cover image Frontline Profit Machine: The Blueprint to Exploding Profits with Your Existing Service and Sales Team

Frontline Profit Machine: The Blueprint to Exploding Profits with Your Existing Service and Sales Team

Ziad Y. Khoury. Select Books (NY), $21.95 (248pp) ISBN 978-1-59079-186-8

A vehicle for consultant Khoury's ""Khoury Performance Equation,"" this business title pushes the idea that companies can maximize profits by concentrating on the ""frontline,"" where the company meets the customer. Though ""frontline sales"" may conjure visions of used car dealerships, Khoury points out unlikely businesses, like Starbucks and Southwest Airlines, that have achieved their remarkable success by creating an environment in which every employee considers himself a salesperson and, essentially, an important team member: ""Happy employees ... result in happy customers."" Khoury doesn't downplay the difficulties of transforming a corporate culture, addressing obstacles from politics to inertia to insecure managers. Still, it seems likely an individual armed with this book won't be able to turn around a large company without hiring the Khoury Group to help. Khoury provides more substance than many management gurus, but his case studies for improved performance through the Khoury Performance Equation give hypothetical outcomes, not actual results (Khoury cites the examples of Enterprise and Nucor, neither of which used Khoury or his methods). An above-average entry in a crowded field, this leadership training manual over-promises but contains solid insight and instructive advice.