Bookseller Fosters Better Decision-Making With Decisive Offer

Crown Business is offering booksellers the opportunity to send a free copy of Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work, by Chip Heath and Dan Heath, to up to three local businesses. The program, which is aimed at helping booksellers network and build stronger ties within the business community, was announced following Dan Heath’s plenary talk at last month’s Winter Institute.

Before learning about the program from Crown Business, Inklings Bookshop owner Susan Richmond gave, at the store’s expense, seven copies of Decisive to local city council members in Yakima, Washington.

“I realized it had a lot of appeal to both the business community and individuals,” Richmond said. “It has very concise, really workable, practical steps, so I was thinking I should put this in the hands of some people locally.” The Yakima city council is struggling with Washington State’s new marijuana legislation and is facing some critical decisions in the upcoming weeks, Richmond said, so she sent the book to the members of the council on Tuesday, explaining in a letter that she was sending the title with no agenda of her own, but simply as a tool that may help them with their work.

After learning about the offer from Crown Business, Richmond has decided to send additional copies to several local businesses to foster new relationships, including two area hospitals and an aircraft manufacturer. Richmond plans to follow up with all of the recipients via letter to let them know that Decisive is available for ordering through Inklings. “It’s a practical — almost a sociological — look at how we make decisions. I think it’s accessible to anybody that wants to pick it up,” she said.

Richmond also penned a review of Decisive for her local paper, the Yakima Herald, in which she said that the book “is filled with humorous, poignant, and impressive examples of both wrong and right decisions on large and small scales.”

Via the online form available here, booksellers can submit to Crown Business the names of up to three businesses that they would like to receive Decisive. Sign-ups for the program will close on February 21.

All shipments of the complimentary copy will be fulfilled by Crown Business, which will not be directly soliciting special sales from these contacts. Booksellers can follow up with the recipients after the book has been delivered to engage fellow business owners in fostering better business relationships, developing business-to-business partnerships, establishing or expanding business book reading clubs, or creating local first events or marketing efforts.

Booksellers can e-mail ABA Content Officer Dan Cullen with questions or for more information.