The Myth of Excellence: Why Great Companies Never Try to Be the Best at Everything

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Being Excellent By Yeilding Excellence and Defining Your Excellence

Very Useful but Not Perfect

Genuine Marketing pays off

Enjoyable, Insiteful, and Highly Relevant

Excellent Analysis

The Myth of Excellence: Why Great Companies Never Try to Be the Best at Everything
Fred Crawford , and Ryan Mathews
Manufacturer: Three Rivers Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Strategy & Competition | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Leadership | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0609810014
Release Date: 2003-05-27

Book Description

Ex•cel•lence (n.) 1. The clearly false and destructive theory that a company ought to be great at everything it does. 2. A mistaken goal in which the predictable outcome is that the company ends up world-class at nothing—not well-differentiated and therefore not thought of by consumers at the moment of need.

Based on exhaustive research, The Myth of Excellence provides conclusive evidence of the futility of trying to be excellent in all aspects of a commercial transaction—price, product, access, experience, and service. Instead, the strategy for your products and services should be to dominate on one element, differentiate on a second, and be at industry par (i.e., average) on the rest. Yes, it is okay to be average as long as your customers know specifically where and how you are superior and world-class.

Customer Reviews:

Being Excellent By Yeilding Excellence and Defining Your Excellence.......2006-06-22

The Myth of Excellence - trying to be the best at everything makes wasteful use of your resources and confuses consumers. There are five attributes to any business transaction: price, service, access, product and experience. According to this study of 10,000 consumers, executives and client engagements, companies that excel dominate in one category, differentiate in another and are on par with the industry average on the other three. Customers buy for different reasons. It is an outmoded thinking that purchases are mainly based on lowest price or highest quality.

To survive and prosper you must know which attributes of the five that your customers value the most and concentrate on one of them. You do this while being above average on the next attribute and on par with the last three. If you fall below par on any of these, your business will be rejected.

Top businesses engage in customer relevancy - what the customer values most. Customers desire a personal experience that supports their individual value system. They are looking for recognition as individuals. Sam Walton used to ask his employees and customers what they would change if they owned his store - Walmart.

Lowest price is not important to most customers. They do want however a fair price and a feeling of saving money. Most companies fall behind on service because customers are always redefining what good service means. They want to know that they are being given at least due consideration. They expect a basic level of competence. Access has to do with ease of use and availability. Convenience and forthrightness of information is paramount in this attribute. Your product must be credible and of consistent quality. Finally the experience is more than entertainment. It is a sense of intimacy. Courtesy, appearance of staff and store, and respect are part of the experience.

Of these five, the attribute that is capitalized on must inspire the customer. It would intimately handle their needs and problems. It would indivually acknowledge and reaffirm the consumer and deliver a high level of trust. It will be 'the' factor that drives people to your store.

When it is discovered through survey and communications what your customers and potential customers value, and one of their main concerns is addressed with emphasis, and this value-proposition is shared with-in and with-out the company, prosperity will ensue.

Excellent book by two world-renowned business consultants.

Five Stars

Very Useful but Not Perfect.......2006-05-21

This book points out something interestingly in favor of Christianity: That while (traditional) protestant Christianity became watered down, that since the 1950s, the global suicide rate rose by 60 percent.

This book will help show you how to maintain and improve your business, but it is wrong however in saying that you can't be excellent in all of the business attributes it mentions. It gives no evidence that you can't be good at all of them.

Genuine Marketing pays off.......2002-07-03

The success of any company always depend on the discipline of marketing, breaking off the malpractice adopted by and large by many companies. Respect, service, trust, genuine quality are the values to strengthen from the grass root levels. Fred Crawford and Ryan Mathews with a in-depth research of many companies reveals that customer service is the key to success and the customer experience is the prime dedicating factor consideration in time to come. The book is an insight to the companies to offer the best by examining their products and executing them with par excellence to stand by the competitive edge. Myth of Excellence is way of the wizard to gain the confidence of the customers. The idea to give a commission and link to something `free' is a common notion. The rates pulled up to a 20% and than the discount offered only stems out indecent bargain ethics. Brand name and quality are in demand and customers often resort to the quality and service of the consumer products. Catching promotions do attract but the consumer stays unimpressed if quality, service & trust is not offered.Trust is the key of a merchant's scale to shoot up the success chart. This book is a read for CEOs and Company marketing Dept executives to play their roles and create a brand offering the best of the best to keep the customer list hooked to their line of products. Appreciation of the customers motivates the team for a success. This book is a good read for CEO's of Companies whofall below standards and it stands a handy resource guide to marketers who wish to excel and stand a `class apart' wading the competition to be on top. I recommend this book as it has the value guidance for Companies who want to reach the `winning edge'- Whatever be the product!

Enjoyable, Insiteful, and Highly Relevant.......2002-06-21

A very good book, not only easy to read but enjoyable and motivating as well. I believe these guys are right on the money with their research and analysis. I agree with the interrpretations of the research data and found myself saying "Yes, that's just how I feel." in response to many of the stories of customer interactions.

I believe that this book addresses the most important areas of business today and identifies what consumers are "screaming" for - SERVICE, RESPECT, etc. Most of this book is common sence - it's amazing how uncommon it is that these principles are put into practice. We are at a transition in the business world where product quality is easily duplicated by many competitors. Customer service and the customer "experience" will be the deciding factor in the decades to come. I would hope that all businesses would buy this book and work towards being the kind of companies used in the case studies here. What a pleasure it would be if all of our day to day dealings were with companies of this caliber!

The authors recognition of the end of the Information age and movement into a new age where "appreciation and reverence for life" become the motivating factors for those who wish to succeed, shows just how in-tune they are with the world around us. This recognition will be invaluable to all businesses as time goes on - now, who will take advantage of it and use it wisely?

I highly reccommend this book for everyone from the CEO to the consumer. People are asking (demanding) for RESPECT, as they should, and the businesses that understand this and embrace this will be the future winners.

Excellent Analysis.......2002-03-13

I loved the analysis and explanations. At first I missed the relevancy of the conceptual models. The examples of the attributes were both enjoyable and well researched and the tables at the conclusion where extremely interesting and insightful. The authors make valid points with regard to consumer relevancy.

The Myth Of Excellence - Why Great Companies Never Try To Be The Best At Everything

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The Myth Of Excellence - Why Great Companies Never Try To Be The Best At Everything
Fred and Mathews, Ryan Crawford
Manufacturer: Crown Business
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000IX3858

Customer Reviews:

Moving Internal Services to a Market Economy.......2001-09-21

Moving Internal Services from Soviet-Style Monopoly to a Market System

This book is an excellent introduction to the implementation of shared services by people with lots of pragmatic experience. It's required reading at my company.

If you are just starting out, it provides a good map of what shared services are and how to go about implementing. If you have done it, it might remind you of the original vision.

Also, the book is well written, making it easy and enjoyable to read--which means that I actually read it instead of leaving it on the table hoping for osmosis to kick in.

As someone involved the creation of software to automate and support shared services at Newscale, I found the focus on "running Shared Services as business" (and all that implies) the clearest difference between the new way and the old way.

This means, frankly, that while cutting costs is the primary driver for shared services, the path has to take account five elements that are non-obvious today: 1) how do I plan and execute my service workflows, 2) how do I enable my internal customers to procure my offers and those of outsourcers? 3) how do I manage the business relationship with the business units, 4)how do I charge for services and manage the Shared Services business unit), 5) how do I design and create my service "products"?

In other words, run a business that produces value for customers at a profit -- just like a market economy. Which sounds obvious and simple, but it's not. Just ask the Russians...or the dotcoms.

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Black Protest Thought in the Twentieth Century

Manufacturer: Bobbs-Merrill Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0672611783

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Black protest thought in the twentieth century
August Meier
Manufacturer: Bobbs-Merrill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

African-American Studies | Special Groups | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B00072QVJK

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Black Protest Thought in the Twentieth Century. 2nd Edition.

Manufacturer: Bobbs-Merrill Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000O8THL6

Book Description

Inspired by emerging new interpretations of Sigmund Freud, Lowe explores the ways in which psychoanalysis addresses the problems of evil and suffering. In particular, Loew argues that the psychoanalytic perspective illuminates the extent to which the human condition is marked by tragic conflict and self-delusion, as well as clarifies the limits of the unreflective optimism of the human potential movement.

Book Description

After an introductory chapter concerned with the history of force-free magnetic fields, and the relation of such fields to hydrodynamics and astrophysics, the book examines the limits imposed by the virial theorem for finite force-free configurations. Various techniques are then used to find solutions to the field equations. The fact that the field lines corresponding to these solutions have the common feature of being "twisted", and may be knotted, motivates a discussion of field line topology and the concept of helicity. The topics of field topology, helicity, and magnetic energy in multiply connected domains make the book of interest to a rather wide audience. Applications to solar prominence models, type-II superconductors, and force-reduced magnets are also discussed. The book contains many figures and a wealth of material not readily available elsewhere.

Book Description

During the mid-eighteenth century, colonists constructed a line of forts along the northwest boundary of Massachusetts as a defense against the French and their Indian allies. Many of these "forts" were simply reinforced houses. Of the three major forts in the line, one, Fort Massachusetts, is now buried beneath a parking lot in North Adams. Of the two remaining forts, Fort Shirley in the town of Heath was excavated by Michael D. Coe of Yale University; the other, Fort Pelham in Rowe, was excavated by Daniel Ingersoll of the University of Massachusetts. To the casual observer, the sites might not seem significant--but as Coe argues, two circumstances make these forts more important to the study of eighteenth-century life in the American colonies than their modest size would indicate.

First, their period of occupation was extremely short: they were built in 1744, abandoned in 1754, and never used again. Thus, they give a unique snapshot of the material culture of the time. Second, the Line of Forts is abundantly documented. The Williams family of western Massachusetts (chief among the "River Gods," the group of elite families who people Coe's story) controlled most of the colony from the Connecticut River valley west to the New York line. The Williamses were the forts' leading officers and ran their commissaries. This powerful family left voluminous documents that provide a unique window into daily life on the Massachusetts frontier and help interpret what was found in the remains of the forts.

From Williams family archives and artifacts from Fort Shirley and Fort Pelham, Coe weaves a rich drama. His tale comprises the final standoff between New England's English settlers and Native Americans, the ideological conflict between Calvinistic Protestantism and Roman Catholicism, the occasional frictions between colonial militia and the British regular army, and the larger struggle between England and France for North America.

Customer Reviews:

More on the Massachusetts Frontier.......2006-08-29

This author brings out more great information on Colonial New England;although written for the Historian and Archeologist.If your a student of New England history there is much here for the amateur too.

The Line of Forts in Northern Massachusetts were built by people struggling to maintain their lands and way of life,this book reveals the drama of those daily ordeals. I have been reading about these histories for years and never knew how many forts there actually were,there being as many as ten +.The line stretched from the Connecticut River West just into New York,running along the now Vermont border.Garrison houses were mixed in and added to the defensive line also.The two main Forts studied here being Fort Shirley and Fort Pelham.These two forts only have a life span of around ten years(1744-1754), a short existence in the overall struggle during the French and Indian War timeframe. Through the discovery of objects and documents hidden away Coe gives us a glimpse of the soldiers life on the Frontier.

An outstanding addition to the library of research on Colonial New England. Highly worth the price.

Wayne's Trace: Fort Deposit to Fort Industry (OH) (Images of America)

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Wayne's Trace: Fort Deposit to Fort Industry (OH) (Images of America)
Charles M. Jacobs
Manufacturer: Arcadia Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Book Description

Wayneís Trace: Fort Deposit to Fort Industry is the first pictorial history to document the culmination of General ìMad Anthonyî Wayneís campaign against the Indian Confederacy in 1794. The retrospective draws on a wealth of archival material and popular cultureóincluding unique vintage engravings, photographs, postcards, and philatelic souvenirsóin tracing the U.S. Legionís march down the Maumee River Valley to Maumee Bay. ÝÝA highlight is Turkey Foot Rock, an ìepic of defeatî landmark the author likens to Custerís Last Stand Hill in Montana. More recent images illustrate archaeological initiatives and the evolution of the Fallen Timbers Battlefield and the site of Fort Miamis as National Park Service affiliates. Together, the local history and lore of Waterville, Maumee, and Toledo, Ohio, amplify a great watershed in our national history, the dislocation of Native American peoples, and the first opportunity for colonization by the young United States.

Reconstructing Fort Union (National Parks)

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Reconstructing Fort Union (National Parks)
John Matzko
Manufacturer: University of Nebraska Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Americas | History | Subjects | Books

Social History | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books

Book Description

Built to last, Fort Union survived for forty years—long enough to make it the longest-lived fur-trading post in the history of the United States. But the fort's destruction in 1867 marked only the beginning of a tale just as fascinating, a story that concluded with the partial rebuilding of the fort during the 1980s. In this book, John Matzko conducts us through the colorful history of this landmark standing above the confluence of the Missouri and the Yellowstone Rivers—and through the equally colorful tangle of passions, loyalties, and politics surrounding the fort's reconstruction.

Here is the Crow-Flies-High band of Hidatsa, who lived on the site in the late nineteenth century; here is the "wild west" town of Mondak, founded in 1904 to peddle alcohol to North Dakotans; and here are the Park Service personnel, whose mission to preserve what is left of the historic fort puts them in direct conflict with civic leaders who want the entire site reconstructed to draw more tourists. Matzko chronicles the struggle, with all the political plays, bureaucratic snags, and chance twists that led to the reconstructionists' victory—and to one of the largest archaeological excavations ever mounted by the National Park Service. As entertaining as it is instructive, his book exposes the tensions inherent in the intellectual and physical rebuilding of the American past.

Fort Scott: Courage and Conflict on the Border (Kansas Forts Series)

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Fort Scott: Courage and Conflict on the Border (Kansas Forts Series)
Leo E. Oliva
Manufacturer: Kansas State Historical Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Americas | History | Subjects | Books

General | Military | History | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0877260273

Heritage Management at Fort Hood, Texas: Experiments in Historic Landscape Characterisation

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Heritage Management at Fort Hood, Texas: Experiments in Historic Landscape Characterisation

Manufacturer: Archaeopress
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books

Product Description

The landscape of Fort Hood, in central Texas, presents archaeologists and cultural resource managers with some of their most exacting but absorbing challenges. That much is clear from the activities of the many archaeologists and heritage managers who have sought to use the extensive cultural database and unique landscape of the base as a test bed for research and management methodologies. This volume presents a synthesis of recent Fort Hood studies and represents something unique in terms of published HLC programmes. The utility of the process is summed up in the successful ground-truthing of results produced by the research team. Consequently these results are a strong endorsement not just of the essential principles of historic landscape characterisation, but also that the process has a wider applicability to regions with radically different histories and areas where available supporting data is of variable quality. The importance of appropriate technical and resource management expertise within management terms are equally clear from this work.

Historic North American Forts (Dover Pictorial Archives)

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Historic North American Forts (Dover Pictorial Archives)
Peter F. Copeland
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Reference | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
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ASIN: 0486410366

Book Description

Detailed, accurate renderings of 44 historic forts and citadels, among them Fort McHenry, Fort Jamestown, Fort Ticonderoga, Fort Sumter, Plymouth Fort, El Morro in Puerto Rico, Fort Niagara, Fort Laramie, and many others, including 4 Canadian sites. Fact-filled captions accompany illustrations, making this book a source of coloring fun, a useful reference, and a practical tour guide.

Integrating ethnohistory and archaeology at Fort Clark State Historic Site, North Dakota.: An article from: American Antiquity

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Integrating ethnohistory and archaeology at Fort Clark State Historic Site, North Dakota.: An article from: American Antiquity
W. Raymond Wood
Manufacturer: Society for American Archaeology
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Book Description

This digital document is an article from American Antiquity, published by Society for American Archaeology on July 1, 1993. The length of the article is 7234 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the author: A two-year mapping project at Fort Clark State Historic Site produced a 15-cm contour map of the Native American (Mandan and Arikara) earthlodge village and a planimetric map of that part of the historic district that lies above the Missouri River flood plain. Aerial photography and ground-level transit mapping detected more than 2,200 surface features at the site, including 86 earthlodges, 2 fur-trading posts, hundreds of storage and grave pits, and Euroamerican and Native American roads and trails. More than 80 percent of the site as mapped lies outside the fortification ditch of the Mandan/Arikara village. When we are trying to determine the potential impact on sites such as this one of such activities as nearby road construction, our recommendations must consider the broader context of the site, not simply the narrow spectrum provided by the settlement core area. A buffer zone as presently exists at Fort Clark is not only necessary to preserve its visual integrity but also to preserve the record of the activities that took place in its immediate vicinity.

Citation Details
Title: Integrating ethnohistory and archaeology at Fort Clark State Historic Site, North Dakota.
Author: W. Raymond Wood
Publication: American Antiquity (Refereed)
Date: July 1, 1993
Publisher: Society for American Archaeology
Volume: v58 Issue: n3 Page: p544(16)

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

The first historical heroic epic authored by a woman, Scanderbeide recounts the exploits of fifteenth-century Albanian warrior-prince George Scanderbeg and his war of resistance against the Ottoman sultanate. Filled with scenes of intense and suspenseful battles contrasted with romantic episodes, Scanderbeide combines the action and fantasy characteristic of the genre with analysis of its characters’ motivations. In selecting a military campaign as her material and epic poetry as her medium, Margherita Sarrocchi (1560?–1617) not only engages in the masculine subjects of political conflict and warfare but also tackles a genre that was, until that point, the sole purview of men.

First published posthumously in 1623, Scanderbeide reemerges here in an adroit English prose translation that maintains the suspense of the original text and gives ample context to its rich cultural implications.

Book Description

Statistical analysis typically involves applying theoretically generated techniques to the description and interpretation of collected data. In this text, theory, application and interpretation are combined to present the entire biostatistical process for a series of elementary and intermediate analytic methods. The theoretical basis for each method is discussed with a minimum of mathematics and is applied to a research data example using a computer system called S-PLUS. This system produces concrete numerical results and increases one's understanding of the fundamental concepts and methodology of statistical analysis. Combining statistical logic, data and computer tools, the author explores such topics as random number generation, general linear models, estimation, analysis of tabular data, analysis of variance and survival analysis. The end result is a clear and complete explanation of the way statistical methods can help one gain an understanding of collected data. Modern Applied Biostatistical Methods is unlike other statistical texts, which usually deal either with theory or with applications. It integrates the two elements into a single presentation of theoretical background, data, interpretation, graphics, and implementation. This all-around approach will be particularly helpful to students in various biostatistics and advanced epidemiology courses, and will interest all researchers involved in biomedical data analysis. This text is not a computer manual, even though it makes extensive use of computer language to describe and illustrate applied statistical techniques. This makes the details of the statistical process readily accessible, providing insight into how and why a statistical method identifies the properties of sampled data. The first chapter gives a simple overview of the S-PLUS language. The subsequent chapters use this valuable statistical tool to present a variety of analytic approaches.

MODERN APPLIED BIOSTATISTICAL METHODS USING S-PLUS MEB 28

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MODERN APPLIED BIOSTATISTICAL METHODS USING S-PLUS MEB 28
SELVIN
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OKJ4O4

Book Description

Civilization is trashing the earth faster than the earth can heal herself. The list of atrocities is endless: global warming, ozone depletion, deforestation, declining sperm-counts, desertification, topsoil erosion, fisheries depletion, hazardous waste dumping, outer space pollution, acid rain, overpopulation and so on. We are now on the brink of the earth's sixth mass extinction-the only one caused by humans. The human species, as presently organized, has become maladaptive to the global environment. The author concludes that the answer to this problem is that we don't need to save civilization for humans, we need to save humans from civilization. Humans need to return to natural law, obeying the dictates of evolution. Only then can the earth heal herself. By separating us from the wild, civilization has cut us off from the energy of the universe. Since energy is power, separating humans from nature makes them powerless. Civilization's destruction of nature, therefore, is fundamentally a question of power. We need "deep power", namely the balancing of physical and material power with its underlying metaphysical or spiritual power. Without deep power, purely physical or shallow power becomes distorted and self-destructive. This book is about balancing-balancing physical power with metaphysical power. Civilization has made humans unbalanced; when they start walking in balance, they will become deeply powerful and the earth will be able to heal herself. It is time that social scientists incorporate the metaphysical into their analyses; it can only make the social sciences more powerful and, above all, useful. In this book the author cites a wide array of research supporting the notion of the metaphysical-studies that have employed conventional scientific methods but have been all too conveniently-and justifiably-ignored.

Customer Reviews:

Moving Us out of out Comfort Zones and to the Wildness.......2000-09-24

This book is amazing, and life altering. It relates Kowalewski's views on human's relationship to her/his environment to history, philosophy, psychology, creativity, spirituality. Each chapter is full of different information that will challenge your old way of thinking and push you to change. It is the kind of book you can keep on your shelf or on your desk or on your table and refer to again and again. I wish it had more concrete suggestions, but it is good for motivation.

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