One of the defining characteristics of an e-company is that it integrates the Internet into its business in two important ways: to handle business processes, and to sell products online.

Get the book, but there is no guarantee that you won't get beaten, for someone else may need the book more badly.

Gap zapping

KEN BLANCHARD, the business guru, has come out with a new booster called Zap the Gaps, this time with Dana and Jim Robinson, to combine his storytelling talents with the problem-solving approach of Robinsons. The blurb empathises with managers who often see a problem and jump to a solution. "Many times the solution does not solve the problem, however, because the manager did not uncover the root cause." How to avoid the pitfall?

Gaps cost organisations billions every year. When people do not work at their best, everyone loses — the customer, the organisation, the employee.

There are three reasons for performance gaps. One is not under your control, but the other two are.

There is no valid reason to train all the employees in all the success behaviours if those behaviours aren't crucial to heightened performance or if they're not lacking in all the employees.

Is our goal to resolve problems on the first call, or is it to keep calls short so we can handle more calls?

Sometimes the wrong solution is worse than no solution. Select the right solutions!

The GAPS formula: Go for the "shoulds". Analyse the "is". Pin down the causes. Select the right solutions.

Perhaps, you can ZAP when you can Zero in on A Problem.

Quick results

FOR those who want to quickly access the tools needed to be an effective manager, here is Cy Charney's The Instant Manager.

The first chapter begins with an interesting quote of Indira Gandhi:

"My grandfather once told me that there are two kinds of people: those who do the work and those who take the credit. He told me to try and be in the first group; there was less competition there." More:

Full of knowledge capsules.

(Books courtesy: Fountainhead, Chennai. E-mail: fhbooks@satyam. net.in)

Tailpiece

"Accountants are getting turned away from discotheques."

"Because they're too sobre?"

"No, they create disclosure problems."

hindubusinessline@hotmail.com

D. Murali

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