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Wired to Care: How Companies Prosper When They Create Widespread Empathy
 
 
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Wired to Care: How Companies Prosper When They Create Widespread Empathy [Hardcover]

Dev Patnaik (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (77 customer reviews)

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Book Description

January 19, 2009 013714234X 978-0137142347 1

This is the eBook version of the printed book.

In this essential and illuminating book, top business strategist Dev Patnaik tells the story of how organizations of all kinds prosper when they tap into a power each of us already has: empathy, the ability to reach outside of ourselves and connect with other people. When people inside a company develop a shared sense of what’s going on in the world, they see new opportunities faster than their competitors. They have the courage to take a risk on something new. And they have the gut-level certitude to stick with an idea that doesn’t take off right away. People are "Wired to Care," and many of the world’s best organizations are, too.

 

In pursuit of this idea, Patnaik takes readers inside big companies like IBM, Target, and Intel to see widespread empathy in action. But he also goes to farmers' markets and a conference on world religions. He dives deep into the catacombs of the human brain to find the biological sources of empathy. And he spends time on both sides of the political aisle, with James Carville, the Ragin’ Cajun, and John McCain, a national hero, to show how empathy can give you the acuity to cut through a morass of contradictory information.

 

Wired to Care is a compelling tale of the power that people have to see the world through each other’s eyes, told with passion for the possibilities that lie ahead if leaders learn to stop worrying about their own problems and start caring about the world around them. As Patnaik notes, in addition to its considerable economic benefits, increasing empathy for the people you serve can have a personal impact, as well: It just might help you to have a better day at work.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. A veteran business strategist and adjunct faculty member at Stanford Univ., Patnaik explores the role of empathy in successful companies, producing a thoughtful, practical meditation on the power of walking in someone else's shoes. Though he utilizes examples from his work with Harley Davidson, Cisco and Nike, his skills in the classroom get a good showcase too, with lessons on history and biology, as well as revealing exercises from his class (called Needfinding) with "aha" revelations like: "For thousands of years, people made things for other people they knew"; it was the Industrial Revolution that divided producer from consumer. Essentially, Patnaik proposes that a successful company must cross that divide and learn about their customers' needs by interacting with, understanding and, in some cases, hiring them. Incorporating some familiar ideas-the power of "framing," the golden rule-Patnaik manages to keep his text fresh and brisk, making this a cagey but compassionate guide for execs and business students.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

A veteran business strategist and adjunct faculty member at Stanford Univ., Patnaik explores the role of empathy in successful companies, producing a thoughtful, practical meditation on the power of walking in someone else’s shoes. Though he utilizes examples from his work with Harley Davidson, Cisco and Nike, his skills in the classroom get a good showcase too, with lessons on history and biology, as well as revealing exercises from his class (called Needfinding) with “aha” revelations like: “For thousands of years, people made things for other people they knew”; it was the Industrial Revolution that divided producer from consumer. Essentially, Patnaik proposes that a successful company must cross that divide and learn about their customers’ needs by interacting with, understanding and, in some cases, hiring them. Incorporating some familiar ideas–the power of “framing,” the golden rule–Patnaik manages to keep his text fresh and brisk, making this a cagey but compassionate guide for execs and business students. (Publishers Weekly, Jan.)

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 272 pages
  • Publisher: FT Press; 1 edition (January 19, 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 013714234X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0137142347
  • Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.6 x 1.1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (77 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #135,369 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dev Patnaik is the CEO of Jump Associates, a hybrid strategy firm focused on helping large organizations grow. He is a trusted advisor to senior executives at some of world's most admired companies, including General Electric, Nike, Procter & Gamble, Target and Hewlett-Packard. When Dev is not at Jump, he moonlights down the road at Stanford University as an adjunct professor, where he teaches innovation methods to design and business school students. A frequent speaker at business forums, Dev was featured on CNBC's "The Business of Innovation," and his articles on innovation and strategy have appeared in several leading publications, including BusinessWeek, CNN, Fast Company, and Forbes. He is also the author of Wired to Care, a critically acclaimed book about the connection between empathy and business growth.


Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
25 of 26 people found the following review helpful
In Search of Empathy June 15, 2009
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)
This book is a sleeper that, I predict, will become a classic. The author writes, "More than one business leader has complained to me that their company is attracting smart and ambitious young people who lack any sort of gut sense for the work they do."

I'm on the hunt for the 10 best books for each of the 20 buckets (critical competencies) that help all of us with leadership and management issues. Dev Patnaik's book is a gem and immediately landed a spot on my Top-10 books for the Customer Bucket. (See my book, Mastering The Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Non-profit.) I'll tempt you with three stories on how "widespread empathy" (what's going on in other people's lives) will help you stay close to the customer.

STORY #1: Eisner's Tiger Encounter. When Joe Rohde, a Disney Imagineer, wanted to convince Michael Eisner to open a safari-like experience for guests, he needed a way to get past the mantra "Disney doesn't do zoos." After making the pitch to CEO Eisner (still unimpressed), Rohde opened the doors of the executive suite to let in a 400-pound Bengal tiger. After experiencing this immense beast (bigger than his desk) up close, Eisner responded simply, "I see your point." Disney's Animal Kingdom was born.

STORY #2: Eat More Jell-O. Author Dev Patnaik, founder and principal of Jump Associates, a growth strategy firm, was invited to meet with the senior leadership of Jell-O about their declining sales. "For several hours, we sat through presentation after presentation of depressing quantitative research that described the situation. At some point, I had to raise my hand. I looked around the room and asked if anyone there had eaten any Jell-O in the past six months. No one raised a hand. Interesting, I said. Maybe that was part of the problem."

STORY #3: Mercedes-Benz. Twenty senior executives from Mercedes-Benz flew from Germany to San Francisco to meet with Patnaik to learn how their cars could appeal to younger Americans. To help them develop empathy for this customer niche, Patnaik assigned each team of two executives to a 20-something person. After 30 minutes of interviews, each team of two was given $50 and a city map with an assignment: purchase a gift for the person they just met. Some teams blew it (San Francisco mementos for people who lived in San Francisco), but other teams were able to experience life in their customers' shoes and bought very meaningful gifts. Patnaik's point: "a great product has to function like a great gift."

THE BIG IDEA. "...as companies grow larger and more prosperous," says Patnaik, "they start to look less and less like their customers. Airline executives stop flying economy class. The little tomato sauce company starts to attract Harvard MBAs who eat out all the time and never cook their own spaghetti. The lives of the people that the company employs become less and less like the lives of ordinary folks. Continued for too long, this gap can grow into an overwhelming gulf between the people inside of a company and everyone else."

After 50 pages of non-stop defining business stories, I knew this book was a keeper. After 100 pages, I couldn't stop reading the stories to my wife--a sign of a great book. It reminded me of the Tom Peters and Robert Waterman 1982 classic, "In Search of Excellence." You could call this one, "In Search of Empathy."
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)
Wired to Care combines real life stories about many companies we know and understand along with business background information to help us apply the lessons to the places we work.

The core message here is that caring for your customers isn't just new-agey PR material. It provides tangible benefits for your company and helps you succeed.

The examples demonstrate this lesson. Many motorcycle companies were failing - but Harley Davidson put its efforts into building up its connections with its loyal fans. It was those fans who helped Harley thrive in a down economy.

You need to really know where your customers are coming from. Many if not most Harley employees own and ride Harleys. A schoolteacher doesn't need to BE eight years old, but she needs to understand what eight year olds worry about and how they learn best. An Indian doctor is not African-American, but she can still work to understand her patient's concerns.

Microsoft is a juggernaut - but they have had successes and failures. When they wanted to make a game system, they took a bunch of gamers, had them develop a system THEY would love, and they were able to take on the powerhouses of Sony and Nintendo. However, turning their attention on Apple's iPod, they didn't build the same quality team of "music lovers". The result was a MP3 player which failed miserably.

I loved the story about coffee. Several decades ago Arabica (tasty coffee) was expensive, while Robusta (bitter) was cheap. Coffee manufacturers slowly added more and more robusta into their blend over the years. Existing coffee drinkers got used to the new flavor and coffee makers thought they were all set. However, they weren't bringing in new drinkers! Young people who tried coffee thought that older people were insane to drink this bitter brew. It wasn't until coffeehouses started coming out with all Arabica coffee again that younger people saw just how tasty a good coffee could be.

Zildjian took the cymbal, which was an orchestra-only instrument, and by talking with musicians in small bars, created an entire new market for their crashes and rides. They were hugely successful even in the middle of the great depression.

Numerous studies show that our brains light up when we relate to someone. If we see them pick up a book, to our brain it's almost as if WE picked up a book. So by having customers who relate to your company on a personal level, you have already made those connections that will keep them supporting you and buying your products.

There was just one minor complaint with the book. At one point they are talking about how a book was written with suggestions to save money. The money-saving book talked about looking at what other people had put out for trash / recycling and if something seemed interesting. Wired to Care felt this was "inhuman" advice. Inhuman? I know many people who swap things with their neighbors and they all feel it's a quite fun way to keep items out of the trash stream. I would hardly feel this is inhuman. If anything, we should all be swapping used goods more often, and recycling more, rather than throwing away so much stuff.

Still, a small issue in a great book.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Perspective on Wired to Care October 23, 2009
Format:Hardcover
This book presents a design-inspired exploration of empathy as a driver of business growth, sustenance and ethical behavior. It provides a practical body of work on the importance of empathy as it relates to customer connections and market engagement.

While the author suggests that empathy has been detached from modern capitalism and the contemporary organization by default, one sees the presence of empathy in several exemplary, large companies. Further, Patnaik gives reference to the common religious, cultural and philosophical roots of empathy that are met in the forces of neurophysiology to suggest that empathy is part of our make-up, our meaning and our human purpose.

A couple of slot-references in Wired to Care are especially useful and valuable to those who lead and manage growth strategy:

1.Getting Beyond Original Visions... organizations are evolving entities that must transcend what energies and inventions may have given them their rise. What founders gave, others must advance.
2.Getting a Deeper Sense of Meaning... companies are culture-sensing entities, and as such, people who lead and manage must have their "meaning-making" gears engaged to sustain themselves.

This book is a nice complement to Prepared and Resolved in terms of both orientation and strategic approach. Patnaik references thought leadership that includes Dale Carnegie, Mintzberg, Gandhi and the world's faith traditions as guideposts for creating widespread empathy. As strategists and researchers have noted for a long time, getting close to customers is a powerful thing. Patnaik and his team at Jump take this to a higher level of engagement, which is a more powerful thing. Drucker and others would agree as part of what we see as the social ecology mindset of business.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Good Book - Filled with lot of real world examples
I got this book free in some deal in Amazon , and i started reading this book and i got stuck with this book. There are many reasons why you will not like to keep this book down . Read more
Published 3 months ago by J. DEKA
One of the Best Books Ever Written... Yet I gave it 4 stars
If you have any position of responsibility at any organization in the world, (including a family) you should read this book. Read more
Published 4 months ago by clickz4
Empathy in marketing
Companies and organisations of all kinds prosper when they tap into a power that every one of us already has: the ability to reach outside ourselves and connect with others,... Read more
Published 9 months ago by John Gibbs
Stories May Sell, But They Always Tell More Than You Intend
I am completely on-board with Patnaik's point and did enjoy reading his book, however it felt like he never owned his own concept. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Mel DePaoli
Empathy with employees and customers can create new growth.
Long ago, before the industrial revolution, we had broader and deeper connections with our employees and customers. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Anjana Nigam
Excellent! A must for all CE/S/F/TOs
This is no ordinary management or social science book. Through fluent language, simple words and great stories, the author tells why those once extremely successful companies or... Read more
Published 14 months ago by ServantofGod
Excellent book
This is the first book I read with my new Kindle 3. Not only that this is a really well written book that kept my attention high, this is a must reading for any one that work in a... Read more
Published 16 months ago by Tang
How to discover unseen opportunities by developing an empathic...
To what does the title of this book refer? Together with Peter Mortensen, Dev Patnaik suggests at least a portion of the answer when posing several questions in the Introduction:... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Robert Morris
Very Convincing
Can't help thinking the author should write a sequel, empathy lost. Those companies who create empathy and appear to really care are those that prosper - it is a case the book... Read more
Published on February 19, 2010 by Stuart Gardner
Wired For Success
This should be required reading for CEOs and business leaders. The author does a fine job of exploring a smart concept that one would think should be easy to implement, yet some... Read more
Published on September 25, 2009 by Ouija
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Introduction (From Wikipedia)

Wired to Care: How Companies Prosper When They Create Widespread Empathy (978-0137142347) is a book by Dev Patnaik, first published by Financial Times Press in 2009.

Overview (From Wikipedia)

Empathy is "the capacity to recognize or understand another's state of mind or emotion." Authors Patnaik and Mortensen define Widespread Empathy within an organization as a cultural value that offers "a shared and intuitive vibe for what’s going on in the world" throughout a company. They claim this empowers companies to see new opportunities faster than their competitors, the courage of their convictions to try new things, and the intuition to understand the role that their business plays in the lives of people out in the world. . The examples of such a phenomenon in the book include the dramatic rebirth of Harley-Davidson during the 1980s, the development of the Microsoft Xbox, and the efforts of designer and gerontologist Pattie Moore.

Attribution: The information appearing above in this tab is from Wikipedia: Wired to Care. Amazon is not affiliated with, and neither endorses, nor is endorsed by Wikipedia or any of the authors who contributed to this article. The Wikipedia content may be available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, version 3.0 or any later version, available at: CC BY-SA. Additional or other terms may apply. See Wikipedia Terms of Use for details.
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Inside This Book (learn more)
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
widespread empathy, hidden payoff, how you see the world, empathic connection, mirror neurons
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Golden Rule, United States, Lou Gerstner, Open Empathy Organizations, Maxwell House, Dave Schenone, San Francisco, John Chambers, Silicon Valley, American Girl, Lawrence Taylor, Pattie Moore, South Africa, American Express, New York, Animal Kingdom, Bear Hug, Mike Keefe, Bill Clinton, French Laundry, Joie de Vivre, Good Grips, Michael Eisner, Great Britain, International Harvester
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