The Mirror Test: Is Your Business Really Breathing? [Hardcover]

Jeffrey W. Hayzlett (Author), Jim Eber (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 5, 2010

Jeff Hayzlett is a big, boisterous guy who has the guts to get in your face and tell you exactly why your business isn't doing well. In short, he asks the questions that most business managers are afraid to ask. And as Jeff points out, if you aren't willing to look at what's working and what isn't - and then take the necessary steps to fix them -- well, you and your colleagues and employees are in for a tough ride.

Known for his outspoken appearances on numerous TV reality shows, Hayzlett has built his career on having the ability to get his people to look up and pay attention to the problems at hand. THE MIRROR TEST will teach readers -- through entertaining and timely anecdotes -- how to thoughtfully yet aggressively evaluate, deconstruct, and then reconstruct one's business..

In his unique, confrontational manner, Hayzlett will coach small business owners and managers on topics such as:

- Give your business the mirror test - is your company really breathing?

- Here's how you and your company must adapt...or die.

- The bottom line of your business really is... your bottom line. You have to focus on it.

Hayzlett's big booming approach is direct and to the point, but done so with a smile on his face. Chock full of inspirational business stories and insights from his own career, Hayzlett and THE MIRROR TEST comprise a force to be reckoned with.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Hayzlett wants you to sell, sell, sell, and have a good time doing it. The former chief marketing officer for Kodak and guest on Donald Trump's Celebrity Apprentice knows about success and has a lot of colorful stories to prove it. While the first three chapters of this book are devoted to helping you figure out if your company is out of gas, the rest of the book is a more standard collection of business advice and stories. Many of the stories feature Hayzlett as the fall guy-the time he lost his shirt pheasant farming in South Dakota, or the time he thought he had convinced his college's cafeteria to serve kid-friendly food to a group of visiting high school seniors, only to see liver and onions on their trays. He offers rapid-fire advice, some of it dishearteningly obvious or tending toward generalization ("Leaders must be honest with themselves"), but most businesspeople will find at least a few good nuggets here. The Mirror Test is light and motivational enough to get readers pumped.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

JEFF HAYZLETT is the chief marketing officer for Kodak. He has 25 years of international marketing and management experience and has received numerous global awards and honors, including the Frost & Sullivan Lifetime Achievement Award for marketing. He is currently chairman of the board of directors of the Business Marketing Association (BMA), a member of the board of directors of the Electronic Document Systems Foundation (EDSF), a member of the advisory board of the CMO Council and serves as chairman of SMEI's Foundation for Marketing Education. He is also a permanent trustee to the SMEI Academy of Achievement Sales and Marketing Hall of Fame.

JiIM EBER is a veteran business management writer who has worked for various publishing houses, including Workman.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Business Plus; 1ST edition (May 5, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446559822
• ISBN-13: 978-0446559829
• Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 1.2 x 8.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #499,418 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not sure why, but...., October 26, 2010

By 

R. J. McCabe (Seattle) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Mirror Test: Is Your Business Really Breathing? (Hardcover)

Unlike everyone else that reviewed it, this book didn't really do much for me.

There's a lot of good ideas and suggestions, but nothing particularly unique.
If you've read many business books, you've heard it all before.

A good "reminder" so I'm giving it 3 stars.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The businessperson's checklist, June 29, 2010

By 

R. Reich (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Mirror Test: Is Your Business Really Breathing? (Hardcover)

What happens (not literally) when advicemeister Dale Carnegie and marketing guru Seth Godin meet coaching terror Bobby Knight? This book by Hayzlett & Eber. It covers the essentials of successful business relationships and mindsets in the digital age, and motivates the reader to do what's necessary to win.

While the subtitle of the book implies that the mirror test is used to see if your business is alive enough to survive, the real mirror test is this: Can you take a good long look at YOURSELF and honestly say you're doing everything you can to succeed?

This is not some thin, one-idea, cheese-oriented concept that can be conveyed in two sentences and then takes 150 pages to do it. It's a rapid ride of a book that covers a lot of ground in a short space. Hold on tight. There's no single magic box, no secret sauce, no silver bullet. But there is an abundance of the kind of need-to-know and already-know-but-need-to-do pearls that most of us in business can benefit from. It almost has a checklist quality to it; whether it's literally wearing one's loyalties on his sleeve (or shirt, or tuxedo), knowing why to fire people, or standing to the right in every group photo (what a simple and smart tip this is!), as a business person I often found myself thinking: I've got to remember this, and, I need to do more things like this.

11 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It will leave you....well, breathless!, May 1, 2010

By 

Willis Turner (Vancouver BC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Mirror Test: Is Your Business Really Breathing? (Hardcover)

This book is a business classic. It is written in a refreshing style with, believe it or not, an in-your-face attitude, but an attitude that pairs well with the no nonsense, practical business advice offered. It is about scaling from small business to Fortune 500 and back again. It is about real ideas that have been tested, tried and applied. It is written in an engaging story telling format. I read the book on a flight from Dulles to Vancouver and by the time I was finished my mind was spinning off the pages with thoughts on how I could impact my business by applying some of Hayzlett's concepts. In short, "The Mirror Test: Is your Business Really Breathing?" left me breathless just thinking of all of the possibilities that this creative and authoritative writer has shared.

Now I'm going back to read it again and create a list of to do's to get done.