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Your Management Sucks: Why You Have to Declare War on Yourself . . . and Your Business [Hardcover]

Mark Stevens
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)


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Book Description

May 9, 2006
Like a mirror, Your Management Sucks reveals important truths that you may deal with . . . or choose to ignore or put on the back burner.

Everyone manages someone or something . . . your own life and career, an administrative assistant, hundreds or thousands of people. How well or poorly you manage has a profound impact on your personal success.

Mark Stevens makes the compelling point that at any given time everyone’s management sucks. It can, however, be improved and rethought so you can move away from patterns and habits that you can easily fall victim to.

Start by declaring constructive war on yourself. Look in the mirror and identify those invisible traps and barriers. Then leave the land of business-as-usual with the seven-point plan Stevens has used to build both his own extraordinary career and his marketing and strategy consulting firm. You’ll soon find that you’re in the fast lane, easily outpacing your passive peers who rarely, if ever, challenge the how and why of what they do.

Mark Stevens—a street-smart kid from Queens, New York, who has gone on to phenomenal success—not only gives advice to Fortune 500 companies and entrepreneurial start-ups, he takes his own. Concerned that his business, MSCO, would continue its steady but limited growth, he announced one morning during breakfast with his wife, “Honey, I’m going to fire everyone.” That intention, while actually carried out over a lengthy period of time, was based on one simple insight—that his team of good people wouldn’t be able to put MSCO over the top to make it the best. From that episode came the ideas that form the core of Your Management Sucks:

• Developing your own personal killer app—the “differentiator” that will make you more than the sum of your parts

• Unleashing your virtual Manhattan Project: the plan that will change your life, your business, and the world

• Challenging the oxymoron of conventional wisdom

• Applying C+A+M: The universal equation for perpetual growth

In the same straight-talking, no-BS style of his last book, Your Marketing Sucks, Stevens offers brass-tacks examples of management approaches that do—and don’t—work and inspires people to ask themselves the tough questions they need to answer in order to become true leaders.


Your Seven-Point Declaration of War on Management That Sucks

1. Unleash the Power of a Personal Philosophy: Don’t just rock the boat of your business, be prepared to capsize it.

2. Challenge the Oxymoron of Conventional Wisdom: The so-called smart thing is all too often stale thinking masquerading as truth.

3. Take a Good Look in the Mirror . . . Do You See a Leader? The worst damn thing in the world you can do is copy success. Be an original.

4. Develop Your Personal Killer App: Become greater than the sum of your parts.

5. Unleash Your Manhattan Project: Implement the plan that will change your world and your life.

6. Capture Ideas with a Butterfly Net: Seek out what you need to know and use it for personal growth.

7. Apply C+A+M, the Universal Equation for Perpetual Growth: Win customers and make them deliriously happy.



Also available as an eBook


Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"If you can't say anything nice, say it." This philosophy nicely summarizes Stevens's approach to executive coaching, not to mention life in general. While the author's blunt truthfulness is welcome in a world of management euphemisms, his self-described "in your face" style may not make him a man for all seasons. Here, Stevens presents a 7-day "battle plan" that "challenges assumptions about success and provides a road map for taking your business to the next level." To get to the "next level," readers are advised to question conventional wisdom, look in the mirror for a leader, develop a personal "killer app," apply "the universal equation for perpetual growth" and make "the journey within." When Stevens departs from his silver bullet slogans and presents a real business story, he can be captivating; his anecdote about shaking up the circulation department while in temporary control of Success magazine is a star turn, as is his account of Lou Gerstner's unexpected rattling of the entrenched bureaucracy at IBM. Beyond his Pattonesque marketing shtick, Mr. Stevens' suggestion that managers "get real" and confront business problems head-on is the practical heart of this book.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

“It’s always hard for someone who has reached a CEO or senior management level position to admit that he sucks in many areas. Mark shows us some simple truths to see beyond our ego and pride.” —Thomas K. Crawford, chairman and CEO, Leadership Network Corporation

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 304 pages
  • Publisher: Crown Business; First Edition edition (May 9, 2006)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1400054931
  • ISBN-13: 978-1400054930
  • Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 1.1 x 8.5 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #358,569 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Mark Stevens is a best selling author, CEO of MSCO, a results-driven management and marketing firm, and a popular media commentator on a host of business matters including marketing, branding, management and sales. Mr. Stevens is known for delivering business insights with blunt truths and unconventional wisdom.

Stevens shook the marketing establishment with his Business Week best seller, "Your Marketing Sucks" (Random House/Crown Business), and redefined the rules of management with "Your Management Sucks" (Random House/Crown Business, 2006).

Stevens' latest book, Your Company Sucks: It's Time To Declare War On Yourself (to be published Aug 2, 2011)idetifies the four reasons companies fail or simply get stuck in neutral and how to identify and address them so the business can break through the ice to new levels of success. Stevens also demonstrates that "customer satisfaction" is no longer acceptable: winning companies must Thrill their customers/clients.

Stevens is the author of 24 business-related books including the best sellers: "The Big Eight"; "King Icahn"; "Sudden Death: The Rise and Fall of EF Hutton" (a Wall Street Journal bestseller and Library Journal "Business Book of the Year"); and the enormously popular "Your Marketing Sucks."

Stevens' firm, MSCO--founded in 1995-- has representsed a stellar roster of clients including Nike, Starwood, GE, Guardian Life, Intrawest, Estee Lauder, The MONY group, Environmental Systems Products, Saturday Evening Post , Virgin Atlantic, and many others.. Through integrated marketing campaigns, MSCO focuses on achieving results for its clients instead of awards that serve egos. Mark Stevens possesses an innovative and iconoclastic view of the business world, having served as a journalist and nationally syndicated columnist and having held management positions at several global corporations. His incisive understanding of critical business issues is geared toward achieving extraordinary growth and success for his clients.

Stevens is an in-demand speaker and a frequent guest commentator on Fox Business Channel and a wide range of media from Entrepreneur to Dow Jones.

Stevens writes the wildly successful blog, "Unconventional Thinking."

Books by Mark Stevens have been published in USA, UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, China, Germany, Spain, Japan, Russia and Brazil.

Customer Reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Finally, a Biz Book That Doesn't Suck! June 29, 2006
By Sam D.
Format:Hardcover
Wanting to keep ahead of the curve in my career, it seems I'm always reading a business book or two. This one didn't waste my time, try too hard to impress me with MBA-speak, or tell me what I already know. What I liked most about Your Management Sucks is that the author tells it like it is. If I had a mentor, one that told me what I really needed to hear to get ahead, one that would kick my [...] to take next steps when I needed confirmation or direction, then I found one in this author. I think I will re-read many sections of this book as a refresher when I ask for a raise, take on a conference room of naysayers or need to push myself to take a few risks at the office.

If you are uncertain what your next steps should be with your boss, concerned that voicing your opinion will make your colleagues think less of you, or want to know how to improve your own management skills and techniques, then this should be the next book you read. It's practical, full of "ah-ha" insights, and really gets your adrenaline pumping.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars A Brutal "Look In The Mirror" July 17, 2006
Format:Hardcover
The title's quite blunt--and so are the messages. I found that page after page contains extremely accurate assessments and advice of the business, management, leadership, and people situations I face in my organization. It's a brutal "look in the mirror" as to what we need to start doing, stop doing, and continue doing.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars This Book Doesn't Suck June 29, 2008
Format:Hardcover
My client and friend, Rory Fatt, sent me a book as part of his regular Gold Inner Circle membership program for restaurant owners ([...].) The book is called Your Management Sucks by Mark Stevens.

This is a terrific manual for small business owners and I encourage you to buy it and read it immediately. This book helped me eliminate excuses for me holding myself back.

Among the greatest lessons was in chapter 6, "Your greatest skill is a double-edged sword: it empowers and limits your company simultaneously.

Mark explains this with an analogy of a golf-cart; he says too many business owners have a golf-cart company. This means that the moment the business owner takes his foot off the pedal, the golf cart stops. He says this is no better than a guy with a lemonade stand.

"Guy gets a cold. Guy goes to bed. No lemonade today. No money. The other people in the business--whole job it is to grind what [the business owner] mines--are administrative and secretarial staff that may do their jobs well but cannot generate revenue from new clients or through the organic grown of existing clients."

Mark mentions that graduating from a golf-cart company to a real business is a momentous transition. However, every business owner must go through it. This is what it takes to liberate yourself from your company and achieve growth. Otherwise, you take your foot off the pedal and the business slows to a stop.

Throughout the book Mark provides a lot of advice on how business owners can break away from a golf-cart company. A lot of it is in the form of hard work and tough decisions. According to Mark too many business owners are concerned about what others think; employees, vendors and even competitors. How crazy is that? A business owner who is worried about what his competition thinks. However, it's true. Humans have a strong urge to be part of a group. Getting criticized by peers can be scary.

Throughout this book Mark will step on your toes and challenge your conventional thinking. In fact, this is something of a mantra that he weaves throughout the text. Business owners should constantly challenge their beliefs, break apart and rebuild their businesses and provide a "360 degree experience" to their customers.

Mark gives you insight into business complacency. I was lucky to learn early in my business career from a client the quote, "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you" from the movie, Catch-22. I've built my business being paranoid. I expect vendor, employee and client defections. Therefore, since I know they are inevitable, I do what I can to minimize their occurrence and their impact. Mark Stevens provides a lot of advice about rebuilding successful companies to create massively successful fast-growing companies.

This book is well worth your investment of time and money. Add Mark to your advisor team right away.
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