books - business - Pivotal

The Denny Flanagan Story

As flight cancellations and delays wreak havoc on weary travelers, and planes are fuller than ever, the Wall Street Journal has managed to find a bright spot - United Airlines Captain Denny Flanagan.

On a flight headed your way, there is a pilot who is literally a gift from the heavens. For 21 years now, Flanagan, a former navy pilot, has put the friendly in friendly skies.

With his sense of humor and personal touch, he individually welcomes aboard every passenger on his United Airlines plane.

A father of five, Flanagan has also been known to buy food for planeloads of passengers on delayed flights. He snaps photos of dogs in the cargo hold to show owners their pets are safe and calls the parents of children traveling alone.

"I want to treat them like I treat my family and it works. It's like hospitality. You stand at the door and you greet people when they come in and you say goodbye on the porch and wave to them," said Flanagan, who is 56 and lives in Ohio.

His unique brand of hospitality includes sending handwritten notes to frequent flyers and raffling off bottles of wine.

"How 'bout that? A bottle of chilled chardonnay from a pilot," said a delighted Paul Schroeder, a lucky United passenger.

He has developed quite a following in the air and online. One of the many posts on FlyerTalk.com about Flanagan read: "His effort rubbed off on the crew too, they were great."

Attitudes are truly contagious, and Captain Flanagan's is certainly worth catching!

Denny Flanagan is a wonderful example of customer love. This book shares his, and 24 other great customer service stories. Read them, have your team read them, and talk about them together. In fact, you may be inspired to write your own customer love stories while making your service culture all it can be.

Just click here for more information or to look inside the book.

Books

Book Spotlight – Karma Queens, Geek Gods and Innerpreneurs

What really makes consumers tick?

It's a question every marketer, innovator, entrepreneur, or trend-watcher strives to answer-especially in an age when certain types of consumers are increasingly instrumental in shaping national and even global buying habits.

Karma Queens, Geek Gods and Innerpreneurs is your hands-on guide to getting inside the minds of the people who are setting the trends in art, music, technology, fashion, health, and every kind of consumer product and service. Based on thousands of hours of consumer research conducted by Consumer Eyes, a prominent New York-based marketing firm, this book uncovers nine influential consumer types and reveals how to connect with them, market to them, and create the products that will not only win them over, but their entire social networks as well!

Consumer Eyes founder Ron Rentel takes an entertaining yet serious look at today's most emblematic consumers, analyzing everything from the products they buy, to the activities they enjoy, to the behaviors and attitudes they exhibit. You'll meet such real-life characters as:

Karma Queens-women of a certain age who combine a desire to be in harmony with the universe with an appreciation of material pleasures
Parentocrats-who act out of love to assure their kids security and happiness, yet often deny them the classical joys of childhood
Denim Dads-for whom family involvement means more than climbing the corporate ladder
Innerpreneurs-chief managers of their own “brand,” they find their inspiration within themselves

By using C-Types-rich, three-dimensional consumer portraits combining quantifiable data with expressions of personality-Rentel identifies and illuminates the consumers who set the trends. He not only helps you understand Karma Queens, Geek Gods and other consumer types on a deeper level in order to reach them more effectively in your marketing and advertising, he also offers fresh insight into managing your brand and your business.

From the Back Cover
Get to know the consumers who count.

"This isn't a book about marketing. It isn't a book about business, as such. It's much more. It's a book about people-the real, fascinating, complex, multifaceted people called consumers. Funny and insightful, Karma Queens, Geek Gods and Innerpreneurs takes a fresh look at how specific, colorful and influential consumer types are shaping tomorrow's marketplace now.”-David Granger, Editor-in-Chief, Esquire

“Consumer Types are an entirely new way to classify consumers, brought to life with fascinating real world stories, backed up with supporting data, and going far beyond demographics.”-Bennett L. Brenton, Ph.D., Director of Innovation, PepsiCo

“An insightful, impactful book that speaks to a sensibility, passion, and drive for understanding the 'consumer heartbeat.'”-Todd Cunningham, Senior Vice President Brand Strategy and Planning, MTV Music Television

“Don't let all the talk about marketing fool you-identifying C-types helps you communicate better on an everyday basis with absolutely anyone. The possibilities (read: profits) are endless.”-Stephanie Young, Health Director, MORE Magazine

“Ron Rentel has synthesized findings from a powerful, highly sensitive new market research approach into a brilliant chronicle of nine new subcultures that will inform and excite any reader. It is an anthropological thrill ride through the 21st Century's first decade. Highly engaging and readable, it is a MUST for anyone who recognizes the bankruptcy of mass marketing and who understands that our modern “world” is in fact a confederation of niches.”-Gary Hirshberg, President and CE-Yo, Stonyfield Farm

“An interesting exploration of new slices of our fragmented psyche. Filled with useful insights and amusing anecdotes.”-Edwin Schlossberg, Founder, ESI Design

“Ron Rentel captures the essence of consumer habits in this engaging insider's view of interesting personality types...a must-read for consumers and marketers everywhere.”-Madelyn H. Fernstrom, Ph.D., CNS, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
About the Author

Ron Rentel is the founder of Consumer Eyes, a leading brand and innovation consultancy, which creates customized methodologies that can encompass both long-term strategy and pipeline work and/or highly specific near-in product execution and tactics. He is also cofounder of BuzzBack Market Research, an online market research company. Visit Ron Rentel at consumereyes.com.

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Books

Influencer: The Power to Change Anything

Influencer
by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, David Maxfield, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler

The power to influence others is probably the most important skill in management and leadership. Unfortunately, its development is nowhere near as advanced as it should be. In this interesting, easy-to-read guide to building one's ability to influence others and to thereby create constructive change, the authors provide an essential toolbox for all of us. Building upon the work of Albert Bandura, Stanley Milgram, and other psychologists who specialized in social learning theory, the authors of Influencer: The Power to Change Anything went hunting for people, all over the world, who were able to accomplish major tasks by influencing people to change their behavior. The authors then analyzed what these expert influencers did, so as to give the reader ideas on how to exert influence in more effective ways. The authors also included several examples of major efforts to bring about change that failed dramatically, and gave their view of what was missing in those change campaigns.

Learn how some of the world’s most powerful influence masters have risen to the top by employing a relatively simple set of practices and attitudes. Eric Conger takes us easily from Bangladesh to San Francisco and South Africa, deftly placing us in the presence of some of the finest change agents of our time. His charming and authoritative voicing amplifies the intrinsic power of this work.

So, what did the authors find? Most persistent problems that seem immune to change efforts, have one, or both, of two factors in common: the people involved do not feel capable of making the change; the people involved do not feel that the proposed change would be an improvement. In other words, the factors are ability and motivation. The authors also looked at three different levels, for each problem: the individual, the social group, the environment of the situation. Thus, if you want to influence people to make a change, there are six basic loci for change input: individual ability (i.e., skill training), individual motivation (e.g., incentives), group ability (e.g., increase networking), group motivation (e.g., modeling and healthy competition), environmental assets (e.g., make the necessary components more readily available), and environmental feedback (e.g., improve the consequence system for success and for failure).

In order to explain how these six different modes of, or targets for influence, can be affected, the authors use a handful of examples to illustrate what they mean. They keep returning to these examples, and the reader gets to know them well. The two best ones are probably the Delancey Center in California, where oft-convicted drug-abusing felons are helped to step out of that way of living and, with a high success rate (according to this book) become employed, law-abiding, drug-free citizens; and the Carter Center's efforts to eradicate a horrible parasitic infection that was once widespread in Africa and Asia, called the guinea worm. By repeatedly returning to these examples, the reader not only understood the complexity of the approach needed, but also how it was done, without tremendous cost, using all six of the influence factors.

The book is written in a friendly, almost familiar, conversational tone. While that might not fit every non-fiction book, it worked well here, as another example of how to present information in a listener-friendly manner. It was also quite clear that the authors believe in what they say, passionately.

“Far and away one of the best business books of the year.”

Every Monday Matters

Setting the Table – the Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business

Setting the table

From the reviews

Is the customer always right?

According to Danny Meyer, one of America's leading restaurateurs, the answer is no--but "they must always feel heard."

In this landmark book, Danny shares the lessons he's learned while developing the winning recipe for doing the business he calls "enlightened hospitality."

This innovative philosophy emphasizes putting the power of hospitality to work in a new and counterintuitive way: The first and most important application of hospitality is to the people who work for you, and then, in descending order of priority, to the guests, the community, the suppliers, and the investors.

This way of prioritizing stands the more traditional business models on their heads, but Danny considers it the foundation of every success that he and his restaurants have achieved.

He hired "genuine, happy, optimistic" people.

They shared their good feelings with customers.

And customers felt liked and valued.

They became regulars --- and if the secret of a successful long-term enterprise

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