The Dollarization Discipline: How Smart Companies Create Customer Value...and Profit from It by Jeffrey J. Fox and Richard C. Gregory (Hardcover - Sep 3, 2004)

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Wiley (September 3, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471659509
• ISBN-13: 978-0471659501

Product Description

How companies turn value-added into real profits
The Dollarization Discipline shows organizations and marketers how to effectively communicate the economic value created by their products and services. Too often, when companies compete using conventional sales and marketing approaches, they force customers to make financial decisions (how much to spend), based on non-financial arguments (product features and benefits). On this playing field, the company that can show true financial advantage in real dollars and cents wins every time. This book offers a step-by-step strategy for doing just that.
Every day, good companies suffer because they create value for customers but aren't able to keep their fair share. This is because most marketers can't fully explain the value customers get from their products, and the argument falls to the lowest common denominator-price. The solution is an approach to sales and marketing that goes beyond articulating features and benefits, but calculates the monetary value a customer receives from a product or service. This enables the seller to price the product as a true reflection of its value-and also let's the seller prove it to the customer!
With real case studies and detailed, step-by-step guidance on effective dollarization, The Dollarization Discipline finally offers a practical, straightforward way for marketers and business leaders to prove the value of their "value-added."
Jeffrey J. Fox (Gilford, New Hampshire) is the founder and President of Fox & Company, Inc., a marketing consulting firm. Fox is also the author of the bestsellers How to Become a CEO, How to Become a Rainmaker, and How to Become a Great Boss. Richard C. Gregory (Farmington, Connecticut) is a Senior Consultant with Fox & Company.

From the Inside Flap

Jeffrey Fox introduced the concept of Dollarization in his bestselling books How to Become a Rainmaker and How to Become a Marketing Superstar. Now, he and Rick Gregory present this compelling,effective principle in full detail so you can apply it to your business.The Dollarization Discipline shows organizations how to effectively communicate the economic value created by their products and services. Every day, good companies suffer because they create financial value for customers but aren’t able to keep their fair share. This is because most marketers cannot fully articulate the value customers get from their products, and the argument falls to the lowest common denominator--price. The solution is an approach to sales and marketing that goes beyond articulating features and benefits, but calculates the monetary gain a customer receives in exchange for the price paid. This book offers step-by-step strategies for doing just that.
Dollarization is simple in theory but complicated in practice. Authors Fox and Gregory include helpful charts, how-to steps, and dozens of real-life examples featuring leading companies that illustrate important techniques and help you shape an effective marketing and selling strategy.
This book offers strategies and techniques that will interest CEOs, marketing VPs, field salespeople, and everyone in between. Salespeople will learn how to handle price objections, shorten sales cycles, protect business from competition, get appointments, and more. Marketing professionals will learn to apply Dollarization to new product pricing, market segmentation, even advertising and communications.
Successful companies prosper by discovering how their customers make money and then aligning resources to help those customers make more money. Dollarization is a core discipline that enables firms to put this strategy into practice. With this book, Fox and Gregory include the step-by-step guidance you need to make Dollarization the foundation of your business strategy.
If you believe your company is under-compensated for the real value it delivers to customers, this book will help. Packed with practical advice and real-world wisdom, The Dollarization Discipline presents all the tools and techniques businesses need to turn their value-added into real money.

From the Back Cover

"GE people realize that our job is to help our customers make money. Dollarization thinking helps us do that."
--Damian A. Thomas, General Manager and Corporate Sales Leader
General Electric Company"THE DOLLARIZATION DISCIPLINE demystifies the often misused term ‘value,’ and shows how to become a thought partner and sell the true worth of your offering. This book will pay for itself many times over."
--Anthony Parinello, Author, Selling to Vito and Getting the Second Appointment
"Strategic marketing begins with an understanding of how a business creates economic value for its customers. This is a core focus for PPG businesses, and THE DOLLARIZATION DISCIPLINE creatively demonstrates how this thinking can be applied to all aspects of sales and marketing."
--Dennis A. Kovalsky, Vice President, Automotive Coatings PPG Industries
"Read this book and do what it says. Your customers, and your employer, will thank you for it."
--John Chickosky, Vice President, FTS Systems
"A must-read for any business looking to improve sales growth, profitability, and customer retention."
--Dean Graham, Managing Director, CapitalSource Inc.
"THE DOLLARIZATION DISCIPLINE presents powerful concepts with practical implementation ideas. Businesses large and small will benefit from putting Dollarization to work."
--John Vander Vort, Director, Private Markets Group
DuPont Capital Management

About the Author

JEFFREY J. FOX is the author of the Wall Street Journal and New York Times bestseller How to Become a CEO. He is also the founder and President of Fox & Company, Inc., a management consulting firm that specializes in marketing strategy development and sales effectiveness.RICHARD C. GREGORY is a Senior Consultant with Fox & Company. He leads Fox’s Dollarization Consulting and Training practice, which helps clients develop innovative approaches to articulating and quantifying the value they deliver to their customers.

A Globalizing World?: Culture, Economics, Politics (Understanding Social Change) by David Held

A Globalizing World?: Culture, Economics, Politics (Understanding Social Change) by David Held (Paperback - Nov 4, 2004)

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 2 edition (November 4, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415329744
• ISBN-13: 978-041532974

Product Description

Today's news media is full of references to 'globalization' - a buzz word that is quickly becoming ubiquitous. But what exactly is globalization? What are its main driving forces? Does it truly embrace all aspects of our lives, from economics to cultural developments?
A Globalizing World? examines these and other key questions in a highly accessible fashion, offering a clear and intelligent guide to the big ideas and debates of our time. In doing so, it does not take one particular stance for or against globalizaton; rather, it examines the arguments and evidence about its nature, form and impact.
After introducing the main theoretical positions of those who have studied the subject, key chapters look at the changing form of modern communication and cultural industries, trade patterns and financial flows of the world economy, and whether or not the 'new political world order' is qualitatively different from the old state system. This is essential reading for all students of politics, economics and international relations.

How to Make Big Money In Your Own Small Business: Unexpected Rules Every Small Business Owner Needs to Know by Jeffrey J. Fox (Hardcover - May 19, 2004)

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion (May 19, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786868252
• ASIN: B000S6NBS4

From Booklist

Once again, Fox gets his business expressed just right. After equally succinct books on becoming a great boss and a CEO--among other career aspirations--he addresses the more than 25 million small business owners in the U.S with a few homilies, some practicums, and many direct commandments, such as "selling is job number one" or "pick up paper clips . . . but overspend on customers." And this one as well, "work on the business, not just in the business." Smart remarks notwithstanding, this prolific, no-nonsense writer gets readers' attention with short snappy chapters and down-to-earth advice, covering funding (sources for loans) and sitting on nonprofit boards ("give, get, or get off") as well as marketing and running a business. Even seasoned pros can benefit from his words. Barbara Jacobs
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Review

Out "fox" the competition by using Jeff Fox’s signature counter-intuitive style with this appealing book for anyone who wishes to start and maintain their own successful business. --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Product Description

With only about half of small businesses still trading after the first three years, setting up and surviving as an entrepreneur can be a tough game. Bestselling author Jeffrey Fox has come up with a winning formula for small-business owners to guarantee themselves commercial success and, what is more, how to make big money in the process. This book offers simple, practical and unique advice on every aspect of running a small business, from how to get start-up money to staying in profit. Fox also provides more creative and quirky insights into how to be successful such as why you should: not to work from home; hire an ex-paperboy instead of a Harvard graduate; pick up paperclips but overspend on your customers. Whether you're already a small-business owner or are simply contemplating becoming one, this guide is essential reading. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Jeffrey J Fox is the bestselling author of How to Become CEO and How to Become a Rainmaker. He is a Harvard MBA and founder of Fox and Co. Inc, a premier marketing consulting company in Connecticut. His success has made him the subject of a Harvard case study that is rated one of the top 100 case studies, and is thought to be one of the most widely taught marketing case studies in the world. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From AudioFile

A street-smart marketing expert, Harvard MBA, and author of bestselling business books gives the ultimate lesson on starting a business from the ground up. It's grounded in the habits and attitudes that get in the way of doing business right, but it's not a psychological lesson. It's practical advice that is put on the table in knock-your-socks-off directness and that makes sense right away in your gut. Pay attention to the Cs --cash, customers, commitment; work harder and provide more for your customers than everyone else; and keep in touch with what's important by having regular meetings on value, pricing, and collections. Don't start a business without hearing this essential lesson! T.W. 

Death by Meeting: A Leadership Fable...About Solving the Most Painful Problem in Business (J-B Lencioni Series) by Patrick Lencioni (Hardcover - Mar 4, 2004)

• Hardcover: 260 pages
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass; 1 edition (March 4, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0787968056
• ISBN-13: 978-0787968052

From Publishers Weekly

The business meeting—a necessary evil or a vital and invigorating component of running an organization? According to management consultant Lencioni (The Five Temptations of a CEO), meetings should fit the latter description, but more often than not, he says, they don't. In this lackluster audio fable, Lencioni offers practical advice on how to revitalize your business by energizing your business meetings, but his pallid, passive prose would challenge the most skilled narrator, and Arthur is no exception. The voice Arthur lends Will, the young hero of this tale, resembles that of Sesame Street's Ernie on downers, and the various inflections he gives business owner Casey McDaniel and his management team don't make up for the characters' lack of character. Nevertheless, Lencioni's message comes across loud and clear—meetings should be interactive, not passive, and they should be structured (i.e., issues of immediate importance should be discussed in "weekly tactical" meetings, and issues that will fundamentally affect the business should be addressed in "monthly strategic" meetings). Although managers will find this advice worthwhile, they would gather just as much if they skipped the sluggish fable and listened to the last few tracks.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Review

“…a work of fiction with important messages for management” (Leadership & Organisational Development Journal)“The author is something of a master of the modern fable….” (Professional Manager, Vol.13, No.6, November 2004)
“…pitches his theory neatly at busy readers by opening with an executive summary.” (Supply Management, 8 July 2004)
"Highly recommended: you could even take it to your next meeting." (On Target, September 2007)

Review

"Finally, a real solution to an age old problem. Meetings may never be the same."
—Kris Hagerman, executive vice president, Strategic Operations, VERITAS Software Corporation"Death By Meeting is about much more than meetings; it's about an entire management philosophy. I read a lot of books on management, and Lencioni's are among the very best. They form the basis for our approach at Silicon Valley Bank."
—Ken Wilcox, CEO, Silicon Valley Bank
"Lencioni has done it again! Insightful. Practical. Ready-to-implement solutions. If you lead people, you can’t afford to miss this book. It’s an absolute must-read."
—Jim Mellado, president, Willow Creek Association
"We've put Pat's theories into practice and they work.  Our meetings are more productive, our communication is clearer, and the team’s commitment to decisions is much greater."
—Curt Nonomaque, president and CEO, VHA Inc.
"Meetings are such a cr itical element of effective organizational communication.  Lencioni has provided a concise, entertaining, and inventive guide to improving meeting structure, participation, and results.  Thumbs up for this insightful tale."
—Sandy Alderson, executive vice president of operations, Major League Baseball

Product Description

Casey McDaniel had never been so nervous in his life.  In just ten minutes, The Meeting, as it would forever be known, would begin.  Casey had every reason to believe that his performance over the next two hours would determine the fate of his career, his financial future, and the company he had built from scratch.
 “How could my life have unraveled so quickly?” he wondered.
 In his latest page-turning work of business fiction, best-selling author Patrick Lencioni provides readers with another powerful and thought-provoking book, this one centered around a cure for the most painful yet underestimated problem of modern business: bad meetings.  And what he suggests is both simple and revolutionary.
 Casey McDaniel, the founder and CEO of Yip Software, is in the midst of a problem he created, but one he doesn’t know how to solve.  And he doesn’t know where or who to turn to for advice.  His staff can’t help him; they’re as dumbfounded as he is by their tortuous meetings.
Then an unlikely advisor, Will Peterson, enters Casey’s world.  When he proposes an unconventional, even radical, approach to solving the meeting problem, Casey is just desperate enough to listen.
 As in his other books, Lencioni provides a framework for his groundbreaking model, and makes it applicable to the real world.  Death by Meeting is nothing short of a blueprint for leaders who want to eliminate waste and frustration among their teams, and create environments of engagement and passion.

From the Inside Flap

Casey McDaniel had never been so nervous in his life.In just ten minutes, The Meeting, as it would forever be known, would begin. Casey had every reason to believe that his performance over the next two hours would determine the fate of his career, his financial future, and the company he had built from scratch.
"How could my life have unraveled so quickly?" he wondered.
In his latest page-turning work of business fiction, best-selling author Patrick Lencioni provides readers with another powerful and thought-provoking book, this one centered on a cure for the most painful yet underestimated problem of modern business: bad meetings. And what he suggests is both simple and revolutionary.
Casey McDaniel, the founder and CEO of Yip Software, is in the midst of a problem he created, but one he doesn’t know how to solve. And he doesn’t know where or whom to turn to for advice. His staff can’t help him; they’re as dumbfounded as he is by their torturous meetings.
Then an unlikely advisor, Will Petersen, enters Casey’s world. When he proposes an unconventional, even radical, approach to solving the meeting problem, Casey is just desperate enough to listen.
As in his other books, Lencioni provides a framework for his groundbreaking model, and makes it applicable to the real world. Death by Meeting is nothing short of a blueprint for leaders who want to eliminate waste and frustration among their teams, and create environments of engagement and passion.

From the Back Cover

PRAISE FOR PATRICK LENCIONI"Finally, a real solution to an age-old problem. Meetings may never be the same."
--;Kris Hagerman, executive vice president, strategic operations, VERITAS Software Corporation
"Death by Meeting is about much more than meetings; it's about an entire management philosophy. I read a lot of books on management, and Lencioni's are among the very best. They form the basis for our approach at Silicon Valley Bank."
--;Ken Wilcox, CEO, Silicon Valley Bank
"Lencioni has done it again! Insightful. Practical. Ready-to-implement solutions. If you lead people, you can’t afford to miss this book. It’s an absolute must-read."
--;Jim Mellado, president, Willow Creek Association
"We've put Pat's theories into practice and they work. Our meetings are more productive, our communication is clearer, and the team’s commitment to decisions is much greater."
--;Curt Nonomaque, president and CEO, VHA Inc.
"Meetings are such a critical element of effective organizational communication. Lencioni has provided a concise, entertaining, and inventive guide to improving meeting structure, participation, and results. Thumbs up for this insightful tale."
--;Sandy Alderson, executive vice president of operations, Major League Baseball

About the Author

Patrick Lencioni is president of The Table Group, a San Francisco Bay Area management consulting firm, and the author of several best-selling books. In addition to his work as an executive coach and consultant, Pat is a sought-after speaker. Prior to founding The Table Group, he worked at the management consulting firm Bain & Company, Oracle Corporation, and Sybase, where he was vice president of organizational development.
Pat lives with his wife, Laura, and their boys, Matthew, Connor, and Casey, in the San Francisco Bay Area. You can reach him at The Table Group’s web site, tablegroup.com, or at patricklencioni@tablegroup.com.

From AudioFile

The author of THE FIVE DYSFUNCTIONS OF A TEAM, Lencioni is an experienced West Coast business consultant with a good grasp of team functioning. In a slow-moving audio production, he uses a parable to frame his advice on how to get value from time spent in meetings. He says meetings are like movies in that they need conflict and resolution to hold people's attention. They also require seriousness of purpose, diligent preparation, and a persistent focus on stated goals. After the parable finally concludes, explicit advice is given about providing drama and structure, but it's not elaborated soon enough to offer the kind of pointed lesson most business listeners want. T.W.