How to Get to the Top: Business Lessons Learned at the Dinner Table (Fox Business Library) (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "There are two times when you must have perfect table manners: when you dine with others and when you dine alone..." (more)
Key Phrases: varsity game, New York

Editorial Reviews

Review

“A street-smart marketing expert, Harvard MBA, and author of bestselling business books gives the ultimate lesson on starting a business from the ground up…It’s practical advice that is put on the table in knock-your-socks-off directness that makes sense right away in your gut…. Don’t start a business without hearing this essential lesson!”—AudioFile on How to Make Big Money in Your Own Small Business

--This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Product Description

The bestselling author of How to Become CEO returns with a pithy, smart, and useful collection of wisdom learned by business leaders at their own family dinners

Do you want to get to the top? Do you want to know how to rise above the crowd and become a leader in your field? Then this is the book for you. In How to Get to the Top, bestselling author Jeffrey J. Fox combines his own experience as an extremely successful entrepreneur with lessons learned at the family dinner table by business leaders such as Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks; Tom Chappell, founder of Tom’s of Maine; Leslie Blodgett, CEO of Bare Escentuals; and George Steinbrenner, principal owner of the New York Yankees. The essential guide on how to get to the top -- and stay there -- this compelling book contains hard-hitting advice on independence and self-reliance, management dynamics, and problem solving, including:

--You can’t unsour the milk.
--Speak sweetly: You may have to eat your words.
--Tip as if you were the tippee.
--Act like you own the place.
--You have to know the rules to break them.
--Never be late.
--Always compliment the chef . . . especially at home.
--Teach your girls to whistle.
--Spend the company’s money as you would your own.
--Don’t teach the quarterback to catch.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion (May 30, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401303307
• ISBN-13: 978-1401303303
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #322,369 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sometimes it "rains" indoors, May 31, 2007

By	Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I have read and then reviewed all of Jeff Fox's previous books and thus was eager to read his newest one in which he shares "business lessons learned at the dinner table" while he and other contributors to this volume were growing up. Of special interest to me is how skillfully Fox uses real-world situations to illustrate the lessons' practical value.

For example, one story in Chapter II focuses on Guiseppe ("Joe") Italo who was the only person at work one Saturday, sorting and distributing his company's mail. He answered a call from an especially important customer who had an emergency. Joe solved the problem by hiring a helicopter to deliver the needed product. Later, the chairman of Joe's company (a "notoriously tightfisted skinflint") was outraged to learn about the incident. Then he received a call from the customer. "I am president of [a U.S. automobile manufacturer]. I was told that you have a guy working there who saved my company maybe millions of dollars. I think is name is Joe Italo, or something like that. Please bill us for the helicopter, and be assured that we will never forget what you did for us." Joe was willing to go (as Napoleon Hill would describe it) "the extra mile" but he also demonstrates the power and value of personal initiative. In this context, I am reminded that there are only two rules for Nordstrom's employees: #1 Use good judgment and #2 See rule #1.

Throughout his narrative, Fox cites dozens of other examples, many of them contributed by a diverse group individuals who also learned valuable lessons from "the kitchen table, or its equivalent" that has been "the center of families of all cultures in all places since the cavemen discovered fire." Of special interest to me is Fox's observation that, to get to the top, become an effective multi-tasker: "juggle like Mom. Meticulously manage your time. Keep a list. Stay organized. Be relentless. Get a lot done every day. Plan. Be on time. Stay healthy. Don't complain. Be like Mom: No matter the pain, don't complain."

I especially appreciate Fox's wit that adds a special seasoning to the series of observations. Here's a brief selection, obviously out of context:

"Speak sweetly, you may have to eat your words."
"Tip as if you were the tippee."
"Bad ROT is bad return on time."
The rainmaker's S.W. Rule: "Some will. Some won't. So what?"
"Let the customer park as close to your cash register as possible. You park in the rain. Be a rainmaker."
"Keep listening until you hear ka-ching."
"Always be ready to play. And never forget your playing shoes."
"If you are reluctant to bring a [job] candidate home for dinner, don't invite him, and don't hire him."
"Don't give the Jewish guy a pork roast."
"Sour milk is bad. Sour grapes is worse."

In several of his previous books, Fox has shared his thoughts about "rainmaking" which, in essence, is the process by which to create or increase demand for whatever one offers while establishing and then sustaining mutually beneficial relationships with everyone involved in the given enterprise. Quantify (i.e. "dollarize") the value of what you offer to each prospect and customer and you will create "rain." Preferably, a deluge of new and repeat business. Here's the formula: Rain = revenue.

In How to Get to the Top, Fox brilliantly uses an extended metaphor, the dinner table, when asserting that for everyone - as children, spouses, parents, and grandparents - there are important life lessons as well as business lessons to be learned at the dinner table, wherever it may be, whoever else is seated around it. Frankly, until I began to read this book, I was uncertain what Fox means by "the top," especially the recurring reference to CEO in the titles of his earlier works. One man's opinion (mine), I think for Fox and everyone else, "the top" is not a location nor even a destination; rather, it is a process by which to become the very best human being each of us can be. That process never ends because each of us will always be a "work in progress." If we can apply the lessons to be learned from others, and if we can also learn from our own experiences (especially failures, setbacks, and disappointments), we can - and will - become better human beings. In other words, rain = wisdom.

That is Jeff Fox's hope for those who read his book. It is a great and admirable expectation.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Basic advice that applies to just about any walk of life, July 13, 2007

By	Blaine Greenfield "eclectic reader" (Belle Meade, NJ) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Jeffrey J. Fox is rapidly becoming one of my favorite
business authors . . . his HOW TO BECOME A
RAINMAKER is a "must" read for anybody in the
field of marketing . . . I'd now add his latest,
HOW TO GET TO THE TOP, to that same list--but
also involve virtually anybody else involved in any
aspect of business . . . those involved with non-profit
organizations and/or in education would benefit from it, too.

Fox took based his lessons on a series of lessons he
learned at the family dinner table from such business
leaders as Jim Donald, CEO of Starbucks; Tom Chappell,
founder of Tom's of Maine; Leslile Blodgett, CEO of
Bare Essentials; and George Steinbrenner, owner of
the New York Yankees.

Some of the advice seems very basic, but in thinking
about it, I wonder how often I don't do it more often; e.g.,
keeping the following in mind:

* Everyone is a tipper. Tip as if you were the tippee. Yesterday's
tippee might be tomorrow's tipper.

I also liked what he said about complaining:
* Be like Mom: No matter the pain, don't complain. As one at the
top puts it: "In all the years, over forty, that my mother was
a single mom, despite poverty, crippling ailments, heartbreaking
setbacks, the one thing my mother never once did was to
complain. Not once."

Lastly, there was this suggestion that made so much sense that
I'm amazed that so few store owners never thought of it previously
(but then again, neither did I):

* Windows are for window-shopping. Walking through your doors
is the first customer action that precedes a sale. Why deface your
stores and windows with, for example, credit card stickers and
news of community events? Customers expect businesses to
accept all credit cards. Turning your doors into a credit card
collage is unnecessary, irrelevant. Your windows are not bulletin
boards. They are a place to display merchandise, to entertain
customers, to attract customers. If you feel the need to display
the ads and flyers announcing the Lions Club pancake breakfast,
pin them to a bulletin board in the back of your store. Interested
customers will have to walk by your merchandise to read the
notices. Take a lesson from the master merchants of Fifth Avenue
in New York City. Their holiday window displays make the stores
a destination, generate publicity, and enhance the shopping
experience.

My only criticism of this otherwise excellent book had to do
with his list of contributors at the end . . . he includes them,
almost as an afterthought, and they have little relationship
to the individual chapters . . . I would have much preferred
seeing what exactly Steinbrenner or any other business
leader actually taught Fox.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Big Umbrella, July 4, 2007

By	Michael P. Maslanka (dallas, texas United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Unlike his earlier books, this one has no overarching theme---it is a bunch of good advide, in short bullet like chapters, with an umbrella like title as an excuse to pull them together. But the advice is well worth it, delivered as Fox always does---direct and to the point. Upset with a boss or colleague? Ask what's in it for you to take them on. Can't close the deal? Hey, it's like the person you have dated for 5 years---it's you who must pop the question; same with business. Want to know what's going on? The sales force knows. They are the ones closest to the action. And, always, always remember---nothing is more important than getting and keeping good customers. A good vacation book---small and portable.