Smart Customers Dumb Companies

Culled from business headlines and corporate files, Why Smart People Do Dumb Things is an in-depth examination of the ultimate in boardroom breakdown--a postmortem of the mega-mistakes made by highly regarded leaders in business and public life. From the "New Coke" debacle to the poor subscription showing of the Olympic Triplecast to the swirling controversy of Whitewater, Feinberg describes how strong minds can misuse their power, and why bright people often seize upon--and advocate brilliantly--ideas that others recognize as ridiculous.

Innovation is the lifeblood of American business. Without the creativity to find the next must-have product or service, companies quickly lose their competitive edge. Knowing this, corporate leaders invest heavily in research and development.Notwithstanding the dollars spent on R & D, the fact remains that better than 90 percent of innovation initiatives fail to achieve their return-on-investment targets. Poor management decisions and lack of marketplace savvy often undermine even huge research efforts. Can America continue to be a formidable global competitor with this kind of failure rate?Taking a case history approach, Calvin Hodock examines eight typical innovation blunders that continually doom new product development. From misjudging the market and dead-on-arrival products to fatal frugality and timetable tyranny, he discusses not only why such mistakes occur but also the dire consequences to both investors and employees. When Polaroid declared bankruptcy, because it missed the digital imaging trend, the company's employees lost their retirement and pension benefits. Now the failure of the American automobile industry to create gotta have cars threatens to wreak long-term havoc in a large segment of American workers.Among the problems Hodock points to are breakdowns in the marketing research process, marketing dishonesty, lack of real-world preparation among newly graduated MBAs, CEOs under pressure to deliver unrealistic earning targets, clueless boards of directors, and the general absence of accountability.After analyzing each problem, Hodock emphasizes the lesson learned and concludes with a list of best practices for successful innovation. He shows how even modest improvements in the innovation process can double the bottom line for any company while making their shareholders more prosperous and happier.Hodock's incisive analysis and illuminating new approaches to successful development and marketing are must reading for students of business, seasoned corporate executives, and anyone interested in the future of American business.Calvin L. Hodock (Skillman, NJ) is professor of marketing at Berkeley College, Garret Mountain and Middlesex Campuses, an adjunct professor at New York University's Stern School of Business, and a guest lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business. He is the former chairman of the board of the American Marketing Association, the world's largest professional marketing society. He is also on the board of directors for NuVim, Inc. He has previously published for the American Marketing Association, McGraw-Hill, and the Advertising Research Foundation.

Every day, seemingly intelligent and successful companies make headline news for poor decisions that can cause their business to stumble and make many of us scratch our heads in wonder. Why would such a successful business make "that" strategic decision? Neil Smith, with more than 20 years of experience leading large-scale performance improvements, reveals the hidden barriers that limit excellent companies from reaching their potential, and cause even the smartest managers and leaders to falter. During his experience transforming some of the top global businesses, Smith has identified 8 barriers that exist in every organization and prevent them from implementing literally thousands of ideas to improve the way they work: Avoiding Controversy Poor Use of Time Reluctance to Change Organizational Silos Management Blockers Incorrect Information and Bad Assumptions Size Matters Existing Processes Rich with anecdotes and case studies, Smith identifies the ways in each of these barriers interrupt your own business. He then outlines a fast and proven process in which 12 principles of business transformation can break down the processes that hold companies back. What Smith offers his readers is the same thing he offers every day to the major companies he works with, A PROMISE that by following his insights, the company will be able to increase communication, simplicity, and profit to levels never before attainable. Throughout the book, Dr. Richard Levak has contributed personality and organizational insights that shed light on why an individual or an organization behaves in contrary ways giving you a better sense of why these internal walls exist and how to be aware of your actions in your day to day life.

The market for business knowledge is booming as companies looking to improve their performance pour millions of pounds into training programmes, consultants, and executive education. Why then, are there so many gaps between what firms know they should do and waht they actual do? This volume confronts the challenge of turning knowledge about how to improve performance into actions that produce measurable results. The authors identify the causes of this gap and explain how to close it.

You’re smart. So don’t be dumb about money. Pinpoint your biggest money blind spots and take control of your finances with these tools from CBS News Business Analyst and host of the nationally syndicated radio show Jill on Money, Jill Schlesinger. “A must-read . . . This straightforward and pleasingly opinionated book may persuade more of us to think about financial planning.”—Financial Times Hey you . . . you saw the title. You get the deal. You’re smart. You’ve made a few dollars. You’ve done what the financial books and websites tell you to do. So why isn’t it working? Maybe emotions and expectations are getting in the way of good sense—or you’re paying attention to the wrong people. If you’ve started counting your lattes, for god’s sake, just stop. Read this book instead. After decades of working as a Wall Street trader, investment adviser, and money expert for CBS News, Jill Schlesinger reveals thirteen costly mistakes you may be making right now with your money. Drawing on personal stories and a hefty dose of humor, Schlesinger argues that even the brightest people can behave like financial dumb-asses because of emotional blind spots. So if you’ve saved for college for your kids before saving for retirement, or you’ve avoided drafting a will, this is the book for you. By following Schlesinger’s rules about retirement, college financing, insurance, real estate, and more, you can save money and avoid countless sleepless nights. It could be the smartest investment you make all year. Praise for The Dumb Things Smart People Do with Their Money “Common sense is not always common, especially when it comes to managing your money. Consider Jill Schlesinger’s book your guide to all the things you should know about money but were never taught. After reading it, you’ll be smarter, wiser, and maybe even wealthier.”—Chris Guillebeau, author of Side Hustle and The $100 Startup “A must-read, whether you’re digging yourself out of a financial hole or stacking up savings for the future, The Dumb Things Smart People Do with Their Money is a personal finance gold mine loaded with smart financial nuggets delivered in Schlesinger’s straight-talking, judgment-free style.”—Beth Kobliner, author of Make Your Kid a Money Genius (Even If You’re Not) and Get a Financial Life

For more than half a century, marketers have bombarded customers with more and more choices in products and services. What is the result? Unprecedented anxiety. Our mental circuit breakers are on overload. In fact, pioneering brand strategists Steven M. Cristol and Peter Sealey assert that we have reached our manageable threshold for making decisions -- and a watershed in product proliferation. In this pathbreaking book, the authors argue with compelling evidence that the next generation of marketing successes will belong to those brands that simplify customers' lives or businesses in ways that are inextricably tied to brand and product positioning. They contend that if a brand is not reducing customer stress, it is creating it -- and it is vulnerable to losing market share to more customer-empathetic competitors. Writing especially for product or brand managers who are struggling to simplify their portfolios, Cristol and Sealey have created a breakthrough framework that is itself a lesson in simplicity. After presenting two essential guideposts for managers to assess where their brand sits on the stress spectrum, the authors turn to the heart of Simplicity Marketing -- the 4 R's of simplification: Replace, Repackage, Reposition, and Replenish. Using scores of real-world company examples, Cristol and Sealey show how each of the 4 R's interacts with the others in powerful ways to relieve customer stress and how these strategies may be executed individually or in combination to build brand loyalty. Here for the first time are ten specific strategies to relieve customer stress through consolidating, aggregating, or integrating products and services, repositioning brands for more relevance to stress reduction, and decluttering customers' decision-making requirements. The final pages of this brilliant manifesto for a simplicity revolution provide a guide to managing simplicity strategies, leveraging information technology to simplify rather than complicate customers' lives, and integrating all the tools in the book into an executional blueprint.