Andrew Gibbons

Phone: 01242 571 909

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Wish you had more time time to read, especially books rich in learning and ideas?

The good news is that I have read many of them for you - the list of 25 is growing monthly.

Why read and then forget? I read, type up and keep for reference. Do scroll down, download, and use.

FREE DOWNLOADS - just click on the title link...

On Becoming a Leader

Warren Bennis

A true classic, crammed full of learning, including the 12 ways leaders are different to managers,

and loads of quotes and great ideas. Save many hours of reading - I have done it for you.

Working Knowledge

Thomas Davenport and Laurence Prusak

This is a hot topic, and what is worth more than the knowledge held within an organisation? How 'though can this be 'mined', stored, and distributed? These are questions most organisations seem to find too hard to answer they don't even try...this book can help.

The Fifth Discipline

Peter M Senge

A Classic - The five disciplines:

Systems thinking

Personal mastery

Mental models

Building shared vision

Team learning

Getting Past No

William Ury

Without doubt the very best book I have read on negotiation - the most critical interpersonal skill.

Moments of Truth

Jan Carlzon

A summary of the concise and learning-packed Jan Carlzon book 'Moments of Truth' - explaining how to get an organisation genuinely customer-orientated.

A Complaint is a Gift

Janelle Barlow and Claus Moller

"The effective handling of complaints and good service recovery are, for many companies, the

very best opportunities to show what they can really do for customers.

"In industries prone to unpredictable disruptions and in which many companies offer similar

services, situations that demand a spontaneous response from the service provider are often the

most dramatic means of demonstrating to customers that we really care about their concerns".

Customer Intimacy

Fred Wiersma

"The suppliers who lead today's markets are those that constantly think about their customers.

They analyse their systems, recognise their flaws, challenge their assumptions, and assume responsibility for initiating change".

"As more and more customers experience exceptional performance - whatever it takes to solve

their problems - fewer and fewer will settle for anything less".

Inspired Customer Service

David Clutterbuck, Graham Clark and Colin Armistead

"In this book, we stress the benefits to be gained from benchmarking performance against

service providers in your sector and others who operate similar processes. This helps ensure that

your vision is more than a simple wish to be the best service company. The vision must be defined with quantified targets".

Leaders

Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus

"This book was written in the belief that leadership is the pivotal force behind successful

organisations and that to create vital and viable organisations, leadership is necessary to help organisations develop a new vision of what they can be, then mobilize the organisation change

toward the new vision".

Practical Benchmarking - A manager’s guide to creating a competitive advantage

Sarah Cook

"Benchmarking is the process of identifying, understanding and adapting outstanding practices

from within the same organisation or from other businesses to help improve performance".

Strategic Benchmarking

Gregory Watson W

atson
"The underlying reason for benchmarking is to learn how to improve business processes and

increase competitiveness...the premise is simple: companies choose to benchmark outstanding companies whose business processes are analogous to their own.

Benchmarking identifies those practices that have enabled the successful companies’ superior performance and that can be adapted to the benchmarking companies’ business applications.

Thus, benchmarking is an operational process of continuous learning and adaptation that results

in the development of an improved organisation."

The Power of Empowerment

David Clutterbuck and Susan Kernaghan

"All too often, empowerment can simply mean shouldering more responsibility for less reward.

In these cases, employees rarely find themselves empowered to say ‘no’ ".

They suggest empowerment should help people to:
* take more control over their jobs and working environment
* enhance the contribution they make as individuals and members of a team
* seize opportunities for personal growth and self-fulfilment.

The 11th Commandment

Sandra Vanderwerwe

"Whereas in the past we thought we were adding value, in fact often we were adding costs. Value

only happens in the customer's space. What goes on in that space, i.e. what customers do to get

the results they want, is what new corporations need to establish, and to these activities they need

to learn to add value".

"Unless the value gets downstream to end-users everyone will ultimately fail".

Direct Quotes from the 48 laws of power