A Dream with a Deadline: Turning strategy into action - Tapa dura

"Let's put a man on the moon in 10 years." This was a dream with a deadline - the deadline was met, the dream came true and history was made. Your vision may not be quite as groundbreaking as JFK's, but achieving it could still have a major impact on your business. Formulating a brief and easy-to-grasp business vision can help inspire and focus people towards the same goals and objectives. Having the vision is one thing, you then need to make it happen, Dreams with a Deadline will show you how to transform a well-articulated and inspiring vision into positive action and results. This book will provide all business managers and leaders with a set of practical tools for turning their business dreams into reality. Managers and leaders, have your pen and paper at the ready, by the time you have finished this book you will have a one-page visual representation and a three-page written summary specifiying your strategy and where you, your team or your company are headed. It also includes an all revealing self-diagnosis exercise which will show you where you should concentrate your energy, time and resources to make your vision happen. Don't just dream about what your business 'could' be like', set a deadline and make it happen.

Jacques Horovitz is Professor of Professor of Service Strategy, Service Marketing & Service Management at IMD, Lausanne. He has previously served as Executive Vice President marketing and sales for Club Med North America; as Managing Director - Marketing and International - for the GrandVision group, a listed retail speciality store chain with 800 stores in 15 countries in Europe; and as coach to the Executive Committee of Disneyland Paris, during its turnaround, as well as head of quality and training. He is currently CEO of a hotel chain he created nine years ago. Jacques has advised the CEOs of more than 100 companies throughout Europe on service, having founded, developed and managed a pan-European consulting company with offices in seven countries and 50 consultants. His assignments have been in a wide variety of sectors including leisure, tourism, transportation, financial services, industrial equipment, office automation, retailing, pharmaceuticals, automobile, hospitality, telecom. He has researched and published widely on service strategies and service quality, relationship marketing and customer bonding. His publications include the international best-seller Quality of Service (InterEditions, 1987), Total Customer Satisfaction (FT/Pitman, 1992) and Service Strategy (FTPH, 2nd edn 2004).