Books with author Peter FitzGerald

Engage hearts, minds and organizations to make customers happierWe will show you howYou probably have lots ideas that will make things better for customers, but you don’t have the time, money or people to implement everything. How should you go about choosing the best ideas? How can you secure the resources you need to be successful? How can you bring more customer focus to your entire company? I want to help you to make all of that happen.Three keys to successI learned about customer experience in the clothing industry, and went on to lead it in three of the largest high-tech companies. Three things remained constant throughout that time. First, you are probably wrong if you think you know what customers want, but have not actually asked them. Second, it can be really hard to get the people and other resources you need to improve things for customers. Third, unless you take a systematic approach to creating and implementing a customer experience improvement strategy, you cannot possibly be successful. Use my experience to accelerate yoursWhether you are starting a new position in customer experience or have many successful years behind you, I believe I can provide new insights that will help you to get things done quickly. I have made many mistakes over many years. I learned from them, and have now documented what I learned. I have faced all sorts of problems. I have solved almost all of them, perhaps not perfectly. Hopefully you can learn what I learned, and do even better. Strategy is all about resource allocationI have learned one fundamental thing about designing business strategy and customer experience strategy. It is all about allocation of resources: people and money. Any investment you make in people and money must return more than it costs. If you don’t already have the people and money, you have to ask for them. The people you ask will want you to justify your proposal, based on facts. You will also have to appeal to their emotions. I will show you how to do that. Engage both hearts and mindsI have also learned one thing about persuading leaders and employees to adopt, fund, and implement a customer experience strategy. You can only be successful by engaging people’s emotions, rather than simply presenting the facts. My work was far more successful once I understood exactly how to engage both hearts and minds, based on the principles of behavioural economics. Artwork that makes it memorableI have the good fortune to have a brother who combines two rare talents. He has an Oxford doctorate in cognitive psychology, and he is a successful artist. He also has a weird sense of humor. He has used this special combination to make many points in the book far more memorable. You won’t find this in any other strategy books.Updated in March 2018I updated my research on the relationship between customer and employee satisfaction (398 companies) in March 2019, and updated the corresponding section of the book. This and a series of other minor improvements brought new versions of the Kindle and print editions of the book in early March 2019.Now what?So, how do you go about deciding what to do next? That is what this book is all about. It provides a straightforward methodology for studying what your customers and partners want, and other major factors that drive decisions. There is a special focus on communication. I have used it successfully at large and small scale. I have used it at HP to drive country strategies, business unit strategies and M&A strategies. I have used it for a small software company with only four employees. It scales well. I believe it is the best possible way of developing a customer in a short time. It does work. You do need it. You are just a click away. You know what to do now.First book in the Customer Strategy series.

Look at a ‘great’ photo – that is, a photo by one of the many great photographers. Rotate it 90 degrees (either way). Are you seeing new things / new aspects / a different story in the photo? Almost certainly the answer is ‘yes’; the photo is showing you something you hadn’t registered before. The message has changed – unsurprisingly – between the physical thing and you.So what’s happening?If photography is important to you, then I believe this twisting of the photo-to-person space has to be explored (by you). And by extension, understanding what is happening in rotated photographs may tell us a great deal about what happens, between the image and you, in ‘normal’, unrotated ones. We gain an insight too into visual artefacts – the visual arts and beyond – more generally.This simple idea of rotation is illustrated here with the help of 60 stunning portrait photographs. You'll discover works by some giants of photography, Dorothea Lange, Julia Margaret Cameron, and Walker Evans among them. Or – if you know these photographers already – you'll discover whole new ways of looking at their work. Give it a go – discover that you can see photography differently.____Peter FitzGerald is an artist, web developer, and former editor of Circa Art Magazine; he holds a doctorate in Experimental Psychology from the University of Oxford, and a degree in Fine Art from the National College of Art and Design, Dublin.

Look at a ‘great’ photo – that is, a photo by one of the many great photographers. Rotate it 90 degrees (either way). Are you seeing new things / new aspects / a different story in the photo? Almost certainly the answer is ‘yes’; the photo is showing you something you hadn’t registered before. The message has changed – unsurprisingly – between the physical thing and you.So what’s happening?If photography is important to you, then I believe this twisting of the photo-to-person space has to be explored (by you). And by extension, understanding what is happening in rotated photographs may tell us a great deal about what happens, between the image and you, in ‘normal’, unrotated ones. We gain an insight too into visual artefacts – the visual arts and beyond – more generally.This simple idea of rotation is illustrated here with the help of 60 stunning landscape photographs. You'll discover works by some giants of photography, Ansel Adams among them. Or – if you know these photographers already – you'll discover whole new ways of looking at their work. Give it a go – discover that you can see photography differently.____Peter FitzGerald is an artist, web developer, and former editor of Circa Art Magazine; he holds a doctorate in Experimental Psychology from the University of Oxford, and a degree in Fine Art from the National College of Art and Design, Dublin.

Engage hearts, minds and organizations to make customers happierWe will show you howYou probably have lots ideas that will make things better for customers, but you don’t have the time, money or people to implement everything. How should you go about choosing the best ideas? How can you secure the resources you need to be successful? How can you bring more customer focus to your entire company? I want to help you to make all of that happen.Three keys to successI learned about customer experience in the clothing industry, and went on to lead it in three of the largest high-tech companies. Three things remained constant throughout that time. First, you are probably wrong if you think you know what customers want, but have not actually asked them. Second, it can be really hard to get the people and other resources you need to improve things for customers. Third, unless you take a systematic approach to creating and implementing a customer experience improvement strategy, you cannot possibly be successful. Use my experience to accelerate yoursWhether you are starting a new position in customer experience or have many successful years behind you, I believe I can provide new insights that will help you to get things done quickly. I have made many mistakes over many years. I learned from them, and have now documented what I learned. I have faced all sorts of problems. I have solved almost all of them, perhaps not perfectly. Hopefully you can learn what I learned, and do even better. Strategy is all about resource allocationI have learned one fundamental thing about designing business strategy and customer experience strategy. It is all about allocation of resources: people and money. Any investment you make in people and money must return more than it costs. If you don’t already have the people and money, you have to ask for them. The people you ask will want you to justify your proposal, based on facts. You will also have to appeal to their emotions. I will show you how to do that. Engage both hearts and mindsI have also learned one thing about persuading leaders and employees to adopt, fund, and implement a customer experience strategy. You can only be successful by engaging people’s emotions, rather than simply presenting the facts. My work was far more successful once I understood exactly how to engage both hearts and minds, based on the principles of behavioural economics. Artwork that makes it memorableI have the good fortune to have a brother who combines two rare talents. He has an Oxford doctorate in cognitive psychology, and he is a successful artist. He also has a weird sense of humor. He has used this special combination to make many points in the book far more memorable. You won’t find this in any other strategy books.Updated in March 2019I updated my research on the relationship between customer and employee satisfaction (now covers 398 large businesses selling to US consumers) in March 2019, and updated the corresponding section of the book. This and a series of other minor improvements brought new versions of the Kindle and print editions of the book in early March 2019.Now what?So, how do you go about deciding what to do next? That is what this book is all about. It provides a straightforward methodology for studying what your customers and partners want, and other major factors that drive decisions. There is a special focus on communication. I have used it successfully at large and small scale. I have used it at HP to drive country strategies, business unit strategies and M&A strategies. I have used it for a small software company with only four employees. It scales well. I believe it is the best possible way of developing a customer experience strategy in a short time. It does work. You do need it. You are just a click or two away. You know what to do now.

Look at a ‘great’ photo – that is, a photo by one of the many great photographers. Rotate it 90 degrees (either way). Are you seeing new things / new aspects / a different story in the photo? Almost certainly the answer is ‘yes’; the photo is showing you something you hadn’t registered before. The message has changed – unsurprisingly – between the physical thing and you.So what’s happening?If photography is important to you, then I believe this twisting of the photo-to-person space has to be explored (by you). And by extension, understanding what is happening in rotated photographs may tell us a great deal about what happens, between the image and you, in ‘normal’, unrotated ones. We gain an insight too into visual artefacts – the visual arts and beyond – more generally.This simple idea of rotation is illustrated here with the help of 60 stunning photographs of our built environments. You'll discover works by some giants of photography, Ansel Adams, Gertrude Käsebier, Edward Weston, Berenice Abbott, Alfred Stieglitz among them. Or – if you know these photographers already – you'll discover whole new ways of looking at their work. Give it a go – discover that you can see photography differently.____Peter FitzGerald is an artist, web developer, and former editor of Circa Art Magazine; he holds a doctorate in Experimental Psychology from the University of Oxford, and a degree in Fine Art from the National College of Art and Design, Dublin.

Reduce costs and keep all your customers. It is possible!We will show you how.You want your company to perform better. You want to reduce costs. You may even be desperate to reduce costs. But when you reduce costs, customers feel it, right? If you cut costs and lose customers, you will need to cut costs again. And again. Soon there will be nothing left to cut. And no customers. I call this the corporate death spiral. I have seen it happen. You may have seen it happen. You may be going through it.It does not have to be that way.It does not matter whether you need to cut costs to have money to invest, or simply because you have a profit crunch. No matter what your reason, it can be done without negative customer impact. Some cost reductions may even improve things for customers, making them more loyal. But how?Customer-centric Cost Reduction is a simple but revolutionary concept. I explain how to accurately identify things of little importance to customers. These are the cost reduction priorities. For most companies, there are lots of them. They fall into just a few categories, each of which needs to be addressed in specific ways.Imagine a world where you reduce costs faster than your competitors. You wind up with more money to invest in growth than your competitors could ever dream of. You can fund your new ideas. Your competitors can’t. This book explains how to do it. It also explains how not to do it. Here is the most common way companies reduce costs (Don’t do this) Your CEO (let’s call him Bob) is worried about cost. The board wants the share price to go up. He wants a bigger bonus. So do the others on the leadership team. Bob thinks of himself as a fair person. He wants his cost reduction to be seen as fair by everyone. Easy! Here is what he writes to all of the employees: “… and in the interest of fairness, I am asking every business and function in the company to reduce costs by 15%. It will be hard. We all need to work together to make it happen…” Let me be clear about this. Bob is an idiot! He makes no distinction between things that matter to customers and those that do not. This is how you start the corporate death spiral. This is how to go out of business.A real world example of how not to do it I remember walking along with the head of HP in EMEA. His phone rang. It was the CEO of a large Dutch multinational. He was not happy. They had outsourced their internal PC help desk to us. To cut cost, we had eliminated Dutch as a supported language. Nobody told the CEO. He had just phoned the help desk. He got a nasty surprise. This did not turn out all that well for us. Enough said!Customer-centric Cost Reduction is both informative and entertaining. The methodology, anecdotes and examples are accompanied by memorable drawings that drive home many key points. I particularly like the one about the CEO announcing a company-wide travel freeze from the comfort of his corporate jet. (Don't do this either!)About the authors Maurice started his career with an Industrial Engineering degree and a stopwatch in his hand in a Wrangler clothing factory. He has implemented many major cost reduction initiatives for four multinationals right up to his time as VP of Customer Experience for HP Software. Peter is an artist, web designer, and Oxford-educated Doctor in Cognitive Psychology. The unusual combination of authors produces cost-reduction book that is unlike any other you will read. It combines current management thinking with behavioral economics theory and some striking illustrations.And in conclusion As we say in the book, “There are just 3.5 ways of reducing cost.” You are just one or two clicks from finding out what they are. Third book in the Customer Strategy series.

Reduce costs and keep all your customers. It is possible! We will show you how. You want your company to perform better. You want to reduce costs. You may even be desperate to reduce costs. But when you reduce costs, customers feel it, right? If you cut costs and lose customers, you will need to cut costs again. And again. Soon there will be nothing left to cut. And no customers. I call this the corporate death spiral. I have seen it happen. You may have seen it happen. You may be going through it. It does not have to be that way. It does not matter whether you need to cut costs to have money to invest, or simply because you have a profit crunch. No matter what your reason, it can be done without negative customer impact. Some cost reductions may even improve things for customers, making them more loyal. But how? Customer-centric Cost Reduction is a simple but revolutionary concept. I explain how to accurately identify things of little importance to customers. These are the cost reduction priorities. For most companies, there are lots of them. They fall into just a few categories, each of which needs to be addressed in specific ways. Imagine a world where you reduce costs faster than your competitors. You wind up with more money to invest in growth than your competitors could ever dream of. You can fund your new ideas. Your competitors can’t. This book explains how to do it. It also explains how not to do it. Here is the most common way companies reduce costs (Don’t do this) Your CEO (let’s call him Bob) is worried about cost. The board wants the share price to go up. He wants a bigger bonus. So do the others on the leadership team. Bob thinks of himself as a fair person. He wants his cost reduction to be seen as fair by everyone. Easy! Here is what he writes to all of the employees: “… and in the interest of fairness, I am asking every business and function in the company to reduce costs by 15%. It will be hard. We all need to work together to make it happen…” Let me be clear about this. Bob is an idiot! He makes no distinction between things that matter to customers and those that do not. This is how you start the corporate death spiral. This is how to go out of business. A real world example of how not to do it I remember walking along with the head of HP in EMEA. His phone rang. It was the CEO of a large Dutch multinational. He was not happy. They had outsourced their internal PC help desk to us. To reduce cost, we had eliminated Dutch as a supported language. Nobody had told the CEO. He had just phone the help desk. He got a nasty surprise. This did not turn out all that well for us. Enough said! Customer-centric Cost Reduction is both informative and entertaining. The methodology, anecdotes and examples are accompanied by my brother's memorable drawings that drive home many key points. I particularly like the one about the CEO announcing a company-wide travel freeze from the comfort of his corporate jet. (Don't do this either!) About the authors Maurice started his career with an Industrial Engineering degree and a stopwatch in his hand in a Wrangler clothing factory. He has implemented many major cost reduction initiatives for four multinationals right up to his time as VP of Customer Experience for HP Software. Peter is an artist, web designer, and Oxford-educated Doctor in Cognitive Psychology. The unusual combination of authors has produced a cost-reduction book that is unlike any other you will read. It combines current management thinking with behavioral economics theory and some striking illustrations. And in conclusion As we say in the book, “There are just 3.5 ways of reducing cost.” You are just one or two clicks from finding out what they are. You know what to do now.

Nukes ended most of society. Now all that’s left is taxes.Arthur McDowell works for the most indestructible employer left in post-apocalyptic America: the IRS. Safe and sound inside a government bunker, Arthur is proud to be just another drone. But for an ambitious man (and excellent typist) such as Arthur, a promotion to supervisor is just around the corner. Arthur’s world flips when instead of a becoming supervisor, the brass makes him a census-taker. His task: to head out into the irradiated streets armed with paperwork and red tape. Assigned to him is a drug-addicted bodyguard, Rabia Duke, who could care less if they survive. All’s well at first, but after Arthur is confronted by a warlord, he realizes that the only thing that can save them all is a massive audit. Because even above radiation, roving gangs, and starvation, what the world should fear the most remains bureaucracy. A happy bureaucracy.Brazil by way of Mad Max, M.P. Fitzgerald’s A Happy Bureaucracy is a bleak and hilarious look at the wheels of a system that keep turning even when nothing else is left. Get your copy today!