The Power of Simplicity

Contending that our increasingly complicated corporate universe has made it more difficult for companies to grow and prosper, noted business strategist Jack Trout and communications consultant Steve Rivkin have proposed a radical new tack: simplicity. By boiling everything down to its essential elements, they maintain, managers can ignore new fads and hot consultants and instead focus on the true business at hand. Fascinating in its own unpretentious, logical manner, The Power of Simplicity is their stripped-down guide to a future without chaos and disorder. Addressing the basics involved as well as specific management, leadership, and people issues, they hit a variety of applicable themes--including information, competitors, mission statements, goals, and motivation--using short individual chapters that quickly get to the heart of the matter with a few germane anecdotes and expert quotes followed by suggestions that are both coherent and feasible. Each begins with an inspirational epigram by the likes of Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain, Malcolm Forbes, and even Mother Goose, and concludes with a Simple Summation, such as this one on strategy: "If you're not different, you'd better have a lower price." --Howard Rothman