Harness the Future: The 9 Keys to Emerging Consumer Behaviour

Book Description

It's not news to anyone in business that the rules of the game are changing faster than ever before, and so are patterns of consumer behaviour and spending. Rapid change on many fronts means that power has shifted away from businesses and into the hands of consumers:

Globalization and technology have increased consumers' buying options and knowledge, and have intensified competition.
Technological advances have raised quality standards, increased consumers' expectations, and lowered product differentiation.
Demographic shifts that go well beyond ageing baby-boomers are significantly influencing the market place.

But just how do you identify all the factors that have a significant influence on consumer buying behaviour in a rapidly changing world? And — more importantly — what do you do about them in your own business? Harness the Future shows how to paint a comprehensive picture of your customers by examining trends in nine key areas:

Economy
Technology
Globalization
Government
Environment
Demographics
Consumer Psyche
Wellness
Retailing

But beyond telling about the way things are and will be, Harness the Future also shows you how to predict and profit from changing consumer behaviour.

Shows how to track and analyze the trends that affect your own business.
Identifies emerging trends to help you understand consumer behavior in the future.
Provides valuable strategies, planning tools, and business-building ideas.
Features examples of trailblazing companies that are using these techniques to harness their future.

Customer Reviews:

a trend that teaches no new things.......2003-06-05

Overall, I think the book says things everybody (especially marketer) already knew.

For instance, the final recommended nine strategies:
- restructure organizations with a consumer-driven orientation.
- select and focus on the highest-priority consumer segments.
- develop standardized customizaton approaches.
- leverage global trends and market intelligence.
- increase the priority on innovation.
- increase the priority on value.
- choose more narrowly targeted and two-way communication vehicles.
- align communications strategies with the spirit of tomorrow's consumers
- adopt new marketing research approaches to understand tomorrow's consumer.

All these "recommended strategies" are very "unsurprised" to me. Both the recommendation basis and recommendation strategies are just average.

I gave two stars because the book was released in 1998, so it might have a little value then (though I doubt it too).

Only recommend to college student for marketing basic reading.

Consumer Behavior For Entry Level Marketers.......2002-02-28

The concepts and indicators Shirley Roberts mentioned in this book are nothing new to me since I have been working the last two decades at an investment bank that already follows these trends quite closely.
Most of the first two chapters seemed to be elementry knowledge, however starting with chapter 3 the text begins to look a little bit more into the detail of the "Hows and Whys" of her beliefs. Numerous examples of failure and success stories of companies that have recognised trend changes help the reader fully understand the concepts she is talking about.
The author comes from a food and beverage background which is very evident in her examples but she does use other business sector cases as well.
In the book she really pushes the theme of globalisation of the world's markets and their effects on consumer behavior. However, there are only a few very limited number of non-North American case studies.
The occupation of a "Marketing Professional" will become much more difficult as consumer market becomes extremely non-homogeneous, destroying the "Mass Marketing" philosophy.. hurray hurray... this means more marketing jobs... ha ha ha ..
Although I have been in an occupation tracking these trends and statistics over the last 20 years, I was able to learn a few new and interesting things but I would say this book is an excellent read for the college graduate/entry level employee for a marketing/market analyst type occupation.

Harness the Future: The 9 Keys to Emerging Consumer Behaviou.......2000-04-29

This book is good for anyone interested in long term trends. The author does a good job of identifying the specific factors influencing trends and then mentions what magazines you can read that will talk more specific about the area you are intersted in learning about further.

Customer Reviews:

A great book to help guide life decisions!.......2003-07-11

I read this book in preparation for a life & career strategic planning course and ability testing when I was 43 years old. I had been laid off from a good job, had been temping & part-timing it for a couple years, and was just undecided about what I should do next. I had plenty of ideas, and many of them sounded good -- at the moment -- but I was just so unsure about which was the right path, which would be fulfulling for me, and on what factors I should base my decisions. Well, this book was a key to my recovery! I soaked it up like a sponge, as it addressed many of the issues I was grappling with and helped me get back on the road to a fulfilling life. It's great at helping you determine what's important and identifying the values which guide key life decisions. I heartily recommend this book for anyone at a crossroads, in transition, or just unsure about how to make their next career move and provide the right balance in their life. This book is one of the best career and overall life-planning books on the market! Enjoy!

Finding Your Own Reality.......2000-05-13

Unlike other career guidance books that force the reader into existing job titles, this book offers wonderful insights and process to guide you to developing and designing your own customized career/job. TLC looks at the whole person, and factors in the need for personal and professional balance to get more out of life. Kudos to the authors for writing a book that instilled the courage to break-away and do what I love, leading a life I look forward to each day.

A life changing book.......1998-12-09

After reading the first few pages of TLC, I had to put it down for a moment. The authors had described the last three years of my life almost perfectly. I didn't put it down again for two hours. I'm a highly compensated information worker who "has it all" by most people's standards, but still feels unfulfilled. TLC showed me how to examine my talents and skills and use them more effectively to achieve what I really want from my life. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Integrates the pieces one needs to develop a vision.......1998-12-02

I found this book well thought out as it first identifies and then helps the reader integrate all the pieces to the puzzle in creating a career and life vision. I have used this in a adult college course and all the students found the book both very helpful in understanding themselves and practical in working on the life/career pieces for themselves

they got it right.......1998-08-06

I bought The Lemming Conspiracy because I liked the title. And I'm glad I did. No book has hit a greater nerve with me. I don't know how many times I have gone to work thinking that my real calling lay elsewhere. And after reading this book I was amazed at how all pervasive this feeling is: it got me thinking about how much happier we would all be if society had a different system for career placement. This book is a tremendously effective motivational tool. I am not a big fan of so called self help literature, they all come on so gung ho and hokey, as if they had all been written by Richard Simmons on Mescaline. The Lemming Conspiracy is an engaging and intelligent read, it does not talk down to you, and it is written with a passion that jumps from the page. I cannot reccommend this book highly enough.

Customer Reviews:

VERY Solid Advice that will pay for itself many times over.........2001-03-11

Having dabbled in consulting I knew some of the basics, but this will help me polish out any rough spots. If you are thinkng of becoming an independant or just started out by all means get this book! Just started reading two other books by Janet and I'm sure I'll like those as well. Also, stop by the messsage board on her web site to share your experiences.... No- I do not know her nor am I compensated by her. Just a solid book and thought I'd share.

Outstanding book for would-be consultants.......2000-05-04

I wish this book had been available when I was getting started as a consultant; it would have saved me a lot of the time and trouble of learning the ropes. The book is well organized and full of great tips, useful advice, and excellent discussions of the issues involved in being a successful consultant. It was clearly written (and written clearly) by somebody who has obviously "been there and done that." As I read through it, I kept saying to myself, "yeah, that's so true, and that's true too, and I wish I'd known that before discovering it the hard way, and . . . ."

If you've ever entertained idle thoughts about consulting in the computer industry, I strongly encourage you to get this book. It does a great job of presenting both the pros and cons of consulting and includes the essential information you need to succeed if you decide to make a go of it.

An invaluable book for a newbie consultant........1999-05-07

I read from front to cover the Computer Consultant's Workbook. For a person who is interested in consulting, and has no knowledge at all about consulting, this is the book for you. After you read this book I would also recommend that you read her second book as well because both books together offer invaluable tips as you embark on your career as a consultant.

Book Description

Korean immigrants to the United States establish their own small businesses at a rate exceeding that of immigrants from any other nation, with more than one third of all Korean immigrant adults involved in small businesses. Kyeyoung Park examines this phenomenon in Queens, New York, tracing its historical bases and exploring the transformation of Korean cultural identity prompted by participation in an enterprise. Park documents the ways in which Korean immigrants use entrepreneurship to improve the quality of their lives, focusing on their concerns and anxieties, as well as their joys. The concept of "anjong" is crucial to the lives of first-generation Korean Americans in Queens, Park explains. The word may be translated as "establishment," "stability," or "security," and it identifies a particular concept of success through which Koreans make sense of the American ideology of opportunity. What they seek is not great wealth or social position but rather the creation of their own small businesses as a way of realizing the American dream. The pursuit of "anjong" is important enough to justify changes in gender and kinship relations, resulting in the rise of a Korean American women-centered and sister-initiated kinship structure. Commitment to the concept has also inspired a different understanding of class, ethnicity, and race, and stimulated new religious ideas and practices.

The Korean American Dream : Immigrants & Small Business in New York City (Anthropology of Contemporary Issues Ser.)

Average customer rating:

The Korean American Dream : Immigrants & Small Business in New York City (Anthropology of Contemporary Issues Ser.)
Kyeyoung Park
Manufacturer: Cornell University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000PRXGGS

Average customer rating:

Perused this book and quit my job the next day

Dare to take back your life

Powerful--A must read for everyone!

At last!

ýDare to Change Your Job -- And Your Lifeý

Dare to Change Your Job and Your Life
Carole Kanchier PhD.
Manufacturer: Jist Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Job Hunting & Careers | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Guides | Job Hunting & Careers | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Job Hunting | Job Hunting & Careers | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Self-Help | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
Success | Self-Help | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
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Customer Reviews:

Perused this book and quit my job the next day.......2007-03-17

My favorite thing about this book is the stories about real people and how they handled their situations. These "true stories" helped give me the courage to quit my job and turn my life around. In fact, after perusing this book, I quit the job I hated the very next day! I soon turned my life around. It was the best decision I ever made. The book really helped me muster my courage.

What I don't like about this book are the stupid personality tests. One of the questions were like "Are you sometimes impatient?" And the answer choices were "always," sometimes" or "never." So if I am sometimes impatient, should I answer "always?" I mean, I am always sometimes impatient. Or should I answer sometimes? These tests are poorly worded and are a complete waste of ink.

Dare to take back your life.......2003-05-26

One of the highroads to dissappointment and failure is job dissatisfaction.

I find it interesting that many people are unwilling to change jobs or careers while all the time complaining how bad their company is. Or people who get downsized and go right back in the same type of job.

Carole Kanchier, Ph.d offers a long overdue perspective. She says, "The choice is yours. You can complain or you can change."

Kanchier offers self evaluation. She suggests:

* Redine success. Maintain harmony between who you are and what
you do. Consider that job satisfaction may be more important
than money or position.

* Know yourself and what you want; Identify your mission in life.
Modify goals as you learn more about yourself.
Are you growing or standing still.

* Take career control. Think of building a career rather
than applying for a job. Develop a habit of lifelong
learning and self improvement.

* Enhance creativity. Trust and value intuition. Learn to
relax and have fun.

* Think positively. Learn to say "I can" rather than "I
can't" View setbacks as a learning experience. Listen
to motivational tapes. Reas inspiritional books.
Associate with positive people. Begin and end each
day with positive thoughts.

* Develop resilience: Balance fear of change with committment
Put on the blinders. Get tough. Break goals into small
success steps.

Dare to change your life and your job is a great book that
will help you take back your life and step up to success.

Powerful--A must read for everyone!.......2003-02-14

Carole Kanchier, Ph.d offers powerful and specific advice for those unhappy. She says, "The choice is yours. You can complain or you can change."

Here is what she suggests:

* Redfine Success

* Know yourself

* Take career control

* Enhance creativity

* Think positively

* Develop resilience

Overall a good read and I highly recomend it.

At last!.......2001-06-30

Well, it was about time, finding a book that answered all my questions about what I really wanted out of life and, but of course, my fears and doubts. I was so trapped in my job, believing every manipulation corporate America put into my head. Now, I know what I want to do, and I am not afraid to risk and lose. Job satisfaction is more important than the money I'll lose, or that I'll make in the future. I just want to be happy. Security? There's no security anywhere, so the only risk I can avoid is the risk of not trying it. You should, too. Just read the book, and see what I mean.

ýDare to Change Your Job -- And Your Lifeý.......2000-06-30

"An exceptional resource at the top of my list. It leads the way in the new millennium." Evelyn Kragie, EdD, John Hopkins University

"A fascinating and powerful formula for personal fulfillment and success." J. Michael Farr, Best-selling career author

"Chock full of information, suggestions, guidelines and case histories that will help you control your own life and career." S. Norman Feingold, EdD, President, National Career and Counseling Services, Washington, D.C.

"A superb model for living the examined life and career." David V. Tiedeman, EdD, Vice-President, Lifecareer Foundation, Los Angeles, CA

"... excellent ... filled with constructive messages for opportunity, growth, and mastery ..." Pat Nellor Wickwire, PhD, President, American Association for Career Education

"Challenges you to change your life ... gives real encouragement and sound practical advice." Bill Hague, PhD, University of Alberta

"A 'must' read if you are at a career crossroad or contemplating serious changes ..." Les Hewitt, President, Achievers

Book Description

"Vanguard has produced a reader friendly guide for retirees seeking to preserve and enhance their nest eggs. It's packed with sensible advice on all the pertinent subjects. This is a great book!"-Robert G. Hagstrom, Jr., Author, The Warren Buffet Way. For the 30 million (and ever-growing) Americans who are retired or nearing retirement, making the right investment decisions can mean the difference between ''living well" and merely "getting by". This book shows you how to: get the most from your savings, retirement plan, and Social Security; Select the right mix of investments; Increase your investment income without taking undue risks.

The Vanguard Guide to Investing During Retirement: Managing Your Assets in Retirement

Average customer rating:

The Vanguard Guide to Investing During Retirement: Managing Your Assets in Retirement
Vanguard Group
Manufacturer: Mcgraw-Hill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OFH6G2

Amazon.com

In the attacks of September 11, 2001, 658 of New York brokerage firm Cantor Fitzgerald's 1,000 New York employees were killed. Immediately following the events, author Tom Barbash traveled to New York to profile his college friend, Cantor CEO Howard Lutnick, and chronicle the firm's struggles to stay in business and help its employees' families. The result, On Top of the World, is a compulsively readable book that is difficult to categorize. Unlike many books about the attacks, its story goes well beyond September 11 and into the following year, helping to better demonstrate the human impact of the catastrophe. And while the book ably describes the horror of the events, it is as much a business study as anything: can a company that trades $200 billion a day in commodities futures survive the sudden death of over 65 percent of its New York employees, and its New York headquarters? Cantor Fitzgerald does endure, but soon Lutnick becomes the center of a media firestorm as Connie Chung, Bill O'Reilly from Fox News, and others question the sincerity of Lutnick's public appearances and denounce his method of compensating the families of those lost. Barbash, a novelist by trade, portrays his friend's struggles sympathetically but also provides well-researched dimension to the other people involved, which helps deepen the human drama of the efforts on the part of all involved to put their lives and their company back together. --John Moe

Book Description

On the morning of September 11, 2001, nearly seven hundred of Cantor Fitzgerald's one thousand New York employees were at their desks on the top floors of One World Trade Center when a hijacked passenger plane struck eight floors below. Not one of them lived.

Their friends and colleagues who survived did so through random luck: They missed a train, had a business trip, took a sick day, or, in the case of CEO Howard Lutnick, dropped off his son at his first day of kindergarten.

On Top of the World tells the story not only of that tragic day but also of the complicated and emotionally charged events that followed in its wake. It is an intimate, often harrowing look at how private families processed a public atrocity, how corporate war-room strategy sessions saved the company from liquidation and the efforts of opportunistic competitors.

The book examines the media scrutiny that followed Lutnick, a man who lost his brother and so many friends, who struggled to be at once the compassionate leader the grieving families needed and the tough-minded CEO his decimated company required. Finally, On Top of the World tells the story of a group of men and women -- some of whom were just starting out, others who had succeeded well beyond their expectations -- who were building homes and raising families together, who hired relatives and friends, and the brothers and sisters of those friends. That their business has survived and even flourished -- and that an initially uneasy but ultimately significant covenant has been formed between those who lived and the families of their lost friends is a powerful testament to the ability of a community to endure.

Customer Reviews:

An amazing book.......2006-09-26

I actually got this book from the library, so I didn't actually buy it. But I wouldn't have felt bad about buying it, after reading it. Tom Barbash's writing makes you feel like you were right there interviewing and witnessing conversations with survivors and their families. I truely felt Howard Lutnick's loss for his brother and his other familiy at work. How mind blowing is it to know that almost 700 out of 1000 employees have died, and that you have to get your company back to what it was Sept. 10, 2 days after the attacks, so the Cantor families wouldn't be just put out in the cold. And during all of this, you still have to greave for your brother, best friend, and try to attend over 600 funerals of co-workers and friends you saw every day at work. It's a shame that the media tried to make Howard an escape goat. I've actually have a very different opinion now about Connie Chung than I did before. We always think the reporter, and especially a well known one, would give the audience all the facts instead of eskuing it to one side.
Some reviewers have said it's a propaganda book--some propaganda book! The pain all these people went through are real. And I doubt that if that same reviewer was in Howard Lutnick's shoes, he would have done any better under the circumstances.
In any event, the book was very eye opening and I have more of appreciation for the survivors and their feelings. I don't think I could now ask a Sept 11 survivior their story anymore. The healing has to begin somewhere, and after 5 years, I think it has begun.

Insightful and Moving.......2005-09-13

When it comes to the world of finance, I'm a total idiot. I also don't spend much time thinking of such things, since I've never had enough money to invest in a savings account, much less comodities. So some of what the story is about eludes me. I can't identify with the amount of dollars being discussed, or the money these people make, but they become human because of the pain they endured and the losses they suffered. Cantor Fitzgerald suffered potential fatal harm that day and the people who struggled to pull the company out of the ashes are to be commended, as well as consoled. I had difficulty putting the book down once I started reading it. It is compelling. This is one of the few 9/11 books that should make it to your reading list.

Moving and Compelling.......2005-08-10

This book is fabulous. As I read each page, the writer expressed the sorrow the people felt after this inhumane tragedy. Having worked in the bond market for 25 years, I was quite shocked when I read that if "Cantor" could not open and thus subsequentyly go under, the bond market would potentially collasped! Howard, you are a stronger man than you think. Although Mr. Lutnick lost so much on this day, he made the effort to put the company back together so that our free market economy would move on and prosper in the world. In my religion we refer to people like Howard Lutnik as "angels". Mr. Lutnik this book is so well worth the read! Many thanks for what you've done for our country, economy and your employees.

A Tribute to Brainwashing and Propaganda.......2005-01-14

The reviews reproduced here are a tribute to Tom Barbash, just as Barbash wrote the book as a tribute -- and an exhoneration -- to his college buddy Howard Lutnick. Therein lies the tale. Barbash and Lutnick have artfully exploited the suffering of others -- one to write a book (and to promote a novel), the other to strike an innocent pose. It worked! Look at the reviews that blindly defend the book and charge that any criticism of it is tantamount to insensitivity toward the victims of 9/11!

This is wonderful propaganda indeed, and if I were to grade it on that scale the book would get five stars. Lutnick's obsession with looking good and Barbash's equally atrocious commitment to whitewashing exploits grief as it turns anger onto others. Sickening.

Excellent and honest.......2004-09-24

Bill O'Reilly, who is far more sleazy than Walter Winchell was at Winchell's worst, accused Howard Lutnick, the CEO of Cantor, Fitzgerald, of failing to meet his obligations to his employee's families when 700 of Cantor Fitzgerald's about 1000 employees died in the World Trade Center.

This book clearly and honestly shows, however, that Cantor, Fitzgerald as a small to medium business was unable to pay deceased employees after September 15 2001 for the very good reason that the events including the temporary closure of the markets, and the loss of the employees, cut off the company's air supply.

Instead and in a matter that hasn't been sufficiently celebrated because the media (including O'Reilly and Connie Chung) specializes in the dissemination of false ideas, Howard and the remaining employees of his company worked terribly hard while grieving so as to pay out a far more generous amount in bonuses and other renumeration. They brought Cantor Fitzgerald back from a near-death experience.

O'Reilly's attack had a nasty undertone of anti-semitism because it was conducted from the "point of view" of the "ordinary working person" who labors under the apprehension that ALL companies large and small have unused funds laying about the office and that NO business manager might not sweat bullets to meet each and every payroll.

O'Reilly then took credit for "forcing" Lutnick to do what the latter had been planning to do all along, which was pay compensation based on 4Q 2001 profits which would not have been earned had the salaries been continued.

A company like Cantor Fitzgerald is not a moral agent except insofar as it stays within the letter and spirit of the law, which Cantor Fitzgerald of course has done. But a *mensch* like Howard is indeed a moral agent and as such did not deserve to be precipitated, as a focus for inchoate rage, into a media spotlight in such a manner that for thousands of people (including former NYC mayor Ed Koch) he was merely "that guy, what's his name, who cried on TV and screwed up".

Indeed, the situation was an almost mathematical model of how the media destroys knowledge by instead marshaling false consciousness. Lutnick was a decent person, no more or less good than the average CEO. But O'Reilly nonetheless used the Fascism of marshaling anger against "the unmentionable odor of death" to boost his own ratings.

This week, a court decision has absolved Fox news from any responsibility to the truth in a case of two journalists fired from Fox based on their refusal to file a story according to Fox's rules. Here is another document in a growing case against this media empire which is also the mouthpiece for the Bush administration.

Lutnick made a mark of himself by crying on TV shortly after the September 11 tragedy and was subject, I believe, to a post-human campaign conducted by a bully and a thug.

This story needs to be kept alive today, since Dan Rather is under attack for his good-faith reportage of documents attesting to Bush's failure to meet his Guard obligations. Rather was misled by a forgery and there's a possibility that the forgery was provided through third parties by Karl Rove in order to discredit the Democrats, at least on this issue.

In other words, systematic "spinning", primarily from the Right, have created a post-human climate of mistrust in which a CEO cannot also be a *mensch*, faced with a tricky business situation in which the banks could have put him out of business had he in fact paid salaries after September 15th.

In fact, a basically good person would have accepted Lutnick's story because basically good people need to feel not quite so alone. There is nothing to profit from stories of people who betray their employees, or feed false documents to third parties, unless, of course, there's a pre-existing pattern.

At the end of the day, even the ordinary reader of the New York Times can say that O'Reilly and Rove are thugs and bums while Howard L is probably OK.

At the end of the day, even such an ordinary person can conclude that a society which is so consistently beguiled to believe instead the worst is a Fascist society with a capital F.

On Top Of The World - A Story Of Loss & Renewal - Cantor Fitzgerald, Howard Lutnick, And 9/11

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On Top Of The World - A Story Of Loss & Renewal - Cantor Fitzgerald, Howard Lutnick, And 9/11
Tom Barbash
Manufacturer: Harper-collins Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000WSSH6E

On Top of the World: Cantor Fitzgerald, Howard Lutnick, and 9/11, a Story of Loss and Renewal

Average customer rating:

On Top of the World: Cantor Fitzgerald, Howard Lutnick, and 9/11, a Story of Loss and Renewal
Tom Barbash
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OA7PN6

Average customer rating:

On Top of the World: Cantor Fitzgerald, Howard Lutnick, and 9/11, a Story of Loss and Renewal
Tom Barbash
Manufacturer: Harper Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OABBLI

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