Breakaway: Deliver Value to Your Customers--Fast! [Hardcover]

Charles L. Fred (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2, 2002 | ISBN-10: 0787961647 | ISBN-13: 978-0787961640 | Edition: 1st

In Breakaway, entrepreneurial businessman Charles Fred presents a revolutionary performance model that helps your company break away from the competition. He offers a new approach to organizational learning that will dramatically speed up the learning process and help any company save on their two most valuable resources-time and money. Breakaway provides the critical information you need for hastening the moment when each worker in your organization can convert knowledge into action to provide value to the customer, and increase the bottom line.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Breakaway is a literary breakthrough! This is a business book that reads more easily than most and is as enlightening as any. Fred has succeeded in demystifying the previously arcane world of employee performance and competency management. Kudos for stripping the industry of its gobbledy-gook jargon and baring its substantive soul."
--Howard M. Block, managing director, Education Services, Banc of America Securities, LLC

"Speed and proficiency is a great and highly practical concept for gaining competitive advantage. Chuck Fred has done a beautiful job of blending the ideologies of continuous quality improvement and those of continuous learning to create an articulate and compelling case for winning through the development of people. Breakaway cuts right to the core of what differentiates winners from losers in the race to provide superior customer value."
--Gary Jusela, vice president, learning, The Home Depot

"Chuck Fred's concepts reflect the importance of business velocity, speed of decision making, and customer impact often overlooked in many popular works regarding quality in business."
--Terry J. Erdle, vice president, Sun Microsystems Educational Services

"Getting new employees up to speed rapidly--and helping current employees learn new skills--has never been more important for success. The Breakaway concepts are becoming a key competitive edge in the war to attract and utilize top talent. A quick 'cycle time to proficiency' is now a must to meet both our customer and employee needs."
--Eric J. Ross, president, Global Customer Care Services, Nortel Networks

"Breakaway reflects the winning philosophy of valuing each person as an individual with unique skills and talents. Fred recognizes that by adapting employee education and training to meet this reality, it is not only good for the person, but good for the customer and for business."
--C. William Pollard, chairman and chief executive officer, The ServiceMaster Company

"Breakaway is a revolutionary book. By focusing on the role of speed and expertise in delivering value to customers fast, Fred has turned the conventional wisdom of business change completely on its head . . . a visionary, practical, and exciting tool that will transform business learning and development forever."
--A. Reed Hayes, president and chief operation officer, National Restaurant Association Education Foundation

"As one of the founders of Precision Response Corporation, a leader in out- sourced integrated customer care for over eighteen year, I have seen, first-hand, the importance of people in the customer equation, and encourage business leaders to follow Fred's secrets for success"
--David Epstein, chief executive officer, Precision Response Corporation

"An insightful and practical look at how organizations can help shorten the cycle time to transform employee learning into customer value . . . a roadmap to help organizations leverage and capitalize on their learning and development investments."
--Richard Chang, CEO, Richard Chang Associates, Inc., author, The Passion Plan and Performance Scorecards

From the Publisher

"Breakaway is a literary breakthrough! This is a business book that reads more easily than most and is as enlightening as any. Fred has succeeded in demystifying the previously arcane world of employee performance and competency management. Kudos for stripping the industry of its gobbledy-gook jargon and baring its substantive soul."
--Howard M. Block, managing director, Education Services, Banc of America Securities, LLC

"Speed and proficiency is a great and highly practical concept for gaining competitive advantage. Chuck Fred has done a beautiful job of blending the ideologies of continuous quality improvement and those of continuous learning to create an articulate and compelling case for winning through the development of people. Breakaway cuts right to the core of what differentiates winners from losers in the race to provide superior customer value."
--Gary Jusela, vice president, learning, The Home Depot

"Chuck Fred's concepts reflect the importance of business velocity, speed of decision making, and customer impact often overlooked in many popular works regarding quality in business."
--Terry J. Erdle, vice president, Sun Microsystems Educational Services

"Getting new employees up to speed rapidly--and helping current employees learn new skills--has never been more important for success. The Breakaway concepts are becoming a key competitive edge in the war to attract and utilize top talent. A quick 'cycle time to proficiency' is now a must to meet both our customer and employee needs."
--Eric J. Ross, president, Global Customer Care Services, Nortel Networks

"Breakaway reflects the winning philosophy of valuing each person as an individual with unique skills and talents. Fred recognizes that by adapting employee education and training to meet this reality, it is not only good for the person, but good for the customer and for business."
--C. William Pollard, chairman and chief executive officer, The ServiceMaster Company

"Breakaway is a revolutionary book. By focusing on the role of speed and expertise in delivering value to customers fast, Fred has turned the conventional wisdom of business change completely on its head . . . a visionary, practical, and exciting tool that will transform business learning and development forever."
--A. Reed Hayes, president and chief operation officer, National Restaurant Association Education Foundation

"As one of the founders of Precision Response Corporation, a leader in out- sourced integrated customer care for over eighteen year, I have seen, first-hand, the importance of people in the customer equation, and encourage business leaders to follow Fred's secrets for success"
--David Epstein, chief executive officer, Precision Response Corporation

"An insightful and practical look at how organizations can help shorten the cycle time to transform employee learning into customer value . . . a roadmap to help organizations leverage and capitalize on their learning and development investments."
--Richard Chang, CEO, Richard Chang Associates, Inc., author, The Passion Plan and Performance Scorecards

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass; 1st edition (April 2, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0787961647
• ISBN-13: 978-0787961640
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,175,286 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Charles Fred is the founder and CEO of The Breakaway Group. He brings a proven track record of leading significant growth in both service and enterprise software companies and has led The Breakaway Group from its initial startup to a leading position in healthcare IT adoption services.

Before founding The Breakaway Group, Charles led Omega Performance as their CEO, culminating in a successful sale to IIR, Inc in 1998. Mr. Fred later joined Avaltus as CEO in 1999 and led its remarkable growth until a merger with Precision Response Corporation a division of IAC (NASDAQ: IACI) in 2001.

Previously, Mr. Fred spent over 12 years in the aerospace industry at Texas Instruments and at The Boeing Company. While at Boeing, he had leadership assignments in both design and manufacturing, the latter as the General Supervisor of the Engine Ducting Facility. He joined USWEST as an executive in 1993 to bring aerospace quality to their Network Operations Group.

The publication of his best-selling book Breakaway in 2002 initiated a "movement" from the thousands that have read it. Today, many leading universities use the text in their curricula to reinforce innovative methods for instructional technology and simulation. The eight-year research effort that ended in the publication of the book provides the foundation for The Breakaway Method™ used in service to healthcare organizations worldwide.

Fred continues as one of the healthcare and corporate education industry's most renowned keynote speakers, and has been featured at the Smithsonian Institute and the International E Learning Expo in Paris. He obtained a bachelors of Science degree in mechanical engineering and technology from Montana State University, and completed the Aerospace Industry Manufacturing Program from the University of Washington's Graduate School of Business.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you only have time for one book this year, read this one., September 21, 2002

By 

Jay Cross (Berkeley, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Breakaway: Deliver Value to Your Customers--Fast! (Hardcover)

What has really changed in our world in the last two decades? Time has sped up and surpassed all the other busienss variables in importance. These days time is more important than money.

To win in business, you must break away from the pack and stay ahead by serving your customers extraordinarily well. "Speed-to-proficiency is more than a theoretical advantage; it is the most devastating competitive weapon in a world where the competitive forces of scale, automation, and capital are subordinate to the power of a proficient work force."

I enjoyed this book, right from the first sentence -- "This book is designed for the business reader, to be read in the time it takes to fly from Chicago to San Francisco or Denver to Miami." Breakaway is an easy read with a vital message. Read it.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Breakaway is a must read!, April 5, 2003

By 

Richard D. Turnquist (Parker, Colorado United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Breakaway: Deliver Value to Your Customers--Fast! (Hardcover)

Breakaway is a must-read book for anyone in the corporate world who has responsibility for human resources, employee development, sales and marketing management, and for top corporate executives.

The main theme of the book is that in order to break away from the competition in today's ever-changing economy, an organization must effectively develop employees to deliver value to the customer faster than the competition does. After analyzing how organizations currently train employees and the deficiencies associated with this type of training, Fred goes on to define a new method for bringing employees to proficiency faster and more successfully than traditional training methods.

The first several chapters of the book document a new model for human performance and the three rules for accomplishing peak performance. The first rule - Establish a proficiency threshold - describes how to determine the point at which an employee is equipped to deliver the promised value to customers quickly. Fred clearly describes the questions that managers must ask in order to define the proficiency threshold and discusses the relationship of the proficiency threshold and the value chain.

The second rule - Accelerate the accumulation of experience - includes a discussion of how people really learn, describes the four phases of learning, discusses how traditional training methods leave the accumulation of experience to chance, and how to manage the accumulation of learning. Using an example of training copper splicers to become fiber optic cable splicers, Fred demonstrates how to successfully manage the accumulation of experience in relation to training.

The third rule - Measure the cycle time to threshold proficiency - describes the metrics used to measure the how fast an employee can be trained to arrive at the proficiency threshold. Fred goes into some detail on how to measure the overall proficiency of the organization, and redefines the learning curve as the proficiency curve.

In the last half of the book, Fred describes how to "put it all together". Recognizing that no two companies are the same, Fred compares and contrasts the styles of two very different companies. What emerges is that there is no set of rules for achieving organizational proficiency, rather there are a set of key concepts that managers must be aware of in designing fast, effective, successful development programs.

In summary, this book is very readable, indeed it is designed "...for the business leader, to be read in the time it takes to fly from Chicago to San Francisco or Denver to Miami." True to one of the key concepts, the book is clear, concise and to the point.

About the author:
Charles L. Fred is a thought leader in performance improvement and an expert in learning speed. He is the founder and CEO of The Breakaway Group, which provides seminars and workshops to teach the concepts described in Breakaway. Formerly the CEO of Avaltus, a leading provider of e-learning services, he has also directed major change efforts in both the manufacturing and service industries, has consulted to successful companies around the globe, and has been a frequent speaker to major business forums and groups of senior executives over the past twenty years. Once a nationally ranked NCAA track athlete, he continues to compete in corporate races across the country. He lives in Centennial, Colorado, with his wife, Julie, and their three teenage children.

Review by Richard D. Turnquist.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You CAN Breakaway, August 14, 2002

By 

Ann John, Leading edgeconsults,Inc. (New Mexico, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Breakaway: Deliver Value to Your Customers--Fast! (Hardcover)

There are so many business "how to" books out there, it's nice to finally find one that addresses the opportunities managers have to make a real and UNIQUE difference to their Customers and their organizations as a whole.

By following Mr. Fred's 3 simple steps, you can build an organization that values the employee as much as it values competency and speed. You can buy 100 other business books, or just this one...it's that simple. Save some money, get this book first.