Entries Tagged 'books' ↓

I must admit that the book of Stephen Covey the 8^th Habit did not impact on me as much as the former the 7^th habit. For quite some time I have been wondering the reasons for this lower impact of the 8^th Habit on me, though I was a great fan of Stephen Covey, a keen disciple of his teaching and a certified trainer of the Covey Leadership centre.

First, the 8^th Habit lacks the novelty effect on me. Way back in 1992, when I first read the 1^st book, I was really impressed. I recalled that all through the 10 hours flight from Hong Kong to Mauritius, my eyes were glued to the book. I highlighted the parts of the book that was directly touching my life then and saw in the book possible avenues to better my life. The examples given in the text were so near the reality that I was then living and provided at the time the necessary thoughts that I needed. The benefits I could derived from the reading was so proximate and realisable. My enthusiasm was aroused at its peak to bring me to action. Secondly the direct and tangible benefit of reading the book is not so obvious.

The above reflection now has taught me a great learning which I am applying today.

The interest that one has in any particular subject is proportional to the use one can make out of it. If you want to get the attention of someone of a subject, present to the person the benefits he will be able to derive from it. WIFM stands for What’s in for me. Should I need to convince someone of something: talk of his needs?

Now I am reviewing the 8^th Habit with a new perspective: in my present situation, WIFM in reading the book.

Here is a commentary of Ken Shelton which covers beautifully and succinctly Covey’s book.

Leaders often sense a painful, Grand Canyon gap between potential greatness and actual contribution. It’s one thing to be aware of problems and challenges at work and another thing to develop the personal power and moral authority to break out of those problems and become a force in solving them.

So asserts Stephen R. Covey, author of The 8th Habit. And his solution: “One word expresses the pathway to greatness—voice. Voice lies at the nexus of talent (your natural gifs and strengths), passion (those things that naturally energize, excite, motivate and inspire you), need (including what the world needs enough to pay for) and conscience (that still, small voice within that assures you of what is right and prompts you to take action).

“When you engage in work that taps your talent and fuels your passion—work that rises out of a great need in the world that you feel drawn by conscience to meet—you discover your voice.”

Take Four Steps

According to Covey, those leaders on this path to greatness find their voice and inspire others to find theirs. He notes that they often find their voice when they face challenges and take four steps:

1. Tap into your talent. “Tapping into your talents starts with understanding where you excel,” suggests Covey. “It involves recognizing your strengths and positioning yourself to leverage them. To tap into your talent, consider the question: What am I good at doing?”

2. Fuel your passion. “When you take part in activities that fill you with positive emotion, you are fueling your passion,” notes Covey. “Pursuits that spark your passion bring excitement, enthusiasm, joy, and fun. To fuel your passion, ask yourself: What do I love doing?”

3. Become burdened with a need. “When a problem in society lodges itself in your heart and won’t let go, you become burdened with a need,” he says. “Perhaps, the need is an injustice you wish to remedy. Maybe it’s a disease you would love to cure. Whatever the case, a burden gnaws at your conscience. To take stock of your biggest burden, wrestle with the question: What need must I serve?”

4. Take action to meet the need. Once a need has arrested your attention, you can find your voice by taking action, he continues. “A need compels you to do something besides criticize from the sidelines. To meet the need, think about this question: How can I align my talent with my passion in order to meet the need that burdens me?”

A Promise and a Challenge

Covey then extends a promise and a challenge.

The promise: “If you will apply these four capacities—talent (discipline), passion (emotion), need (vision), and conscience (spirit-directed action) to any role or responsibility of your life, you can find your voice in that role.”

The challenge: “Take two or three of the primary roles in your life, and in each role, ask yourself these four questions: What need do I sense? Do I possess a true talent that, if disciplined and applied, can meet the need? Does the opportunity to meet the need tap into my passion? Does my conscience inspire me to become involved and take action?”

Covey guarantees that if you answer all four questions in the affirmative, develop a plan of action and then go to work on it, you will begin to find your voice in life—a life of deep meaning, satisfaction, and greatness—and you will begin to inspire others to find their voice.

The choice to expand your influence and increase your contribution is the choice to inspire others to find their voice, he says. You unleash “latent genius, creativity, passion, talent, and motivation. Organizations that reach a critical mass of people and teams ex-pressing their full voice will achieve breakthroughs in productivity, innovation, and leadership. As you find your voice and inspire others to find theirs, you increase your freedom and power to solve your greatest challenge.”

I am lucky to have been exposed to on-line communications for over three decades. The airline industry as far as the early sixties communicated on line: first with telexes then later through a network of computer terminals. This form of communication is quite distinctive to the normal written letter and mail mode. Communicating through emails which is now the most common way requires different reflexes. Texting and SMS are invading our communications sphere. What are the rules to obey? Do you consider the usefulness of the message sent to your addressees?

This recent article, entitled ‘Mere Words’ from the web highlights some aspects we have to watch out in particular with the internet.

Mere Words:

How to improve your online communication

by Barbara Neal Varma

You’re trying to figure out why your wife’s brother just sent you a flaming e-mail-at work, no less-when a message pops up from your boss with only question marks in the subject line, (that can’t be good), your daughter texts you to ask for permission to stay overnight with her “BFF,” whatever that is, and you’ve got close to 200 e-mails all with red priority flags like ants on your screen. You rub your gritty, glare-strained eyes and wonder: When did simply communicating get to be so hard?

You’re not alone. With today’s popularity in e-mailing, blogging and texting, more than half of our conversations are written instead of verbal. While convenient, experts say confusion can easily occur when the usual visual cues such as facial expression are not present. “It’s easier to spot signals when meeting someone face-to-face,” says Dr. Will Reader of Sheffied Hallam University in his recent study on online social networks. “It’s harder to spot signals online.”

So how do we get our messages safely across the virtual divide? Follow these easy steps to make your electronic communication more clear and comprehensible.

At Work

Get to the Point – Ever receive an e-mail so long it made your Starbucks turn cold? Or do you stop reading after one paragraph? Studies show that the attention span of online readers is significantly shorter than those reading printed material. “In research on how people read Web sites, we found that 79 percent of our test users always scanned any new page they came across,” says Web page usability expert Dr. Jakob Nielsen. He recommends using half the word count or less than conventional writing when composing electronic messages.

Another good habit to practice: write in active, not passive voice; “Jill promoted Jack” instead of “Jack was promoted.” The latter begs the question, by whom? Busy business folks don’t have time for mysteries.

Begin your message with your main points: your question, your answer, your researched information then fill in the details behind instead of starting with a yawner of a preamble. Think of any follow-up questions your recipients may have and address them in your original message to avoid a rush of return e-mails.

Get it Right – Every social scientist or hiring official will tell you within the context of face-to-face communication, appearance means everything. Political correctness aside, people tend to form quick impressions based on others’ outward appearance, the golden rule for every dress-for-success seminar. Don’t let typos or sloppy grammar ruin your good image online. Remember, your e-mail has the potential to be shared with every other colleague and client in the company. Avoid leaving a legacy of cyber errors with your signature at the bottom. Don’t depend on Spell Check to catch every spelling mistake. Some misspellings make perfectly spelled words by themselves and, therefore, don’t generate a red squiggly line alert.

Keep it Professional – Hey, no one likes to be YELLED AT. Using all caps in your message means you are shouting, and if your recipient is the company vice president or an important client, he or she might not appreciate your uppity tone. Remember, your readers are not seeing you on their computer monitor, they are seeing your words; guard them and your reputation well. “My e-mail is a piece of professional communication that speaks to the person who wrote it,” says Human Resources Director Diana Clark during a recent career readiness seminar. “Don’t use slang,” she advises. “Don’t use capital letters. Don’t use inappropriate dialogue with a co-worker. Somebody else is going to see that, then it goes to the boss.”

And save the winsome daisy background and jumping graphics for your MySpace page. There’s no crying in baseball and there’s no room for emoticons (smiley faces and their winking cousins) in business e-mail. Using cartoons to punctuate your prose just looks, well, cartoonish.

At Home

Think Before You Send – “Susan” stared at the computer screen, not believing her eyes, but there it was: a flaming e-mail from her brother listing everything he felt she’d done wrong regarding their elderly mother’s care. His words were harsh; he said things she had no idea he was thinking, let alone willing to say. But that’s the point: he hadn’t said them at all. He’d e-mailed her instead.

Social psychologists liken these e-mail eruptions to the “road rage” phenomenon when otherwise calm folks suddenly become avenging drivers, exhibiting symptoms of outrage and anger not consistent with their everyday behavior. The key and catalyst in both road rage and e-rage is the perceived sense of privacy and power the car/computer conveys.

So what to do if you are on the other side of a hostile e-mail? First, like in any good emergency, stay calm. Your options are to respond in kind (tempting…), respond with calmer words to explain your side of things, or ignore the e-mail but pay attention to the sender and give them a call. You might discover there was more emotion to the message than sincerity and with a verbal conversation, you can better figure out the core problem. If the message is truly an attack on you, your family, or your golden retriever, simply delete it without reply and perhaps restrict your interaction. You’ve learned something about this individual and how they prefer to handle stress-by venting at you.

Be Versatile – Sure, you may yearn for the good old days when talking to someone meant they were actually in the same room, but with today’s variety of virtual communication, you might just as easily have a conversation with your friend in Timbuktu as you do with your next door neighbor. Instant messages, Web blogs, Facebook, MySpace; today’s technology has advanced our ability to stay in touch almost to the point of Star Trek’s famous “Beam me up, Scotty” communicators. Cell phones, especially, have become the new communicator to the current generation of teens and twenty-somethings, bringing forth a whole new cyber-lingo with enough acronyms and abbreviations to seem more code than conversation.

Take a computer course, learn how to use the latest e-mail programs and read that instruction manual for your cell phone that you’d tucked away thinking you already know how to use a phone, right? As you become more proficient at the many and varied ways to communicate today, you will not only expand your circle of friends and family ties, you’ll be opening up opportunities for connecting with others on a world-wide scale.

Practice Safe Text – On the one hand, e-mail lets us be ourselves. There’s no worry about spinach stuck in teeth or a lock of hair out of place. Men don’t even need to shave first. For those interested in meeting a potential dating prospect online, all this lack of posing and pretense makes e-mail conversations particularly personal: It’s just you and your chat partner with nothing between you but mere words.

But it’s that very bubble of easy intimacy that makes the Internet a virtual land of opportunity for imposters. Every year thousands of Internet users fall victim to identity theft, lulled like Cyrino’s Roxanne into believing that the message sender is who they say they are: a long lost friend, an enticing new acquaintance. A new-found love.

If you’re meeting new people online, practice the art of privacy until you are sure he or she (do we really know which?) is who they write they are. Don’t disclose your shoe size, your favorite American Idol candidate or your social security number to someone you don’t know well, and communicate via computer only in those contexts where you feel safe. Add a little restraint to your online chat and don’t fall for good-looking Subject lines suddenly appearing in your inbox. The person behind the prose might just well be a wolf in e-clothing.

Creating a sense of ownership has been a gained battle for me at Rogers.In 1986 the idea was mooted following a strategic brain storming with Eric Mafat of  the planning  department and the plan was rolled out in 1988.

I recall articles written by Bob Nelson I read, which encapsulated my road map to enhance the sense of ownership at all levels. It was thrilling working thereon and I had great satisfaction deploying the strategy. The guys acted as if they owned the SBU’s where they were working. This was particularly satisfactory when the large Air Cargo organisation was reorganised in autonomous smaller SBU’s and smaller SSU’s – support service units.

My motto was small is magic, and small is empowering. SME.

I regretted that later  after I left this division, the new management policy was based on economy of scale.

Eight Factors of Ownership

We have identified eight factors for creating a sense of ownership. These elements empower and motivate people in any size or type of organization, although they are perhaps easier to cultivate in smaller organizations.

1. Having the thrill of the flame. When workers are highly connected to the products, processes and services of the organization, they are “close to the flame.” They have a passion and excitement about their jobs and what the organization is trying to do. This is easiest to do when all employees can easily understand, relate to, and agree with what the organization is trying to achieve. Thus, it becomes important to have clear, simple and widely communicated goals.

When a business is started, this passion exists for the entrepreneurs. As the company grows and as the management and ownership of the company are separated, it becomes more difficult to keep the flame blazing. A growing organization becomes a more diverse and complicated entity, due in part to having more people, locations and products.

In large organizations, the connection to the flame must be systematically made through communication and delegation. Work units need to be small and autonomous so that people understand how they fit into the organization and so that they feel they play an integral role in the company.

2. Understanding personal impact on profit and loss. Every person in the organization needs to understand how his or her job and department relate to the profit and loss of the organization. This involves knowing how you directly or indirectly help the organization to generate income—that is, how what you are doing relates to how the company self-perpetuates itself through further earnings. Understanding the current profit-and-loss nature of the business gives employees a sense of pride when they know they can do things better or cut expenses and thus make more money for the organization.

To give people a greater sense of profit and loss, make sure they know the financial priorities of the organization and use that information as a criteria for making decisions. Emphasize current data over year-end data. Having timely information allows employees to have influence more frequently and to feel more direct involvement in the business.

3. Having autonomy and independence. People feel autonomous when they feel supported in what they do, recognized for who they are, and treated with respect. Individuals have the right to live their lives and be themselves in the organization. They have the right to do what they need to do to be effective and productive without being constrained—as long as they do not negatively affect job performance, client relationships, or invade other people’s rights.

Related to independence is the degree of risk that comes from being given responsibility and authority to make things happen. In the best-run companies, you can take risks. There are no rigid guidelines, only parameters for getting things done. There is room for you to innovate and come up with new ideas and an open environment for listening to new ideas.

Risk is an important element of an ownership system. In new and small companies, people take a lot of risks. There isn’t a lot of “covering up” or systems in place to minimize risk. People are encouraged to take appropriate risks to get their jobs done.

4. Being self-reliant. Related to autonomy and independence is self-reliance. People who have a sense of ownership have a lot of control over themselves that extends beyond the organization. They tend not to be guided by reams of rules and regulations, but instead prefer to have self-responsibility. They are treated as adults, with a sense of fairness and equity by the management of the organization, yet also with a distinct individuality.

Well managed organizations encourage employees to have more control, accountability and responsibility for what they do. In such companies, people are motivated to understand the programs, products and processes and to assume more self-accountability and responsibility—and thus become more self-reliant.

5. Having pride of association. When pride exists in the organization, people are more committed to what they are doing. When pride exists, people understand what the organization stands for, its values and fair dealings; they feel highly committed to what they are doing; they have enough information to do it well; they are accountable for their actions; and they look forward to going to work everyday.

While such pride is particularly evident in organizations where you can see and experience the product, it may also be evident in service organizations. Nordstrom, for example, demonstrates high commitment to the client through outstanding service and employee empowerment. Nordstrom’s employees are expected to use their best judgment to help the organization reach its stated goal of providing exceptional service to every customer.

6. Being able to influence others. Having the ability to influence others means that you can make things happen both inside and outside the organization. You develop a personal network based upon your ability to influence people—not just because of your official organizational title or position.

Your ability to influence determines, in large part, what you can get done. In your department, for example, your ability to positively influence others to be excited about achieving the department’s goals is a significant part of effective team building. Outside of your immediate area, there is a network in the organization of who you are, what you have accomplished and how you make things happen. This serves both as a means to obtain results, but also as a way to develop positive working relationships that will be of further value to you in the future. Outside of the organization, you have a resource and contact base that you can draw upon to help meet organizational needs.

7. Having personal accountability. Personal accountability means defining your job in such a way that you are accountable for it; you can take pride in it; and you are very responsible for it. Getting work done is driven by an internal forces and motivations when it is very clear who is responsible for results. Risk is allowed and encouraged because individuals are held accountable for their actions. Yet penalties within the organization are consistent with risk taking. Individuals who fail at various tasks have to be handled carefully so that there is not a nitpicking about mistakes. The overall perception in the organization must be that risk taking is encouraged and that the individual is still valued even if he or she fails at a task.

8. Recognizing individuals and giving credit. If you want to build a sense of ownership in your organization, start recognizing people individually for outstanding achievement. Since you want to encourage workers to have high association with the organization, recognize them when they excel. Recognition is best when it is individualized. Specifically use the person’s name in a group setting, write individual letters of recognition and make specific references in communication media.

Recognizing people in print is important because is it so very personalized. In the movie industry, for example, everyone involved on a movie is mentioned in the film’s credits. An innovative form of individual recognition is found at Esprit in their use of employees to model clothes. By the photos are the names of the employees and their job in the company.

In addition, organizational successes need to be celebrated in a corresponding manner to the size and level of the success. A new contract signing might serve as an ideal opportunity to gather everyone who assisted with making the contract possible for a thank-you lunch, whereas the exceeding of annual profit goals by the company might call for a day of off-site celebration by all employees.

J’ai eu une superbe journée de Jeudi, animée par un grand créatif Pierre Louis Desprez.

Qui est Pierre Louis Desprez et quel est son parcours?

Formation : Normale Sup rue d’Ulm
Associé de KAOS Consulting, agence-conseil en innovation (nouveaux produits / nouveaux services / stratégies de marque).
Chargé de cours en Sorbonne (Mastère)
Cabinet du Président du MEDEF
EDF, Direction Commerciale Professionnels
Conseiller culturel à l’ambassade de France en Autriche

Je savoure un livre de lui, qu’il m’a offerte : Traité de tous les noms – Histoires de mots marquants.

Un petit extrait que je veux bien partager :

Le Marketing de soi

« Dieu vous garde de la notoriété ! », disait l’abbé Pierre à une journaliste.

Andy Warhol avait annoncé :  « A l’avenir, chacun aura son quart d’heure de célébrité. » C’est la que commence le marketing de soi.

Picasso avait un grand sens des affaires. Il envoyait des amis tous les jours chez les galeristes parisiens pour qu’ils leurs réclament un Picasso. A l’époque, aucun d’eux ne le connaissait. En quelques mois, ils voulurent tous voir ses œuvres et l’exposer !

Picasso, toujours lui, vendu beaucoup de toiles très peu cher, avant d’augmenter drastiquement ses prix. Du coup, tous ceux qui avaient acheté se sont vus à la tête de petites fortunes, et clamaient que Picasso était bel et bien un génie.

Better than any James Bond films I have ever seen. The documentary on the BBC on Victor Bout was a real time thriller. He was arrested a year ago for arms traffic after a carefully crafted bait scenario by the Drug Enforcement Agency.

Was he the front man of the KGB mafia  gang or just a business man who availed of the opportunities of the break down of the USSR?

Read this fascinating story.

Fresh from the press of T Printers, managed by my old pal Charles, I receive my copy of ‘Putting People First’ second book authored by the Mauritian born Canadian Kin Tue-Fee.

I went through the book the last day and found it to be an easy to read compendium of elements that any manager and any entrepreneur  should have. As far as I am concerned the content is not new, but the book is handy and worthwhile buying as it provides the owner the possibility of having at hand in the same document the essentials of managerial and leadership knowledge to perform in a work environment. I understand the book may serve as a memo of Kin Tue-Fee’s lectures and courses.

I had the privilege of meeting Kin on several occasions on his visits to the island. I recall vividly his address to the Rotary Club and his gift presentation to the Toastmasters club of Port Louis. Kin is a seasoned speaker and conducts seminars across the world.

Kin Tue-Fee was born in the beautiful tropical island of Mauritius. He now lives in Ottawa, Canada with his wife and three children.

Kin’s interest in the field of personal and professional management and development goes back about thirty years. In the pursuit of his self-enhancement, he has attended numerous conferences, seminars and workshops on management and leadership topics. In 1997, he published his first book: Become your best – Principles of personal management and development.

As an executive in the public service of Canada, he has acquired a wealth of experience and knowledge that he wants to share with supervisors, managers and leaders who are ready and willing to put people first and make the most of their employees’ potential. He spent the last ten years researching, studying, experimenting to prepare and write his first book.  His second book, just published, is entitled “Putting People First.”

As a coach and an educator, he intends to introduce this fascinating concept of putting people first to as many supervisors, managers and leaders as possible with respect, empathy and love.

I congratulate Kin for the work he has to put in for the production of the book bearing in mind that he is himself the Publisher, thus taking the challenge and burden of ensuring the success of the sales and marketing of the book. It is with great pride that I am introducing this publication to you my blog readers and recommend you to buy this Canadian product printed in Mauritius.

I was watching THE SECRET, DVD lent to me by a friend. It is about the law of attraction.

Any idea was it is? The movie was made based of the book authored by Ronda Byrne. It has to do with the power of Positive thinking. Whilst working ‘towards’ better mental strength is excellent on the other hand, as taught by my NLP experience, we require also to draw from the ‘away’ elements.

Cultivating positive thinking is great to maintain and develop one’s mental growth. How would you fend away the negativity that is all around?

*** Article: How to Stop Absorbing Other People’s Negative Emotions – By Judith Orloff, M.D. ***

————————————————————

In my new book, “Emotional Freedom,” I emphasize the importance of learning how to stay centered in a stressful, highly emotionally charged world. Since emotions such as fear, anger, and frustration are energies, you can potentially “catch” them from people without realizing it. If you tend to be an emotional sponge, it’s vital to know how to avoid taking on an individual’s negative emotions or the free-floating kind in crowds. Another twist is that chronic anxiety, depression, or stress can turn you into an emotional sponge by wearing down your defenses. Suddenly, you become hyper-attuned to others, especially those with similar pain. That’s how empathy works; we zero in on hot-button issues that are unresolved in ourselves. From an energetic standpoint, negative emotions can originate from several sources. What you’re feeling may be your own; it may be someone else’s; or it may be a combination. I’ll explain how to tell the difference and strategically bolster positive emotions so you don’t shoulder negativity that doesn’t belong to you.

This wasn’t something I always knew how to do. Growing up, my girlfriends couldn’t wait to hit the shopping malls and go to parties, the bigger the better — but I didn’t share their excitement. I always felt overwhelmed, exhausted around large groups of people, though I was clueless why. “What’s the matter with you?” friends would say, shooting me the weirdest looks. All I knew was that crowded places and I just didn’t mix. I’d go there feeling just fine but leave nervous, depressed, or with some horrible new ache or pain. Unsuspectingly, I was a gigantic sponge, absorbing the emotions of people around me.

With my patients, I’ve also seen how absorbing other people’s emotions can trigger panic attacks, depression, food, sex and drug binges, and a plethora of physical symptoms that defy traditional medical diagnosis. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that more than two million Americans suffer from chronic fatigue. It’s likely that many of them are emotional sponges.

Here are some strategies from “Emotional Freedom” to practice. They will help you to stop absorbing other people’s emotions

Le manager agité est le titre de l’article du mois de Raymond Villancourt chez qui je suis abonné depuis des nombreuses années.

La recherche du calme et de compréhension est juste dans ce présent des remous de l’économie et du monde financier. Nous vivions des moments d’effervescence intense,  a quoi bon de courir dans tous les sens?

Composer avec le chaos ambiant. Soyons patient, en attendant que le nouveau paradigme apparaisse. L’eau est trouble, ce n’est pas le moment de s’agiter et de chercher son chemin, survivons et composons dans la situation actuelle. Je propose un repli de regard vers soi.  C’est un moment de mettre de l’ordre chez soi, d’augmenter sa productivité interne, de questionner son mode fonctionnement. Je n’ai aucune doute que les mécanismes économiques et financiers se transformeront et nous aurons à nous y ajusté. J’entrevois déjà des normes d’un monde plus écologique se mettre en place, plus égard vers une économie renouvelable.

Je vous recommande la lecture de son article et la visite de son site.

I recommend you to read an article from the Mc Kinsey Quarterly which retained my best attention. The article was very timely for me as I was reading the chapter relating to leadership style in ‘Pour quoi j’echoue en Management’ of Maurice Thevenet. The five dimensions of leadership explained in the article provided a visual summary for me.

‘Meaning, Managing energy, Engagement, Positive framing and Connecting’ are the five aspects that the leader of an organisation should look at continuously.

The four perquisites, i.e. Intelligence, tolerance for change, desire to lead, communications skills are required to have an effective impact on the organisation. Presence, belonging and resilience are the engines of the leadership.

I have my day today, ‘Maha Shivaratee’ holy day, with the reading of both this article and Maurice Thevenet books.

In his book the guru of marketing Martin Lindstrom discusses the mechanism of buying.

Buyology unveils the results of marketing guru Martin Lindstrom’s pioneering three‐year, $7 million dollar study that used the latest in brain scan technology to peer into the minds of over 2,000 people from around the world. The shocking results will overturn reveal why so much of what we thought we knew about why we buy is wrong, rewriting the rules of marketing and advertising in the process.

I am very keen to read the guru’s research on the subject. My marketing back ground and the life path career which has always been related to buy and selling excites me to learn more on the book. Luckily, a summary of the book is available on the net.

Pyscho marketing and now: Neuro marketing! Wow I like it.

CHAPTER 1: A rush of blood to the head

Many of our buying decisions take place so deep within our subconscious minds, that we’re not aware of what is driving them. By using the most sophisticated brain scanning techniques available, a team of scientists from across the world spent close to four years scanning consumers’ brains. Neuromarketing is a powerful new research methodology, and it promises to challenge the tenets of traditional market research. Whether it’s a pack of cigarettes, a new car, or a can of soda, the Project Buyology research findings shed fascinating new light on why we buy the things we do. The $7 million project questioned everything we thought we knew about why we buy. ‘A rush of blood to the head’ takes the reader on a journey of shopping discovery –on that will put governments on alert and cause upheaval for a multibillion dollar industry whose secret marketing weapon finally has been uncovered.

Chapter 2 –This must be the place

As you watched E.T. gather up those Reese’s Pieces one by one, did you crave that distinctive taste? As Tom Cruise slid on his Ray Bans in ‘Top Gun’ did you wish you too had a pair? When Simon Cowell took a sip of Coca‐Cola during an episode of ‘American Idol’, did you feel an inexplicable thirst? The Coca‐Cola Company, and the two other key sponsors of ‘American Idol’ hope so, since they each shell out over $26 million annually on their ‘American Idol’ campaigns. Marketers have believed in the efficacy of product placement for decades, Project Buyology monitored the brains of hundreds of ‘American Idol’ viewers to ascertain if this belief was well‐founded. We monitored reactions to Simon idly sipping a Coke, Paula Abdul casually mentioning Ford as she was raved about a hopeful performer, and Ryan Seacrest, reminding viewers to vote for their favourite contestant via AT&T Wireless text‐messaging. Did consumers’ brains pick up on the brand placements, or were they lost among the 2,000 other brand messages we receive every day? In 2006, companies paid a total of $3.36 billion globally to have their products placed in TV shows, movies and music videos. Yet no‐one has put the technique of product placement to the test. Not, that is, until September 2007, when Project Buyology scanned hundreds of consumer brains to test the effectiveness of product placement for the very first time.

Chapter 3 –I’ll have what she’s having

In 2004, Steve Jobs, the founder and CEO of Apple, was strolling along Madison Avenue in New York City when he noticed something strange, and gratifying. Hip white earphones snaking out of people’s ears, dangling across their chests, peeking out of pockets, purses and backpacks. They were everywhere. “Oh, my God, it’s starting to happen,” Jobs reported. But there was more to this story: a discovery made in the late 80s involving the macaque monkey would be instrumental in understanding why the iPod would become one of the world’s biggest brand successes. So, what does the behavior of a macaque monkey have to do with the astounding popularity of the iPod? A little function in our brain so significant that it is to psychology what DNA is to molecular biology, provides the explanation sheds light on a wide range of consumer behaviors. It explains why a simple smile from a salesperson can compel us to spend more money, why video games like ‘Guitar Hero’ are so popular, and why we’re hardwired to shop until we drop.

Chapter 4 –I can’t see clearly now

In 1957, when a market researcher named James Vicary claimed that a lightning‐quick image of a Coca‐Cola bottle –flashed for less than 1/3000thof a second on a movie screen –was enough to make the audience rush to the concession stands, America was shocked. If marketers could use hidden messages to get us to buy, couldn’t other agencies use similar tactics to psychologically manipulate our behavior? The term ‘subliminal advertising’ was coined, and its practice just as quickly banned, in 1957. Since then, no‐one has explored the potential influence of subliminal advertising. Fifty years later, scientists from across the world gathered in a lab in Oxford under Project Buyology. Lindstrom and some of the world’s most respected neuroscientists embarked on a mission to discover whether or not subliminal messages still surround us, and the extent to which they really influence our behavior. But be warned, what you’re about to see –or rather not see –may alarm you.

Chapter 5 –Do you believe in magic?

Let’s pretend we’re at a beachfront bar in Acapulco. Two ice‐cold Coronas coming right up, complete with lime wedges. We give the limes a squeeze, and stick them inside the necks of our bottles, tip the bottles upside down until the bubbles begin to get that nice fizz, and take a sip. Cheers. But first, let me pester you with a multiple choice question. The Corona beer‐and‐lime ritual we just performed –any idea how that might have come about?

A) That’s the way Latin cultures quaff their Coronas.

B) The ritual derives from an ancient Meso‐American technique for combating germs, since the lime’s acidity destroys bacteria.

C) A bartender at an unnamed restaurant, on a random bet with his buddy, popped a lime wedge into the neck of a Corona to see if he could get other patrons to do the same.

When you’ve read this chapter you’ll see the Corona beer ritual in a whole new light. As you will the thousands of rituals that manufacturers build into brands to seduce you. Just like having a lucky pen you always take to important meetings, or the fear of the number 13, eating the filling of your Oreo cookie first –turns out, the relationship between such everyday rituals and why we buy is close and inescapable. And as you’ll read in Buyology, many of the rituals we habitually perform in our daily lives were actually orchestrated by companies and marketers to draw us to their brands and products.

Chapter 6 –I say a little prayer

What connection, if any, exists between religion and our buying behavior? Are there similarities between the way our brains respond to religious and spiritual symbols, and the way they react to products or brands? Could certain products inspire the same sense of devotion and loyalty in us, as those provoked by faith or religion? Might companies be borrowing from the world of religion, without our knowing it, when advertising their products? Project Buyology wasn’t downplaying the importance of religion in people’s lives when it found that these connections were more powerful than we ever realized. It is as controversial a proposition as can be imagined –the relationship between religion and branding. But what explains why Apple fans queue for days to get hold of an iPhone, why Harley‐Davidson riders are obsessed with their bikes, and why a girl’s love of Hello Kitty sent a family broke?

Chapter 7 –Why did I choose you?

Did you know that 60 percent of the products we buy in the supermarket we choose spontaneously, and that 80 percent of these we picked within just four seconds? We make hundreds of snap decisions each and every day. Yet so many of them happen deep within our subconscious, so fast and far instinctively we’re barely aware of them. In Buyology, you’ll read how companies plant instant shortcuts –or brand bookmarks –in our subconscious to help us decide what to (or what not to) buy. And yes, your brain too holds some of them and they’ve probably influenced everything from the make of the last car you decided to buy to the brand of coffee you brewed this morning. Some brands are discovering the key to controlling those four vital seconds that we spend at the supermarket shelf –learning how to encourage us within that tiny timeframe to pick their brand instead of another. The somatic marker phenomenon led Project Buyology into an experiment involving one of the best‐known –and apparently irritating –sounds in the world, revealing findings that left the marketing executives at Nokia flabbergasted.

Chapter 8 –This must be the place

Does your heart rate increase when you glimpse one of those signature robin‐egg blue Tiffany boxes? Or maybe you feel your pulse race when you inhale the scent of a new car. A few years ago, Martin Lindstrom conducted a test. He presented 600 women with an empty Tiffany’s box each. Monitoring their heart rates and blood pressure, researchers found that, when the women received the box, their heart rates went up 20 percent. The women saw no logo, just the color. Its powerful associations with engagement, marriage, babies and fertility got those hearts racing. Similarly, Project Buyologyset out to discover why Play‐Dohand Crayolaseem to spark a special recognition in us as we smell. And why there is much more to Johnson & Johnson’s baby powder than its wonderful smell. In a fascinating experiment, Lindstrom and his team of neuroscientists used fMRItechnology to examine the influence our senses have on what we buy.

Chapter 9 –And the answer is…

Remember when Coke altered its secret recipe to produce New Coke? Sales plummeted. Sure, the company had tested the new product before embarking on this multi‐million dollar disaster. So how did the 200,000 people who participated in the extensive market research get it wrong? The fact is, nine out of ten product releases fail. So if market research is so unreliable, how can companies get the information they need to develop products that consumers really want? It’s time for a new approach. Via neuromarketing, Lindstrom and his team examined consumer brains to uncover the hidden motivations, needs and desires that our conscious minds aren’t aware of. Using the pilot of a TV game show as the test product, Lindstrom and the team discovered that what hundreds of test participants said they hated they really kind of loved.

Chapter 10 –Let’s spend the night together

Are you interested in sex? That got your attention, didn’t it? In this chapter, Lindstrom and his team of neuroscientists take a look at whether sex in advertising succeeds in seducing our interest in products, or whether it backfires. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. From Calvin Klein to an Italian ad campaign that will make you shudder, Buyologyputs an age‐old question to the test: does sex sell?

Chapter 11 –Summary

Buyologybears witness to an historic meeting between science and marketing: a union of apparent opposites that sheds new light on why we make decisions about what we buy. Thanks to neuroimaging, we can now understand better what really drives our behavior, our opinions, our preference for Corona over Budweiser, iPods over Zunes, or MacDonald’s over Wendy’s. Through Project Buyology, neuromarketinghas emerged as a powerful new tool in understanding consumers’ decision‐making processes. This methodology is ready to revolutionize our understanding of our own buying behavior and send shock waves throughout the marketing and advertising industries as well as the business world. You’re about to discover your own ‘buyology’.