa is a world-renowned expert in business development, whose clients include Arthur Andersen, Microsoft, and Walt Disney. He graduated with honors in economics from UCLA and has an MBA from Harvard. Mahan is Vice President of the Sales Performance Group at FranklinCovey Co.

Genres: Business, Audiobook

257 pages, Hardcover

First published November 17, 1998

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

David Marcum and Steven Smith travel the world teaching people to utilize the corporate asset of ego and limit its liabilities. With decades of experience and degrees in management and psychology, they¹ve worked with organizations including Microsoft, Accenture, the U.S. Air Force, General Electric, Disney, and State Farm. Their work has been published in eighteen languages in more than forty countries.

Reviews

[Tõnu Vahtra · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of those books that has been in my bookself for over 10 years (published in 2002) and finally picked it up after getting several recommendations about it in a short period of time. It's nearly a 20 years old book but I would say that it has aged well and most of the principles are timeless (minus the company examples, all are big companies but not much used as book examples these days).

The 8 rules:
1) Check Your Ego at the Door. Work delicately with the egos of others to keep dialogue open. Change yourself to lead to a change in the business.
2) Create Curiosity. Ask questions and gather perspectives from your company’s collective intellectual diversity.
3) Move Off the Solution. Get to the underlying business issues. Make sure you’re not guessing. Focus your attention on the vital few issues.
4) Get Evidence. Collect the soft evidence to prove that the business problem or opportunity exists. Turn the soft evidence into hard evidence that the business can measure.
5) Calculate the Impact. Convert the hard evidence into a financial equivalent to make sure that there is a worthwhile impact or payoff.
6) Explore the Ripple Effect. Carefully consider who or what else in the company is affected by the problem or opportunity. Consider the relative weight of the importance of the issue compared to other initiatives in the company.
7) Slow Down for Yellow Lights. Know what has stopped the company from successfully doing something about this before now, or what might stop you in the future. If the impact of a problem or opportunity is big, ask “What has stopped you (or the company as a whole) from successfully resolving these issues before now?” If this is a new opportunity with no history, the yellow-light question is “What, if anything, might prevent the successful implementation of this solution from going forward?”
8) Find the Cause. Identify the cause producing the symptoms that are showing up. Treat the cause of the problem rather than the effects.

[Alberto Lopez · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the way it all comes together at the end, even when the start was a little disjointed. Nonetheless, the book has great content. The book helps understand how to frame various aspects of business to improve performance.

[Matt · Rating 1 out of 5]

Put me to sleep. Literally.

[Brandon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting book...I got it as a gift, so felt compelled to read it. It discusses how to think smarter in business. Interesting, but there are better ways of spending valuable reading time.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read SEP 2002

[Lewis Hyam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Neat

[Lori Grant · Rating 4 out of 5]

A should-read book on decision making and problem solving, which are two critical competencies in business life.

[Jeff Wombold · Rating 3 out of 5]

A slow read but good refresher for those who are into business politics

[Mark Holencik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gave me some insights into getting to the real problem not just what it looks like on the surface.

[Leighton Carroll · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such an amazing set of principles for making the right choices every time!