IMAGE BY DESIGN: FROM CORPORATE VISION TO BUSINESS REALITY, by Clive Chajet and Tom Shachtman

A company’s image is a vital corporate asset and can make all the difference in a competitive marketplace. However, observes Clive Chajet, America’s leading expert on image management and corporate identity, corporate image is all too often undervalued and, even worse, ignored.

In this insightful book, Chajet and Shachtman tell the stories of such “image by design” successes as Coca-Cola, Humana Hospitals, Amtrak, NYNEX, Infiniti automobiles, and many other corporate image campaigns managed by Chajet’s company, Lippincott & Margulies.

“One of the most thorough treatments of this critically important management function yet compiled. Especially relevant is Chajet’s insistence that imagery match reality. It’s not enough to say you are a caring company. That value system must emanate, by design, from the very core of the organization and be exhibited through consistently trustworthy behavior.” – Ralph S. Larsen, Chairman and CEO, Johnson & Johnson.

“IMAGE BY DESIGN really tells is like it is. Images, or a company’s promotion, must match its product – no better, no worse. Clive Chajet makes that interestingly clear in this no-nonsense approach to image-making.” — Al Neuharth, founder, USA Today.

“Clive Chajet is a master at probing the corporate psyche and prescribing a name change to cure what ails it. How his firm comes up with ‘total identity systems’ for the cream of corporate America makes for fascinating (and somewhat scary) reading.” — Rance Crain, President and Editorial Director, Crain’s.

STRAIGHT TO THE TOP: BEYOND LOYALTY, GAMESMANSHIP, MENTORS, AND OTHER CORPORATE MYTHS. By Paul G. Stern and Tom Shachtman.

“There’s no such thing as corporate loyalty.” “It’s up to you to manage your boss.” “Train yourself not to be afraid of getting fired.” These anti-establishment concepts may sound strange coming from a man who was promoted 14 times at IBM in 7 years, and whose positions include President and COO of Burroughs, President of Unisys, CEO of Northern Telecom, and CEO of Braun – all by age fifty. Yet he used these and other strategies to manage his own career, to become not only a wealthy man but also one of the country’s most respected executives. In a sophisticated insider’s book that goes beyond the ordinary career guides, Stern provides ambitious corporate employees with the detailed, comprehensive advice they need to move of the ladder of management and into the elite circles at the top. From visualizing long-term goals, to picking the right assignments, to coping with corporate gamesmen, to the nitty-gritty of hiring and firing … it’s all here.

“A book for the aggressively ambitious. Stern prescribes his own potent brand of career advice. Judiciously followed his suggestions could prove effective in cutting through much of today’s corporate underbrush and deadwood.” – Booklist

“Down to earth …. Highly readable …. Singularly practical … a lively attack on red-tape bureaucracy and timid management.” – Publisher’s Weekly