John Kador, freelance writer
An Independent Business Author
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John Kador is an independent business author focusing

on business, healthcare, finance, technology, and careers.

  • Books
  • Speeches
  • Ghostwriting
  • Annual Reports
  • White Papers
  • Case Histories

Syndicated columnist Joyce Lain Kennedy has named The Manager's Book of Questions

one of the Top Job Books of the Year.  Thanks, Joyce.   

 

The Manager's Book of Questions:

1001 Great Interview Questions for Hiring the Best Person

Completely updated with proven job interview questions, organized in 40 templates that managers and team members can use to construct effective interviews. 

 

Have you Tried these Interviewing Questions? 

1.  Can you tell me about a time when you broke a rule to serve a customer? 

2.  Tell me about an investment you have made in your professional career development that your employer did not pay for. 

3. What have you done to demonstrate that you are a good follower? 

 

The Manager's Book of Questions is a complement to 201 Best Questions to Ask On Your Interview.

 

Here is the acclaimed Q&A preface to the book.

Army Times The 9 Questions You Should Never Ask a Recruiter

Workforce.com Are You Ready for These Bone-Chilling Questions. 

Army Times 13 Questions to Ask--And Win Over--The Job Recruiter

 

 

New from John Wiley & Sons

Pricing with Confidence:

10 Way to Stop Leaving Money on the Table

By Reed Holden and Mark Burton

 

 

I’m delighted to be a writing partner to Dr. Reed Holden and Mark Burton to help make the arcane issue of business-to-business pricing accessible to business leaders.  

 

10 rules for all executives to capture value, grow revenue, and increase profits

 

Bad pricing is a massive destroyer of value revenue and profits. In ten steps, Pricing with Confidence demonstrates how managers can deliver both healthy profit margins and robust revenue growth while kicking the dreaded discounting habit.  This book is your roadmap through the practical implementation of value-based pricing based on the authors’ real-world experiences.  Demonstrating that a critical source of competitive advantage is an organization’s ability to manage and exploit value, Holden and Burton deflate the conventional wisdom that managers must trade margins for revenues. 

At the book launch party in Concord, MA, from left to right, Reed Holden,

John Kador, Mark Burton.  photo: Dan Klempa

Reed Holden (left) and Mark Burton

 

Dr. Reed K. Holden and Mark Burton (Concord, Mass) are change agents for pricing management and co-founders of Holden Advisors, a consultancy focused on linking customer value to pricing by integrating marketing, sales, and operational strategies.

Visit the book's Web Site

Drawing from their combined 35 years of business-to-business marketing experience, Holden and Burton focuses their expertise in working with businesses  to drive  rational value-based pricing strategies across the corporate value chain.  Dr. Holden is an Adjunct Associate Professor at Columbia University.  Mr. Burton developed and presented the Services Pricing Workshop for the Professional Pricing Society’s Certified Pricing Professional Program.

What the Book Delivers

What are the Ten Rules?

An Excerpt from 1-800-CEO-READS

Order Pricing with Confidence from Amazon

 

Pricing with Confidence in the News

Investor's Business Daily Make Sure Price is Right

Business Week  Pricing: Hold Steady

MSNBC Small Businesses Can't Hide Price Hikes

Sales Gravy Ten Rule for Pricing Excellence

Wallet Pop The Price is Right (and Wrong)

PR NEws Now  Five Signs Its Time to Change A Company's Pricing Strategy Insulate a Company's Profits During a Market Downturn

W2W Link Price Competition is a Fool's Game

 

Introducing "By the Numbers," a snapshot collection of illuminating factoids from the worlds of careers, commerce, and culture. 

By the Numbers October 16, 2007

 

 

CHIEF EXECUTIVE INfact

Chief Executive, the only magazine written strictly for CEOs and their peers, has started a feature called Chief Executive INfact, a compilation of pertinent and impertinent factoids that inform the complex world of senior executives. 

INFact March 2008

INfact January/February 2008

INfact December 2007  

INfact October/November 2007

INfact September 2007

  The Puzzler

 

Check out my brainteaser column in Registered Rep a magazine for investment professionals.

April 2008 Trapped in a Blender

March 2008 Trainspotting

February 2008 Red Bull Delivery

December 2007 Russian Roulette

April, 2007  Stockbroker's Quota

June, 2006  Sequences

February, 2006   Puzzled by Odd Lots

December, 2005 The Puzzler Returns

November, 2005  The Puzzler Debut

 

The Rep Index

The Rep Index is a collection of statistics that illuminate the markets, the world of financial services and big business.

The March 2008 Index

The January 2008 Index

The October 2007 Index

The June 2007 Index

Why is Apology so Difficult?

 

I once wrote speeches for a CEO who told me, “I never apologize.  I’m sorry, that’s just the kind of guy I am.”

This hapless CEO aside, apologies are serious business.  New evidence demonstrates that the magic healing power of the two words “I’m sorry” can go a long way to mediating office disputes, avoiding litigation, and minimizing damage awards. 

An authentic apology means one acknowledges that incorrect behavior caused injury, takes responsibility for the incorrect behavior, expresses remorse and vows not to repeat it.  If practical, it also offers restitution for any injury caused by wrong behavior.

 

The Four Rs of Apology

 

An authentic apology has a number of components. I call these components the Four Rs of Apology:

First, it offers recognition. The injured party needs to know that the offender understands specifically what he or she did wrong. 

I recognize that my deceit has damaged our friendship and that my       carelessness ruined your suede jacket.    

Second, it offers responsibility.  The offender must accept personal responsibility for the injury. 

I accept total responsibility for ruining your jacket and, worse, lying about my responsibility.      

Third, it offers remorse.  Here there is no substitute for the magic words “I’m sorry” or “I apologize.”  It’s probably wise to keep this part short and direct.  It’s tempting to add words of explanation.  Resist the impulse. 

              I am so sorry. 

Fourth, it offers restitution.  Whenever possible, the apology should try to make the injured party whole or, barring that, promising never to offend again.  A good way to end this part of the apology is to ask, “What else can I do?” 

I hope you accept this check for my carelessness.  I wish I could as easily repair the damage to our friendship.  What else can I do?

A bad or late apology is worse than no apology at all.  There is no substitute for the timely phrases, “I apologize” and “I am sorry.”  Here are some more thoughts on apology. 

The Business of Apology

A Simple Apology: No Such Thing

Apology Leadership in Public and Private

The Purpose of Apology

Bad Apology: Eight Ways to Screw up an Apology

The Sorry Grammar of Sorry Statements--Which Statement is the Apology?

Ghostwriting Rules

Why is ghostwriting getting such a bad rap lately? 

The closet doors have been thrown open.  The ghosts have escaped, and once free, they are bashing themselves to oblivion.  In essays and books, ghostwriters publicly shed their ghostly identities.  Giving up the ghost, proclaiming they are mad as hell, they are simply not going to ghostwrite anymore. 


Not me.  I’m proud to be a business ghostwriter.  Along with writing books under my own name, magazine work and speechwriting, ghostwriting will remain a substantial part of my writing practice. 


I acknowledge the traps of ghosting.  It’s seductive and not in a good way.  Ghosting makes it easy for lazy writers to get by.  It’s easier to echo the voice of someone else than to find my own.  It’s less work to dress up the experiences of someone else than to figure out what my experiences mean.  Ghosting often means better money, which is okay, but the focus on the money rather than the writing can subvert any writer’s authentic work.  Ghosting touches on real moral concerns concerning questions of authenticity, professional ethics, and ownership.   


That said, I intend to continue ghosting.  There’s honor in assisting someone to write something worthy of writing. 


Balance is the key.  I’m not judging ghostwriters who do nothing but ghostwrite.  I am suggesting that a writer’s authentic voice is a muscle that needs to be exercised.  If that muscle is allowed to atrophy, no good—including one’s ghostwriting—can come of it.  So, writers of all stripes, ghost away.  But keep an eye on your own writing and attend to some of these principles that I have honed ghosting 10 business books.  Herewith, my Ghostwriting Rules. 

  1. What’s in a Name?
  2. The Principal is not your Pal
  3. It’s the Money, Stupid
  4. Trust and Confidence
  5. You’re the Writer, Put It in Writing

 

 

 

 

 

The Manager's Book of Decencies:

How Small Gestures Build Great Companies

by Steve Harrison

 

I am proud to be the writing partner for Steve Harrison, a principal of Lee, Hecht Harrison, one of the larger outplacement and career management companies in the U.S., for his book, "The Manager's Book of Decencies."   

In this provocative book, Steve Harrison considers a thorny and often ambiguous issue with which today’s business leaders must grapple—how best to create corporate cultures that are receptive to the ethical and decent workplaces we all want while resisting the forces of opportunism and unprincipled behavior that have brought such disrepute on business. 

About the book

There is a philosophy of doing business that goes beyond the transfer of goods and services.  It calls for a transfer of values which goes by the name of small decencies.   Harrison defines a business decency as a gesture offered without expectation of reward that in ways small and large change the corporate culture for the better. 

 

“A decency must be freely and spontaneously offered,” Harrison says.  “A gesture, however decent, offered to advance an ulterior motive, however beneficial, is not a decency, but a bribe.”

More. 

Business Decencies in the News

Human Resources Executive: Decencies in Separation

Knowledge at Wharton: Talking with the Receptionist, Pausing When You Speak and Other Secrets of Leadership Success

Christian Science Monitor: What you need to know about what they can ask

Voice of America: Common 'Decencies' Humanize a Workplace

Globe & Mail: It's Just the Decent Thing to Do

Strategic HR Review: Improve Your CEO's People Skills

Business Know-How: 10 Tips for Creating an Ethical Culture One Decency at a Time

Business Radio: Listen to Steve Harrison

Daily Breeze: Decencies Lead to Productivity on the Job

HR Magazine:  Deliberate Acts of  Decency

Forbes.com:  Kindness Pays Dividends

Registered Rep: Small Decencies Define Corporate Culture

CIO: Building Effective Corporate Culture One Decency at a Time

1-800-CEO-READ BLOG:  A book of Decencies

Salt Lake Tribune:  On the Job: Managers need to focus more on the decency factor

New Jersey Bergen Record:  Just Do the Right Thing
New York Times: Airlines Learn to Fly on a Wing and an Apology

Harvard Business Review:  The Art of Apology

Seattle Post Intelligencer: Use Forethought, Respect, when Letting Employees Go

Milwaukee Sentinel: Ethics Takes Front Seat

 

A Call to Action:

Taking Back Healthcare for Future Generations

by Hank McKinnell

Chairman and CEO, Pfizer Inc.

with John Kador

Hank McKinnell, chairman and CEO of Pfizer, wanted a book about healthcare and the action steps he believes are necessary to put the healthcare systems of the world on a more solid footing.  The result, published by McGraw-Hill in May 2005, is A Call to Action: Taking Back Healthcare for Future Generations.  

More about "A Call to Action"

A Short Q&A with Hank McKinnell About the Book

McKinnell's Ten Calls to Action

1986 All Over Again--New York Sun Reviews "A Call to Action"

Great Engagements:
The Once and Future
Johnson & Johnson

 

Johnson & Johnson has occupied the leading edge of progress since it was launched more than a century ago.

As part of its mandate to periodically document the history and growth of the company, the company embarked on a bold project.  I was asked to report on where J&J now stands on a number of dimensions.  No door was closed to me.  I traveled to J&J companies in North America and Europe and spoke with more than 200 employees and executives. The result, published to an internal audience, is Great Engagements: The Once and Future Johnson & Johnson. I am very proud of the book and hope that one day a commercial edition may be available.

From the Introduction to Great Engagements

An Inside Look at Johnson & Johnson…from an Outside Point of View: A Q&A with the Author

Author’s Note: Mythological Property and Meaning

From the Conclusion to Great Engagements: The Greatest Engagement

 

How to Ace the Brainteaser Job Interview

 

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, the brainteaser job interview is back. With so many qualified candidates chasing so few jobs, it stands to reason that brainteasers are making a comeback. Interviewers are desperate to separate the superstars from the merely overqualified, and they hope that brainteasers will help them identify the best of the best.

Popularized by Microsoft, today’s puzzle-intensive job interviews are a far cry from the stress interviews of yesteryear. This new generation of puzzles is designed to identify original, creative thinkers who can defend their creativity. It’s less about offering the first right answer (which, in any case, is generally wrong), but displaying an alert, supple mindset that thrives on challenge. Featuring 151 brand new as well as classic brainteasers, How to Ace the Brainteaser Job Interview provides a roadmap through some seriously tough puzzles by revealing what interviewers are really interested in.

Table of Contents

How to Ace the Brainteaser Interviewer
Summary of the book from the back cover

Praise for How to Ace the Brainteaser Job Interview
Advance praise for the book

Why Brainteasers?—What Interviewers are Looking For
If it’s not the answer, what do interviewers want?

Brainteasers Appropriate for Job Interviews
Varieties of puzzles that are appropriate for job interviews

Brainteasers Inappropriate for Job Interviews
Varieties of puzzles that just don’t work in job interviews.

The Obvious Answer is Always Wrong: Strategies for Success
Tips for solving brainteasers

Help! What Do I do When I’m Totally Stumped
Sometimes it’s best just to admit you’re stumped

Prisoner and Cigarette Brainteaser Contest Winners
Read the most creative entries

New Challenging Brainteasers
Ten new brainteasers making the rounds

Rejection Letter Parody

“I regret to inform you that I am unable to accept your rejection”

A friend recently forwarded a parody of a rejection letter that I wrote over 15 years ago. I had forgotten all about it. With unemployment being what it is, I think we can use every laugh we can get. Let me know if you like it.

 

50 High-Impact Business Speeches and Remarks
Proven Words You Can Adapt for Any Occasion

with an introduction by Lee Iacocca

From McGraw-Hill,

Read Chartered Accountant magazine’s review of High Impact Speeches book.


How One Company Beat Wall Street and

Reinvented the Brokerage Industry.


Charles Schwab: How One Company Beat Wall Street and Reinvented the Brokerage Industry.
Cover View


The first objective look a the company and the man. Through many crisis. Schwab has emerged as a different financial services firm.  Now, as it is going through it's most challenging period, the firm's culture is both advancing and impeding its opportunities. 

Preface | Table of Contents
Chapter 1 | Epilog | Praise
FAQ | Timeline

Now available in paperback!!

 

 

 


"Schwab: Back to Basics"

January 2007


Charles Schwab is getting back to basics—well, in as far as you can call investors with $50,000 to $2 million in assets “basics.”  With its recently announced plans to sell U.S. Trust to Bank of America, the firm has decided to leave serving the uber-uber wealthy—that very top 0.5 percent of the population—to others. Chuck Schwab said as much on a conference call with analysts in mid-December.  Schwab: Back to Basics

"Schwab Does it Again." 

October 2005

Can you name the Street's largest asset gatherer last year? Was it Merrill? Smith Barney? No, the title went to Charles Schwab. The pioneering discount broker, who was slammed by the tech wreck and suffered through protracted management struggles in the past two years, is beating the wirehouses at their own game. It's scooping up high-net-worth clients. And, in part, it's doing so with the help of former wirehouse reps. Schwab Does it Again

 

"Schwab Makes His Move"

The inside story on how Charles Schwab and his board finally agreed it was time for the fatigued founder to step aside.

Ethics@Work

Business Ethics When it Matters

Ethics@Work is a column that explores the intersection of ethics and the workplace. Currently, the column runs in the Kane County Chronicle as well as other virtual and print publications.  Every week, readers submit real-world questions about every aspect of ethics in today’s dynamic and unforgiving business environment. Email me with your queries.  Click here for an archive of columns.

John with his journal in November 2005. 

 

 

A Random Sample from My Collection
of Self-Annihilating Statements

(refresh page for another statement)

John Kador
82 March Circle
Winfield, PA, 17889
office (570) 524-1207

cell 630-440-6962
email