by Kenneth C. Bator ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2015
Well-intentioned and stylistically sound; still, the book focuses on the importance of brand rather than comprehensive...
Bator’s admirable attempt to distill business success into three primary components.
The “formula for business success” posited by Bator (The Pocket Guide to Strategic Planning, 2011) consists of three elements: Brand, Culture, and Strategy. The book starts and ends by strongly reinforcing the notion that these three elements must be “aligned.” Employing the oft-used example of Starbucks, Bator suggests that the organization has achieved outstanding success because of its exceptional ability to align brand, culture, and strategy. Writes Bator, “the leadership of Starbucks continues to enhance that strategy and fanatically reinforce the standards that give customers the same Starbucks experience, regardless of which store they patronize.” Other examples of organizations that dutifully align brand, culture, and strategy are cited throughout. The central visual metaphor of the book, an iceberg, shows “Brand Conveyors” and “Brand Drivers” above the surface of the water and “Organization Drivers” hidden underneath. The Organization Drivers—the history of the organization, its mission and vision statements, its core values and service standards—form the foundation upon which brand and culture are built, according to Bator. In addition, Bator believes “a ‘focus on employees first’ philosophy” is a primary differentiator for the successful business. The book does a particularly fine job explaining the multiple aspects of a brand, properly emphasizing this key point: “it’s critical to provide a branded experience for customers and one that exceeds, or at least meets, the expectations they have developed from the brand image.” The author makes numerous cogent observations about brand experiences and brand perceptions; at times, though, it seems the discussion is so heavily centered on brand that culture and strategy are given short shrift. The book would have been enhanced by a more thorough discussion of culture and strategy (though there are some good thoughts about strategic planning embedded in the “Brand Drivers” section). An appendix of readings or resources might also have been useful.
Well-intentioned and stylistically sound; still, the book focuses on the importance of brand rather than comprehensive business strategy.Pub Date: May 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-9963212-0-4
Page Count: 178
Publisher: Bator Training & Consulting
Review Posted Online: Sept. 8, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Charlayne Hunter-Gault ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1992
From the national correspondent for PBS's MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour: a moving memoir of her youth in the Deep South and her role in desegregating the Univ. of Georgia. The eldest daughter of an army chaplain, Hunter-Gault was born in what she calls the ``first of many places that I would call `my place' ''—the small village of Due West, tucked away in a remote little corner of South Carolina. While her father served in Korea, Hunter-Gault and her mother moved first to Covington, Georgia, and then to Atlanta. In ``L.A.'' (lovely Atlanta), surrounded by her loving family and a close-knit black community, the author enjoyed a happy childhood participating in activities at church and at school, where her intellectual and leadership abilities soon were noticed by both faculty and peers. In high school, Hunter-Gault found herself studying the ``comic-strip character Brenda Starr as I might have studied a journalism textbook, had there been one.'' Determined to be a journalist, she applied to several colleges—all outside of Georgia, for ``to discourage the possibility that a black student would even think of applying to one of those white schools, the state provided money for black students'' to study out of state. Accepted at Michigan's Wayne State, the author was encouraged by local civil-rights leaders to apply, along with another classmate, to the Univ. of Georgia as well. Her application became a test of changing racial attitudes, as well as of the growing strength of the civil-rights movement in the South, and Gault became a national figure as she braved an onslaught of hostilities and harassment to become the first black woman to attend the university. A remarkably generous, fair-minded account of overcoming some of the biggest, and most intractable, obstacles ever deployed by southern racists. (Photographs—not seen.)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-374-17563-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1992
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by William Strunk & E.B. White ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 15, 1972
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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