Customer Reviews

The Paradox of Excellence: How Great Performance Can Kill Your Business

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

 

 

David Mosby and Michael Weissman have authored a nifty fable on how excellence, if not managed, can kill you. "The Paradox of Excellence" can be applied not only to companies but to public sector and non-profit sector organizations...and by excellent performers, regardless of their walk of life, to avoid being victimized by professional excellence.

"The Paradox of Excellence" is revealed in a story about Premiere Specialty, a mid-sized logistics company serving Silicon Valley. Premiere has been notified that is about to lose MicroZip Electronics, one of its largest customers, due to a rare shipping error after years of excellent service.

The fable centers on several key employees investigating the error, what they learn, and how they put their "learnings" to work to insure against lost orders in the future, despite excellent service.

The book ends with a concise overview of the "Paradox of Excellence" - the symptoms, the root cause, root behaviors and assumptions, and the remedy - complete with a self-assessment.

"Paradox of Excellence" is a quick and easy read. The book is profound due to the concept's simplicity, a simplicity that due to its subtlety (excellence) has been overlooked until now, and that, too, is a paradox.

This easy to read, but insightful book has put an eloquent name to a problem that plagues many businesses. The Paradox of Excellence was something that my company struggled through several years ago...if only we'd had this book, we'd have saved hours of struggle AND several clients.

Mosby and Weissman have crafted an excellent book. Similar to the books of Patrick Lencioni, the bulk of the book is delivered in an imminently readable parable. This makes it a quick and fun read. But, as most great teachers teachers know, the parable exists to demonstrate the core principles...in this case how to keep your business from becoming invisible except when you have a problem. I highly recommend this book.

We live in an era of increasingly high expectations. When performance is consistently at high levels, it is natural for any slip up to appear much larger than it really is. The authors present a common sense approach aimed at reminding your customers of exactly how good a job you are doing -- a critical thing to do before the inevitable mistake occurs. While there is nothing earth shaking here, it will definitely make you take a look at where you stand in your customer's eyes, and how to get them to realize your true value as a vendor. Highly recommended.

I found reading The Paradox of Excellence to be a fun, quick read with interesting lessons embedded in the story. After the few few pages I could see my self sitting in the same room as the executives from the trucking company struggling with some of the same issues. It also reinforced the need to reach out to folks outside your normal circle to gain insight and bring greater value to the customer. When you are close to the problem sometimes it is difficult to see all the solutions that are available.

A must read for anyone who is passionate about bringing differentiated value to your customers and continued success to your own firm.

The Paradox of Excellence is a must-read for businesspeople and business students. Its message is relevant to everyone who strives to go the extra mile because there is nothing so perplexing and wrenching as failing despite - or maybe because of - our success. There is a sense that "if I had just been normal and not tried so hard, things might have worked out better."

Authors Weissman and Mosby explain why people who achieve more for their customers put themselves in peril of receiving less in return. However, this book isn't just about relationships with customers. Its message rings true about our personal relationships too.

The Paradox of Excellence is for everyone in every walk of life who attempts to walk that extra mile yet feels undermined by the high expectations that his/her success creates. The book suggests ways of helping other people in our lives - customers, bosses, spouses, parents, and children - recognize the value we bring them. By making our value visible, we won't suffer all-out rejection when things go wrong.

The Paradox of Excellence is an excellent, thought-provoking read with a message that should be put into action. I highly recommend it.

- Ruth Ashkenazi, CA

Like most people with too much to read and too many books piling up on my desk, it was great to grab this one. I read it in an hour, and I'm putting the concept to use immediately. Well worth the time to read this one.

Mosby and Weissman cut to the heart of the fact that customers don't buy products, they buy experiences. All too often companies get caught up in the rat race of satisfying customer needs and attempting to outdo the competition and overlook what customers really want - value. Of course, being in the eye of the beholder, value is like shifting sands in the desert.

Customer expectations must be identified, understood, and managed more carefully than ever before. Internally, outstanding performance often creates a tendency to rest on one's laurels; externally, customers will take features, once lavished with praise, for granted. The key is to learn what you look like through the customer's eyes.

Divided into two main sections, The Paradox of Excellence offers an excellent expose into the perils that ride on the coat-tails of success:

Be sure to check out the "The Continuous Visibility Wheel" toward the end of the book, that covers five distinct phases:

- Discover the expectations

- Define and select your distinguishing value

- Select the metrics to be made visible and the best manner in which to present that information

- Uncover the best source of data to use, and

- Deliver the information needed to keep your value in the minds of your customers and your employees.

------------------

Michael Davis, Editor - Byvation

"Business Success through Innovation"

Great insight into business & personal activities - you need to "toot your own horn", this tells you Where, When, How, & Why to take action so you (or your comapny) is not invisible. Remember Nolan Ryan well states it: "It ain't bragging, if you can do it".

My Husband is making it a gift to each of his APICS Certification Class students.

An awesome book if you ever have felt you were on the loosing end of a bid but know your total package is better. Mosby and Weissman have created an easy to read story about how to focus on value with customers, and create a way to apply this to my business. Reccomended for anyone who has ever lost a bid, sale, or contract based on price.

This book is not very long, is easy to read because of its story format, but is focused in its objective and makes its point very well with many helpful illustrations. This book doesn't promise to solve all your business problems, but it will definitely help you identify problems you might not have seen before and then outlines ways to think through and address them. I found it a very helpful book for understanding why managing expectations is critical and for ideas on how to effectively do so.