Tom Parker

Deborah C. Stephens

Gary Heil

A billion-dollar paper manufacturer in Wisconsin works closely with a small stationery store halfway across the country to better ensure that the company's products will sell at the retail level. * An Internet browser company distributes its products free to the masses, resulting in a market share of paying customers and a worldwide community of prospective buyers of services and products. * An irate customer in Berkeley, California, places a $10,000 ad in the Wall Street Journal to protest what he considers shoddy treatment by a large coffee company-and ultimately receives 6,000 responses from other dissatisfied customers to his toll-free telephone number. Love it, hate it, fear it, or wish it would just disappear, we are entering an era where one size no longer fits all-or even a few. We find ourselves in a highly personalized, customer-driven environment where now "one size fits one." The only business objective that makes any sense is a long-term relationship with each profitable customer. Today's customers have vast power to collaborate with you to build your businesses, but if they're not happy, they will walk away faster than ever before-or actively undermine you. How can you win the unshakable loyalty and trust of these savvy customers? One Size Fits One: Building Relationships One Customer and One Employee at a Time received critical acclaim from the business press and the endorsement of top CEOs by laying out the ten rules for what customers want-in their own blunt words-and showing how your company can begin to develop the personalized relationships necessary to build loyalty. This updated Second Edition places a much stronger emphasis on distributed leadership throughout an organization, which is needed to build enduring customer relationships. It presents the organizational structure you need to support such a distributed leadership, thereby creating greater customer/employee relationships and a better, stronger company. Certainly no company can deliver "one size fits one" value without loyal employees committed to creating exceptional value for each individual customer. One Size Fits One explains why yesterday's workplace mentality no longer works and shows how relationships inside organizations must change to successfully unleash the power of truly committed employees, using entertaining examples and anecdotes from real life. In a world where "one size fits one," no one will have to settle for the ordinary, and any business that provides it will be unable to survive. One Size Fits One is a source of inspiration for all managers, providing a template for beginning the odyssey-one customer and one employee at a time. Praise for the First Edition "It's a book that should be read every year. With customers today having more choices than ever before, how you serve them could be the difference between keeping or losing those valuable customers and your business. One Size Fits One will help guide you."-Chandler Barton, Chairman, Coldwell Banker Corporation. "A powerful, must-read map for discovering a valuable and elusive treasure: customer loyalty. One Size Fits One will transform you into a demanding consumer and passionate service provider to customers, associates, and employees."-Chip R. Bell, author, Customers as Partners and Managing Knock Your Socks Off Service. "One Size Fits One will show your organization how to treat every customer like they're your only customer."-Roger Dow, Vice President and General Sales Manager, Marriott Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, and coauthor, Turned On. "If you are in the service business you have to read this book! Gary is one of the few people in this field who truly understands that the environment you create for your employees largely dictates the quality of service your customers will receive."-Kim Jeffery, President and CEO, Perrier Group of America Inc.

Building Relationships One Customer and One Employee at a Time

One Size Fits One

Warren Bennis

The words of Douglas McGregor, one of the fore-fathers of management theory and one of the top business thinkers of all time, cannot and should not be ignored. McGregor's vision of a more humanistic workplace may not have been widely accepted over three decades ago, but technological advancements that McGregor himself anticipated have paradoxically helped companies become more human. Viewing employees not as cogs in the machine but as living beings with individual goals-what McGregor called "the human side of the enterprise"-has proven to provide a remarkable competitive advantage. Now, with the rise of the networked economy, the growing power of frontline workers, and the shift in power from mass producer to individual consumer, authors Gary Heil, Warren Bennis, and Deborah Stephens assert that McGregor's ideas are more important and relevant than ever before. Douglas McGregor, Revisited emphasizes McGregor's lasting influence and updates his thinking with new concepts, fresh strategies, and modern implementation. This timely work traces McGregor's original thinking, which has emerged in current approaches that stress distributed leadership, open-minded appraisal techniques, and employee/customer commitment. Highlighted throughout with gems of wisdom in McGregor's own words, the book describes the value of his theories for today's managers. The authors carefully outline how to put McGregor's thinking into practice in your own business so you can: * Devise a better performance management system * Form and supervise effective management teams * Build cooperation instead of internal competition * Cultivate an intrinsically motivating, values-driven workplace * Create a cause worthy of employee commitment Also featured are examples from a host of companies and leaders who have flourished under McGregor's approach. Authoritative and highly instructive, Douglas McGregor, Revisited offers new generations of managers important lessons from history and from the field. Praise for Douglas McGregor, Revisited "This book revisits in a contemporary manner the most important question facing management today: given what we know about human nature, how should work be managed so as to unleash the vast creative potential of human beings? The evidence is overwhelming that many people either come to an organization or can be appropriately led to exhibit the behavior McGregor characterized as 'Theory Y.' This book provides a 'how-to' approach for developing people at work and for establishing high performance organizations."-Joseph A. Maciariello, Horton Professor of Management Peter F. Drucker Graduate School of Management, Claremont Graduate University and Claremont McKenna College. Author of Lasting Value: Lessons from a Century of Agility at Lincoln Electric Douglas McGregor's seminal works, The Human Side of the Enterprise and The Professional Manager, debunked Taylorism and described a revolutionary way to manage people. He was the first to apply the findings in behavioral science to the world of business. Based on what had been learned about human behavior, McGregor explored the implications of managing people in a different manner than tradition dictated. The nature of work today makes McGregor's ideas more relevant than ever before. This important book applies his thinking to today's business world, proving again that the human aspect of work is crucial to organizational effectiveness. It also suggests how you can change your thinking and implement his ideas in your own business and workplace.

Deborah C. Stephens

Books

Your next favorite book is out there