Subscribe to my Feed
« Tastes Great - Less Filling? | Home | Elegy for an Ethics Giant »
“The Go-Giver” explains why ethics are good for your bottom line
By Lauren | February 7, 2008
I just finished a marvelous book, The Go-Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann. It’s a charming little parable about a brash young businessman who learns a lot about business success and, incidentally, more than a little about personal happiness, from a mysterious man named Pindar.
The Go-Giver lays out “Five Laws of Stratospheric Success” in a delightfully easy-to-read way. (I finished it on the half-hour plane trip from Columbia to Charlotte.) No, I won’t tell you what they are. The lessons in the book are well worth the few dollars you’ll spend to pick up a copy and read them in the authors’ words. I will tell you this much, however. While laying out the first Law of Stratospheric Success, the authors make the point that, all things being equal, people prefer to do business with people whom they like and trust.
That’s where ethics come in. If your clients and customers don’t trust you, they’ll be reluctant to do business with you in the first place and quick to drop you at the first sign of trouble. On the other hand, if they see you as honest, competent and dependable – in other words, ethical – they’ll trust you and be more interested in doing business with you. (They may also be more willing to cut you some slack when things go amiss.) The message is clear: ethics are essential to long-term business success.
For more information or to treat yourself to a copy of The Go-Giver, check out www.thegogiver.com.
Topics: Business Ethics, Lauren Recommends, customer relations |
February 7th, 2008 at 11:34 pm
Dear Lauren,
thanks so much for your wonderful review! I appreciate your kind restraint in not “spilling” all the content of the five laws — very astute!
Best,
John
February 12th, 2008 at 1:59 am
Hi Lauren,
This is Bob Burg; John David Mann’s co-author. I also very much appreciate your review. Thank you.
Regarding ethics and trust, an excellent book I recently devoured was “The Speed of Trust” by Stephen M.R. Covey. In this book, he takes the concept of trust from a “soft-skill” to a quantifiable and measurable skill. Didn’t know if you had come across it yet. Highly recommended.
Thank you for all you do,
Bob