Product Description

Smart guidelines for building flexible, innovative companies

Beat the System is a follow-up to Robert MacDonald's controversial but successful first book, Cheat to Win. Packed with proven, real-life advice, Beat the System shows readers how to deal with the bureaucracy that can smother the creativity and entrepreneurship essential to long-range business success. Beat the System teaches readers how to beat the bureaucratic system by building entrepreneurial cultures in their businesses, their departments, or even their individual jobs. MacDonald skillfully describes how business cultures develop, how bureaucratic procedures and processes seep into them, and how to build an entrepreneurial culture even as we live in a bureaucratic world. At the heart of his system are practical steps that create a sense of ownership among employees, invites their participation, creates a common mission, fosters an entrepreneurial atmosphere, and shares the rewards with all.

Robert W. MacDonald (Wayzata, MN) is a true visionary in the financial services industry who rose from a door-to-door insurance salesman to the CEO of Allianz Life of North America. He was also the founder, CEO, and chairman of LifeUSA.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #897814 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

From the Inside Flap

Does bureaucratic inertia have your business locked in a losing status quo? Are you being held back by gray suits who won't allow innovation and creativity at work? Do you want to build a business that isn't slowed down by the concrete shoes of bureaucratic indecision or stifled by unimaginative groupthink? If so, maybe it's time to beat the system!

In this insurgent guide to business success, Robert MacDonald shows professionals, business leaders, and entrepreneurs how to smash the bureaucracy that smothers the innovative, entrepreneurial spirit essential to long-term business success. Whether you own a small business, run a large corporation, or work for someone else, Beat the System provides proven, real-world advice for building an entrepreneurial culture in your entire organization, your department, or even in your individual position.

When MacDonald founded LifeUSA, people thought he was a madman for trying to compete against giant, entrenched competition in the stagnant life insurance industry. But with a willingness to challenge the status quo and question the rules of the system, he grew LifeUSA into a hugely successful player in an industry that was actually shrinking at the time. Now, he shares the eleven entrepreneurial secrets he used to defeat bigger and stronger competitors.

We live in a bureaucratic world, but fighting the status quo is a business strategy that works. Beat the System outlines a proven plan for creating a business culture that creates, innovates, and moves fast enough to overtake even the most entrenched competition. Whether you're starting a new business or simply trying to advance your career, you really can succeed wildly if you have the right weapons to storm the battlements of bureaucracy.

Nobody said it would be easy; fighting the forces of darkness never is. But with these smart, entrepreneurial strategies, total unconditional victory will be yours—but only if you play by your own rules. Beat the System is a practical, worldly guide to developing your own entrepreneurial, revolutionary spirit and building that spirit into every brick of your organization.

It's time to take a stand and call out the agents of oppression: "Mr. Bureaucrat, tear down this wall!"

From the Back Cover

Praise for

Beat The System

"The equivalent of an MBA all in one great book! MacDonald's entrepreneurship provides intellectual energy to transform dreams into reality."
—Ken Dahlberg, entrepreneur extraordinaire and decorated World War II Flying Ace, founder, Dahlberg Hearing, Miracle Ear, and Carefree Capital, Inc.

"This is a gloves-off call to action, from America's most authoritative expert on the idea and action known as entrepreneurship. MacDonald not only knows what to do, he coaches and exhorts you to do it, and do it well!"
—John Klymshyn, bestselling author of The Ultimate Sales Managers' Guide and How to Sell Without Being a Jerk!

"MacDonald gives his readers permission to beat the system and then identifies what it takes to create that entrepreneurial culture, honestly, through creativity and innovation. His practical approach provides guidance for anyone looking to reinvent themselves."
—Sally J. Smith, Chief Executive Officer, Buffalo Wild Wings, Inc.

"If you've ever dreamed of owning your own business, or just breaking away from the corporate drones that surround you, MacDonald gives you the perfect road map. His eleven secrets come from his own experience as a successful entrepreneur in a bureaucratic world, so you know they work. A great read!"
—Warren Greshes, author of The Best Damn Sales Book Ever

"In America we are constantly bombarded by messages that say: This is the land of opportunity! Go for it! Live your dreams! And yet the system is designed to take the wind out of our sails and keep us stuck exactly where we are. In his terrific new book, MacDonald reveals how to take your job or your business exactly where you want it to go. If you ever feel like the system is keeping you down—buy this book and read it now!"
—Joe Calloway, author of Work Like You're Showing Off!

"Caution: Using the lessons from this book will turn your slow, unresponsive company into a nimble, focused, and ferocious competitor. MacDonald provides a hands-on guide for building a culture that delivers results year in and year out."
—Randy G. Pennington, author of Results Rule!

About the Author

Robert W. MacDonald is a true visionary and business contrarian who rose from a door-to-door insurance salesman to the very pinnacle of the corporate world. He was the founder, CEO, and chairman of LifeUSA, a life insurance company which was formed in 1987 and sold to Allianz SE for $500 million. He retired as chairman and CEO of Allianz North America. He is also the author of Cheat to Win: The Honest Way to Break All the Dishonest Rules in Business.

For more information, please visit www.cheattowin.net.

Customer Reviews

Perhaps not "secrets" but certainly sensible guidelines

As I read this book, I was again reminded of a GE annual meeting during which Jack Welch explained why he admires entrepreneurial companies: "For one, they communicate better. Without the din and prattle of bureaucracy, people listen as well as talk; and since there are fewer of them they generally know and understand each other. Second, small companies move faster. They know the penalties for hesitation in the marketplace. Third, in small companies, with fewer layers and less camouflage, the leaders show up very clearly on the screen. Their performance and its impact are clear to everyone. And, finally, smaller companies waste less. They spend less time in endless reviews and approvals and politics and paper drills. They have fewer people; therefore they can only do the important things. Their people are free to direct their energy and attention toward the marketplace rather than fighting bureaucracy."

By implication, Welch describes the "system" to which the title of Robert MacDonald's book refers, one whose bureaucracy manifests what James O'Toole has aptly characterized as "the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom." Anyone who thinks it is easy to "beat" that system has underestimated the resistance that change initiatives inevitably encounter. For individuals as well as for organizations, MacDonald suggests that it is imperative "to recognize the system for what it is and how it seeks to control and limit your future."

He introduces and then devotes a separate chapter to each of eleven "secrets," none of which is a head-snapping revelation and all of which are best revealed within his narrative, in context. With all due respect to the lessons to be learned from the exemplary companies MacDonald discusses, each of those who read this book must decide what is of greatest relevance to his or her own organization. In this context, I presume to offer a head's up: bureaucrats feel personally threatened by entrepreneurs and will do everything they can to undermine their initiatives. In most organizations, bureaucrats [begin italics] are [end italics] the system.

In my opinion, the greatest value of MacDonald's 11 "secrets" lies in the framework they provide for a self-diagnosis, a "reality gut check" if you will, that will enable decision-makers to identify areas in which a bureaucratic mindset is weakening the entrepreneurial spirit that Welch obviously admires. Another substantial benefit of this book is that the information and, more importantly, the counsel that MacDonald provides can help decision-makers to take corrective initiatives. For example, simplify and clarify all policies, procedures, and especially processes; improve communication between and among everyone involved; and meanwhile, do everything possible to nourish and support individual initiative and personal accountability. For example, those whose performance is measured must be directly involved in determining what must be done and how to do it. One of the best indicators of an entrepreneurial culture is the widespread use of first-person plural pronouns, although I concede that over the years I have known a number of knuckle-dragging bureaucrats who frequently used first-person plural pronouns when presuming to suggest that they spoke for the entire (given) organization.

Here are two final points. MacDonald makes it quite clear that the entrepreneurial mindset is not determined by the size or nature of an organization. It can be pervasive throughout Southwest Airlines and totally absent in one of its vendors with only seven people on the payroll. When making the second point, I invoke direct address: If you remain trapped and smothered in your current situation, don't blame the bureaucrats. Don't blame Robert MacDonald. Whether or not you develop and then nourish the entrepreneurial mindset is entirely up to you.