Bond-value

Perfect, this book is a perfect tool for all the managers in a mid positions, it helps to understand emotion and their value in a business. Should be read not only by the customer service people, but also by the all rests

Since Howard Gardner first popularized the idea of multiple intelligences, thinkers and authors have been noticing that there is a vast difference in the "emotional intelligence" that people have for noticing others and responding appropriately to them. Daniel Goleman wrote a wonderful book developing that theme. He argues that emotional intelligence can be learned. In Emotional Value, Janelle Barlow and Dianna Maul take that one step further and identify what needs to be learned and how it should be learned.

Their point is simple and profound. "Both staff and customers tend to stay with organizations that enable them to experience positive, meaningful, and personally important feelings, even if the organizations cannot always provide everything they want or solve all their problems." Few will disagree. The conclusion builds on the work of Jeffrey Pfeffer in The Human Equation.

There are many important consequences to that observation. First, it costs a lot of money to get customers. It's much more profitable to keep the ones you have than to get new ones (see The Loyalty Effect). Second, if you can deal with the same customers and employees, the results usually are better. Third, with lower staff turnover, costs of hiring and training are lower . . . and operating costs are lower, too. Fourth, bonding can be created among customers and employees that will allow them to derive more value from being involved with the company. Fifth, these improvements are critical in many industries. Most people shift from one supplier to another because dissatisfaction with service, not price or produce offerings. (See The Customer-Driven Company). Sixth, in this stock-market-driven economy, the economic advantages will translate into a higher stock price which can be used to add more and lower-cost resources for the company.

Basically, improving emotional value can be the start of creating a virtuous cycle of self-reinforcing improvement for an enterprise.

I would be remiss if I did not point out that those who emphasize the importance of values and corporate culture are dealing with some facets of emotional value. What is brilliant about this work is that it transcends this earlier excellent work to take it to a higher plane. You can have great values and a wonderful corporate culture, and still have an emotionally damaging work environment for many of your people and customers.

The authors identify five key elements for making this virtuous cycle a reality:

(1) Build an Emotion-Friendly Service Culture

(2) Choose to Develop Emotional Competence

(3) Maximize Customer Experience (see The Experience Economy -- "positive, emotional, and memorable impact") and Empathy

(4) View Complaints as Emotional Opportunities

(5) Use Emotional Communications to Increase Customer Loyalty

As you can tell from my references to many other works, this book builds on excellent studies done by others. Yet, the synthesis here is new and improved. Essentially the book is "a call for civility, empathy, and authenticity in dealing with customers." That goes well beyond the familiar concept of "The customer is always right." That concept usually is applied to mean that the employee who works with the customer must be downtrodden and suffer. Burnout is a major problem among frontline service employees, as a result.

Ms. Barlow and Ms. Maul see beyond that current stalemate. They realize that the interaction between company and customer can be uplifting for both. Mother Teresa drew great pleasure from helping poor people die with dignity. Doing our work with civility, empathy, and authenticity can add a similar sense of worth to our labors, as well as providing a wonderful, emotionally-rewarding experience for customers.

I especially liked the call to action: "It is the service providers' responsibility to manage the emotions in service exhanges." How many CEOs, executives, and managers are thinking about that? Wow! Before you leave that point, consider that 80 percent of all U.S. jobs are expected to soon be service jobs.

The appendices and notes are unusually good in this book. Be sure to take time to review them.

The primary weakness of the book is that the sections that allow you to assess where your company or organization is today could be more detailed and specific.

When you have finished the book, take some time to imagine the ideal emotional exchanges that could be occurring in your business and organization every day. Then start to design them and teach others how to make them easy, authentic, memorable, and enjoyable to provide. Have a ball!

Janelle Barlow and Dianna Maul go a step beyond most consultants (those who write business books to drum up customers). Instead, they offer a wealth of scholarly research and sources in their in-depth, colorfully written book, which successfully tackles the enormous role that emotions play in business and customer behavior. They explain and document it, and provide practical applications. We at getAbstract recommend this important book to all business people, whether they offer a product or a service, from CEOs through every level of staff.

This is a superb introduction to lucrative opportunities in securities which you are not likely to read about in the popular press. The common denominator amongst all the opportunities is VALUE --getting a dollar's worth of goods for 50 cents or so. Although the book was published originally in 1991, most of the priniciples Seth Klarman expounds are timeless. In fact, his discussion of thrift conversions (p. 182-189) is about the only portion of the book which is more or less outdated.

The book's only flaw is that the third section of the book, "The Value Investment Process", which discusses the search for value opportunities in spin-offs, arbitrage, rights offerings and bankruptcies, is not as detailed as value-investing neophytes are likely to want. Still, it's a great start to anyone looking for alternatives to momentum-buying in securities.

Few people outside the value investment arena know who the author is, but take my word for it: he's an investment superstar. Seth runs a private investment firm in Cambridge, MA called the Baupost Group, and isn't soliciting your money! Klarman is on par with Buffett, Ruane & Cuniff, et. al. His book is a MUST read for it's intelligent, frank discussion of intrinsic value investing. Don't look for this book if you're long E-Bay right now. You can probably find the book in a large library, I would look for it if you already found your way to this review!

As a bond trader, I find this book highly academic in its content rather than be a sort of trader's manual. It sounds more like the stuff to be r4ead by bank managers and portfolio managers but not too interesting for the average options speculator.

It therefore provides an education into how the market works. The difference can be seen by comparing a manual that tells you how to drive a car and another one that describes all the parts and tell you how what works.

Therefore purchasers of this book should know what they want. For an academic treatment, it is probably the best book. From a trading standpoint of practical use it may be useful but less than some might expect.