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Making A Difference – Thoughts, Observations and Opinions
This is Dave Brock’s Blog.
It offers my views on a variety of business, sales, marketing, and leadership topic. My goal is to make a difference for you, the reader, in both your professional and personal lives.
Latest Posts
Only The Paraonoid Survive
I’ve always loved this book by Andy Grove of Intel. Just seeing the title on the bookshelf in my office has often caused me to reflect on things, take my blinders off, and build contingencies. I just read an article in Fortune on “(Bill) Gates’ Golden Rules.” One really struck me: Institutionalize Paranoia. Ray Ozzie is quoted, “Bill and Steve created what I guess I’d characterize as a culture of crisis. There’s always someone who’s going to take the company down. It’s mythical, but at any given point in time, there might be two or three big competitive things that […]
The Ultimate Question — Finding Your Sweet Spot
The Harvard Management Update is recycling an interesting article entitled “Find Your Sweet Spot.” It’s a quick read and refresher around Fred Reichheld’s work in “The Ultimate Question.” I am such a fan of this approach to segmenting customers, that I wanted to provide the link to the article. It’s a good reminder to a great practice.
To AT&T Wireless: I apologize for not being the ideal customer, I’ll try to do better!
My mobile phone died. I did the logical thing, I called AT&T Wireless (my vendor of about 15 years) to get a new phone. Below is just part of my experiences: Dave: My phone broke, I’d like to order a new one, can you help me. Agent 1: I’d be delighted to help……your account indicates you are eligible for an upgrade by extending your contract for 2 years. Dave: OK, I’d like to get the Nokia XXX in Black. Agent 1: Nice choice. I can get you a brand new one in Black. After your mail-in rebate, it will be […]
More Tuned In
I received a thoughtful reply to my review of Tuned In from Craig Stull. It takes courage to reply to an negative review. Below are Craig’s comments and my response. “Hi Dave, I just read your review of our book and I would like to thank your for carefully reading the book and taking the time to review it. Although you seemed a little apologetic about some of your comments, we understand where you are coming from. We intentionally wrote the book to address senior levels of management so we focused on “what” needed to be done as opposed to […]
Tuned In — Almost Tuned Out
I have mixed feelings writing about “Tuned In” by Craig Stull, Phil Myers, and David Scott. I had extremely high expectations of the book—I have such respect for the work they have done. I read their blog, listened to webinars, and waited eagerly for my copy. They recently sent be a proof version, which I read the first evening I received it. Unfortunately, the book is very disappointing. They have an outstanding, though not original, set of premises, but their coverage is superficial. As one review stated, they seem to focus more on “sound bites” than on substantive exploration of […]
What We Can Learn From Piranha (or at least the myth of the Piranha)
Virtually every major animal has been used as a metaphor in explaining success in business. We have Elephants, Eagles, Leopards, Bulls and Bears, Lions, and Tigers- Oh My! We have Purple Cows, Monkey Business, Black Swans, Swimming With Sharks, and Top Dogs. Blue Oceans encompass lots of animals! I have even heard sales people referred to as Snakes. It seems the little Piranha has been under appreciated in business. I’d like to advocate the study of this fish and applying it’s success principles to business. For example: Much has been said about “Eating the Elephant.” You can’t eat the elephant […]