December 2006

 

December 23, 2006

How do you smell success? STARBUCKS

I am a sucker for almost any nonfiction book that lands in the NEW BOOK section of the public Library. In this simple and engaging read by Joseph A. Michelli, Ph.D., The Starbucks Experience you can almost smell the coffee brewing as you turn each page. What is most pleasing about this succinct description of this company’s five principles for turning the ordinary into the extraordinary is that these are applicable for your business, the nonprofit sector and your personal life as well. Michelli capably explores various levels on which Starbucks succeeds. An almost fairytale-like story that had its modest beginnings in the early ‘90s whose stock has risen more that 5,000 per cent. So what is the Starbucks secret to global coffee marketing?

• EVERYTHING, yes, EVERYTHING MATTERS
• (if you’re gonna do it anyway, you may as well) MAKE IT YOUR OWN
• Don’t just do it, SURPRISE AND DELIGHT
• You think you’ll meet with resistance, and you will: EMBRACE RESISTANCE
• LEAVE YOUR MARK

Michelli points out how Starbucks has exceeded its wildest dreams and has been able to
• Reach out to entire communities
• Listen to individual workers and consumers
• Seize growth opportunities in every market
• Custom-design a truly satisfying experience that benefits everyone involved

To paraphrase Anne Frank, It’s wonderful that no one needs to wait a single moment before starting to improve the world…

This book is filled throughout with real-life, touching stories, testimonials, antidotes, as well as how to strategies that will motivate you immediately. Even if you’re not a coffee drinker, trust me, there is something inside for everyone.

 December 03, 2006

In the beginning...

There was man and woman. Growing up with Mark Twain’s

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

in school is expected, but the best of Twain is found in unexpected places… especially in a most recent read, “The Diaries of Adam and Eve”. What a pleasant, delightful surprise this little book is! Follow our # 1 man and woman of creation as the world as they know it unfolds. He preferring to travel Niagra Falls in a barrel and she would rather name everything under the sun... and in spite of their differences, it would be said that "wherever she was, there was Eden." You will laugh aloud; you will smile and you will reflect on the nature of man and woman. AMEN.