The Power Of Simplicity: A Management Guide to Cutting Through the Nonsense and Doing Things Right - Softcover

Trout, Jack

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0071373322 ISBN 13: 9780071373326

Publisher: McGraw Hill, 2001

Synopsis

Renowned marketing expert and best-selling author Jack Trout has a message for managers who are struggling to keep up with today’s ever-changing business climate: “Keep It Simple.” In this paperback edition of The Power of Simplicity, Trout advocates the importance of paying attention to the basics and simplifying processes in order to stay focused on the core business at hand. Through case studies and interviews with successful executives, he shows managers how to cut through jargon, articulate their vision, and regain control of the vital elements of their business in order to make it thrive. According to Trout, the things that propose to streamline companies, like the ubiquitous “mission statements,” often end up bogging down operations by introducing unnecessary complexity where a straightforward approach may be more effective. Trout cites Southwest Airlines, Intel, and Kohl’s department stores among others as successful companies that have rejected showy trappings in favor of simplification.

About this title

Review:

Contending that our increasingly complicated corporate universe has made it more difficult for companies to grow and prosper, noted business strategist Jack Trout and communications consultant Steve Rivkin have proposed a radical new tack: simplicity. By boiling everything down to its essential elements, they maintain, managers can ignore new fads and hot consultants and instead focus on the true business at hand. Fascinating in its own unpretentious, logical manner, The Power of Simplicity is their stripped-down guide to a future without chaos and disorder. Addressing the basics involved as well as specific management, leadership, and people issues, they hit a variety of applicable themes--including information, competitors, mission statements, goals, and motivation--using short individual chapters that quickly get to the heart of the matter with a few germane anecdotes and expert quotes followed by suggestions that are both coherent and feasible. Each begins with an inspirational epigram by the likes of Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain, Malcolm Forbes, and even Mother Goose, and concludes with a Simple Summation, such as this one on strategy: "If you're not different, you'd better have a lower price." --Howard Rothman

From the Publisher:

Jack Trout, one of the most famous names in the world of marketing strategy, is president of Trout & Partners. He is a popular speaker and the coauthor of such best-selling business classics as Positioning, The New Positioning, and Marketing Warfare. Trout's firm consults to such clients as AT&T, IBM, Merck, Southwest Airlines, and Warner-Lambert. He is based in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Steve Rivkin is coauthor of The New Positioning and head of his own communications consulting firm, whose clients include Kraft Foods, Olin Corp., and Horizon Health System. He is based in Glen Rock, New Jersey.

About this edition

• Publisher: McGraw Hill
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0071373322
• ISBN 13: 9780071373326
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224