Good Company: Caring As Fiercely As You Compete [Hardcover]

Hal F. Rosenbluth (Author), Diane Mcferrin Peters (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 25, 1998

Good Company goes behind the scenes at fifteen of the world’s best companies to reveal how they have met today’s most pressing management challenges, and offers solutions that can be implemented in any company—large or small. Like thousands of companies in the mid-1990s, Rosenbluth International and the other companies showcased here wrestled with the combined pressures of globalization, unprecedented growth, competition from technology, and an emphasis on speed and efficiency, by embracing uncertainty and learning to reinvent themselves to the benefit of customers and employees alike. In Good Company, Hal Rosenbluth and Diane Peters show how businesses can managed change gracefully—and profitably—by remaining steadfast to the fundamental principles of trust and respect and by maintaining a deep commitment to a corporate culture that brings out the best in everyone.Good Company demonstrates that companies can not only have a positive influence on the lives of the people who work for them, but that they have an obligation to do so. By creating an environment of collaboration, innovation, and joy at work, companies of any size can attract and retain the best employees, foster long-lasting relationships with customers and suppliers, increase profits, and compete successfully in a fierce and impatient marketplace.In Good Company, the authors take readers on a journey of discovery, describing Rosenbluth’s experiments with strategic planning, organizational design, and human resource programs during a period of rapid and radical transformation. Already known for its offbeat and non-hierarchical culture. Rosenbluth made a deliberate effort to discard outdated practices and created a work environment that promotes and rewards continuous learning, teamwork, flexibility, and leadership—at every level of the organization.Rosenbluth International has not been alone in forging a path to competitive success by investing first and foremost in its people. Hallmark Cards, Lands’ End, Mary Kay, and a dozen other pioneers showcased in the book are leading the charge to make the workplace a place where employees and managers alike come to build friendships, expand their minds, and contribute to their community—while performing to the highest standards expected from their customers and shareholders.A celebration of corporate spirit, Good Company offers a lively, thought-provoking, and inspirational alternative to ”lean-and-mean” thinking, by showing businesses how to gain a competitive edge when they take greater responsibility for the welfare of the people and the societies they serve.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In this sequel to their first book, The Customer Comes Second (Morrow, 1992), the authors present the ongoing metamorphosis of their company, Rosenbluth Travel, while surveying other innovative companies identified in Robert Levening and Milton Moskowitz's The 100 Best Companies To Work for in America (Plume, 1993). The result is an internal examination of corporate culture that challenges the notion that corporations must be heartlessly competitive to succeed. The authors explain how Rosenbluth Travel reinvented itself based on an agrarian model, and though their discussion recalls work already done by Stephen Covey (e.g., The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Fireside, 1990), this book is valuable in admitting to the warts, wrinkles, and scars that can arise with the effort to institute change. If a flaw is to be found here, it is in the treatment of diversity-while organizations today are willing to go out of their way to promote cultural, racial, and gender diversity, they are still uncomfortable with diversity in thought, and the authors do not explore this problem sufficiently. An acceptable addition to a general library's business collection.ASteven Silkunas, SEPTA, Philadelphia
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books (May 25, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 020133982X
• ISBN-13: 978-0201339826
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,724,362 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Good Farm, January 4, 2000

By 

Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Good Company: Caring As Fiercely As You Compete (Hardcover)

This is a terrific book. Insightful, practical, wtitten with a crisp prose style. Beginning with Chapter 2 through Chapter 8, the authors provide a detailed summary of key points at the end of each chapter. These summaries offer excellent checklists which could, perhaps, be discussed individually during a staff or department meeting called to focus on a specific topic such as "speed.". All by themselves, the summaries are well worth the price of the book...and then some.

It is no mere coincidence that the same companies which the editors of Fortune annually rate as the "most admired" also have the greatest cap value. For the co-authors of Good Company, the term "good" refers to character as well as to competence, to decency as well as to dedication. In their book, they examine their "peers from the top 100" (Rosenbluth International is one of them), explaining why the best companies to work for are the best companies to work with.

One of the most valuable points in Good Company is that almost any company (regardless of size or nature) can learn a great deal from the family farm model. Obviously, there will be significant differences between and among companies in terms of how they define terms such as "farm land", "seeds", "crops", "harvest, "going to market", "town", etc. Fair enough. However, each farm is an organization which requires teamwork as well as hard work, careful planning and constant attention, and a healthy respect for natural forces.

Good Company examines two models: the Rosenbluth "farm" as well as the generic "family farm." In process, Rosenbluth and Peters take a close look at fifteen other companies which vary widely in terms of size and nature. "What do all of these companies share in common?" Good Company answers that question. "Why are these same companies rated the most highly respected?" Same answer. An abundant harvest awaits those who care as fiercely as they compete.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars one of the most valuable management books I've ever read, February 9, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Good Company: Caring As Fiercely As You Compete (Hardcover)

This book provides a common sense approach to good management and has the answers on how to retain good employees, the key to building a winning business of any size in todays ultra competitive marketplace. This book is not another one of those management books written on theroy alone. The author reveals many of his companies practiced and proven techniques along with those from other well known companies. If you want to create a great place to work(and you better acording to this book) so you can attract and retain great people this is a valuable and interesting read.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You don't have to be a jerk to make real money, June 2, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Good Company: Caring As Fiercely As You Compete (Hardcover)

I'm giving a copy to my boss! A rejuvinating read. Tells how companies can make gobs of money while actually being nice to it's employees. Give hope to the "nice guys finish first" notion. The Southwest Airlines story was particularly inspiring.