The Value Effect: A Murder Mystery about the Compulsive Pursuit of 'The Next Big Thing' [Hardcover]

John Guaspari (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 15, 2000

Someone is killing the entrepreneurial spirit of American businesses. Perpetually searching for The Next Big Thing, workers have overlooked the Value Effect, which can provide the alignment and energy needed to create and sustain change. John Guaspari ingeniously lays out the problem as a murder mystery. Part I describes the ailing Lodestar, Inc. and its executives who meet to plan new strategies. When the consultant who introduced last year's successful Next Big Thing -- the Value Effect -- suddenly turns up dead, detective Leonard Gatling investigates. Part II analyzes the evidence of the Value Effect. The mystery is solved when everyone finally understands that the Value Effect is not really a Next Big Thing at all but a surprisingly straightforward solution to a persistent problem.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Following the tried-and-true formula for management books, Guaspari (I Know It When I See It) points out a big problem most companies face (in this case, the failure of faddish new management approaches), and then presents a theory that he promises will reform organizations of all types. The twist here is that Guaspari, a consultant, structures his book like a mystery, in which the fictional consultant who has created the new theory gets murdered. While it isn't hard to figure out who committed the crime, the gimmick makes it easy for Guaspari to dismiss reengineering and employee-empowerment programs, among others, using hard-boiled dialogue and scheming characters. (He thinks all these programs work to some degree; they're just over-hyped.) That lets him set the stage for his relatively short discussion of his theory, "the value effect," which boils down to this: "When people strive to deliver the maximum value to customers, they getAand stayAenergized." The theory comes with the requisite seven steps for implementation (among them, make sure everyone knows who the customer is), but to his credit Guaspari convincingly explains why his idea can be a rallying cry for companies suffering from implementing fad after fad. Employees may not buy into Guaspari's idea, but at least they will enjoy his noir-ish presentation. (July)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 177 pages
• Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers; 1st edition (June 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1576750922
• ISBN-13: 978-1576750926
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,114,255 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A clean, concise, effective whodunit murder mystery., July 16, 2000

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Value Effect: A Murder Mystery about the Compulsive Pursuit of 'The Next Big Thing' (Hardcover)

John Guaspari is a true-blue man of business, being the cofounder of Guaspari & Saltz, Inc. of Concord, MA. He is a thought guru on various aspects of customer service and has written four books on the subject.

The Value Effect is not another of John Guaspari's well known books about quality in business, but is a good old-fashioned whodunit murder mystery based in the world of business, competition, and things not being quite what they seem. Even Detective Larry Gatling is not quite what he seems. He comes on like Columbo, and in the end uses simple logic to solve a mystery that has the big thinkers at Lodestar, Inc. baffled.

Lodestar has what they call an annual NBT, or Next Best Thing. Their latest NBT has been a smashing success. Michael Fallon engineered what was called "Creating Value Connections," and, surprisingly, it worked with Lodestar's customers and staff. But just as he is about to uncover the master stroke, Michael Fallon ends up dead, and the execs of Lodestar are the primary suspects. Gatling goes to work and hooks up with Ronald Carpenter, who was working with Fallon at the time of the murder:

"Gatling was intrigued. `Let me ask you something,' he said. `I know more than I'd like to know about all this murder stuff. It's my business. When it comes to some of the stuff you were talking about, like Total Reengineering and Empowered Quality and NBTs and CVSs and all the rest, though, I can't say I know much about those kinds of things. So I'm thinking, maybe you can help me understand the business side of all this. You know, behind the scenes, help me sort through what I'm gonna hear when I talk to the others."

Gatling, who has been "on the beat for twenty-two years-be twenty-three years in June," uses his moxy to disarm and expose the killer.

The Value Effect is written in a stripped-down, "just the facts, ma'am" manner. It is clean, concise, contains no fluff or unnecessary side characters, and drives its point home well.

Shelley Glodowski Reviewer

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Recommended!, February 16, 2001

By 

Rolf Dobelli "getAbstract" (Switzerland) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Value Effect: A Murder Mystery about the Compulsive Pursuit of 'The Next Big Thing' (Hardcover)

John Guaspari uses a murder mystery - Who killed the consultant? - to set up his explanation of the value effect and its power. While value effect adherents at a corporate retreat are busy devising strategies to serve customers by employing the fundamentals of human nature, the consultant gets whacked. But who did it? The guilty party is someone from the corporate department that is most threatened by the use of the value effect. Do we have a human resources murderer or a marketing manslayer? Trying to figure out the mystery adds some fun to this business saga, which we at getAbstract.com recommend while applauding the author's originality in creating a corporate thriller. His book is a cut above the usual "next big thing" pomposity, even if the main CVC concepts described within will sound distressingly familiar to readers of management theory. (By the way, if you don't care about who done it, but are curious about CVC, the value effect itself is skillfully summarized in a concluding memo.)