NEW BOOK
“Your Management Sucks,” by Mark Stevens, Crown Business, $25
Do the majority of your teams produce average results? Is your decision-making based on risk aversion? Do you believe in conventional wisdom?
If you answered “Yes” to any of these questions, your management will never produce great results.
Case in point: General Motors’ decade of declining market share under essentially the same leadership, endless cost-cutting plans (downsizings, plant closings) and not one viable marketing plan for regaining market share.
On the other hand, there’s Kmart: Driven into bankruptcy by poor management and emerging under new management that understands its business.
Stevens’ point: Even the best businesses have to stay at the top of their game to survive. If a business (no matter how big) is “average,” it can’t possibly survive. Failure then becomes a question of “when,” not “if.”
–Jim Pawlak, BizBooks
NEW BOOK
“Blog Wild: A Guide for Small Business Blogging” by Andy Wibbels, Portfolio, $19.95
A blog is essentially a message board. Post a message, and those viewing your blog can respond. It’s more like e-mail than a Web site, so it’s easier to maintain. Web sites contain mostly static general information; blogs contain whatever you want to put in them.
Customer contact is the principal reason that small businesses can’t ignore blogs when building their firms. A blog is the simplest way to tell customers what you’re doing and get instant feedback. You can also use the blog in a way that customers initiate contact with you. Customers can “Ask the Expert” for advice by posting a question.
How do you let your customers know about your blog? Do a PR blitz that tells them what’s in it for them. The book offers plenty of what’s-in-it ideas that will help you craft the initial customer letters and e-mails. Your salespeople and customer service people can get the word out too.
You should put the blog address on your business cards and letterhead.
–Jim Pawlak, BizBooks
