New Business Book Summary Available for The Seven Principles of Professional Services

Many individuals strive to make the transition from subject matter expert to successful consultant. However, subject matter expertise only accounts for about 75 percent of a successful consulting engagement. The other 25 percent relates to customer and team management skills. As a result, not everyone succeeds in making the transition in the professional services world. Failed engagements are problematic for consultants and for their clients, from the standpoint of profitability and reputation. In The Seven Principles of Professional Services, Shane Anastasi describes the practices and frameworks he has used repeatedly to transform unhealthy professional service teams into growth engines that are committed to customer success. The results are fewer escalations, happier clients, less downtime, and higher profit margins.

New Business Book Summary Available for The Anatomy of Peace

In The Anatomy of Peace, The Arbinger Institute presents a conflict-resolution strategy that requires understanding the impact of viewing others in a warlike manner—as objects or barriers to overcome—and the importance of viewing others through a heart of peace—as people with authentic hopes, cares, needs, and fears. This understanding can provide insight into opposing points of view and ignite a true desire to help others. By adopting a heart of peace that is free from blame, justification, and internal warring, potential paths forward are illuminated, and a strategic framework for influencing others can be successfully deployed.

New Business Book Summary Available for The Three Rules

Strategy and management advice is often unreliable. Most lessons derived from companies that have achieved extraordinary results typically do not account for the factors of chance, coincidence, or random fluctuations. In The Three Rules, Michael E. Raynor and Mumtaz Ahmed argue that there are only three rules every company must follow in order to become exceptional. Through a series of case studies featuring companies from a number of industries, this book identifies these fundamental strategies and illustrates how they determine whether companies’ performances will be miraculous, sustainable, or simply average.

New Business Book Summary Available for Service Design for Business

Customers increasingly demand value from the services they use and expect their changing needs will be met. In Service Design for Business, Ben Reason, Lavrans Løvlie, and Melvin Brand Flu take an outside-in view of the customer lifecycle to determine the most effective means of meeting customer expectations while fulfilling business goals. They look at identifying and addressing customer pain points as well as how to guide users effectively through the service experience. The book provides a blueprint for creating responsive, agile, and customer-centric service structures that attract and retain customers from before engagement with the service to after the contract is fulfilled.

New Business Book Summary Available for Corporate Brand Personality

Although the concept of branding is not a new one, many businesses still struggle to establish the strong reputations they need to stay competitive. In her book Corporate Brand Personality, Lesley Everett provides specific guidelines for reinventing and maintaining trustworthy, authentic corporate branding. She focuses on all aspects of the topic, from identifying values to communicating them with consistency.