Praise for Rules to Break & Laws to Follow: How Your Business Can Beat the Crisis of Short-Termism "A fascinating, highly readable synthesis of business principles, technology, sociology and common sense, Rules to Break and Laws to Follow persuasively shows the connection between customer trust and business profits, and then explains how to make it happen. As a bonus, you'll learn how to make your company more innovative, how to ensure your employees actually enjoy what they're doing, and how to deal with the kinds of service and quality breakdowns that occasionally plague any company, even a well-managed one. This book should be on your required reading list."
—Stephen M. R. Covey, bestselling author of The Speed of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything
"Over the years, Peppers and Rogers have given me valuable advice about navigating the changing business landscape. This book is a must-read for managers who want to empower their employees and customers to?make change their ally."
—Jim McCann, founder and CEO of 1-800-FLOWERS.COM
"Highly readable and entertaining. Make sure everybody in your firm reads this book by last Friday."
—Dror Pockard, CEO of eglue
"In a time when most companies are built to flip, Peppers and Rogers have planted a stake in the ground to help you survive past the next round of financing or consumer fad. Knowing what rules to break is arguably even more important than what laws to follow, and this book imparts knowledge for both."
—Guy Kawasaki, cofounder of Truemors and author of The Art of the Start
"Peppers and Rogers have created the unthinkable: an enjoyable wake-up call! Their book serves up one compelling and provocative idea after another, and the authors enjoy debunking some of our most deeply ingrained business beliefs. Read this book and your customers will thank you."
—Dan Heath, coauthor of Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die
Table of Contents:
Chapter 1: False Assumptions 1 A "Perfect Storm" of New Technologies 3
Imitation, Circular Mills, and Mythbusting 4
Crisis of Short-Termism: The Mother of All Problems 6
Questions Every Business Needs to Answer 8
Primacy of Customer Trust 12
Chapter 2: "Value" Is the New "Profit" 15
Jabbing at the Elevator Button in the Stock Market 17
Focus Only on the Short Term and You'll Lose Sight of the Long Term 19
Customers Create Long-Term Value, Too 20
The Secret Life of Companies: Short Games 22
Take the Money and Run 26
Business Models Behaving Badly 29
Short-Term Gain, Long-Term Loss 30
Stupid Is as Stupid Does 34
Chapter 3: Customers Are a Scarce Resource 37
Using Up Customers 43
Which Do You Choose: Customers or Money? 45
Money Is Still the Root of All Investment 48
What’s in Your Budget? 50
Rethinking Your Whole Business 53
Chapter 4: In the Long Term, the Good Guys Really Do Win 57
Reciprocity: The Golden Rule Applied to Customers 60
The Man with the Folding Chair 61
Does Your Firm Practice Reciprocity? 65
Customer Trust Is an Antidote to Short-Termism 68
Treat Employees the Way You Want Them to Treat Customers 73
Chapter 5: Increasing the Value of Your Business 79
Embroider on Your CFO's Pillowcase: Customer Equity 80
Ratcheting Up Your Customer Equity 84
What Return Are You Getting on Your Customers? 86
Value Creators, Value Harvesters, and Value Destroyers 89
Getting Credit for Earning Customer Trust 92
Chapter 6: Culture Rules 97
Defining and Managing Culture 98
Do as I Say, Not as I Do 99
Welcome to the "Conceptual Age" 101
Galloping Decentralization Means Culture Is More Important 104
Creating a Culture of Customer Trust 109
Hey! There's a Person in There! 113
Chapter 7: Capitalism Redux: Greed Is Good, but Trust Is Even Better 117
Reputations Go Online 120
Taking the Friction Out of Commerce 122
Playing the Ultimatum Game 124
Technology Facilitates Reciprocity 127
Technology Seen through the Wrong End of the Telescope 129
Chapter 8: Customers and Honeybees 131
Who's on Your Speed-Dial? 132
Diverse Connections 135
Customer-Inspired Innovation 138
Word of Mouth: Business Opportunity? 143
Chapter 9: Oops! Mistakes Happen: Recovering Lost Trust 151
Competence Also Required 154
Recovering Lost Trust 156
Competitive Success Can Harm Trust 159
Trust, Competence, and You 163
Chapter 10: Innovate or Die 167
Responding to Change 167
Technology, Progress, and Change 169
Creating a Climate of Innovation 172
Supporting the Lunatic Fringe 175
Creativity Cannot Be Commanded 177
Chapter 11: Order and Chaos 181
Efficiency Often Undermines Innovation 183
3M Loses Its Innovative Mojo, Then Gets Its Groove Back 186
Having It Both Ways 189
Your Customers Can Help You Strike the Right Balance 192
Does Trust Encourage Innovation? 194
Chapter 12: The Wisdom of Dissent 199
Diversity and Variety 201
Size Does Matter 205
Avoiding Bad Group Decision Making 206
Chapter 13: Engaged and Enabled 211
The Power of the Network 214
Employee Engagement 216
Employees with a Sense of Mission 221
Giving Your Employees the Tools and the Power They Need to Create Value 223
Chapter 14: Leaders Needed. Inquire Within 227
The Twelve Laws to Follow 228
Notes 239
References 257
Index 285
