- Hardcover: 224 pages
- Publisher: Bard Press; 1 edition (July 16 2007)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1885167679
- ISBN-13: 978-1885167675
- Product Dimensions: 21 x 14.9 x 2.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 431 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #426,645 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Business consultant Poscente employs velocity as a catchall term for explaining how to thrive in our hyperstimulated society. A former Olympic speed skier, he explains how people and organizations can best equip themselves to surf the endless assault of tasks and data familiar to any office worker. To him, speed both causes and solves the ambiguity surrounding high technology and the competing demands of career and personal life. But even if speed is the answer, this book doesn't uncover any insight that hasn't occurred to anyone who's ever stayed late tapping out e-mails. For case studies, the book wheels out long-suffering Eastman Kodak as an example of a Zeppelin that couldn't keep pace with new technology. Google, meanwhile, is a Jet that upped the ante. But readers who want to learn from that savvy company would be better served by other studies than this brief sketch. Poscente dallies on the Aligned Organization and the notion that work is no longer a place—it's a state of mind, but the result is a string of business clichés. With almost every other page left blank, Poscente's kind enough not to demand too much of his readers' time. But the lack of substance ensures that they'll forget it even faster. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Book Description
Is our 24/7, CrackBerry, more-faster-now culture eating us alive or setting us free? For everyone feeling trampled by the speed of life and business, author Vince Poscente reveals why harnessing the power of speed is the ultimate solution for our time-starved era. The Age of Speed shows this and other groundbreaking revelations at work with case studies drawn from renegade companies such as Netflix, Geico, and Nintendo. With smart personal revelations, addictively clever pop science, practical case studies, and a fresh voice, The Age of Speed is a fast, fun read.
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Quick Perspective,
By
This review is from: The Age of Speed: Learning to Thrive in a More-Faster-Now World (Hardcover)
Much to my chagrin, thanks to quick-thinking Poscente, I have discovered that my business is a balloon. The problem with balloons, of course, is that they can burst, drop, flop or be taken anywhere by the wind. This invaluable realization has already caused a shift in my approach to my life and my company. If you are looking for a fast and easy way to discover if your business is likely to rise or fall, blast forward or get blown back, snap this one up. It's a quick, well-written, well-researched and easy read and it will help you to see your business and your life from a fresh perspective. Humbling, entertaining and enlightening.
2.0 out of 5 stars
Little to gain from reading The Age of Speed,
By
This review is from: The Age of Speed: Learning to Thrive in a More-Faster-Now World (Hardcover)
Author Vince Poscente's overall theme is there are four type of businesses today, Zeppelins, Balloons, Bottle Rockets and Jets, but only one of them will lead to continued success.Jets are the companies that recognize speed is a natural phenomenon of today's society, grasp hold of it and align their business with characteristics of the speed economy will be the only ones who realize true growth and success. Poscente's description of speed can be best summed up by a few popular catch phrases: on demand, always on, more-faster-now. It's not about how to file TPS reports quicker or how to make your shipping fleet more efficient, it's about recognizing where you customers want something, whether it be a better check-out experience at the grocery store or access to online help and moving your company in a quick way to make the necessary changes to make the improvement. By doing so you'll be able to keep the customers you do have and attract new ones. I didn't find anything revolutionary in this book and while there are a few interesting case studies/stories there are no 'ah-ha' moments and certainly anyone who would consider picking up this book would probably have already had the discoveries for themselves that could potentially be hidden in its pages. Most frustrating is there is only one chapter in which the title indicates it might be dedicated to actually explaining how you can harness speed but after the five or so pages it failed to deliver. Which brings me to my last observation about The Age of Speed. While it's not really a great book at all, it's smaller than your average hardcover, the font is a tiny bit larger than normal and every other page is an 'illustration' (really just a line or two of white text with a black background). So the book reads very quick. I reviewed this book in more detail on my Web site: [...]
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
3.8 out of 5 stars (48 customer reviews) 20 of 23 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
There just isn't any usable information,
By Stephen Northcutt - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Age of Speed: Learning to Thrive in a More-Faster-Now World (Hardcover)
I notice that most of the reviews are positive and am surprised that I have such a different view. Based on the strong reviews, I picked this as my latest airplane read. The book is divided into 36 short essays that are usually about two pages long. A lot of the material is redundant. The author has a fairly anti-blackberry bias, which is fine, I can certainly understand that, though my iPhone has been a real advantage to me in achieving speed.He creates an easy to memorize taxonomy of people and businesses, Zeppelins that can't achieve speed, balloons that don't have to, bottle rockets, fast, but misguided, and jets which is what we want to be. It was a good start, but should have been developed more. The book does preach against multi-tasking, something we are starting to see more of and those are valuable thoughts to consider, though I am personally not planning to give it up at this point. My favorite essay was from the author's personal experience, racing across a tightrope, I would have loved to have seen that. The bottom line, mildly entertaining, the author has lead an interesting life, but the book will not help you and the time spent reading it is better invested trying a different book. 8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
Bard Press lists this for $22?,
By K. W. Schreiter - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Age of Speed: Learning to Thrive in a More-Faster-Now World (Hardcover)
Olympic-speed skier turned business consultant (and "Speaker Hall of Fame" inductee) Vince Poscente reveals "for everyone feeling trampled by the speed of life and business, how to get ahead of the rush once and for all." He identifies four behavioral profiles: Jets (the best), Bottle Rockets, Zeppelins and Balloons.Rarely have I seen a book that offers so little content for a $22 hardcover list price. The 232 pages are padded with 44 full-page chapter and section headings and full-page quotes like "We drown ourselves in trivia and excess." It also contains space-filling "Fast Facts" like "Thirty-six people died when the 804-foot Hindenberg exploded and crashed into the ground in 1937. It was filled with more than seven million cubic feet of hydrogen" and "Reverend Run of Run-DMC is Russell's little brother." Page 12 offers a half-page definition of a Mach number. After reading a few banal observations (for example, Technology has made life busier and more complicated and Blackberries have the potential to erode productivity) I reviewed the index to find anecdotes on a few companies of interest and then returned this book to the library. This material might support a solid oral presentation but has been stretched far too thin for this medium. 7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
Zero value,
By Aiman Said - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Age of Speed: Learning to Thrive in a More-Faster-Now World (Hardcover)
I tried very hard to extract any value out of this book, but without any luck. the only good thing about it is the quality of paper and production. Its pages of boring text with no clear goal or target.
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