Ever since Moses came down from the mountain with the tablets containing the 10 Commandments, there have been movies made about them, people have lionized them in verse and story and they could be the most quoted rules of all time.
Along comes Bill Fromm, president of Barkley & Evergreen Advertising, Shawnee Mission, Kan., who has written a new book called "The 10 Commandments of Business and How to Break Them," a 173-page book he says contains secrets for improving employee morale, enhancing customer service, increasing company profits and having more fun than you ever thought you could have at work.Fromm said he started thinking about writing the book when he saw companies, in connection with his advertising agency, sell shoddy products and services. "They would have been better off to save their money and not expose customers to shoddy products," Fromm said in a telephone interview.
Leonard A. Schlesinger, a professor in the Harvard University Graduate School of Business, has given Fromm a big boost in the afterword of the book, by stating that Fromm's 10 Commandments breakage coincides with some research he has done focusing on employees.
Schlesinger said his findings indicate companies that have distinguished themselves in the way they hire, train and treat their employees have experienced more than a 50 percent increase in service quality and customer satisfaction, 60-300 percent greater growth rates than competitors; 200-300 percent greater return on sales than competitors and 150-300 percent greater return on assets than competitors.
Here are Fromm's 10 Commandments of business and in parentheses how he suggests breaking them:
- Thy customer is king. (If you want the customer to be treated like a king, treat the people you manage like royalty.)
- Thy goal shalt be to make a profit. (Focus on the goals and objectives that result in profits.)
- Rank hath its privileges. (Rank has its responsibilities.)
- Thou shalt scorn nepotism. (Make nepotism a state of mine - treat everybody like family.)
- Thou shalt know what thou selleth. (Marketing is about what people buy, not what you sell.)
- Thou shalt put it in writing and produce it in triplicate. (Talking is three times better than writing in triplicate.)
- Thou shalt covet new customers. (Old customers are more profitable than new customers.)
- Thou shalt have rules. (Corporate culture should replace company rules.)
- Thou shalt not mix business and pleasure. (To maximize profits, make business a pleasure.)
- Thou shalt labor for thy boss. (We are all self-employed.)