Business Is Combat

by Murphy, James D.

• ISBN13: 9780060393250
• ISBN10: 0060393254
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-02-10
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publications

Summary

Advocating the use of military training techniques in motivating sales people, Murphy walks his talk as a sales consultant and F15 fighter pilot for the Air National Guard. Having started in sales as a high school student working for a family office-supplies business, he contends that he has successfully divided his time between work and the military for a number of years because of the similarities between the two fields. In his view, both fighter pilots and sales people require mission statements that "must be absolutely clear and understandable... measurable...achievable and must support the overall objectives of the organization". In addition, just as fighter pilots must take a specific sequence of steps in the course of each flight, sales people need a concrete action plan for accomplishing their goals, such as focusing on their key objective and eliminating the unnecessary clutter: "Listen, don't talk.... Know when to abort and establish a sense of value to the mission". Writing in a friendly, anecdotal tone, rather than that of a military commander, Murp

Table of Contents

Introduction	xi
From Farm Boy to Fighter Pilot	1	(12)
In the Beginning: Values	13	(10)
Leaning Forward: The Fighter Pilot Way	23	(18)
The Spear: Organize for Execution	41	(18)
The Value of Intelligence	59	(12)
The Six Steps to Combat Mission Planning	71	(18)
Briefing: Taking the Plan to the People	89	(26)
The Art of Execution	115	(12)
Task Saturation: The Obstacle to Flawless Execution	127	(14)
Overcoming Task Saturation	141	(16)
The Debrief: The Land of No Slack	157	(24)
Tomorrow Is Today	181	(8)
People	189