businessThink: Rules for Getting It Right–Now, and No Matter What! (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Steve Smith (Author), Mahan Khalsa (Author), Stephen R. Covey (Foreword) "The world is more innovative than ever..." (more)
Key Phrases: move off the solution, holy grid, underlying business issues, Explore the Ripple Effect, Head Geek, Old School (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Businesses will only achieve their true potential, according to Dave Marcum, Steve Smith, and Mahan Khalsa, when the people that run them learn to "think business." In businessThink, the authors, all corporate veterans now with the FranklinCovey leadership development organization, propose eight rules that create a framework for cultivating this different thought process. "Most people are just going through the motions of doing (not thinking) business--merely practicing their comfortable old routines," they write. "Others, the really successful ones, are getting killer results through changing their thinking to become more disciplined, rigorous, creative, and sound." Applicable to any position, from staffer to senior executive, the principles are: check your ego at the door (to develop an open, united atmosphere); create curiosity (to uncover new options); move off the solution (to clarify the issue); get evidence (to clarify the problem); calculate the impact (to weigh investment against return); explore the ripple effect (to view the big picture); slow down for yellow lights (to watch for obstacles); and discover the cause (to understand underlying truths). Each element is fleshed out in one or more chapters that showcase them in identifiable, real-world situations. The combination adds up to a logical, feasible program that virtually everyone can follow. --Howard Rothman

Review

"...this book is replete with good advice and commonsense..." -- The Irish Times, 5 April 2002

"...this book is replete with good advice and commonsense..." (The Irish Times, 5 April 2002)

“…Full of sound, useful advice…” (Long Range Planning, No.36, 2003)

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Wiley (April 23, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471219932
• ISBN-13: 978-0471219934
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #759,612 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars An exercise in cynical plagarism, January 5, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: businessThink: Rules for Getting It Right--Now, and No Matter What! (Paperback)

Some time ago I read the excellent "Let's Get Real Or Let's Not Play" by Mahan Khalsa. Seeing him listed as one of the authors of "BusinessThink" I bought it. Only then did I discover that Khalsa appears to have had very little to do with "BusinessThink" (in a long list of acknowledgements he doesn't even feature) and, more seriously, that "BusinessThink" is essentially just a rewrite of "Let's get Real" - indeed whole swathes of "BusinessThink" consists of word for word plagarism of "Let's Get Real". Had there been some acknowledgement of this fact by the authors or Franklin Covey this practice might, just, have been okay. But there is no hint in the introduction, or elsewhere, that "BusinessThink" is just a slightly reworked "Let's Get Real". Shame on the authors, on FranklinCovey, and on the publishers for this exercise in cynicism.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Without business think, you're only whining., May 5, 2002

By	laurie shaw (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

What a great new book. What caught my eye was how many heavy hitters (Tom Peters, Warren Bennis, and Ram Charan)recommended it. It is good.

1. Business Think emphasizes that thinking matters. We've gone way too far with the ready, fire, aim. Poorly thought out presentations, projects, meetings, reorganizations. Businesses that succeed don't get more done, they get more of the right things done.

2. Business think teaches employees how to gain political traction rather than whine. While they think they are making helpful suggestions, most employees bring complaints and gripes to their boss because they think about ways to improve their job, not the business. So when they bring suggestions that help their team but would hurt other departments or the company's bottom line,the executives don't listen. Before you can talk your bosses language, you have to think like the CEO. It's sad because most employees have good ideas but thinks no one listens.

3. Business Think shows you that you have to listen first to your boss or board or the finance department before they will listen to you. And it shows you how to do it.

The book has a Fast Company style of writing that is snappy and edgy for a while and then wears a little thin. But it keeps a serious subject from getting boring.

I'm going to buy it for my entire department. We do way too much training for managers. It's time to train the people to think like their manager.

If you ever got rated down for not thinking strategically, this book is the best I have seen for laying out how to be seen as a player.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Like the Special Edition of a DVD, without the special, November 26, 2003

By	K. Hiemstra (Vancouver BC) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: businessThink: Rules for Getting It Right--Now, and No Matter What (Audio Cassette)

I bought this book becuase I read Lets Get Real or Lets Not Play by Mahan Khalsa and was very intruiged by it. Lets Get Real is a TERRIFIC book. Little did I know that BusinessThink is basicly the coles notes version of Lets Get Real with two other names plunked above his. There is little additional value added here. If you want to get the same material but more of it and better presented, buy Lets Get Real.