Recommended Reading

Good books are worth sharing.

Here's a selection of authoritative business books we are happy to recommend to our clients, associates and business friends. We found them valuable, even fascinating, reading about the realities facing marketing, sales and management professionals today.

You're invited to share your recommended reading list. If you've read a business book you think would interest other professionals in business services, sales or marketing, please send us a note at hotbook@futuresightconsulting.com.

To learn more about each book, please click on the link to its page at Amazon.com:

Business Value and ROI

Making Technology Investments Profitable: ROI Roadmap to Better Business Cases helps executives and managers increase IT project success by using a process for identifying the true ROI value for proposed IT investments-"Real ROI"-then tracking project results against that standard.

Business and Marketing Strategy

Most strategy implementation efforts do not work out; they fade along the way or simply fail to deliver expected results. Just like an individual who plans to go on a diet or intends to exercise, it is not the plan that makes the difference, it is implementing your plan that delivers effective results. Organizations have the same problem, and need a powerful solution. This book shows you how to make your strategy come alive.

Kotler on Marketing offers a clearly written, concise framework for achieving best practices in marketing. Loaded with real world examples and the author's professional experiences, this book is a true gem for anyone in business and/or marketing. The format Kotler has chosen is excellent...strategy definition, tactics, implementation and measurement.

Harvard Business Review on Managing High-Tech Industries succeeds at bringing together the best articles on high-tech management from recent years of the Harvard Business Review. Though clearly targeted at senior managers, readers at all levels of the corporate hierarchy will gain valuable strategic insights into high-tech industries.

Value Migration looks at new, aggressive companies such as Microsoft, Nucor, and Starbucks, and their superior business design methods. He charts the path of Value Migration from obsolete to new business designs, identifying seven patterns of Value Migration.

Competitive Strategy has transformed the theory, practice, and teaching of business strategy throughout the world. Electrifying in its simplicity -- like all great breakthroughs -- Porter's analysis of industries captures the complexity of industry competition in five underlying forces. Porter introduces one of the most powerful competitive tools yet developed: his three generic strategies -- lowest cost, differentiation, and focus -- which bring structure to the task of strategic positioning.

The Balanced Scorecard shows managers how to mobilize their people to fulfill the company's mission. More than just a measurement system, this revolutionary tool tells readers how to channel the energies, abilities, and specific knowledge they possess into the achievement of long-term goals.

Built to Last is an analysis of what makes great companies great. It has been hailed everywhere as an instant classic and one of the best business titles since In Search of Excellence. The authors, James C. Collins and Jerry I. Porras, spent six years in research, and they freely admit that their own preconceptions about business success were devastated by their actual findings-- along with the preconceptions of virtually everyone else.

Product Marketing

High Tech Product Launch is a high-level guide to what needs to be done during the product launch phase of the new product cycle. The three parts of the book cover the tasks that need to be done during the launch: product and market assessment, marketing strategy development, and launch implementation.

Inside the Tornado, the long-awaited sequel to Crossing the Chasm by Silicon Valley marketing strategist Geoffrey Moore, follows its predecessor as required reading material for today's leading business schools and industry luminaries. The book focuses on the market dynamics of hypergrowth, with a behind-the-headlines look at how companies such as Microsoft and Netscape capture dominant market shares and leap into prominence.

Crossing the Chasm makes the case that high-tech products require marketing strategies that differ from those in other industries. Moore's chasm theory describes how high-tech products initially sell well, mainly to a technically literate customer base, but then hit a lull as marketing professionals try to cross the chasm to mainstream buyers. This pattern, says Moore, is unique to the high-tech industry.

Marketing High Technology draws on Davidow's successful marketing experience at Intel Corporation to create a complete program for marketing victory. He drives home the basics, such as how to go head-on against the competition; how to "plan products, not devices"; how to give products a "soul"; and how to engineer promotions, market internationally, motivate salespeople, and rally distributors.

The Innovator's Dilemma asks why some well-managed companies that stay on top of new technology and practice quality customer service can still falter. Christensen's own research brought a surprising answer to that question.

Channel Marketing

The Channel Advantage is a great book for the company looking to expand its market penetration through leveraging indirect marketing channels. The content is written in a format which is very organized and properly summerized at the end of each chapter. The authors do a wonderful job of presenting the content in a easy to understand format. The book includes several charts and graphs that are useful in designing your own channel program.

Marketing Communications

Permission Marketing argues that businesses can no longer rely solely on traditional forms of "interruption advertising" in magazines, mailings, or radio and television commercials. Consumers are bombarded by marketing messages almost everywhere they go. If you want to grab someone's attention, you first need to get his or her permission.

Building Strong Brands presents a thorough, but easy to read exploration of the many branding complexities. Giving the reader a framework of inter-related concepts, Aaker gels the essence of each point with useful examples. You immediately understand the idea and move comfortably on to the next - quite an accomplishment for such a complex subject.

The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding is a no-holds-barred look at a diverse collection of successful--and not-so-successful--branding efforts undertaken by these and other high-profile firms, their book distills the most critical principles involved into a series of clear rules with straightforward titles such as The Law of Expansion, The Law of Contraction, The Law of Consistency, and The Law of Mortality.

Strategic Sales

Many sales organizations are systematically mismanaging their selling opportunities and failing to optimize their markets. Through effective selling models, illustrative case studies and examples, and real-world anecdotes, Selling Is Dead brings strategy and efficiency to sales-and shows every sales-based business how to reap the rewards.

The New Strategic Selling offers a sure-fire method for making the sale every time by eliminating "fickle luck" from the sales process and replacing it with proven, visible, repeatable skills.

Spin Selling is simply a great handbook on large-sale tactics. Rackham shows how the "closing techniques" used in smaller sales severely damage the success of large sales. He then introduces the SPIN model (Situation, Problem, Implication, and Need-payoff).

Solution Selling teaches how to sell everything from shoes to software. IBM recommends this book as the definitive guide to their sales strategy. Bosworth provides numerous examples, case studies, and most importantly he explains and analyzes each of them.

Selling To VITO (The Very Important Top Officer) points out some critical elements in writing letters and making phone calls to VITO. The author also mentions many useful hints when you are doing business with VITO.

The High-Tech Survival Guide is a terrific little book to get right down to the practical details of landing a job. It leads you through the key components of making contact with folks who can actually hire you and then selling yourself.

Service Leadership

UP Your Service! is fast-paced, upbeat and action-oriented for easy translation from concepts to useful application. It is sprinkled with relevant examples of service and application examples.

Emotional Value addresses why businesses must construct cultures that promote positive emotional states for both customers and employees. Unhappy employees out of touch with their own feelings, they warn, cannot provide "emotional value" for customers. The bulk of the book lays out practices for bringing EV to one's customers, including teaching employees emotional competence, maximizing customer experiences with empathy, and using emotional connections to increase customer loyalty.

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