Three Star Leadership

Here's the Review in Brief for Kiss Theory Goodbye by Bob Prosen. See below for the Review in Depth.

How this book is different:

This is a solid practical handbook that is aimed at helping small to mid-sized businesses execute better and build long term competitive advantage and profitability. It picks up where books like Good to Great and Execution leave off.

Strengths:

Solid, practical advice from a consultant who's actually worked with the businesses he writes for.

Great organization and clear writing. The chapters on the Five Attributes of Highly Profitable Companies have a structure that begins with Strengths and Weaknesses of most companies based on research. This anchors the advice that follows. The chapters all end with analysis questions, key learning points, and suggested action steps.

Warnings:

There are lots of places in this book where the author drops bits of bait to get you to check out his services or other products. On page 81, for example, he outlines a technique, and then tells you it's one of several that he teaches in his workshops.

Sometimes his ideas of what to do are more exhortations than practical advice.

Bottom Line:

If you're involved in business this will be a good, insightful read.

If you're in a small to mid-sized company this should be a must-read.

The Review in Depth

Kiss Theory Goodbye by Bob Prosen is divided into three parts. Part I is titled: The Big Win: Maximum Profitability and Results. It begins with the Introduction which opens with the following

"What are your top three objectives and how do you know you're achieving them? This may seem like a simple question, but I usually get vague generalities when leaders respond to it."

That short excerpt tells you what this book is about and why it's going to be good. Only someone with real hands-on experience improving business results would know the importance of that question. And a book devoted to sharpening answers to questions like that is sure to be valuable.

The publicity material for this book says it's the next step in the chain of Good to Great and Execution. For once, you can believe the hype. Bob Prosen has written a book about how to execute and aimed it squarely at the small to mid-sized companies that need it most.

In the first chapter called Stuck in the Status Quo: Five Crippling Habits that Attack from Within, Prosen lists five things that companies do over and over and then make excuses for. Here's the list.

Absence of clear directives
Lack of accountability
Rationalizing inferior performance
Planning in lieu of action
Aversion to risk and change.

Sound familiar? If you're like many CEOs I know, the list will provide several shocks of recognition.

Having driven his stake about the situation at many companies firmly into the ground, Prosen moves on to Part II to tell you how to do better. This part is called the Five Attributes of Highly Profitable Companies. There's a chapter devoted to each one. I've noted the chapter number in parenthesis

Superior Leadership (2) is about what you need to do to prepare yourself and your people to improve. Prosen zeros in on the gap between the leaders' perceptions of how things are and their employees perceptions, noting that:

"70 percent of business leaders say their company's top objectives have been clearly defined and articulated. Yet only 48 percent of employees say they understand the organization's strategy and goals."

All of the chapters in this part have the same, helpful structure. Prosen begins by outlining "Strengths and Weaknesses" in the subject area, based on research. He follows that with solid and practical advice.

At the end of each chapter in this part there are three short, helpful sections. One gives you questions to determine whether you "Measure Up" on the issues covered in the chapter. A second lists "Very Important Lessons" from the chapter. And a third suggests "Actions to Take Now." These three sections make it easier for you to move from reading to doing.

Sales Effectiveness (3) is filled with advice for building the top line. Operational Excellence (4) gives you tools and suggestions to maintain margins.

The chapter on Financial Management (5) says that financial management is "traffic control" for your business. Prosen notes that this is often an untapped resource. In my experience, he's absolutely right.

Many C-suite executives in smaller companies lack financial sophistication that would help them do a better job. Many operating executives see finance as a kind of arcane trivia that distracts them from the "real" job of managing. That's reason enough that this chapter should be must reading, even if you skip other parts of the book.

The chapter on Customer Loyalty (6) was the weakest of the five core chapters. Prosen calls loyalty, "the gift that keeps on giving." He's right about that and he has lots of good things to say and suggest.

However he does not discuss Net Promoter Score (NPS) in any way. NPS is based on the Ultimate Question, Fred Reichheld's excellent book. Since companies that have used NPS in some form have gotten great value from it and since it is a hot topic in customer service these days, its absence here is one of the few weaknesses in the book.

Part IV is Execute for Results, which starts with the chapter on Bridging the Gap (7). That chapter, in turn, begins with a wonderful quote.

"At the beginning of the day, it's all about possibilities.
At the end of the day, it's all about results.'

Substitute "the end of the book" for "the beginning of the day" and you've got this section in a nutshell. This part of the book is about going from ideas, goals and good intentions to results. These chapters all end with "Actions to Take Now" and they're definitely worth a review.

Chapters on Be Your Competitor's Worst Fear (8) and The Critical Path to Getting Things Done (9) have lots of good advice. Measure what Matters Most (10) gives you ways to assess how you're doing on Prosen's Five Key Attributes. Maintain the Gain (11) shares a look at how companies often get off track.

If you are part of a small to mid-sized company, Kiss Theory Good Bye will help you improve just about every area of your business.

This book review first appeared in the Three Star Leadership Blog.

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