If that sounds
as if you need to be a magician, it's no accident: Mr. Cohen is
a board member of the Society of American Magicians. In "Follow
the Other Hand" (St. Martin's, $22.95), he creates a fable
involving a struggling business and uses magic as a metaphor for
thinking differently and generating new solutions.
Your guide through the tale is Merlin, who resembles
Henny Youngman more than the wizard from Arthurian legend. But once
you get past his vaudeville patter (Did you hear the joke about
the scientist who invented a new deodorant called Invisible? You
rub it on and disappear, leaving everyone wondering where the smell
is coming from”), the magician makes simple, solid points.
To succeed, you need to challenge assumptions, forge unshakable
trust with your customers, create something akin to
a classic magic trick to define your brand, concentrate relentlessly
on your source of competitive advantage, and remove
obstacles that keep you from your goals.
Merlin explains how magicians do all this, going so far as to
reveal the secrets behind a handful of well-known tricks. And because
this is a fable with a happy ending, our struggling business owner
comes up with a seemingly magical plan of his own by the time this
sprightly book ends.
“The use of magic as metaphor may seem implausible,”
Mr. Cohen writes. “But so, too, were the ideas of charging
$3 for a cup of coffee; or charging $120 a month for what used to
be free TV, or asking as much as $2.99 for a ring tone on your phone.”
One (or more) could make a best-seller list in 2007. |