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Free, Perfect, and Now: Connecting to the Three Insatiable Customer Demands: A CEO's True Story (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Curtis Hartman (Creator) "Do you lie awake at night, as I do, worrying that someone will come along tomorrow and eat your lunch?..." (more)
Key Phrases: virtual distribution, pallet racks, customer connection, Marshall Process, Manager's Workbook, Lotus Notes (more...)

4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (67 customer reviews)

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Kindle Edition $9.99 Available for download now. Published August 6, 1999	Kindle Edition, August 6, 1999	$9.99	--	--
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Paperback $17.95 In Stock. Published January 14, 2000	Paperback, January 14, 2000	$17.95	$3.35	$0.01
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Free, Perfect and Now tells how one CEO nearly quadrupled his company's market value through the power of the Internet and some daring management. Written by Bob Rodin, president of electrical distributor Marshall Industries, Inc., the book is about the struggle to give customers what they want: reduced prices, higher quality, and speedy service. "Who in the world is figuring out how to serve customers at a lower cost? Closer to perfect for your customers' changing values? Faster?" Rodin writes. "We ask ourselves those questions every day at Marshall." Rodin is renowned in the trade for overseeing the creation of an award-winning business-to-business Web site--launched in 1994, far ahead of the competition. A disciple of management guru W. Edwards Deming, Rodin describes his company's astonishing rise over six years. He changed the culture by ridding the company of contests and bonuses and freeing managers from meeting quarterly objectives. One of his most revolutionary moves: abolishing commissions for his 600-strong sales staff. As far as Rodin can determine, Marshall boasts the only major sales team in the U.S. that gets paid strictly by salary and profit-sharing. That means sales pros can move customers to the Internet without worrying about losing commissions. But Rodin cautions that the Internet also means relentless competition. Even as this book was released, Marshall lost a major customer and its stock price was cut in half--Rodin may need to work some magic again. This book is for senior executives, middle managers, and businesspeople open to some radical methods for expansion. --Dan Ring

Review

Warren Bennis author of On Becoming a Leader For anyone who wants understand the 'on the ground' narrative of how entrepreneurs work, how innovation leverages intellectual capital, and how ideas -- business ideas -- can improve the quality of life, this is the book for you. -- Review --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

Hardcover: 256 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster (March 3, 1999)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0684850222
ISBN-13: 978-0684863122
Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds

Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (67 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,034,740 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Inside This Book (learn more)

First Sentence:
Do you lie awake at night, as I do, worrying that someone will come along tomorrow and eat your lunch? Read the first page

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
virtual distribution, pallet racks, customer connection, smart agents

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Marshall Process, Manager's Workbook, Lotus Notes, Gordon Marshall, Marshall Industries, Silicon Valley, Wall Street, Bill Gates, Cisco Systems, Kerry Young, Marshall Live, Peter Principle, The Global Connection, Bobby Calderella, Texas Instruments, University of Southern California

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Citations (learn more)

This book cites 8 books:

The Rolling Stones (Guitar Signature Licks): A Step-by-Step Breakdown of the Guitar Styles of Keith Richards, Brian Jones, Mick Taylor, and Ron Wood by Rolling Stones on page 200
The Man Who Discovered Quality: How W. Edwards Deming Brought the Quality Revolution to America... by Andrea Gabor on page 53
In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America's Best-Run Companies (Collins Business Essentials) by Thomas J. Peters on page 48
Free, Perfect, and Now: Connecting to the Three Insatiable Customer Demands, A CEO's True Story by Robert Rodin in Front Matter
Fad Surfing In The Boardroom: Managing In The Age Of Instant Answers by Eileen C. Shapiro on page 66

See all 8 books this book cites

18 books cite this book:

Business the Cisco Way: Secrets of the Company That Makes the Internet (Big Shots Series) by David Stauffer on page 208, and page 226
Nothing but Net: Business the Cisco Way by David Stauffer on page 206, and page 224
Abolishing Performance Appraisals: Why They Backfire and What to Do Instead by Tom Coens in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
Design. Market. Grow! Building an Enduring Practice Through Excellence & Experience by Craig Park on page 35, and Back Matter
Abolishing Performance Appraisals: Why They Backfire and What to Do Instead by Tom Coens in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)

See all 18 books citing this book

Books on Related Topics (learn more)

Strategic Management of e-Business by Stephen Chen

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent case study for companies that need big change, May 19, 1999

By	D. B. Merrifield (Boston, Ma.) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Anyone struggling with how to adapt to too much cumulative change within their industry will benefit from reading this book for several good reasons. If for starters you believe, as I do, that the internet will have revolutionary effects on all traditional industry and education models, then this book offers an unusually open and thorough explanation of how Marshall Industries created and has continuously improved a great B2B web site capability. Marshall is easily the best within all distribution channels, and Advertising Age has rated Marshall's web site as the #1 B2B capability for all industries.

But, the internet case study is actually a downstream result of a tough and on-going transformational change process that Marshall has been going through since 1992. Back then, Marshall's business environment was changing faster than their top-down by the numbers and incentive plan culture could handle. So, instead of trying harder in out-dated ways the company decided to try to become a learning organization that would transform itself - an enormously tough and risky under-taking. Because so many other companies are currently in the same learn, die or sell-out situation, they need prescriptive help, and this book has an effective delivery style for the medicine.

The book is written in a first person, narrative style, which makes it an enjoyable, read, but more importantly Rodin has distilled good management theories down to a basic, comprehensible level grounded in a real story. Readers will, as a result, find particular problems described in ways that will strongly connect to their own similar problems. They will go on to borrow many of Rodin's analogies for getting the same messages across to their employees. I expect that a lot of managers will buy extra copies of this book for entire management teams to read.

A final reason for buying the book with eyes open are all of the other reviews posted here at Amazon.com - both the positive AND the negative! The positive ones support the good read, good theories, good grounded case example elements, and the bad ones from ex-employees illustrate the pain that learning companies doing transformations have to go through. Just because the top guy(s) have the right vision and work hard to implement it, doesn't mean that all of the managers really believe it or will do it even as they nod in agreement. Russia and China's attempts to go to free market economies are bigger current examples of how lots of people that are personally happy with the old order fight change.

One negative comment talks about how Marshall's stock has tanked, but so have all of the other publicly traded semiconductor stocks due to their tough environment. Marshall's 5 year average return on equity has been a little less than Arrow's and little more than Avnet's. The two larger firms have had better franchise lines to ride and have bought much more sales and earnings via acquisitions while Marshall has been forward investing in and expensing their transformational efforts and internet capability. Time will tell how this horse race will finally turn out. In summary, if your company is a top-down firm that plays "beat last year for bonus bucks" starring incremental, financial, tactical changes in the face of too much business environmental change. If you seem to be working harder and harder to get less results. If your customers want lots more value, customization and speed of response, then you need to start reading as many case studies on corporate change as you can find starting with this one.

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Corporate face lifting, December 14, 1999

By	Phil Rapp (Bangor, Maine) - See all my reviews

Robert Rodin presents in this book both a corporate survival guide and a tight specification for engineering the re-invention of conventional business. Based upon his own experiences, Rodin rolls out a blueprint of controversial methods and bold innovative means to transform a company that "works", into one which thrives in the globalized electronic marketspace of today. Nothing is safe. Everything from Mission Statements to corporate structure itself is examined, questioned, torn down to basics and rebuilt without the un-necessary un-functioning parts. Centered around the customer, and inspired by the Total Quality Management doctrine of Dr. W. Edwards Deming, Rodin identifies and attacks the conventional "system" as the greatest challenge and foe to product quality, customer satisfaction, and ultimately corporate success. Part case study, part instruction guideline, this book provides the tools necessary to examine the culture and corporate organization of any company. More importantly perhaps, the book motivates the reader to go out and "operate" like any good surgeon would after a thorough patient examination.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Recommended!, August 16, 2001

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

Marshall Industries was in trouble, facing the pressures of modernization and internal discord. Today, it is an effective Internet-adapted company. CEO Rob Rodin (with writer Curtis Hartman) explains how he transformed his firm. He tells his personal story, including how he recognized the need for dramatic change, and planned and implemented a strategy. This excellent book tracks his saga and discusses general principles and how-to tips leaders can apply to create effective change. This isn't just another leadership book. Rodin involves you in his personal story. He candidly outlines the difficulties he faced in his company when he tried to get everyone involved in his transformation mission. The book captures a spirit of suspense (rare in business writing). You want to know what will happen next because it is well crafted and dramatic. We [...] recommend this engaging read to those involved in leadership, change, and strategy issues, or anyone who enjoys a page-turner.

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