The Advantage Makers: How Exceptional Leaders Win by Creating Opportunities Others Don't

By Steven Feinberg

Book Overview

Are you an advantage maker? If not, odds are you will lose to someone who is. Advantage-Makers are those rare leaders who win more often because they know how to consistently transform challenging... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0132347784
• ISBN13: 9780132347785
• Release Date: January 2007
• Publisher: Ft Pr
• Length: 277 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 1.3" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

Simply outstanding, a must read for anyone wanting to create an advantage

Steven Feinberg knocks one out of the park when it comes to understanding how high-performing individuals separate themselves from others by how they see and interact with conditions around them. The author gives real life examples of leaders and situations that illustrate how individuals become "advantage-makers." Both insightful and enjoyable to read, I looked forward to every opportunity to pick up this book and continue where I left off. Page after page, Steven Feinberg brings fresh perspective on how exceptional leaders create winning opportunities. Simply put, it's a must read for anyone who is interested in being a "game changer."

Well worth the read at any speed

I tend to speed-read these kinds of works if I spend any time at all with them because there seems to be a jillion of them. The goal with any book I spend much time with is to find two or three things so helpful or interesting that one of them will pop to mind the next time I need to insert an anecdote or example into a conversation, lecture or seminar presentation. What a pleasure it was, then, to find myself actually moseying through Dr. Feinberg's book and savoring the ride. Words on the page tell you a great deal about the author. Does he or she care about the language? Does he or she write with confidence? Does he or she have a knack for telling a story? Does he or she invite belief that this is a subject they actually know something about? Does he or she deserve the minutes they are going to soak up from the 525,600 you have available in the current year if you hang around? Steven Feinberg passes the smell test with The Advantage-Makers, especially if you are in senior management or aspiring to it or if you simply want to know some of the important things effective leaders know and do and understand better how they know it and do it. The Advantage-Makers is crisply written by a competent wordsmith who thinks engagingly as well as authoritatively. No speed limits or discard barrels by the roadway needed on this one.

Advantage Makers

As a 30-year entrepreneurial executive in Medical equipment and high-tech start-ups, I have spent countless airplane flights reading case studies and books on successful management techniques and strategies. Prepared to find The Advantage Makers merely one more attempt to re-package the same material in a different format, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Feinberg had a new and refreshing approach with a unique perspective. Mr. Feinberg's use of real life experiences and apropos vignettes brings home his message of what it means to be an advantage maker in today's fast-paced environment. Mixing lessons learned from his own childhood with humorous "pearls" from his current family members, Feinberg holds your attention, translating the wisdom derived from his daily interactions into sound management philosophy. I was inspired by his concept of optimizing one's vantage point to better assess the problem and see potential solutions, then adapt strategically to the opportunities to create an advantage and influence outcomes in one's favor through collaborative decision making. I highly recommend The Advantage Makers to executives at all levels who are looking for insightful suggestions on how to maximize their influence and effectiveness as leaders and to drive their enterprise to realize its true potential.

Leave your Competitors in the Dust

Just read the first few pages of Advantage Makers and you'll be so impressed you will NOT be able to put it down. The book opens with a simply brilliant example of how to change your perspective so that you rise completely above and beyond the way your peers and competitors assess challenges, growth and change so that you will not only compete more effectively, but create advantages that to others don't even appear to exist.

Dimensions of strategic and aggressive but prudent opportunism

I recently read two books that explain how to achieve and then sustain a decisive competitive advantage: this one and The Inside Advantage, written by Robert H. Bloom with Dave Conti. Both Bloom and Steven Feinberg stress the importance of being able to recognize opportunities that others don't see (overcoming what I characterize as "the invisibility of the obvious"); possessing sound judgment to determine whether or not a an attractive opportunity is also (key word) appropriate; knowing how and when to respond to each such opportunity; having sufficient resources and the willingness to commit them, sometime quickly; meanwhile, remaining flexible and resilient. Bloom presents his material within a framework he identifies as "The Growth Discovery Process." Feinberg takes a much different approach. His focus is on "Advantage-Makers" whom he describes as follows: They are "pathfinders who anticipate patterns, advance their organizations, and get the most out of everything they have. They learn more, learn more quickly, and develop breakaway strategies. Their healthy skepticism helps them spot difficulties that they transform into opportunities. Most of all, they have the heart of a lion when facing adversity." In terms of strategic challenges, they do more with less and do it faster, enrich strategic thinking and decision making, and create strategies for business growth. With regard to organizational challenges, they build a team of Advantage-Makers, resolve interdepartmental and collaboration conflicts, design the underlying performance structures so they are more effective, and create momentum while correcting misalignment. Above all else, they provide leadership (e.g. helping to develop leadership at all levels and within all areas of their organization) when supervising major change initiatives, increase the influence and effectiveness of their and others' leadership, accelerate improvement of performance of newly promoted executives, and "pull your - or someone else's - feet out of the fire. The last point reminds of what Anne Mulcahy (CEO of Xerox) once said when asked about those who mentored her and provided invaluable advice earlier in her career. Specifically, she shared advice from Albert C. Black, Jr. (founder, president, and CEO of On-Target Supplies & Logistics): "When everything gets complicated and you feel overwhelmed, think about it this way: You gotta do three things. First, get the cow out of the ditch. Second, find out how the cow got into the ditch. Third, make sure you do whatever it takes so the cow doesn't go into the ditch again." Credit Steven Feinberg with writing a brilliant analysis of precisely what the subtitle promises: an explanation of how exceptional leaders win by creating opportunities others don't. It will be of incalculable value to all decision-makers in all organizations (regardless of their size or nature) because advantage-makers are need at all levels and in all areas of the given enterprise. I hi