Customer Reviews

The Wow Factor: How I Turned One Idea and My Unbridled Enthusiasm Into a Golf Revolution

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Barney Adams' determination and personal sacrifice is clearly articulated in the book. Following a complete accounting of how Adams Golf finds itself and reaches stability the book fails to take the next step in the life-cycle approach to strategic management with a discussion of how Adams has and will continue to re-event itself to prevent decline and future failure. Part Two "Inside the Golf Equipment Industry" was not very "inside".

As one reviewer already noted, the message regarding the WOW factor is simple, but too often overlooked. Anyone in sales or product development should ask themselves what their WOW factor is. Answer that question and you'll increase your market share, as Adams did.

Beyond the business case, the book was a fun and interesting read. I'm a little biased, as I was an early adopter of the Tight Lies club, so I immediately knew what Adams was referring to when I saw the title of the book.

Always nice to read about the golfindustry. Not just instruction or history is interesting so a nice read for all those who are interested in stuff like this.

"The WOW Factor" is a well-designed business book that tells the story of how Barney Adams, the creator of the Tight Lies fairway wood and the founder of Adams Golf, turned a career of missteps and disappointment into a stunning success.

I call it "well-designed" because it's not too long, not too serious, not too heavy and remarkably, if discreetly, candid.

Adams ties his experiences, starting with his unremarkable years as a manager for Corning and ending with the realization that his executive leadership was not what his own company needed to be able to prosper, together with his WOW factor theory. Simply stated, he says hard work and a good product is not enough to crack into an established industry. The essential ingredients, he maintains, are the ability for your product to cause consumers to say, "WOW!" and the marketing technique to get that product into consumers' hands.

While this may not be earth-shaking, he does offer it as caution to all those would-be entrepreneurs who believe they can make it in the fickle, trendy but inbred golf business.

It's refreshing to hear a successful executive recount how he helped run a small company into the ground by taking too high-altitude a view of its operations. And it's intriguing to read how he desperately searched for a way to get golfers to try his innovative Tight Lies fairway woods.

For business purposes, what the book lacks is analytical detail. Adams can tell you what, in hindsight, he did wrong and what turned out to be right. He really can't tell you why, except as a matter of empirical result.

For insight purposes, Adams reveals little about his personal life, except for his obvious passion for his work. While the development of his golf businesses apparently cost him a great deal in his personal and family relationships, he touches on that issue only a bit.

Still, it's a remarkably pleasant, quick read. Adams may be a seat-of-the-pants contrast to the standard modern MBA, but he seems right on target in the fashioning the kind of book that golf fanatics would enjoy.