Latest Reads
Highlights from the books we most recently read.
“The four supreme objectives of any organization that wants to succeed: 1. Keep the customer. 2. Get new customers. 3. Encourage the customers to spend as much as possible!—but without sabotaging Objective Number One. 4. In all of the above, keep working toward more and more efficiency.”
“Customer service starts the instant you make contact with an individual.”
“Bosses who flippantly roll out the ‘team speech’ without an underlying objective or set of expectations that everyone understands and embraces are just wasting their breath.”
“If taken seriously, a vision statement can serve as a company’s North Star, pointing in the direction it intends to go.”
“An organization has integrity — is healthy — when it is whole, consistent, and complete, that is, when its management, operations, strategy, and culture fit together and make sense.”
“When leadership teams wait for consensus before taking action, they usually end up with decisions that are made too late and are mildly disagreeable to everyone. This is a recipe for mediocrity and frustration.”
“The ultimate point of building greater trust, conflict, commitment, and accountability is one thing: the achievement of results.”
“Great organizations, unlike countries, are never run like a democracy.”
(NOTE: we’ve read this book several times and was
the basis for our leadership academy at Daxko,
but we recently re-read it as a group.
A classic worth the repeat.)
“While grit can get you to stick to hard things that are worthwhile, grit can also get you to stick to hard things that are no longer worthwhile. The trick is figuring out the difference. ”
“Success does not lie in sticking to things. It lies in picking the right things to stick to and quitting the rest.”
“The sooner you figure out that you should walk away, the sooner you can switch to something better. And the sooner that happens, the more resources you’re saving, which you can then devote to more fruitful endeavors.”
“Figure out the hard things first. Try to solve that as quickly as possible. Beware of false progress.”
“Be picky about what you stick to.”
“It’s all about renewals.”
“Hard work is a competitive differentiator.”
“When something goes wrong [with a customer], you have to make the resolution more memorable than the problem.”
“Effective impact businesses create benefit in their communities because they profit, rather than in spite of their profit.”