This book provides in-depth descriptions of locations throughout the North Georgia Mountains. The authors have paid particular attention to details that lead you off the mainstream "touristy" trails and onto the real Georgia. This book is a "must-have" for campers and day-hikers so you can plan your next trip. Accurate topographic maps are included along with directions to trail heads and other sites.

An excellent reference for anyone planning activities along or near the Chattahoochee. Only shortcoming is general lack of river section and lake maps. The extensive narrative descriptions of noteworthy sites and interesting areas are great and the provided directions help, but some more maps would be very beneficial.

The value of customer service is known to almost every one of us. So, what is new about this book? More detail on how to win customers in these days of fragmented markets (mass media can't help us anymore) and customer scarcity (it's really product/service glut). The author studied the best 5,000 companies in the world and came up with some valuable information that we can copy from these market leaders.

The author starts out by establishing the evaluation criteria that got a company into the study and he coins two new terms to describe these criteria - sales growth index and market value index (details of these terms on pages 7-13 of the book).

The author then summarizes the industries in which all these companies fall under - Consumer Products, Media and Entertainment, Heavy Industry, Technology Products, Technology Services, Financial Services, and Other Industries (healthcare, consumer services, and other).

A whole chapter is then dedicated to why we are feeling a scarcity of customers. The author names the reasons for this sitaution (new realities) - competitors proliferate, all secrets are open secrets, innovation is universal, information overwhelmes and depreciates, easy growth makes hard times, customers have less time than ever. He does a good job of justifying these obvious reasons with some supporting data.

So, if the new realities are that harsh, how are the market leaders managing? The author describes FOUR STRATEGIES that seem to work for these market leaders in overcoming the obvious difficulties in these days of customer scarcity. The four strategies being -

1. being the best and showing it
2. the customers who can make or break you
3. making sure customers 'get it'
4. outsized ambition.

To support why the market leaders have adopted these strategies, the author then labels all customers as falling into four categories and spends 4 chapters explaining how to work each of these groups

1. Searchers (eager to change and self-reliant)
2. Collaborators (eager to change and ready for help)
3. Streamliners (seeking stability and self-reliant)
4. Delegators (seeking stability and ready for help)

The rest of the book consists of some case studies to reinforce the above mentioned concepts and ideas. Overall, a simple book to read and valuable information considering the source data (the top 5,000 companies in the world). The criteria that the author used to come up with this list does seem reasonable. The best part of the book is that this book was originally written before the dot com bubble burst. If the author's claims are true, the companies short-listed by using his criteria survived the burst (except a small percentage attributable to other factors)! We don't know if the author's claims are true that his list didn't change much (as the book was published after the burst even though he wrote it before the burst). But if they are true, it is valuable information for any business that plans on emerging from this gloomy economy as one of the market leaders. The ideas presented meet the common sense test, so we are following these ideas quite a bit in our new company to achieve success.

The book is definitely worthwhile to look at. There are so many books in this niche (business help) that it can be overwhelming for anyone to make any sense out of this glut. But this book is really such a quick read and the concepts are so simple and small in number that I think the 2-3 hours time spent is time well spent. Good luck and I hope you get something good out of this book!

Who's winning (and why and how) in the battle for customers has never been more timely or important. Nor has it ever been tougher to document. Fred Wiersema expertly describes how today's customers are smarter and more demanding than ever, besieged by an unlimited choice of goods and services, and more than likely to take their business elsewhere unless their needs are met. He then fulfills this book's promise by naming today's new leaders and how they earned the title.

Wiersema's research tracing 5,000 companies, and his new measurement yardsticks of sales growth and market value, further enhance his premise. His examples, including Cisco, EMC, Home Depot, NTTDoCoMo, UPS, Yahoo! and others, and how these firms go about winning and keeping customers, illustrate many of the issues confronting corporate managers today worldwide. Moreover, his definition of "stretch customers" and their importance to profitable growth is a fundamental truth representing a "heads-up" to all senior executives.

Wiersema takes you down a path that leads to new perspectives on the drivers of market leadership in today's challenging global environment. He'll have you thinking differently about the essence of what makes market leaders -- and how they stay that way.

With his study of over 5,000 companies, Wiersema has identified who the market leaders really are. While some of the leaders are well known like GE, Home Depot or Wal-Mart, there are other names that are less obvious that Wiersema highlights. His analysis provides insight into how these companies achieve market leadership. I found it quite thought provoking in that I tried to think about each of the surprises and how these companies have differentiated themselves.

Wiersema highlights one of the most important issues of today which is customer scarcity. As he examines cases of his own, Wiersema's analysis shows how companies attract customers by appealing to the their needs and the way they do business. His customer segmentation is quite insightful and applicable as a strategic analysis tool in almost any market situation.