From best-selling author Jeffrey J. Fox, how the savvy see opportunity -- and capitalize on it Economic downturns separate the winning companies from the struggling. And as best-selling author Jeffrey J. Fox shows, tough times also give solid companies, strong managers, and potential rainmakers the opportunity to seize market share. In this eminently readable, practical resource for business leaders and managers, Fox explains exactly how the savvy few who rise to the top stay focused and alert, get new market share, hire good recently fired talent, increase investments into customer service, speed innovation, train all customer facing people, make acquisitions, get rid of underperformers, build brand names, pay for measurable performance, and lots more.
Potential rainmakers, CEOS, marketing superstars, and great bosses have long turned to Jeffrey J. Fox for advice. Now he shows exactly what to do to weather any climate.
Table of Contents:
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xiii
1 The Fierce Competitor Company 1
2 Bad Times Are Good Times 4
3 Hustle. Hustle. Hustle. 6
4 Leadership Is Not ‘‘Pushership’’ 9
5 The Difference Between Leaders and Managers 11
6 Know Your Company’s Raison d’Etre 13
7 Manage As You Would Invest 15
8 ‘‘I Visit Customers in Stores’’ 18
9 Always Answer the Phone 20
10 Pile Up Cash 24
11 Be Ever Fearful 27
12 Show Fearlessness 29
13 Play ‘‘What If?’’ Games 31
14 Leadership Is Full Disclosure 33
15 Get a Kitchen Cabinet 35
16 Always Have a Plan 37
17 Stay Off Magazine Covers 39
18 ‘‘I Never Made a Dime Talking’’ 41
19 Never Take Your Hand Off the Tiller 43
20 Control or Roll 46
21 Get Out of the Office 48
22 Walk Around the Company 51
23 Never Forget the Third Shift 53
24 Be Obsessive About Execution 56
25 Get Rid of Executive Parking Spaces 60
26 Fight Unionization 63
27 People Are Not the Most Important Asset 67
28 Nurture Those You Hire and Acquire 69
29 Prune All Deadwood 71
30 Bulldoze All Silos 73
31 Broom Out All Bureaucracy 75
32 Scoop Up Newly Available Talent 78
33 Forget About Pedigrees 80
34 Pay for Performance, Not for Activities 82
35 Continuously Rip Out, Tear Out Bad Costs 85
36 The Do and Don’t Cut List 89
37 Forget Monthly Reports 91
38 No Money, No Meeting 93
39 Be Fanatical About Selling 96
40 Don’t Fire Sales People 100
41 Hire Fiercely Competitive Sales People 103
42 Banish All Selling Thieves 106
43 Always Conduct Daily Sales Meetings 109
44 The Big Opportunity 111
45 Never Cancel Batting Practice 115
46 Double the Training Budget 118
47 Love That Cranky, Fickle, Demanding Customer 120
48 Fire the ‘‘Strategic Customer’’ 122
49 Customer Service Is a Survival Strategy 125
50 Worship at the Altar of Quality 129
51 Get Rid of ‘‘Mr. Ought-to-Be’’ 132
52 Always Leave Flowers, Floor Mats, and Footprints 134
53 Don’t Cut Prices 137
54 You Are Never on Vacation 140
55 Lock, Load, and Launch 142
56 Sue the Blankety-Blanks 144
57 Welcome Serendipity 147
58 Go Green! 149
59 Be a Master Gardener 151
60 Summary: Characteristics of the Fierce
Competitor Companies 154
About the author 159
About the Author :
Jeffrey Fox (Chester, CT) is an accomplished consultant, popular speaker and the acclaimed author of a series of the?international business best-sellers, How to Become CEO, How to Become a Raimaker, and Secrets of Great Rainmakers, among others. Fox is the founder and president of Fox & Company, Inc., a marketing consulting firm that specializes in marketing strategy development, innovation enhancement, selling skills training, branding, and various applications of a proprietary value-selling methodology called dollarization. Prior to starting Fox & Co. Jeffrey was Vice-President, Marketing and a Corporate Vice President of Loctite Corporation. He was also Director of Marketing for the wine division of The Pillsbury Co., and held various senior level marketing jobs at Heublein, Inc. including Director of New Products. Jeffrey is the winner of "Sales & Marketing Management" magazine's Outstanding Marketer Award; winner of the American Marketing Association's Outstanding Marketer in CT; and the National Industrial Distributors award as the Nation's Best Industrial Marketer. He is the subject of a Harvard Business School case study that is rated one of the top 100 case studies, and is thought to be the most widely taught marketing case in the world. Jeffrey graduated from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, and earned his MBA from Harvard Business School. He served as Trustee of Trinity College, and has won several alumni awards including Person of the Year. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Saint Francis Hospital, one of the nation's top 100 hospitals.
For more information, please visit Fox & Company's website: www.foxandcompany.com
Review :
Fox (How to Become a Rainmaker) explores the best practices of fierce competitors and how they gain market share, seize opportunity, and win when the stakes are the highest. With multiple bulleted lists of key action items, he swiftly covers a wide array of timely topics, including why bad times are actually good times, the benefits of piling up cash in tough times, and being cautious while showing fearlessness. He also encourages executives to play relevant “what if” games, always have a plan, stay off magazine covers, and be obsessive about execution. Of particular value are the sections on employee relations, which offer counterintuitive actions that reap big rewards on reserved executive parking spots, unionization, nurturing those hired and acquired, pruning dead wood, and cutting out all bureaucracy. This concise book will give motivated managers and executives the guidance they need to successfully bring their organizations to the next level. (Mar.) (Publishers Weekly, January 25, 2010) "The new book is comprised of 60 Chapters. You could read it in a sitting, or more likely, a flight from New York to Chicago. And as with every Jeff Fox book and every Jeff Fox page, you might wish it was printed on only one side of each page, so you could take the entire book apart and paste the pages all over your office and even your bathroom. This is stuff you want to remember and use and share with your colleagues every day, because there is no way you can follow Fox's advice and not succeed in business and in life."
—Huffington Post, March 12, 2010-03-24
"This concise book will give motivated managers and executives the guidance they need to successfully bring their organizations to the next level."
—Publishers Weekly, January 1, 2010
