Kiss Theory Good Bye: Five Proven Ways to Get Extraordinary Results in Any Company (Hardcover)

by Bob Prosen (Author)
Key Phrases: accelerating profitability, top objectives, crippling habits, Measure What Matters Most, Bridging the Gap, Worst Fear (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Prosen, head of a business training center affiliated with the University of Texas in Dallas, begins his book with six pages of endorsements from an assortment of CEOs, professionals and nonprofit managers and another six pages of self-praise. Unfortunately, his "five attributes of high profitable companies" are utterly familiar. They include "superior leadership, sales effectiveness, operational excellence, financial management, and customer loyalty." Prosen offers equally prosaic advice for achieving them. For example, the secrets of "superior leadership" include hiring smart people, fostering a healthy corporate culture and communicating clearly-no breakthroughs there. Because the book attempts to cover the entire range of management skills in less than 200 pages, the discussions offer information that practically any business person should already know. (Will any sales or marketing professional be surprised to learn that the Internet and industry conferences can be useful sources of competitive intelligence, as chapter three patiently explains?) Prosen would have served his readers better by choosing one management skill at which he truly excels and providing in-depth, original insights into that topic.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
Business leaders need less talk and more action! To back up his opinion, he offers thorough guidance, tools and tactics for leaders to use in an effort to boost accountability, achieve objectives and help a company operate smoothly. Kiss Theory Good Bye provides successful strategies applicable to everyone from a CEO of a large company, to a board member for a small non-profit organization. -- Soundview Executive Book Summaries

There's a lot to this book, and Prosen's affirmative attitude permeates the text. His sincere enthusiasm for doing things the right way to achieve optimum success is energizing and inspirational without being trite or corny. --Richard Patcher, Miami Herald

I found myself folding down the corners of many pages as I read this book, which is a good sign, of course. Kiss Theory Good Bye should be required reading for anyone entering the world of business, any business, and it should be on the shelf as a handy reference for the rest of us, no matter how many years of business experience you have. -- --Joe Wilkert, Vice President and Executive Publisher, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Mr. Prosen provides more than clues. He provides a battle plan that’s focused on planning, achievable targets and execution. -- Jim Pawlak, Biz Books

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Gold Pen Publishing; Second edition (August 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0977684806
• ISBN-13: 978-0977684809
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #141,363 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Get Ready To Take Action NOW . . ., June 26, 2007

By	Joe Waynick (Phoenix, AZ USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I'm action oriented and view theory as a necessary evil. When consulting a business management book I want to know what I can do to IMMEDIATELY impact my business. Kiss Theory Good Bye was written expressly for me.

It's not enough to know the basics - and theoretical constructs are of limited help when you're in the trenches. This book is the bare knuckle fist fight of business books; true hand-to-hand combat. It's a virtual blueprint that can be customized and followed to propel your organization to excellence. Although the book itself is a short 218 pages, no space is wasted on needless chatter on unproven concepts. It gives you the tools needed to implement practical management techniques that generate results.

The broad strokes are pretty obvious. For example, his "five attributes of highly profitable companies" that include 1) Superior Leadership, 2) Sales Effectiveness, 3) Operational Excellence, 4) Financial Management, and 5) Customer Loyalty are fairly well-known concepts. But how do you implement them? That's where Bob Prosen makes the rubber meet the road. Step-by-step he gives you a roadmap to follow that helps you put concepts and theories into practice.

Be prepared to do your homework! While the author provides the blueprint, YOU must provide the details. It's your business. If you don't thoroughly understand how your business operates (or should operate) then no book is going to help, theoretical or not. Fill in the blanks and follow the plan and you should see dramatic results in your organization.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wisdom you can actually use!, May 4, 2007

By	Dr. Moses B. Altsech - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Perhaps the most popular professor at the Edgewood College MBA program is Joe Hahn, who teaches a Strategic Management course, and is also the VP of a $13 billion company. Students love Joe because he's a no-nonsense kind of guy who focuses on making decisions, getting results, and not pondering theories and possibilities until the end of time. Well, Kiss Theory Goodbye is a book that Joe would love! Here's why:
Bob Prosen has managed to put together an action-oriented how-to manual that will make anyone a better decision maker. It's a surprisingly compelling, readable volume (most books of this type are neither) with specific ideas and real-world examples of how a business leader can obtain results in virtually every area of an organization!

Prosen's direct, disarmingly straightforward style addresses such key issues as the "victim mentality" or the office politics that can slow down an organization and keep it from moving forward. He emphasizes in no uncertain terms the critical need to measure customer satisfaction (and, indeed, anything that a company values) and focus on forging ahead rather than perpetually having ineffective, time-wasting meetings that focus on talk instead of solutions. What's the alternative to taking home countless pages of essential financial reports that ultimately never get read? How should compensation issues be addressed effectively? These are just some of the important issues this book covers.

Of course this is a handbook more than a comprehensive analysis--as it would probably take several volumes to address such a vast array of issues: But perhaps therein lies its value. It's a starting point; a spring board that can generate action-oriented thinking--and most business leaders could use precisely that kind of tool!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fine catalogue of leadership basics, February 28, 2007

By	Rolf Dobelli "getAbstract.com" (Switzerland) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Bob Prosen dispenses with management theories and nostrums, and focuses closely on the practical facts of business life. In a blunt, concise style, he addresses five subject areas: leadership, sales, operations, finance and customers. Most of what he says has been said before, however, he provides a solid and straightforward handbook to remind managers of what is essential and what is not. Each chapter provides a list of action steps and a summary of "very important lessons" that we think busy business readers will find convenient and helpful.