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Looking for straight answers to complex management issues? A great source is Common Sense Managing, Simple Actions That Produce Results. The desktop guide explores the essential tools and actions for successfully managing your organization -- simple, usable, and proven leadership actions that produce measurable results.

Author, Bill Werst, points out: "Ten successful executives from as many industries reviewed and edited every section and sentence. Nothing made it through their reviews unless it was practical and usable. We are so confident of the value of Common Sense Managing that we offer a one year 100% guarantee." With a smile, Bill adds: "And none have been returned."

Each of Common Sense Managing’s ten sections contain easy to read and use exercises and surveys, plus summary questions to support your application. The application is very clear and direct – measurable results.

Common Sense Managing is available through http://www.growthassociates.org, www.amazon.com, or may be ordered through your local book store. You can also subscribe to the free Common Sense Managing Tip of Week at http://www.growthassociates.org/tips.htm.

Common Sense Managing, is not an oxymoron

Bill: Common Sense Managing blasts away twenty years of management fads with simple proven leadership tools and actions that produce lasting results.

Bill: Well, perhaps John Rice, President of Sierra-At-Tahoe Ski Resort said it better: "…the best ideas from a variety of businesses across America in a simple no nonsense format that every reader will find useful."

Bill: Since no one has a corner on common sense, I recruited an editorial board of ten successful executives from as many industries. They range for middle managers to CEOs. They contributed their critique and experiences to each section as it was created. The result is a 142 page leader’s desktop guide filled with essential tools and practical actions for successfully designing, building, and maintaining your organization. In fact, we guarantee that the book does not contain one fad or new "theory".

Editor: You’ve mentioned management fads twice already. Why is this so important to you?

Bill: During thirty years of management and organizational development I repetitively observed leaders struggling to reinvent the wheel. In response to increasing pressure for quick results many executives would cast their organization’s fate on the promises of the latest fad, or P.O.T.Y. - - - Program Of The Year. When it didn’t produce the promised results they jumped on the next P.O.T.Y., leaping from Zero Defects to Quality Circles to Team Building to Reengineering to TQM. While well intended by the top executives, these failures are devastating on the lower and middle managers. These managers are forced to implement the latest misdirected P.O.T.Y. When they fail, and they usually do, these managers suffer the consequences - - lower productivity and higher cynicism.

Bill: Common Sense Managing guides the executive away from such quick-fix-failures and into the basic core actions that will build and sustain success.

Bill: Building a solid organizational foundation with a clear vision, simple plan, meaningful controls, and personal accountability. The vision needs to be clear and alive. By alive, I mean that everyone in the organization knows what it is, believes in it, and strives to accomplish it in every work action they perform. The plan needs to identify the basic steps needed to fulfill the vision. Our experience and research has found that most organizations and executives are operating without a simple basic plan. One President of a medium size organization told me: "What’s the point of planning -- everything changes within three months anyway." That company is totally out of control.

Bill: They are the first two critical core actions. Meaningful controls and personal accountability are the final two corners of the organizational foundation. Controls and accountability can’t be established until there is a plan, and a plan can’t be developed without a vision.

Bill: An organization attempting to operate without this basic foundation has no chance of long term success. We see this daily with the sales and market driven new Internet businesses – extremely rapid growth supported through IPO funding. The organization’s value soars, plateaus, and then takes a chaotic dive. This entire cycle may take less than a year. Executives grasp for any life preserver as the dive begins. If someone shows up with a reengineering solution, they grab it. And the dive continues. My point is, how do you reengineer something that was never engineered in the first place. The first four sections of Common Sense Managing cover how to establish each of these organizational foundation elements.

Bill: The six remaining sections describe how to build a motivating work environment, seamless customer service and satisfaction, and how to effectively solve problems, conduct meetings, and develop staff. Each subject is handled with simple, usable, and proven leadership practices that produce measurable results.

Editor: If you had one thing last thing to say to today’s executive what would it be?

Bill: This thing call managing is not rocket science. Relax. Focus on the basics. Define success in observable and measurable terms. It will work because your people want to succeed as much as you do.

Bill: It’s available directly through our web site http://www.growthassociates.org or http://www.amazon.com. Common Sense Managing may also be ordered through their local book store. Those who order directly from us will receive our free Common Sense Managing Tip of the Week newsletter.

What others are saying about Common Sense Managing

"Common Sense Managing brings the best ideas from a variety of businesses across America into a simple, no nonsense format that every reader will find useful.

The concepts presented in this book will help you redefine the most successful principles of management that are proven over and over in business today. What separates this from all the other books on the newsstand is the straightforward delivery of practical, usable ideas. No buzzwords or unproven theories, just the straight scoop on what's working in American business.

Easy to read, hard to forget. Common Sense Managing delivers straight forward proven techniques to today's business challenges. Each chapter provides a list of questions to ask yourself, which breathes life into the concepts. The author's use of real life situations shows that these ideas really work!

Common Sense Managing takes the guess work out of approaching business today. Of all the books I have read, this one hits the nail on the head, a no-bull approach to what works, and what doesn't. Bill Werst blasts through twenty years of trends in management with a few very simple concepts that will produce positive results for any company wanting to improve management effectiveness."

John A. Rice, President and General Manager, Sierra-At-Tahoe Ski Resort, California

"Practical down to earth, nuts and bolts operational approach to management. An indispensable guide for producing bottom line results that count. Every new manager and supervisor should read this book before they do anything. It provides insights into what we know to do and ensures that we do not continually seek more complex and sexy solutions. I wish I had this book thirty five years ago when I started in management as I could have been much more successful."

Jim Skaggs, H.R. Director, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Nevada

"Bill Werst recognizes that neither theories or elaborate programs can replace common sense for producing results. Common Sense Managing uses plain, straight forward, and easy to read language to explain why it's useless to complicate service delivery beyond good old fashioned Common Sense. The book reveals how leaders, employing practical tools and trust, continuously improve their service delivery to their customers."

George O’Leary, Regional Service Manager, Alcon Surgical, North Carolina

"At the heart of Common Sense Managing is people, not the organization. There has been more harm done to productivity in the pursuit of organizational improvement that had we simply not interfered with out workers natural desire to do good work together. The key to unlocking the mystery of productivity is to understand that all organizations are composed of ordinary people who are capable of extraordinary results if they are inspired to work together for a common good.

This is the simple wonderful essence of Common Sense Managing."

Frank Bragg, VP Operations, Blue Diamond Almond Growers, California

It's not just words, it works! There are so many simple hits in Common Sense Managing to extract and apply today. We can feel, apply, and communicate its message daily. Thank you for this easy reading wealth of information.

Since reading Common Sense Managing the first time I've realized how many ideas I thought I was practicing that need to be brought to life and done anew. Common Sense Managing is a library in itself -- to refer to regularly. Today I used it to refresh and reinforce practical management ideas while preparing for and during a meeting.

Ron Abrams, Manager, TeleSales, Ivoclar North America, Amherst NY

"Simple answers to today's complex management issues...what separates this from all the other books on the newsstand is the straight forward delivery of practical, usable ideas. No buzzwords or unproven theories, just the straight scoop on what's working in American business."

Frank M. Costabile, Vice President of Operations, P.A.C. Industries, Inc.

"Have read some of Common Sense Managing and it's like a light shining on all my company's mistakes over the last five years. I for one intend to change that starting now."

Keene Babcock, Service Manager, Rental Service Corporation

Common Sense Managing: Simple Ideas That Produce Results

Mix thirty years of business consulting with the wisdom of ten successful executives and the result is Common Sense Managing. The book teems with simple, usable, and proven leadership practices that produce measurable results.

The 142 page desktop guide offers essential tools and actions for successfully designing, building, and maintaining your business. Each of the ten sections contains easy to read and use exercises and surveys, plus summary questions to support your application.

Common Sense Managing offers you the opportunity to:

Hood River author, Bill Werst, promises that you will not encounter any management theories. Bill emphasizes: "Common Sense Managing is about simple and proven common sense leadership actions that produce results."

Common Sense Managing is immediately available through amazon.com, or the author’s web site: http://www.growthassociates.org for $29.95. This is a great investment for improving the operation of your business.

RADIO ANNOUNCEMENT

Bill Werst, author of Common Sense Managing: Simple Actions That Produce Results will be on Hood River’s KIHR radio on Friday from 8:30 to 9:00. [1340 AM]

The book blasts through twenty years of management trends with proven simple common sense leadership tools and actions that produce lasting results.

Mr. Werst founded Growth Associates, an international consulting firm providing customer driven organizational improvement assistance. Bill holds several degrees from Cornell University and California State University and is a member of the University of Wisconsin's Management Institute Faculty for 26 years, where he is listed as "One of the Management Institute's most effective guest faculty." He has key noted and presented at 17 national conferences, and designed and implemented leadership and customer satisfaction programs in both public and private sectors.

Call in during the show with questions or comments at 541-386-1511.

BRIEF BIO

WILLIAM H. WERST

Founded by William H. Werst, GA has been providing assistance to organizations world wide for over 25 years, providing a full range of practical and lasting organizational improvement assistance. The Associates include nationally known professional consultants, enabling GA to offer expertise in specific organizational arenas.

Mr. Werst holds several degrees from Cornell University and California State University and is a member of the University of Wisconsin's Management Institute Faculty for 26 years, where he is listed as "One of the Management Institute's most effective guest faculty." He has key noted and presented at 17 national conferences, and designed and implemented leadership programs in both the public and private sector.

He has just completed writing Common Sense Managing: Simple Ideas That Produce Results. The book blasts through twenty years of management trends with proven simple common sense leadership tools and actions that produce lasting results.

Bill Werst is president of Growth Associates, an international consulting firm specializing in practical and lasting organizational improvement. He may be reached at 541-386-1117 or bill@growthassociates.org.

He has just completed writing Common Sense Managing: Simple Actions That Produce Results. The book blasts through twenty years of management trends with proven simple common sense leadership tools and actions that produce lasting results. The unabridged Customer Service 101 and sections on Customer Driven Vision, Planning, Measuring, and Customer Satisfaction 102 are available at growthassociates.org.

PRESENTATIONS

Bill has key noted and presented at 17 national conferences such as the International Customer Service Association, National Association of Service Managers, and Banking Institute of America. He has field tested the concepts in Common Sense Managing at the University of Wisconsin Management Institute the last two years.

On the Evaluation Summary from the latest Management Institute conference, June 1998, Bill received 7.0 [on a 7 point scale] for subject matter knowledge, 6.8 for presentation skills, 6.9 for effectiveness. Over eighty percent of his presentation was taken from Common Sense Managing. The Evaluation points out two things.

1. The positive response to the common sense management materials.

2. The quality of my platform and presentation skills.

Bill has made over 500 presentations ranging from one hour to five days and consistently received top evaluations. He has been a University of Wisconsin guest faculty member since 1973. In every conference for twenty-five years Bill has received an outstanding participant evaluation.

Please contact Growth Associates if your organization has a need for a conference or seminar presentation or workshop.