The Power of Nice – How To Conquer
The World With Kindness
By Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval. Published by Allen & Unwin, 2007. Paper back, 127 pages. RRP $19.95. ISBN 978 1 74175 095 9.
Is it naïve to be nice in business? “Not so,” say New York-based authors Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval, who are directors of America’s fastest-growing entertainment and advertising company.
Their book, The Power of Nice, claims companies can generate stronger employee loyalty, higher productivity and better prospects by avoiding the cut-throat, take-no-prisoners approach typically associated with commerce.
But it seems ‘nice’ has an image problem. ‘Nice’ was certainly beaten up in the 1987 movie Wall Street, when lead character Gordon Gecko proclaimed that “greed is good”, adding “if you want a friend get a dog”. Twenty years later, some aspiring corporate captains still regard their more agreeable peers as people to be shoved aside in the race to the top.
Kaplan Thaler and Koval argue otherwise. Not only is being nice luckier, it is healthier, builds profits and means you spend less time in court. The book’s case studies show how United States marketing and other businesses have profited from being positive, upbeat and respecting others. By working together and embracing competition they have found ways not to split the marketing pie, but rather to bake it bigger.
The book is an entertaining read with tips (called nice cubes) and techniques for boosting the bottom line by getting along with others. It also presents information that could prove useful in stressful situations:
- Remind the coffee shop owner whose policy it is to employ sullen baristas that a 2% increase in the general helpfulness and cheeriness of staff can generate a 1% increase in revenue.
- When facing a difficult client, a domineering boss or an unpleasant co-worker, pass around the lolly jar. It seems the chemicals in chocolate, for example, can produce feelings of elation and well-being. When the going gets tough, join the tough and pass around the M&Ms.
- Casually let it drop to that specialist with the appalling bedside manner that statistics show empathetic doctors are likely to face fewer litigious patients.
It is hard to see how this book could benefit marketing professionals. After all, we already are such nice people. But it could be a not-too-subtle gift for that overbearing manager, rude client or bad-mannered colleague intent on winning at all costs. Tell them to smile and watch their business prosper.
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