Kiss Theory Good Bye: Five Proven Ways to Get Extraordinary Results in Any Company

by Bob Prosen

Book Overview

Features the how-to details that can help leaders get the results they need in the companies they run. This business book presents the tools, directions and instructions to accelerate performance and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0977684806
• ISBN13: 9780977684809
• Release Date: August 2006
• Publisher: Gold Pen Publishing
• Length: 230 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.8" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

Get Ready To Take Action NOW . . .

I'm action oriented and view theory as a necessary evil. When consulting a business management book I want to know what I can do to IMMEDIATELY impact my business. Kiss Theory Good Bye was written expressly for me. It's not enough to know the basics - and theoretical constructs are of limited help when you're in the trenches. This book is the bare knuckle fist fight of business books; true hand-to-hand combat. It's a virtual blueprint that can be customized and followed to propel your organization to excellence. Although the book itself is a short 218 pages, no space is wasted on needless chatter on unproven concepts. It gives you the tools needed to implement practical management techniques that generate results. The broad strokes are pretty obvious. For example, his "five attributes of highly profitable companies" that include 1) Superior Leadership, 2) Sales Effectiveness, 3) Operational Excellence, 4) Financial Management, and 5) Customer Loyalty are fairly well-known concepts. But how do you implement them? That's where Bob Prosen makes the rubber meet the road. Step-by-step he gives you a roadmap to follow that helps you put concepts and theories into practice. Be prepared to do your homework! While the author provides the blueprint, YOU must provide the details. It's your business. If you don't thoroughly understand how your business operates (or should operate) then no book is going to help, theoretical or not. Fill in the blanks and follow the plan and you should see dramatic results in your organization.

Wisdom you can actually use!

Perhaps the most popular professor at the Edgewood College MBA program is Joe Hahn, who teaches a Strategic Management course, and is also the VP of a $13 billion company. Students love Joe because he's a no-nonsense kind of guy who focuses on making decisions, getting results, and not pondering theories and possibilities until the end of time. Well, Kiss Theory Goodbye is a book that Joe would love! Here's why: Bob Prosen has managed to put together an action-oriented how-to manual that will make anyone a better decision maker. It's a surprisingly compelling, readable volume (most books of this type are neither) with specific ideas and real-world examples of how a business leader can obtain results in virtually every area of an organization! Prosen's direct, disarmingly straightforward style addresses such key issues as the "victim mentality" or the office politics that can slow down an organization and keep it from moving forward. He emphasizes in no uncertain terms the critical need to measure customer satisfaction (and, indeed, anything that a company values) and focus on forging ahead rather than perpetually having ineffective, time-wasting meetings that focus on talk instead of solutions. What's the alternative to taking home countless pages of essential financial reports that ultimately never get read? How should compensation issues be addressed effectively? These are just some of the important issues this book covers. Of course this is a handbook more than a comprehensive analysis--as it would probably take several volumes to address such a vast array of issues: But perhaps therein lies its value. It's a starting point; a spring board that can generate action-oriented thinking--and most business leaders could use precisely that kind of tool!

His eye is on the meat and potatoes

I think it would be a serious mistake to "kiss theory good bye" if the given theory is both verifiably sound and in all respects appropriate. This is precisely what Peter Drucker had in mind (in 1963) when he observed, "There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all." A sound theory guides and informs the selection and implementation of strategies and tactics which will achieve the given objectives. Presumably Bob Prosen agrees. In this volume he provides a remarkably cohesive, comprehensive, and cost-effective action plan by which to achieve desired results, whatever they may be. His specific recommendations will be of substantial value to all organizations, regardless of size or nature. He carefully organizes his material within three Parts which consist of 11 individual chapters. Prosen addresses issues which seem to be of greatest interest to decision-makers. For example, avoiding or breaking what he calls "crippling habits," prudent management of resources, and accurate measurement of "what matters." Prosen offers no head-snapping revelations. He does include a few irritating claims such as knowing "the secret formula for extraordinary results." The importance of operational excellence is neither a secret nor a formula. Such claims are unnecessary. The substantial value of the content in this book will be derived from three factors. First, Prosen focuses almost all of his and his reader's attention on what to do and how to do it, rather than on delineation of theories, hypotheses, etc. Especially for owners/CEOs of small businesses, this "meat and potatoes" approach will be especially appreciated. Also, his recommendations are sound, albeit obvious, and explained with commendable clarity. Finally, Prosen immediately establishes and then sustains a direct rapport with his reader. The tone of his remarks is conversational, or more accurately tutorial. In E-Myth Mastery, Michael Gerber observes that "Of the 1 million U.S. small businesses started this year [2005], more than 80% of them will be out of business within 5 years and 96% will have closed their doors before their 10th birthday." Chilling statistics indeed. Many of these business failures demonstrate one or (probably) several of the five "crippling habits" which Prosen identifies. I certainly have no quarrel with any of the "five attributes of highly profitable companies" which he affirms. I do think he makes a strategic mistake by not introducing core principles of operational excellence first. Having a thorough understanding of a company's cost structure and the use of continuous improvement are absolutely essential to survival. The ten-step plan for effective use of root-cause analysis (RCA) and irreversible corrective action (ICA) probably should have been included in the next chapter on financial management but it does offer an excellent example of operational excellence insofar as problem solving (in this instance

The title says it all!

I met Bob Prosen through a colleague. After a few minutes I was impressed. After an hour I wished I could kidnap Prosen, lock him in our office until he taught us everything he knew. The next best thing... read his book. The strories and examples are vividly useful. My favorite parts are the Action Steps. You know you're holding a special book when you instinctively go... "I need to do that. I can start that idea today. This will work wonders for our bottom line, efficiency, effectiveness, etc." For less than $20, your investment in Kiss Theory Goodbye will multiply 1000's upon 1000's of times!!!!

Buy This Book!

If you are in business or running an organization of any kind, this book is for you. Finally someone has written a "how to" manual that advises what actions one can take to maximize business results. So many `best selling' business tomes are either worship-me memoirs of ruthless corporate titans, or high-level academic analyses told by college professors who have never worked in or run a real business, or feel-good New Age mantras, or gimmicky tie ins to historical figures like Sun Tzu or Hannibal. This practical book, written by a veteran executive of many well known corporations, cuts straight through all of that. This book is not afraid to be a tactical handbook for corporate (and government) leaders. Most business books are big on strategy, which seems sexier, but no strategy can be successful if the sub-parts of it, the tactics, cannot be executed effectively. This is what Prosen shows you how to do. The Publisher's Weekly review critically mentioned that Prosen's advices seem "utterly familiar". Well, it may seem that way, but take the time to put your organization to the test and see how much of this "familiar" stuff is actually in practice at your firm. For example, I wasn't out of chapter one and Bob's `gut check' list of things companies do wrong was true of virtually every place I've ever worked! I was literally laughing at how on-target he was: * Clear directions understood by all. Go and ask your employees at all levels what are the clear goals of the company. See what answers you get. Sure you'll get obvious vagaries like "to make money" or "do well for the shareholders", but at each level, I'll bet the answers are all over the place. And a general understanding of organizational goals doesn't translate well into specific actions. * Lack of accountability. Does this sound familiar? Does your organization suffer from this? Do you sit in meetings where under-achieving blowhards rant on and on about why they didn't achieve pre-established goals--and get away with it? If you're frustrated by this, Bob is speaking to you. * Planning in Lieu of Action. Ask yourself what actionable events occur out of all the meetings you sit in? Do you get tired of planning this, meeting about that, etc and yet nothing ever seems to happen? * Aversion to Risk and Change. Have you ever had a new idea about how to accomplish something only to be stymied by instructions to "do it the way we've always done it"? Multiply that mindset by most of the people in your company and you'll understand why most organizations suffer from crippling inertia. * Measure What Matters (later chapter). Sounds simple enough, right? Yet, how many of you work somewhere where endless useless reports are produced that no one looks at? Maybe there's relevant data somewhere in the paper mound, but you'd need Indiana Jones to find it. This book is a brick through the window pain of these status quo problems. Its stuff that may sound familiar when you read it, but very likely,