Customer Reviews

Double Your Profits: In Six Months or Less

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a real book, an important one, about real cost-cutting, in a real world. It has been used by many corporate leaders as a "bible" for increasing profits by cutting costs...all company costs that do not actually create a direct profit. That means cutting most of middle management, some senior management, and most employees who do not have direct responsibility for adding daily value to the bottom line. It preaches renegotiating or eliminating vendor contracts on a regular basis. It teaches questioning the value of any consultant or outside service. It is a roadmap for rapid, perhaps severe, cost-cutting to achieve immediate profitability.

This is not a book for the timid. It is not a feel-good book, except for those who enjoy counting their money. It will make most readers feel uncomfortable, perhaps insecure. These are among the important reasons to read the book.

This book was required reading by Sanford Weill and Bob Lipp for all the senior managers of The Travelers Insurance Companies when they engineered the takeover of the ailing company in 1993. It created shock among many of the senior management of the old, established Travelers, but the book prescribed an exact remedy for turning the corporation into a highly profitable company, now a thriving part of CITICORP...one of the great financial corporations in America.

If the reader is a CEO or senior officer, this book is a guaranteed prescription for increasing profitability. If the reader is an employee, at almost any level, this book should be required reading for one's survival. If the reader is a vendor, a consultant, or from an association that provides a service to corporate America, the book should be required reading, because it imparts the knowledge of a real business culture that drives decision-making...and possibly will drive their future relationship with the company.

The book lacks concern for human resources, for many of the people who make up a company's workforce. They can quickly become a drain on profits. Loyalty, human compassion, sense of community, and many human skills are too easily forgotten or deemed insignificant to the bottom line. This is one of the great faults of the book, of its philosophy, and of its short-term prescription for profits. It is why it only deserves four stars, instead of five. It would deserve five stars or more if the author had enough insight to find value in loyalty, human skills (other than direct sales), and the importance of communities or governments (of people) in the ability of a corporation to provide valid and profitable services. In this area, it is deficient.

The book is very simple and easily read in one sitting. It should be required reading by anyone with a serious interest in business...or anyone who has an interest in an important modern business culture, for better or worse, but certainly for profit.

Fifer does an outstanding job of providing a brief overview of the general ideas relating to maximizing profit by reducing unnecessary overhead and increasing the income side of things. The bulk of this quick read is aimed at specific suggestions which you can put into effect immediately. I highly recommend this book to any small business owner or corporate type who is responsible for actually making the money that the employees spend.

Got the indication from a Brazilian business magazine - Exame - issued January 2010. Marcel Telles, one of the greatest Brazilian entrepreneurs, recommended the book, as a must read, and as the book that influenced him the most. You might ask, who is this person...well, he is one of the guys behind AB-Inbev deal!

Although the book dates from 1993 (I don't like much old business books), most principles are very interesting and totally applicable for today's market. The focus on cost reduction is clear, and can generate blunt results. I can clearly understand how inspiring this book were for some successful Brazilian companies in the past decade, specially the ones from GP group. Some of the tips such as giving away your own office (as a CEO) to bring cost down is a true example on how you can demonstrate to your crew how committed you are in order to maximize the company's result. Nice reading.

You can use this book to cut your costs and expand your profits...for a time. Then the costs will come back with a vengance. Some of these slash and burn methods are merely a mortgage on your future. You and your people will pay a big price when the loan comes due. This stuff looks great until you examine the long-term implications. Others of his suggestions make sense and are things you should do. That's the good news. The bad news is that it can be difficult to sort out the good ideas from the bad. It would be a much more useful (and safer) book if the author told you how to make safe choices.

This is an outstanding book with specific suggestions for improving profitability. Even more importantly, it illustrates a mentality that focuses on the bottom line. To those who say that such measures as suggested, "can't be done" - - those who read and adapt the attitude of this book will say "I'm so glad you're my 'competition'".

Bob Fifer's classic short read is basically a MBA degree in 78 short chapters. Apply it's simple ideas to your business and you won't be the most popular boss to the employees other than the top performing 10%, who will cheer and thrive on the concepts that propel performance and profitability. This book has been read by senior leadership of some of the most famous and profitable firms in the world. If you want to grow your bottom line, apply these principles and you will never look back.

You don't have to agree or like the authors methods, but they will reduce costs not associated with generating revenue.

Bob Fifer offers loads of common sense advice in this excellent book. It's really simple: increase your sales and lower your costs, and look at EVERYTHING. Nothing is sacred to Bob Fifer.

Although it seems to be more oriented to larger organizations, I have gotten a lot of great ideas for my own small business.

However, there is one suggestion that he offers with which I completely disagree. Step 37 says you should extend your payables. In effect, ride your suppliers and use them as a bank, even to the point of holding out payment for six months or more!

This is a VERY BAD IDEA. While your suppliers might tolerate this, they are not going to treat you as a good corporate citizen. You lose the opportunity to earn cash discounts when you don't pay on time. You might even have trouble getting credit elsewhere. Most of my best customers always pay me within ten days. I am a busy person and sometimes I have to prioritize which customer I take care of first. If I have to choose as to whether to take care of a customer who pays me on time vs. one who doesn't, who do you think is going to get faster service? Besides that, it is just wrong to drag out payment. Pay what you owe and pay it when you owe it.

Other than this one flaw, I think Mr. Fifer's book is excellent. Federal, state, and local governments should put some of his cost-cutting ideas into practice.

This book offers amazing insights on how to creste a profit-oriented culture in a company. Besides, it offers actionable insights on what leverages to pull to increase profitability of you operations. Highly recommended!

A great, quick read for anyone - you don't need to consider yourself an entrepreneur to get something out of this book. It contains not just business lessons but life lessons as well. I highly recommended this book. If you are wondering if you should get this book, let me say that it is a delightful book, easy to read and the stories will make you smile. However, I see a bigger reason, because if you want to succeed in business (or in life for that matter) you will need to know how to solve problems and make people happy. Employees are encouraged to think with their own heads, use their own voices and words, and decide for themselves how best to please a customer, rather than read from canned scripts and act from a limited list of options.