Product Description

Business today is faster and fiercer than ever, and who knows more about speed and fury than an F-15 fighter pilot! In this remarkable book based on his highly successful Afterburner business seminars, James D. Murphy - a veteran of the business world as well as the air force - offers a line-up of top-gun, proven business strategies based on the survival skills and performance tactics of fighter-pilot training programs. With emphasis on task management, teamwork, and mutual support, Murphy shows how the ability to assess risk, prioritise, and overcome challenges is increasingly important in the warlike, high-tech world of contemporary business. Murphy's Afterburner Seminars have assisted top executives at many well-known corporations, including IBM, PepsiCo, and Home Depot.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #880953 in Books
• Published on: 2001-02-22
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Advocating the use of military training techniques in motivating sales people, Murphy walks his talk as a sales consultant and F15 fighter pilot for the Air National Guard. Having started in sales as a high school student working for a family office-supplies business, he contends that he has successfully divided his time between work and the military for a number of years because of the similarities between the two fields. In his view, both fighter pilots and sales people require mission statements that "must be absolutely clear and understandable measurable achievable and must support the overall objectives of the organization." In addition, just as fighter pilots must take a specific sequence of steps in the course of each flight, sales people need a concrete action plan for accomplishing their goals, such as focusing on their key objective and eliminating the unnecessary clutter: "Listen, don't talk. Know when to abort and establish a sense of value to the mission." Writing in a friendly, anecdotal tone, rather than that of a military commander, Murphy offers some helpful advice, although it would be more effective if he had supplemented his own experiences with additional examples from the real world of sales. 50-city radio tour. (Apr.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Murphy, a former military officer and salesman, has turned his military experiences into a successful business. The founder (in 1996) and president of Afterburner Seminars, he uses his expertise and that of other military pilots to create a unique training program, to which both large and small firms have sent employees to improve their personal and business skills. This book is essentially a manual to help individuals and companies improve business and communications skills. The author explains how each step in planning and executing a combat mission can be adapted to the business world and includes his "six steps to combat mission planning," which is a very useful tool. The text is quite readable, and the combat anecdotes and real-life scenarios should speak to most readers. Enjoyable if just for its combat stories, this book is recommended for public libraries. (Readers may even consider taking the seminar.)-David M. Alperstein, Queens Borough P.L., Valley Stream, NY
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
The analogy likening business strategy to military strategy is a recurring one in popular books devoted to management. The writings of Sun Tzu, a Chinese general from the 4th century B.C., are perennially in demand. Within the past year, three different books have advised executives to emulate (take your pick) generals George S. Patton, Robert E. Lee, and Ulysses S. Grant, respectively. Now Murphy updates the comparison to account for the high-tech, fast-paced demands of business today. Murphy, who was a fighter pilot for eight years, created Afterburner Seminars in 1996. Those workshops simulate a battlefield for Murphy's clients, including a mock attack by business competitors complete with camouflage netting, parachutes, and sandbags. The image of a roomful of accountants grabbing helmets and hitting the floor to duck incoming missiles fired by rival CPAs gives pause, if nothing else. What Murphy's seminars do demonstrate, and what he emphasizes here, is that success in today's business environment requires speed, precision, teamwork, decisiveness, accurate (competitive) intelligence, and good communications. David Rouse