Practically Radical Summary, Review PDF

Tags

Top Highlights

• If you can’t prevent conflict, choose the battlefield.

• Redefine the terrain of the competition, rather than trying to outcompete your rivals.

• the company’s image was transformed into a brand that stood for something more than just dog food. The fresh way of looking at things also gave Pedigree a new sense of purpose.

• rule of vuja dé – the opposite of déjà vu. It’s the sense of having already experienced something and finding a new way of looking at something familiar.

• Storied watch brands owned by the company, like Omega, were rebranded as “watches for people who achieve” – a canny way of targeting high-earners willing to pay top dollar for a product rooted in tradition.

• groundbreaking innovations are often born from borrowing ideas well-established in other industries.

• “Just-in-time” manufacturing – what the Japanese call kanban – was starting to make waves. It’s a way of reducing the amount of time materials spend in inventory by optimizing scheduling.

• Sounds like a pretty useful idea for a hospital struggling with inefficiency, right? But that’s not what the doctors at Kaplan’s hospital thought. They objected to the notion that medical practitioners had anything to learn from a car manufacturer and put up stiff resistance. Many of them even boycotted the trip! Those who did go, however, soon saw why they’d been sent to Japan. The ideas they brought back helped them cut waiting times for lab results by a stunning 90 percent. That amounted to a three-fold increase in the time nurses could spend with their patients.

• Excel in one area rather than being average at a lot of things if you want to be a game changer.

• “Why should customers choose your bank over the competition?” Two-thirds of them couldn’t answer it!

• That’s a sign that something’s amiss. Your aim as a manager should be to run your company in such a way that everyone knows the answer to that question.

• Companies that engage their customers with a human face are much more likely to succeed.

• successful businesses aren’t just money-making machines – they’re communities.

• Recent research by Gallup into customer satisfaction found that, according to the consulting group’s data, there’s little difference in customer behavior between those described as “rationally satisfied” and “rationally dissatisfied” when it comes to a company’s pricing and product quality. The real difference is between the rationally satisfied and the “emotionally engaged” – customers who identify themselves with the company and view its services as “irreplaceable.”

• Aim to be a humble and ambitious leader and look for ideas in every area of your company.

• True leaders avoid drinking the kool-aid and take a different approach entirely – they strive to be humbitious. The concept of “humbition” – a blend of humility and ambition – was coined by Jane Harper. It’s a leadership style she advocated during her long stint at the American technology giant IBM.

• The idea is simple: leaders should be ambitious while recognizing the fact that other people in the company might know something they don’t. Because success is a fruit of collaboration, leaders should give credit where credit is due. After all, no leader – however brilliant – can compete with the combined brainpower of the company’s employees.

• best ideas often come from the bottom of an organization. CEOs who understand that have the best chance of succeeding

• Asking strangers for help is one thing, but there’s a more specific group of people who are also likely to have illuminating ideas – your customers.

• products are designed by its customers.