Be the Best: Honest practical lessons from successes and failures in building businesses and teams

AUTHOR'S NOTE RE 7TH EDITION. The 7th edition reflects some new experiences up to the end of 2018 and feedback from readers on the themes in the book. Thanks to all the interesting and inspiring people who were part of that journey.SELECTED QUOTATIONS• Reputation is everything in business.• Recommenders must be asked to recommend• Customer Experience is not that hard, but you need to want to do it badly enough• You need to be yourself, but more perfectly• The Power of the Many• Give away the credit for everything• There's no point in not trying to Be the Best• Customers only really trust suppliers who are genuinely unselfish• Most management truth is simple, but you need to think deeply, slowly and long about it• Not dealing with staff who can’t do their jobs is cruel to them• Fire the terrorists• Great managers lose their people• The real owners of a business are not the shareholders or banks• If you don’t have integrity, no-one will trust you and nor should they• If leaders are not true to the values they profess, people will quickly lose confidence• Most Customer Satisfaction Surveys are deluded nonsense• One of the first things that any leader does is to set an example• Good people are all around you• Endurance cannot be taught in advance, you learn to endure by enduring• Blame is pointless, so don't point• At times, you are on your own.PERSONAL MESSAGE FROM THE AUTHORBe the Best is a selection of short, practical lessons from successes and failures in building businesses and teams.The purpose of the book is to stimulate busy managers and leaders, of all levels, to STOP and THINK DEEPLY about important areas of management and leadership; and, by so doing, to discover and realise the potential that exists within themselves to Be the Best - ultimately by learning to be themselves, but more perfectly.The insights for the book come from leading and working in several business turn-rounds. The emphasis there was on practical and dynamic business change through the development of great management teams and a new staff culture that is motivated by and engaged in the challenge and rewards from working together to create a truly great business.Underpinning this has been a focus on trying to build businesses which are unique and mould breakers in their sectors, and more engaged with staff and customers than the competition.A particular recent emphasis has been to succeed through achieving a deep understanding of Customer Experience, creating committed client “recommender” relationships, and knowing how staff and company culture can influence this.Leading a business and being a truly professional manager is one of the highest callings anyone can aspire to. Anyone with the title of “manager” ought to be proud of it, and aim to act with pride in the job at all times.So, my aim in writing this book was to try to “do some good” to as many leaders and managers as possible, by spreading the learnings from working with many very fine people. Simple, practical, proven thinking and strategies for managers and leaders are offered in an informal conversational style – as if you and I were chatting over coffee, about how to Be the Best.The book is intended to be just the starting point to provoke some slow, long-term, deep thinking within readers, and action plans to change. The book needs to be read, re-read and used, over and over again, as a stimulus and a resource for your own personal journey. Or it should be given away to some-one who it can help.Mark BatesNB – Readers’ comments and queries can be sent to me via e-mail at mark.bethebest@outlook.com.