The Soft Edge: Where Great Companies Find Lasting Success

Rich Karlgaard

I have likely read several hundred business books over the years, and approach each new one carefully. While I am not in technology and am not drawn usually to books using it as the base, this book offers solid insights for including soft edge values into business culture.

The Soft Edge Values are

Trust
Smarts
Teams
Taste and
Story

The author Rich Karlgaard discusses each in some detail, offering specific examples from different types of organizations. These do not seem to be business school case studies, but real world, understandable stories.

When the news continues to dwell on the banking and government abuses (including technology short cuts, legal or otherwise), this book about something other than hard data is refreshing.

Much of what is published in the business press the last 10 years tends to praise the “hard line edge” of business, even though so many of the staff in those companies are chewed up. This book instead offers observations and awareness about building trust and loyalty in business. It offers solid examples and case studies that reveal insights that came primarily from not start-ups that may or may not last, but from proven successes that demanded refinement, good judgment, and consideration to others.

Highly Recommended!

John J. Hogan CHA CHMS CHE CHO

Hospitality Educators Hogan Hospitality

John J. Hogan CHA CMHS CHE CHO and Kathleen Hogan MBA CHO are the co-founders of HospitalityEducators.com, which was created in 2010 to be a resource for hotel owners and professionals as they sought to improve market share, occupancy, operational efficiency and profitability.

The husband and wife team are transitioning the original membership site concept and evolving the business model today to a focused resource offering consulting, training, and individualized support to both hospitality and other service businesses. Services include keynote addresses workshops, online support, metrics measurement, marketing and customer service from a group of more than a dozen experienced professionals. While continuing to serve hospitality, the demand for these types of services is growing and can be personalized.

John Hogan is also the principal of HoganHospitality.com, which provides a range of expert professional services for hotel owners, including professional development for organizations, training, consulting and expert witness services.