Cool Book Of The Day

Pitch reporters with our up-to-date media databases:

Question: Who is the intended audience?
Answer: This book is intended for both buyers and sellers of tangible non-cash incentive programs.  Sales and marketing executives that have struggled to have their incentive budgets “approved” will love this book.  Incentive companies that have suffered from the AIG effect will love this book.

Q: What is the book about?
A: The book is about creating a measurable Return on Investment for incentive programs.  Using actual client situations, the reader can follow a step by step process of how to do this through each chapter.

Q: Why are you the best person to write this book?
A: This method of Incentive ROI is something I developed in 1991.  Since that time, it has been proven to be the most effective Incentive ROI method available (independent study by the University of Missouri, September 2007).

Q: How is this book different from other books on this topic?
A: This book, as far as I am aware, is the only book on this topic.  While there are many books available on ROI, there are no such books out there that outline how this unique method can incrementally improve both profit and cash flow for a company.

Q: Is there anything else we should know about this book?
A: The timing of this book is perfect.  Companies have always “felt” their incentive programs work, people enjoyed getting merchandise or trips.  Now those same companies are cutting or cancelling these very same programs and productivity is impacted.

Pitch reporters with our up-to-date media databases:

Question: Who is the intended audience?
Answer: Anyone who wants to understand more about risk in their life or business, including business owners, managers, executives, and employees who want to know more about the risks to their jobs if their company is endangering jobs by not balancing risk taken and reasonably projectable rewards obtainable.

Q: What is the book about?
A: In Stick Out Your Balance Sheet and Cough, Gary Patterson details for the first time the proven methods he’s used to successfully treat ailing companies of all sizes across a range of industries–from a startup purchased by IBM to a public technology company sold to eBay to an Inc. 500 consumer goods manufacturer to an international Fortune 500 firm.

Offering tips to stanch the internal financial bleeding and providing a daily regimen for ensuring your company’s financial health, the FiscalDoctor’s prescription is clear:
• Give your company an overall checkup to gauge its condition
• Diagnose problems by reviewing your financials and operations
• Implement a treatment plan using Best Practices from world-class successful companies
• Create a wellness program to prevent future fiscal crises

Using the FiscalDoctor’s Best Practices, the high-growth company you own, manage or
direct can avoid unnecessary increased expenses, revenue shortfalls, employee layoffs, missed bonuses or broken dreams.

So open this book and say “Profit.”

Q: Why are you the best person to write this book?
A: Gary W. Patterson, The FiscalDoctor®, actually uses these methods developed over more than 30 years of top management experience with companies in manufacturing, technology, wireless, service and distribution in companies from start-ups to Inc 500 to Fortune 500. Several reached 10x compounded annual growth in revenue. He was the European coordinator for a global enterprise-wide leading-edge supply chain re-engineering pilot software application for Robertson CECO, a Fortune 500 company. The project was selected as a premiere site by J D Edwards and he was one of three worldwide pilots for a dimensional MRP software module. Gary also successfully negotiated more than 25 M&A transactions with a market value exceeding $390 million. Gary holds an MBA in Finance and Operations from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, a BA in Accounting from the University of Mississippi, and is a KPMG Big 4 CPA.

Q: How is this book different than other books on this topic?
A: Patterson offers a commonsense approach to risk management that unlocks added value for existing or new ERM programs, both identifying formerly invisible opportunities and revealing key risk areas executives unwittingly take.

In these turbulent economic times when risk is a guaranteed certainty, Gary Patterson unlocks the “hidden risks” that could topple even the best of companies. Even before Bernie Madoff, he saw companies struggle, even die from self inflicted risks they unknowingly took. To this end, Patterson helps companies develop and implement an ERM strategy to ensure a company’s long-term financial growth.

Patterson offers readers seven takeaway tips:
• Management needs to “bite the bullet” and just get started. Often companies want to start at too high a level of sophistication and quit because of the “perceived” challenges. Patterson offers a basic starting point.
• Patterson zeroes in on five operational areas where an ERM strategy will result in immediate improvements.
• Even viable business models need continuous fine tuning to help re-define and manage risk.
• The greening of America will necessitate that every company have an ERM strategy.
• Even cash-strapped companies can find innumerable ways to improve their cashflow. Patterson’s Resource Sections offer additional tips to improve a company’s balance sheet.
• Executive teams must come to terms with their risk tolerance in order to implement an ERM strategy that works for their companies’ cultures.
• Corporate board packages that are delivered less than six days before a board meeting is a sign that there may be systemic operational problems (read risk) lurking inside the company.

Q: Is there anything else we should know about this book?
A: This enterprise risk management (ERM) book includes stories on how a Fiscal Checkup can save your business life. “What You Don’t Know About Your Business Can Cost You Your Business.” That is why sticking out your balance sheet and coughing gets you what you need to know in time for any needed procedures which can mean the difference between life and death. Sticking out your balance sheet is no more comfortable than a visit to your doctor, but it’s every bit as important. Even if it’s bad news (maybe especially) you need to know.

This commonsense approach to risk management unlocks added value for existing or new ERM programs, both identifying formerly invisible opportunities and revealing key risk areas business unwittingly takes.

Too many CEOs, C-suite officers, and boards are taking far greater risks than they may be aware of. Posing the million-dollar-question, “What is the cost of what you don’t know,” this session alerts managers to hidden risks that may be lurking inside their projects and even companies.

For example, in this rapidly accelerating world where layers of management and large numbers of employees have been fired or their work outsourced, decision makers are under siege. After adding factors like silo-thinking departments, inadequate reporting systems, and a challenging global economy, companies are taking far greater risks than CEOs and C-suite officers and their boards are aware of. Examples of risks can range from inventory mismanagement, outdated and/or incomplete financial reports, and false accounting assumptions to external forces like misreading the market, losing competitive advantage, and missing opportunities.

And as another point of WIIFM, you will find you can implement a basic version of this which can make you more money, including saving your bonus in some future year, or maybe this current year.

A video of Gary discussing his book is available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXhsY8hP70A

Pitch reporters with our up-to-date media databases:

Question: Who is the intended audience?
Answer: The target audiences are primarily those individuals who have an interest in the economy, finance and/or investing and are or may be personally financially impacted by the state of the economy. The secondary market includes those who would like to learn about the finance and investment world and/or are interested in pursuing entrepreneurial ventures within finance and/or real estate.

Q: What is the book about?
A: Standing in the Rain takes the complex subject of the economic crisis which has been experienced in both the United States and throughout the world and helps to explain the situation to the general public in layman’s terms.  It offers a well-rounded perspective from Thomas J. Powell, a seasoned financial authority.  The book takes a detailed, up-to-date (it will be updated again at the end of the Summer or when relevant when it becomes apparent in which direction the economy is moving at that time) snapshot of the current economic state in the country by addressing three specific areas:

1.      How did we get here?

2.      How do we get through this?

3.      What will the other side look like?

In addition, the book addresses each state and provides a snapshot of major economic issues occurring in them. We have already heard back from several business leaders and governors stating they found the information to be both relevant and appropriate.

Q: Why are you the best person to write this book?
A: Thomas J. Powell felt compelled to write this book not only because of the obvious financial crisis being felt by every business sector and individual, but also because it is a perfect marriage of his expertise in Economics, Finance and Real Estate.  He is an instructor in Real Estate Finance at Harvard University, has recently completed his MBA in Real Estate and is considering pursuing his Ph.D at Edinburgh University in Scotland.  More important, Thomas has real-life experience of more than 20 years belly to belly in the topic, not just within the academic world, which can often shelter individuals from the reality of what is occurring in the marketplace.

Because Thomas works everyday in the marketplace through his company, ELP Capital, Inc., and produces a weekly newsletter titled:  The Powell Perspective:  Observations on the Economy, Real Estate, Finance and Investing, he is able to easily update the content of the book as necessary to take it to market through a major publisher and still have it be fresh and relevant to the general public.

How is this book different from other books on this topic:  Examples of key competition and differences are as follows:

¨      Cooper, George, The Origin of Financial Crises (Vintage, 2008)

¨      Shiller, Robert, The Subprime Solution (Princeton Press, 2008)

¨      Soros, George, The New Paradigm for Financial Markets (Public Affairs, 2008)

¨      Zandi, Mark, Financial Shock (FT Press, 2009)

Standing in the Rain is unique from the examples listed above in that it takes the economic crisis and brings it to the individual’s level of understanding, application to one’s life and how to turn one’s personal financial challenges into success.  It is not just about understanding the market, it is about understanding how the market impacts the person and what he or she can do about it to help themselves both get through it and excel in the process.

Q: Is there anything else we should know about this book?
A: Thomas Powell has been a speaker on Economics and Finance for several years.  He speaks 10-15 times per year to groups of sizes ranging from 50-250 on the topic.  Tom’s speaking engagement list is included in this package which illustrates his various audiences and speaking locations, including a recent presentation in Buenos Aires in conjunction with one of his Harvard professors.  Tom has a weekly newsletter and podcast, The Powell Perspective, which can be found at www.thepowellperspective.com.  The current distribution is approximately 10,000 since its inception in March 2009; the goal is to have the distribution up to 100,000 by the end of the year.

Both Thomas and his wife, Tonya, have significant business circles that extend throughout the country and world.  In addition to Tom’s multitude of Harvard contacts throughout the world, he serves as a National Trustee for Boys and Girls Clubs of America (BGCA), which has many Fortune 100 CEOs on its Board of Directors and Board of Governors.  Tonya is also heavily involved with BGCA and has built a very solid sphere of business owners and directors from her time with AT&T and her numerous wealthy and noted clients within the Powell’s financial investment company, ELP Capital, Inc.

Please see www.standingintherain.com or www.thepowellperspective.com for further information!

Pitch reporters with our up-to-date media databases:

Question: Who is the intended audience?
Answer: People in internal and external service roles; owners of small businesses; supervisors of internal service-providing units.

Q: What is the book about?
A: How to reinvent, decorate, and animate customer experiences.  How to choose the right imaginative service strategy for your unit and your customers.  How to insure the sustainability of imaginative service.  How to turn satisfied or retained customers into devoted fans.

Q: Why are you the best person to write this book?
A: I have been a customer loyalty consultant for almost 30 years working with some of the best organizations in the world for service. (Ritz-Carlton Hotels, Cadillac, USAA, etc.) and have authored several best-selling books on customer loyalty.

Q: How is this book different from other books on this topic?
A: It has a gazillion practical ways to focus on creative value-unique experiences rather than on expensive value-added extras.  It has cover endorsements from people like best-selling author Seth Godin, the president of SW Airlines, as well as the retired president of Starbucks.  It will be Wiley’s lead business title for this spring.

Q: Is there anything else we should know about this book?
A: Yes, we have hired the best book publicity firm in the U.S. (Goldberg, McDuffie) who made best-sellers out of First, Break all the Rules, Execution, Jack: Straight from the Gut and Call Me Ted.