The Collapse of Distinction


Book Description

If a business is going to thrive, it has to rise above the fray. McKain helps business owners understand the reasons behind the current quagmire of stifling sameness, and offers the tools companies need to stand out from the competition.




Collapse of Distinction


Book Description

Free your book! Buying a product tagged "NelsonFree" means you get more than just the hardback book. You also get a free ebook and a free audiobook. Three formats for the price of one! And the freedom to experience your book in more ways than ever before. Can your customers tell the difference between you and the competition? It's not that we can't see the forest for the trees, it's just that these days, every tree looks exactly alike. From big box retail to fast food to insurance-no one stands out. Distinction has collapsed into beige uniformity. And in today's tough economic times, this copycat uniformity is resulting in the death of businesses in every industry, says author Scott McKain. If a business is going to thrive, it has to rise above the fray. In The Collapse of Distinction, McKain will help you understand the reasons behind the current quagmire of stifling sameness, and will give you the tools your company needs to step away from the competition. Endorsements "In challenging economic times, this is the one book every business owner MUST read. Collapse of Distinction is further evidence that Scott McKain is the premiere business communicator of our time. Not only has Scott produced extraordinary results in his own businesses by adhering to these principles, but he makes it simple for you to do so as well. By following the easily applied concepts from Collapse of Distinction, you will set the standard of excellence for your industry and make your competition irrelevant." -- Joseph Michelli, PhD, speaker, consultant, and author of The Starbucks Experience, The New Gold Standard, and When Fish Fly "Differentiation is not an option in business. In a world where the word 'commodity' has become the norm, Scott McKain clarifies the all-important (and all-profitable) strategy to become different, become distinct, and become dominant in your marketplace. Buy this book. Read it. And put it into practice." -- Jeffrey Gitomer, author of The Little Red Book of Selling "The primary need today is to constantly present ourselves as different from-and better than-those we compete with! Scott McKain's latest book, Collapse of Distinction, is a must-read for any professional or organization attempting to creatively differentiate from the competition. I predict this book will be a massive hit!" -- Don Hutson, co-author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The One Minute Entrepreneur, and CEO of U. S. Learning "In these uncertain economic times, we need new and refreshing ideas about how to move forward. Scott McKain's Collapse of Distinction may just save our sanity and common sense with his positive approach to business and life itself." -- Joe Bonsall, thirty-five year member of legendary music group, The Oak Ridge Boys, and author of the best-selling book G.I. Joe and Lillie "I could not stop reading...making notes...writing our staff and our suppliers...about the ideas I've learned! (And this was just by the end of Chapter One!) With superb style, storytelling, and rationale, Collapse of Distinction is a distinctive piece of business and personal literature." --Ty Boyd, Founder and Chairman, Executive Learning Systems "If I can't tell the difference between you and your competitor, why should I spend my money with you? The answer to that question is the key to your survival and success. Scott McKain's new book teaches how to answer that question-the right way!" --Larry Winget, television personality and New York Times best-selling author of People Are Idiots and I Can Prove It







Summary: Collapse of Distinction


Book Description

The must-read summary of Scott McKain's book: "Collapse of Distinction: Stand Out and Move Up While Your Competition Fails". This complete summary of the ideas from Scott McKain's book "Collapse of Distinction" shows that instead of standardised products, customers crave distinction. They want products that stand out for all the right reasons because they are delivered by companies which are fanatical about creating a great customer experience. And this is especially true when the economy is down. If you can create distinction, you lift yourself above your competition and create the conditions which will allow you to charge more for your products and services.This summary teaches how to differentiate from the competition, even in tough economic times. Added-value of this summary: • Save time • Understand the key concepts • Increase your business knowledge To learn more, read "Collapse of Distinction" and discover how to differentiate from the competition.




Create Distinction


Book Description

Have you taken your business from good to great, only to find that “great” still isn’t cutting it? Are you making all the right moves in your career and still not receiving the recognition you have earned? Why do companies like Apple get all the attention, when you have difficulty getting anyone to focus on your efforts? In our homogenized world, companies in every sector—from big-box retail to financial services; from fast food to entrepreneurs—appear more and more alike, as do the tweets and LinkedIn pages of professionals across the country. But if people see you or your company as nothing more than a carbon copy of the competition, how can you expect to attract attention? Scott McKain’s original approach to this problem, first captured in his book Collapse of Distinction, was conceived and written in the direct aftermath of the 2008 financial meltdown. His forceful case for the importance of distinction—finding success by setting yourself apart from the crowd—resonated with thousands of readers. To reflect the changing reality since that book’s publication—and to incorporate new research and up-to-date examples—McKain, an internationally recognized expert on business distinction, has retitled and revised it as Create Distinction. Within these updated pages (including one entirely new chapter) you’ll find a potent cure for similarity and uniformity—the primary killers of businesses and careers. In engaging, story-filled prose, McKain lays out the cornerstones of distinction and equips you with the specific tools and knowledge you need to stand out. Whether you’re in the “C-suite” of a multinational company or just vying for your next promotion, you’ll learn how to rise above the fray and make your work unmistakable. With this practical advice, you’ll feel confident stepping up from the competition—and toward success.




The Collapse of the Fact/Value Dichotomy and Other Essays


Book Description

If philosophy has any business in the world, it is the clarification of our thinking and the clearing away of ideas that cloud the mind. In this book, one of the world's preeminent philosophers takes issue with an idea that has found an all-too-prominent place in popular culture and philosophical thought: the idea that while factual claims can be rationally established or refuted, claims about value are wholly subjective, not capable of being rationally argued for or against. Although it is on occasion important and useful to distinguish between factual claims and value judgments, the distinction becomes, Hilary Putnam argues, positively harmful when identified with a dichotomy between the objective and the purely "subjective." Putnam explores the arguments that led so much of the analytic philosophy of language, metaphysics, and epistemology to become openly hostile to the idea that talk of value and human flourishing can be right or wrong, rational or irrational; and by which, following philosophy, social sciences such as economics have fallen victim to the bankrupt metaphysics of Logical Positivism. Tracing the problem back to Hume's conception of a "matter of fact" as well as to Kant's distinction between "analytic" and "synthetic" judgments, Putnam identifies a path forward in the work of Amartya Sen. Lively, concise, and wise, his book prepares the way for a renewed mutual fruition of philosophy and the social sciences.




Create Distinction


Book Description

In engaging, story-fille prose, McKain explains the four cornerstones of distinction, ending each chapter with a helpful executive summary.




Bowling Alone: Revised and Updated


Book Description

Updated to include a new chapter about the influence of social media and the Internet—the 20th anniversary edition of Bowling Alone remains a seminal work of social analysis, and its examination of what happened to our sense of community remains more relevant than ever in today’s fractured America. Twenty years, ago, Robert D. Putnam made a seemingly simple observation: once we bowled in leagues, usually after work; but no longer. This seemingly small phenomenon symbolized a significant social change that became the basis of the acclaimed bestseller, Bowling Alone, which The Washington Post called “a very important book” and Putnam, “the de Tocqueville of our generation.” Bowling Alone surveyed in detail Americans’ changing behavior over the decades, showing how we had become increasingly disconnected from family, friends, neighbors, and social structures, whether it’s with the PTA, church, clubs, political parties, or bowling leagues. In the revised edition of his classic work, Putnam shows how our shrinking access to the “social capital” that is the reward of communal activity and community sharing still poses a serious threat to our civic and personal health, and how these consequences have a new resonance for our divided country today. He includes critical new material on the pervasive influence of social media and the internet, which has introduced previously unthinkable opportunities for social connection—as well as unprecedented levels of alienation and isolation. At the time of its publication, Putnam’s then-groundbreaking work showed how social bonds are the most powerful predictor of life satisfaction, and how the loss of social capital is felt in critical ways, acting as a strong predictor of crime rates and other measures of neighborhood quality of life, and affecting our health in other ways. While the ways in which we connect, or become disconnected, have changed over the decades, his central argument remains as powerful and urgent as ever: mending our frayed social capital is key to preserving the very fabric of our society.




How Everything Can Collapse


Book Description

What if our civilization were to collapse? Not many centuries into the future, but in our own lifetimes? Most people recognize that we face huge challenges today, from climate change and its potentially catastrophic consequences to a plethora of socio-political problems, but we find it hard to face up to the very real possibility that these crises could produce a collapse of our entire civilization. Yet we now have a great deal of evidence to suggest that we are up against growing systemic instabilities that pose a serious threat to the capacity of human populations to maintain themselves in a sustainable environment. In this important book, Pablo Servigne and Raphaël Stevens confront these issues head-on. They examine the scientific evidence and show how its findings, often presented in a detached and abstract way, are connected to people’s ordinary experiences – joining the dots, as it were, between the Anthropocene and our everyday lives. In so doing they provide a valuable guide that will help everyone make sense of the new and potentially catastrophic situation in which we now find ourselves. Today, utopia has changed sides: it is the utopians who believe that everything can continue as before, while realists put their energy into making a transition and building local resilience. Collapse is the horizon of our generation. But collapse is not the end – it’s the beginning of our future. We will reinvent new ways of living in the world and being attentive to ourselves, to other human beings and to all our fellow creatures.




Hannah Arendt


Book Description

This collection of essays brings Arendt's work into dialogue with contemporary philosophical views.