Managing Customers as Investments: The Strategic Value of Customers in the Long Run

Managing Customers as Investments: The Strategic Value of Customers in the Long Run
Average customer rating:

Good Quality, Poor Quantity

Very interesting customer life time model but a bit weak in customer strategy level

The Customer Lifetime Value approach to business strategy

Highly recommended to all marketing executives

Important metrics for effective customer management

Managing Customers as Investments: The Strategic Value of Customers in the Long Run
Sunil Gupta , and Donald Lehmann
Manufacturer: Wharton School Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0131428950

Download Description

"It's more important than ever for companies to objectively assess the value of their customers. But conventional measures of ""customer lifetime value"" haven't been linked to overall business value and haven't been useful to senior managers. Managing Customers as Investments overcomes both shortcomings.

Through practical examples and case studies, you'll learn a rigorous yet simple approach to estimating the lifetime value of your customers¿and how you can use that information to make better tactical and strategic decisions. You'll learn how customer value calculations impact customer acquisition, service, retention, and segmentation¿as well as strategic M&A and alliance decisions.

Whether you're a CxO, line-of-business manager, marketer, analyst, or investor, Managing Customers as Investments will help you focus your resources where they'll deliver maximum value.

Key takeaways include

Customers are assets
How to calculate the value of customers in a simple way
How the value of customers provides the basis for marketing strategy and planning
The importance of balancing the value of the customer to the firm with the value the firm provides to the customer
How to use the value of the customer as a basis for firm valuation and M&A decisions
The implications for organization and incentive structure and the limitations of product and brand management
How to link customer value to business value
Practical techniques for CxOs, line-of-business managers, marketers, financial analysts, and investors
How to make better decisions about marketing, partnerships, and organizational structure
Easy-to-use metrics and real-world case studies

What your customers are really worth: crucial knowledge for better strategic and tactical decision-making

How can you find out, without endlessly complex modeling? And after you know, what should you do with that knowledge?

Managing Customers as Investments has the answers¿and they may surprise you.

You'll learn surprisingly simple ways to get reliable customer value information...and get it in a form you can use.

You'll learn how to use it to measure your marketing effectiveness more accurately than ever before¿and drive improvements throughout your entire customer relationship lifecycle.

You'll learn how customer value can bring new clarity to decisions about M&A and firm valuation.

Everyone tells you to manage your business around customers. This book gives you the tools to do it.

Customer Reviews:

Good Quality, Poor Quantity.......2007-09-19

The substance of the information presented was genuinely useful knowledge. The first 2 or 3 chapters really give a good analysis of the value of a customer. The extensive examples that follow are merely verbose repetitions of the previously presented (and actually well supported) concepts. Sadly there is not a Harvard Business Review for this book, but there should be, to cut down on absorbtion time. Not a waste of money, but perhaps time.

Very interesting customer life time model but a bit weak in customer strategy level.......2007-03-16

Book is centered around understanding customer life time value and what is the required mind set and strategy to drive customer life time value as a business driver.

Life time value model is very very interesting because of its simplicity yet usability - I plan to use it. However where the book is no delivering is its strategy angle. Customer strategy is too much simplified as how do you drive customer acquisition and retention with different programs highlighting the loyalty programs (and also setting some question marks on it). What the book does not address is the core mindset of customer driven business strategies: How companies should understand the business they are in from outside in view i.e. from customer side: what is the category we are in, what is the mindshare we have among our customers, how are we integrating our business and the offerings to our customers' businesses and lifes, what alternative business models we have to drive life time value.

But because the life time value is useful and the book as total is rather enjoyable to read I recommend this book

The Customer Lifetime Value approach to business strategy.......2006-12-18

"Managing Customers..." does a wonderful job of providing a holistic approach to customer lifetime value (CLV).

Founded on the principle of viewing customers as assets, the book provides a super-efficient, highly-impactful read on transforming the CLV principle into actionable tactics in key aspects of business - fusing marketing, finance, and organizational structure into a well-aligned strategy for enabling a business to maximize the value it creates & derives from customers. Truly a must read for students of business.

On a side note - just wanted to express how impressed I have been with all of The Wharton School books that I have read to date - they are truly some of the finest business books available.

Highly recommended to all marketing executives.......2006-07-12

How much are your customers worth? If financiers and investors had bothered to ask themselves this basic question, they might have prevented the Internet bubble and other expensive corporate mistakes. Such disasters can occur when people invest in businesses with no earnings and fanciful business models. Authors and professors Sunil Gupta and Donald Lehmann make a powerful case that executives should abandon outdated business-evaluation models based on traditional financial metrics, such as cash flows. Instead, they should rely on the present and future value of their businesses' customers: the "customer's lifetime value," or CLV. The authors discuss these issues in understandable language and buttress their arguments with formulas that will enable marketers to implement their ideas. They also provide helpful examples that are like mini business-school case studies. We highly recommend this book to all marketing executives, as well as to executives who are financially responsible for mergers and acquisitions, or advertising. This book could change the way you do business and increase your earnings from your best customers.

Important metrics for effective customer management.......2005-12-12

Are you spending more on your customers than they are worth? That is the question these authors attempt to answer in this book. Whether it is acquisition cost or retention cost many businesses may be spending too much on their customers. As with all investments there is a time to increase investment, a time to hold them, and a time to let them go. This is a detailed analysis of how to develop metrics for your company that help determine customer value. With increasing customers there are increasing costs. Once you have developed your metrics they show how to use that information to determine things like customer lifetime value. Once you know their lifetime value you can make effective marketing and management decisions related to your customers. You have to manage your customers in order to manage your business. Now you can determine how to best manage your customers. A practical approach to managing customers that is both effective and easy to apply while providing real results. Managing Customers as Investments is a recommended read for all marketing and customer-centric managers as well as all corporate executives.

Stocks for the Long Run : The Definitive Guide to Financial Market Returns and Long-Term Investment Strategies

Average customer rating:

an investing classic
Jeremy Siegel hit a home run with this book
Fantastic Analysis
Buying this book is your first great investment!
Lots of useful information

Stocks for the Long Run : The Definitive Guide to Financial Market Returns and Long-Term Investment Strategies
Jeremy J. Siegel
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill
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Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 007137048X

Amazon.com

If anyone told you that investing in the stock market was the safest investment you could make, you might raise an eyebrow. However, if Jeremy Siegel tells you this, prepare to be convinced. Siegel's book, Stocks for the Long Run, is a comprehensive and highly readable history of the stock market that dramatically makes the case for long-term investing in stocks.

In summing up his approach to investing, Siegel writes, "Poor investment strategy, whether it is for lack of diversification, pursuing hot stocks, or attempting to time the market, often stems from the investor's belief that it is necessary to beat the market to do well in the market. Nothing is further from the truth. The principle of this book is that through time the after-inflation returns on a well-diversified portfolio of common stocks have not only exceeded that of fixed income assets but have actually done so with less risk. Which stocks you own is secondary to whether you own stocks, especially if you maintain a balanced portfolio."

Stocks for the Long Run considers subjects as diverse as the history of the various market indices and what makes for a business cycle to contrarian indicators and the utility of 200-day moving averages. If you've just come into investing in the last few years and feel the need for a solid and comprehensive text about the market, Stocks for the Long Run is probably the best primer available. It also works as an excellent reference for seasoned investors and anyone else interested in how the market works. --Harry C. Edwards

Book Description

"One of the ten best investing books of all time."--The Washington Post

One of investing's most celebrated icons updates his classic work to reflect today's world and markets

In this long-awaited and eagerly anticipated update, Jeremy iegel provides his legendary perspective and guidance to an investment world turned upside down. Stocks for the Long Run combines a compelling and timely portrait of today's turbulent stock market with the strategies, tools, and techniques investors need to maintain their focus and achieve meaningful stock returns over time.

This completely updated edition includes entirely new data, charts, and figures as it provides answers on the five major issues concerning investors and professionals today:

How will events related to September 11 tragedy affect long-term market returns?
What behavioral roadblocks stand in the way of achieving financial success?
Are "countries" still relevant for global investing?
Will stock "indexing" match its past performance?
Can tomorrow's stock market deliver the same returns as markets in the past?

Praise for previous editions of Stocks for the Long Run:

"Should command a central place on the desk of any 'amateur' investor or beginning professional."--Barron's

"A simply great book."--Forbes

Download Description
Jeremy Siegel's bestselling book has proven that stocks are the best investment over the long term. Now, this classic guide has been revised to include today's most successful investment strategies.
Customer Reviews:

an investing classic.......2007-02-16
I agree with the other reviewers that this book is an outstanding essay for those who want to learn how to select stocks for a value portfolio. Where we differ is that for the typical investor he does not have the resources to build a properly diversified portfolio- either financial or mental resources. Value stocks do provide returns in excess of broad market returns but in order to have adequate diversification you must assemble several hundred issues well beyond the resources of the average investor. Further one must have the time and skill to evaluate several thousand issues.

I can offer a solution to this problem. I want to recommend for you a book titled How to Make Money in the Stock Market-Buy 2,500 different stocks for $1000 - Pay no Commission This book is a must for those wanting to find out about indexing (passive investing) and why it is the superior method for the small investor (and big one too). This book is an outstanding guide to personal investing. It will be useful to all investors from novices to highly the highly experienced. This book prepares the reader to approach investing from the standpoint of the underlying science. It is the antithesis of a 'get rich quick scheme'.

All aspects of Modern Portfolio Theory and passive (index) investing are explained in a through and easily understood manner. The aspect I like most is that as well as a solid theoretical foundation the book is very practical and shows the reader how to create (and more importantly) and manage over time a successful portfolio. This is a great book- for the beginning investor, it's a great place to start and for the experienced investor there are many valuable suggestions.

It's a shame to think of how much money investors have lost "investing" in the stock market over the years. I wish I had read this little book years ago. The chapter on automatic investing recommends a number of portfolios that follow modern portfolio theory and adjust risk as you age without any effort on the part of the reader at all. Had this book been written years ago and had I followed its directions I would be rich today of that I am certain. Nevertheless I will pursue one of the portfolios recommended and stick to my chosen asset plan.
How to Make Money in the Stock Market-Buy 2,500 Different Stocks-Pay no Commission
Jeremy Siegel hit a home run with this book.......2006-10-15
This book clearly illustrates the need to be disciplined as an investor. Unfortunately, as many Americans do not exercise this discipline they will never achieve the potential returns that can be had in the market. This book should be mandatory for all students to read and study probably at the high school level.
Fantastic Analysis.......2006-09-29
Stocks for the Long Run: The Definitive Guide to Financial Market Returns and Long-Term Investment Strategies Jeremy J. Siegel

Stocks for the Long Run makes the most convincing case for long-term stock market investing. Part history book and part finance book, it is brilliant. I want to give this book to my clients who want to put all or most of their money in CDs, bonds and other debt instruments. Siegel uses historical records to prove that well allocated, diversified stock investments truly are the best way to steadily accumulate wealth over time. His historical narrative also turns what could be just another hard-to-read investment book into a compelling story -- there really is a great deal of drama in the retelling.

If you read this book you will be armed with information to make educated choices about how to invest your hard earned money. Weathering the stock markets ups and downs can be a profound challenge to the uninformed investor. This book provides a perspective that allays some fears and offers cautions as well. Stocks for the Long Run will help you make good investment decisions, and give you confidence in the decisions you make.

James Lange, CPA/Attorney and author of Retire Secure! Pay Taxes Later: The Key to Making Your Money Last as Long as You Do
Buying this book is your first great investment!.......2006-07-18
When you are done with this book, DO NOT LOAN IT TO ANYBODY. I lost my first copy when an intern did not return it. I lost the next copy when a friend gave it to his mom.

Reading this book will give you a better understanding of the financial markets than 99% of the people around you. If you do not understand any part of the book, skip it and go back later. For a first book, there is none better.

If you are already knowledgeable, it is still a great read.
-Enjoy
Lots of useful information.......2006-06-20
This is a helpful book for novice investors and those more experienced. The main point he makes is that in the long run, stocks are the safest investment, the best hedge against inflation, better than bonds or money market accounts. This book is very valuable for Siegel's detailed historical research into the long term returns of stocks, and the causes of the big crashes and bull markets. Siegel explains well why interest rates are such an important indicator of market trends. This book is mainly useful for devising an overall strategy to market investing rather than help picking specific stocks. Siegel suggests that a buy and hold strategy is best. Highly recommended.

Average customer rating:
Repeated Games and Reputations: Long-Run Relationships
George J. Mailath , and Larry Samuelson
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Personalized and continuing relationships play a central role in any society. Economists have built upon the theories of repeated games and reputations to make important advances in understanding such relationships. Repeated Games and Reputations begins with a careful development of the fundamental concepts in these theories, including the notions of a repeated game, strategy, and equilibrium. Mailath and Samuelson then present the classic folk theorem and reputation results for games of perfect and imperfect public monitoring, with the benefit of the modern analytical tools of decomposability and self-generation. They also present more recent developments, including results beyond folk theorems and recent work in games of private monitoring and alternative approaches to reputations. Repeated Games and Reputations synthesizes and unifies the vast body of work in this area, bringing the reader to the research frontier. Detailed arguments and proofs are given throughout, interwoven with examples, discussions of how the theory is to be used in the study of relationships, and economic applications. The book will be useful to those doing basic research in the theory of repeated games and reputations as well as those using these tools in more applied research.

Average customer rating:

Not rigorous or entertaining

The Equity Risk Premium

Still don't understand the ERP puzzle

Readable, Reasonalble, Rational

Detailed research, not targeted to a typical investor

The Equity Risk Premium: The Long-Run Future of the Stock Market
Bradford Cornell
Manufacturer: Wiley
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Book Description
The Equity Risk Premium-the difference between the rate of return on common stock and the return on government securities-has been widely recognized as the key to forecasting future returns on the stock market. Though relatively simple in theory, understanding and making practical use of the equity risk premium concept has been dauntingly complex-until now.

In The Equity Risk Premium, financial advisor, author, and scholar Bradford Cornell makes accessible for the first time an authoritative explanation of the equity risk premium and how it works in the real world. Step-by-step, his lucid, nontechnical presentation leads the reader to a new and more enlightened basis for making asset allocation choices.

Cornell begins his analysis by looking at the equity risk premium in the light of stock market history. He examines the use of historical data in estimating future stock market performance, including the historical relationship between stock returns and risk premium, the impact of survival bias, and the effect of long-horizon stock and bond returns. Using the stock market boom of the 1990s as a case study, Cornell demonstrates what equity risk premium analysis can tell us about whether stock prices are high or low, whether the stock market itself may have changed, and whether indeed a new economic paradigm of higher earnings and dividend growth is now in place.

Cornell analyzes forward-looking estimates of the equity risk premium through the lens of various competing approaches and assesses the relative merits of each. Among those scrutinized are the Discounted Cash Flow model, the Kaplan-Rubeck study, the Welch survey, and the Fama-French Aggregate IRR analysis. His insights on risk aversion theory, on the types of risk that have been rewarded over time, and on changing investor demographics all supply the sophisticated investor with important pieces of the risk premium puzzle.

In his invaluable summing up of the equity risk premium and the long-run outlook for common stocks, Cornell weighs the evidence and assays the impact of a lower equity risk premium in the future-and its profound implications for investments, corporate decision making, and retirement planning.

The product of years of serious analysis and hard-won insights, The Equity Risk Premium is essential reading for institutional investors, money managers, corporate financial officers, and all others who require a higher level of market analysis.

"The Equity Risk Premium plays a critical role in legal and regulatory matters related to corporate finance. Along with the cost of debt, it is the most important determinant of a company's cost of capital. As such, it is an integral part of the decision-making process in corporate finance. For instance, whether or not a major acquisition makes sense can depend on the assumed value of the equity risk premium. In addition, the equity risk premium is an issue that regulatory bodies consider when they set fair rates of return for regulated companies. Cornell's book is an important contribution because it includes both an historical analysis of the equity risk premium and provides tools for forecasting reasonable levels of the risk premium in the years ahead."-Theodore N. Miller, Partner, Sidley & Austin.

"Estimating how well stocks will do in the future from how well they have done in the past is like driving a car while looking in the rearview mirror. Brad Cornell provides us with an important forward-looking view in this easily understood guide to the equity risk premium and confounds the popular view that stocks will do well in the future because they have done well in the past."-Michael Brennan, Past President of the American Finance Association and Professor of Finance at the University of California at Los Angeles.
Customer Reviews:

Not rigorous or entertaining.......2007-03-02
This book was quite a disappointment and is very overpriced. If you have an academic background you will find it lacking in rigor. If you do not you may be fooled into the "illusion of understanding" but I would see that as a bad thing. Many people (myself included) read books on quantum physics or relativity for the layman just for enjoyment, and rationally seek the "illusion of understanding." This book does not rate highly in the "fun" scale. It is rather dry, and the subject matter itself is not as amusing as Schrodinger's cat or time travel. So I can only assume that non-academic readers really want to figure out how things really are, to trade their portfolios, and this book cannot satisfy that desire. This for two reasons: 1) researchers have not really solved the puzzles associated with the equity risk premium, 2) the non-technical reader cannot understand the subtleties of the subject matter. Given this, the "illusion of understanding" becomes a dangerous thing.

Save your $65 and buy some stocks for the long-run.
The Equity Risk Premium.......2002-02-09
The author, Professor Bradford Cornell, gives an analytical, yet very readable, explanation and forecast of the decline of the stock market during the past couple of years. In this regard Professor Cornell makes a similar conclusion about the value of equtiies and slightly earlier than did Robert J. Shiller in his book, Irrational Exuberance. It is unfortunate that Professor Cornell and his book did not get the same attention that was accorded to Professor Shiller at the start of the stock market decline.
The thesis of the book is that the equity risk premium for stocks, which is the compensation given to equity investors for holding shares of risky common stocks, was below, perhaps much below, what was historically normal. This implied that investors came to view common stocks as being a much less risky investment than stocks had been in the past. Indeed, a quite common view of many investors before the recent fall in the stock market was the view that common stock were an appropriate vehicle for "savings" rather than just for "investment." The implication of this perception by some investors is that equities in general were likely to continue to rise in price over time and thus represented a "safe" or at least low risk vehicle for discretionary income that was not spent.
However, periods of relative low perceived risk usually do not last and are followed by periods of relatively higher perceived risk. The current period we are now in appears to be one in which the uncertainties regarding the stock market have increased and thus investors are now demanding greater compensation, that is, a higher risk premium, for bearing those uncertainties.
The reason the book does not get five stars is that the book misspecifies the constant dividend growth model equation that forms the basis for the author's explanation of the adjustment in the equity risk premium. However, this oversight should not prevent the reader from getting a great explanation of how the prices of common stocks adjust to risks from this fine book.
Still don't understand the ERP puzzle.......2000-11-01
The real dillema regarding ERP is that the real ex-post ERP is irrationally different from the the ex-ante ERP required for CAPM valuations. Prof. Cornell does explore this issue well for a general audience. However, this book does not diminish my skepticism of CAPM equilibrium valuations and ex-ante ERP estimators.
Readable, Reasonalble, Rational.......2000-10-10
This book, with its many references, is a great guide to the academic literature on stock valuation. It was easy to read, very logical, and educational.
Detailed research, not targeted to a typical investor.......2000-08-06
The book seems to be targeted towards University researcher types more than people interested in learning about investing. If you are looking for a book that helps to explain how to value individual stocks for investment, skip this book.
There is a lot of detailed analysis of past history or stock market performance and other fundamentals. There is a comparison of dividend trends and lots of other stuff. Almost all of the book treats the entire market as a whole rather than analyzing individual stocks. I believe the conclusion of the book is that the stock market as a whole is over priced based on the extensive research performed by the author.

Average customer rating:

Quite a Long Run to the End

Loved It

A Religious Experience

A religious experience

An Amazing Experience

The Long Run: A Novel
Leo Furey
Manufacturer: Trumpeter
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 159030411X
Release Date: 2006-11-14

Book Description
From a hill above town, the Mount Kildare Orphanage for Boys looks down on the small city of St. John’s, Newfoundland. The year is 1960. The orphanage is always cold, there is never enough to eat, and the Catholic Brothers who run the home are heavy-handed in their religious discourses and harsh in their discipline. Here, a group of boys manages to look out for each other and live by their own set of rules.By day the boys are obedient students, but when the sun goes down the Dare Klub rules the night: raiding the bakery; stealing sacramental wine; and talking endlessly about girls, sex, and the merits of Floyd Patterson versus Willie Mays. Above all, they help each other through the waves of loneliness and sadness that they all experience. Their secret society is their law and their family. But when the Brothers discover the wine is missing, they go on a manhunt, offering payoffs and bribes to any boy who will rat out the culprits.To buck up the frightened boys’ courage, the Dare Klub’s leader, Blackie, creates a program of secret training for the annual St. John's marathon. The boys sneak out at night for running sessions in the hours before morning prayers, devising elaborate rituals to protect their secrecy. Leo Furey has created a classic coming-of-age story of dazzling scope and powerful insight, leavened with razor-sharp wit.
Customer Reviews:

Quite a Long Run to the End.......2007-06-17
Even though I enjoyed the read for most of the way, especially the richness of the characters, I have to say it was a bit drawn out in places and a rather disappointing ending. Therefore only 3 stars.
Loved It.......2007-01-25
Read this book. It's a story about an orphanage in Canada in the 60's. Every sentence will weave its way a little deeper into your heart until the fate of the boys is tantamount to your own. A great story about love, loss and comradery, with some humor folded in to fortify you, Furey develops lovable characters in the voice of a child with the wisdom of an old man.

A Religious Experience.......2005-01-22
Try this one...it's more like a religious experience than reading a novel. Orphans train for a marathon in the bitter cold of a northern winter night as their only way of keeping the light of hope alive in this novel that rages against oppression, lovelessness and cruelty. This is a tender and insightful story of survival, told with compassion, grace, wisdom and humor.
A religious experience.......2005-01-20
Try this one...it's more like a religious experience than reading a novel. Brutally oppressed orphans train in secret for a marathon in the bitter cold of northern winter nights as their only way of keeping the light of hope alive in this novel that rages against oppression, lovelessness and cruelty. A story of survival told with compassion, grace, wisdom and also humor.
An Amazing Experience.......2004-12-26
Most of us would agree that our book budget is much too limited, but the first thing I did when I started to read this book was to buy it for a friend that needed to read it. He attended a Catholic boys' school in New England. I grew up as a ward-of-the-court in the 1950's in a county-run home for girls in NW PA and can recognize the "below the radar" life of the Dare Club boys. They are as vivid in my mind as my long-ago "home sisters." I claim them as the brothers we never had.
If you want a reading experience that lingers in the memory as a real-life experience, this is the book that will do that. You will smile and cry and roll on the floor laughing with the boys. The courage and spiritual bouyancy of youth will refresh your own as they meet both heartbreak and horror head-on, and you will share in their triumph.

Average customer rating:

Useful Insight into Family-Managed Companies

A Classic in Family Business Studies

How Some Acorns Eventually Became Oak Trees...and Others Can

Great on the unique advantages of family firms.

Deep Lessons from Successful Family Businesses

Managing For The Long Run: Lessons In Competitive Advantage From Great Family Businesses
Danny Miller , and Isabelle Le Breton-Miller
Manufacturer: Harvard Business School Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1591394155

Book Description
Fidelity, Hallmark, Michelin, and Wal-Mart are renowned industry powerhouses with long leadership track records. Yet these celebrated companies are united by another factor not generally equated with competitive success: They are all family-controlled businesses. While many view the hallmarks of family businesses—stable strategies, clan cultures, and unencumbered family ownership—as weaknesses, Danny Miller and Isabelle Le Breton-Miller argue that it is these very characteristics that create formidable competitive advantages for many such firms. Managing for the Long Run draws from a worldwide study of enduring, family-run organizations—including Cargill, Timken, L.L. Bean, The New York Times, and IKEA—to reveal their unconventional success strategies and how these strategies can be adopted and applied in any organization. Miller and Le Breton-Miller show how four driving passions of family-run firms—command, continuity, community, and connection—give rise to a set of practices that defy modern management thinking yet ensure a company’s long term competitive advantage. Outlining how these practices can enhance strategic efforts from operations to brand leadership to innovation, this book shows what every company must do to manage for the long run.
Customer Reviews:

Useful Insight into Family-Managed Companies.......2005-12-27
Miller and Le Breton-Miller present a well-researched and well-written study focused on 4 themes in family-run firms: command, continuity, community, and connection. These themes translate into management principles that can and should be used by public companies and other organizations as well. Their (sometimes counter-intuitive) findings show companies such as Cargill, L.L. Bean, The New York Times, IKEA and others manage to survive and thrive. An insightful and interesting book.
A Classic in Family Business Studies.......2005-10-15
Modernisation theorists and chandlerian followers have developed plausible arguments that there are too many weaknesses in family-controlled businesses such as nepotism, small-scale, and short-lived.

Danny Miller & Isabella Le-Breton Miller capture mounting primary and secondary data from 58 family-controlled companies in the US and suggest that family-controlled companies can be as marvellous as their nonfamily-controlled peers. This book provides a rich source of useful insights to business excutives in having a novel understanding family-controlled companies.

According to the International Family Enterprise Research Academy, family-controlled companies dominate every aspect of economic life in the world but the study of family-controlled companies has received scant attention in proportion to the significance of their contribution to the economic growth in the US. This book is a classic in family business research and I highly recommend it to all business executives and researchers.
How Some Acorns Eventually Became Oak Trees...and Others Can.......2005-06-03
In several recent reviews, I have quoted remarks by Jack Welch when explaining why he admires small businesses: "For one, they communicate better. Without the din and prattle of bureaucracy, people listen as well as talk; and since there are fewer of them they generally know and understand each other. Second, small companies move faster. They know the penalties for hesitation in the marketplace. Third, in small companies, with fewer layers and less camouflage, the leaders show up very clearly on the screen. Their performance and its impact are clear to everyone. And, finally, smaller companies waste less. They spend less time in endless reviews and approvals and politics and paper drills. They have fewer people; therefore they can only do the important things. Their people are free to direct their energy and attention toward the marketplace rather than fighting bureaucracy."

In his E-Myth Mastery, Michael Gerber cites the following statistics: "Of the 1 million U.S. small businesses started this year [2005], more than 80% of them will be out of business within 5 years and 96% will have closed their doors before their 10th birthday." Everything Welch says is true in terms of the potential advantages which small businesses have and the statistics which Gerber cites suggests that very few of them know how to achieve and then sustain those advantages.

I include these quotations now because they are directly relevant to what Miller and Le Breton-Miller offer in their own book, Managing for the Long Run. For owners and other decision-makers now involved with family businesses, they explain HOW to achieve and then sustain a competitive advantage. True, various "lessons" were revealed by the authors' rigorous and extensive research on a number of family-controlled businesses (FCB) which have become major corporations, notably Cargill, Hallmark Cards, L.L. Bean, Motorola, and Wal-Mart.

It is important to remember, however, that all of them had modest origins and during that perilous period encountered most (if not all) of the same challenges which FCB start-ups now face. Most of the most valuable business books were written to answer critically important questions. In this instance: What distinguishes great family businesses? (Please see Chapter 1.) A related question: What are the "potent priorities" of great family-controlled businesses? (Please see Chapter 2.) Another related question: Why do so many family-controlled businesses stumble? (Please see Chapter 8.) In between Chapters 2 and 8, Miller and Le Breton-Miller focus on five primary characteristics: brand building, craftsmanship, operations, innovation, and deal making. They devote a separate chapter to each. I prefer not to list their key points which are best revealed within the narrative's frame-of-reference and sequential context. However, I now express my appreciation of various Tables and Grids which so efficiently illustrate the cohesion, indeed interdependence of what the authors characterize as "The Four Cs": Command, Continuity, Community, and Connections.

All of the specific mental and business models, strategies, tactics, values, and applications which Miller and Le Breton-Miller recommend are based on their conviction that "the only way to sustain good performance is to [begin italics] act in the best interests of the company and all its stakeholders. [end italics] First, boards and top managers must be motivated to be courageous and farsighted stewards. Second, they need to concentrate on and invest deeply in a substantive, enduring mission. Third, they must assemble a unified, value-driven staff that uses its initiative for the interests of the whole firm. Finally, they must form enduring, win-win relationships with external partners."

Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out Gerber's most recent E-Myth book. Also Gary Harpst's Six Disciplines for Excellence, Steven S. Little's The 7 Irrefutable Rules of Small Business Success, and Jason Jennings' Think Big, Act Small.
Great on the unique advantages of family firms........2005-04-25
This is a great book! It is well grounded in excellent case study research and good theory. The authors bring to life some important and profound wisdom about the sources of advantage that family firms have and what makes them successful. Well written, the book is easily accessible to scholars, public policy makers and the public at large. I am impressed by the depth of the research in the book and the time frame it covers. The diversity of companies examined in the book helps to illustrate how effective management can make a significant difference in the ways family firms surpass their rivals in their performance. This is a "must read" book!

Shaker A. Zahra
Paul T. Babson Chair of Entrepreneurship

Deep Lessons from Successful Family Businesses.......2005-02-05
This book is amazing. I know of no other book in the management literature as cogent, as provocative or as compelling as this one. No wonder family businesses outperform their publicly-held counterparts. This book challenges not only our prejudices about family businesses, but also they way we manage our own. It shows clearly why these companies have succeeded and grown over decades to become the powerhouses they are now - their competitive advantages are sustainable.

The book defies what we think of as best management practices for public companies. It reminds me of Collins's "Built to Last" and Level 5 leaders. The underlying research is THAT good.

For me, the centerpiece of it all is an elegant matrix that describes how these companies have been able to deliver on 5 core strategies through the advantages long tenure, patient capital, etc. No quick accounting fixes here. Locate your own company within this matrix and the companies they studied will offer new guidance as you make your biggest bets and make your toughest decisions.

I was dumbfounded at how short-sighted and small-minded I had become as a manager. It's not a quick read, but read it. And you will never think in quite the same way about your strategy, your core competencies, your markets, or the way you leverage/steward your current resources.

This book is both sophisticated and practical. My hat is off to Miller and Breton-Miller.

Average customer rating:

Misslead.

Not the book

This Product is Not The Book By Siegal

Stocks for the Long Run (Cram101 Textbook Outlines - Textbook NOT Included)
Cram101
Manufacturer: AIPI
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Investing | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Education | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Book Notes | Education | Reference | Subjects | Books
General | Education | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Stocks for the Long Run : The Definitive Guide to Financial Market Returns and Long-Term Investment Strategies

The Future for Investors: Why the Tried and the True Triumph Over the Bold and the New

A Random Walk Down Wall Street: Completely Revised and Updated Edition

Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits and Other Writings

Irrational Exuberance

ASIN: 1428809236

Book Description
Never HIGHLIGHT a Book Again! Virtually all testable terms, concepts, persons, places, and events are included.look no further for study resources or reference material. Cram101 Textbook Outlines gives all of the outlines, highlights, notes, and practice-tests for your textbook. Only Cram101 is Textbook Specific. Cram101 is NOT the Textbook.
Customer Reviews:

Misslead........2007-01-21
I am dissapointed. I bought this for my dad for christmas, only to get it and realize that you NEED TO BUY the actual book for this to even be of any assistance to you. It said nowhere on the page that this was necessary.
Not the book.......2007-01-11
This is some kind of study guide, mistakenly listed as a paperback edition of the Siegel book.

This Product is Not The Book By Siegal.......2007-01-11
This is a study guide for the book. Amazon needs to fix this page.

Average customer rating:

Lots of information for my trivia sponge son

Long Ball: The Legend And Lore of the Home Run (Exceptional Social Studies Titles for Intermediate Grades)
Mark Stewart , and Mike Kennedy
Manufacturer: Millbrook Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding

Nonfiction | Baseball | Sports | Sports & Activities | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
General | Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0761327797

Customer Reviews:

Lots of information for my trivia sponge son.......2006-05-19
My 10 yo son really enjoyed this book, going through the history, enjoying hearing about the unusual situations, challenging the 10 best home runs and disparaging the fact that so many of the listed ones were hit by stinkin' Yankees. It's the sort of book that he picks up on a regular basis and just browses though several times.

Average customer rating:

run with the best

good ideas but...

The Best Training Book I've Ever Read

Practical Guide to Training to be the best!

Run with the Best: A Coach's Guide to Training Middle & Long Distance Runners (Based on the Cervtty & Lydiard Models)
Tony Benson , and Irv Ray
Manufacturer: Tafnews Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Coaching | Sports | Subjects | Books
General | Sports | Subjects | Books
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Winning Running: Successful 800m and 1500m Racing and Training

Better Training for Distance Runners

Running With Lydiard

Daniels' Running Formula

Distance Training for Masters

ASIN: 0911521615
Release Date: 2001-03-01

Product Description
A Coach s Guide to Training Middle and Long Distance Runners Based on the Lydiard and Cerutty Models, Tony Benson and Irv Ray. 2nd edition (2001). New chapters on marathon and steeplechase training, plus the development of an elite American prep middle distance runner. This is the book you need, coach, to take your runners to the next level. Well illustrated.
Customer Reviews:

run with the best.......2007-05-13
this book do not come. i do not get this book,
if this message is forward to the right people could you please change my delivery address to p.o. box 47 moonee ponds victoria 3039 australia.
thanks
good ideas but..........2004-11-06
Irv Ray took over as coach of the UC Riverside cross country program this year. His team finished dead last at Pre-Nationals. They were 8th out of 9 in the Big West, with the women 9th of 10. The runners have gotten slower all season. Perhaps this is an indication that Irv Ray is not so great a coach as the book would lead you to believe.

That being said, there are a lot of different ideas for workouts here.

The problems I have two issues with the book itself. First, it is not written well. The information is a little disorganized, and sometimes charts just seem to pop out of nowhere. If a good professional writer had assisted, the work would have been much more coherent.

Second, I think the program is too structured. Ray and Benson suggest planning out all of your annual and weekly volume well ahead of time, which seems like a very rigid requirement.

Overall, though, this book has plenty of good advice. Its strongest points are near the end where the book summarizes every type of training and lists their benefits and appropriate uses.
The Best Training Book I've Ever Read.......2001-08-07
The one thing that I used to hate about being on the track team was that I never knew how to train in the summer and winter. My coaches provided little information about specific training for the offseason. Thanks to this book I now know exactly what to do during the offseason to maximize my performances. I've read probably 10 books about training and this is definitely the best one. Why? Because the methods are PROVEN. Sure, there might be some new fancy scientific method that works a tiny bit better, but this training has been proven over decades to work wonders on elite distance runners. Take Ryan Hall and Anita Siraki - they use the program in this book and have run a 3:42 1500 (equivalent to a 4:00 mile) and a low 10:00s 2 mile, repectively. This book tells you exactly what kind of workouts and how much of each for every month of the year to ensure success. I can't imagine what else anyone would need. The only downside to the book is that it doesn't have anything about specific streches, buying shoes, etc. but that's because this book it totally about training. If you don't know how to stetch already then you probably don't need this book. If you have big dreams for your running future, buy Run with the Best. I promise you won't be dissapointed.
Practical Guide to Training to be the best!.......2000-05-15
Irv Ray and Tony Benson are two extremely successful coaches and students of the sport, yet they do not allow their expertise to disrupt wiht scholarly and technical jargon what is an easily read and understood text on how to train and race your best.
Geared more to the coach, yet applicaple to the athlete, Run With The Best breaks down the training-racing-peaking process into the steps one must take in order to improve as a runner. None of it is theory, it is all time-tested, scientific and proven ... the results of the runners who have trained under Benson's and Ray's tutelage stand as testimony. The book is full of charts and text that explains what it is you are looking at in chart form and it also includes numerous examples of the workouts that fall within the framework of their training system.
I have used the training system with my runners at the high school level and I have found the principles to be successful regardless of the talent level of the athlete. Improvement comes to any runner willing to follow the model set forth in the book.
Highly recommended for anyone seeking a practical and proven method of training successful runners.

Average customer rating:

An excellent novel.

Enjoyable trek through history

Surprised but pleased in the end.

I made a mistake and I'm glad I did...

Great for runners, Civil War buffs, a great read

In The Long Run
Tim Van Wagoner
Manufacturer: Tim Van Wagoner
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Psychological & Suspense | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
Contemporary | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0966930800

Book Description
Joshua Chamberlain, great-great grandson of an acclaimed Civil War hero, competes in his first 26.2 miler, the venerable Marine Corps Marathon in Washington D.C.
Josh "zones out" during this classic physical test of endurance, allowing him to contemplate a gilded boyhood, stellar basketball career, and the elusive love of his life: the enchanting Autumn Andrews. Along the route, "The Colonel," a Medal of Honor winner at Gettysburg, manages to instill his own influence, enlightening Josh as to the real reason he's running the race.
This yellow brick road adventure takes the reader on a delightful romp through the nation's capital, to the strategic heights of Little Round Top, and to the sun-kissed virgin beaches of a beguiling little corner of northern Michigan rich with the values and characters that can only be found in small-town America.
Josh's spirited search for his past, present and future, affirms that in the long run, there's no place like home.
Customer Reviews:

An excellent novel........2007-06-14
This is a wonderful story that ties in all of the author's interests. I teach hs/jh social studies and I was looking to add another book to my classroom library that young boys might like to read. This book really surprised me. I've already recommended it to my cross country runners and will be recommending to our school librarian too.
Enjoyable trek through history.......2003-06-09
My brother advised me to read this book as he knows the author via sports. As I love to read, I was happy to oblige him just to see what he was talking about. I was pleasantly surprised to find a book that captured my interest from the first page! The author's style is easy to read and well done, and his sense of humor and detail appreciated by me. The story of the past and present Joshua Chamberlains blended together well and I was entranced.
Maybe I loved this book because I'm from a small town in Upper Michigan, and my dad was a Civil War buff and took us to battlefields and made history come alive with his stories.
Maybe I liked it because my brother was a basketball star and our small town team went to the state finals in the late 60's against those Detroit teams and won!
Maybe I liked it because I have run 10ks and walked a marathon and know what that's like.
Maybe I liked it because I read a lot and can recognize a good author and tale when I read it.
Maybe I have told a lot of others about it because I feel it's a "sleeper" and a good read!
Thank you Tim V for a great tale and enjoyable read!
Surprised but pleased in the end........2002-03-28
This book caught my attention being a marathon runner and a Civil War buff. Having both together seemed too good to be true. Not entirely what I expected but certainly not a disappointment either. I found myself focusing more on the non-running aspects of the book, but was still acutely aware of Mr. Wagoner's description of the marathon that were unique and descriptive. A smart, smooth use of multiple times enabled me to correlate the main characters life with his progression through the marathon which I found very clever. Surprisingly so, this book made me feel like a teenager again. I'm not a love story type of guy, but I would highly recommend this book. Made me feel good about people again.
I made a mistake and I'm glad I did..........2001-05-04
I was searching for the Eagles "Long Run" CD and came across this. I bought it and I'm glad I did. Good book.
Great for runners, Civil War buffs, a great read.......2000-05-03
I loved this book. It would be a great story for anyone who is interested in the Civil War or running. I'm not interested in either but I still really enjoyed the story. It was very well written.
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Marooned in Realtime

Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War

Momma Zen: Walking the Crooked Path of Motherhood

Moral Conflict: When Social Worlds Collide

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