Praise for FLAIR

“Flair does quite an unusual thing by introducing a new word to the management literature – one that is both useful and, thankfully, not too difficult to put into practice. Jim and Jennifer Poage have done a fine research job in presenting exemplars of using flair and how valuable flair proves to be in designing and promoting products and services as well as boosting sales and delighting customers. A very interesting book well worth the reader’s attention.”

—  LAURENCE PRUSAK, Consultant on knowledge management, former Executive Director of IBM’s Institute for Knowledge Management, author of numerous books, including  Working Knowledge, Knowledge in Organizations, and What’s the Big Idea.

 

“Success of our personal and professional communications with others depends upon capturing their attention and trust, and effective sharing of our ideas. The Poages describe a communication style – flair – that they show, through examples, has been successful in both inter-personal interactions and commercial campaigns. They identify key elements of effective flair and provide useful guideposts and practical examples to help the reader adopt this style. In future, I intend to employ flair in my personal and professional interactions.”

—  L. PATRICK (PAT) GAGE, former President of Wyeth Research and Genetics Institute; former CEO of PDL BioPharma; Board Chairman of several biotech companies; and consultant in biotech.

 

“The concept and practice of ‘flair,’ as creatively and informatively presented in the Poages’ new book, has given me a new perspective and a sense of confidence in how I will prepare my future urban economic presentations to both technical and nontechnical audiences.”

—  STANLEY R. HOFFMAN, Urban Economist, President of Stanley R. Hoffman Associates, Inc.

 

“Flair is to product and service as charisma to a person. A must read for anyone interested in  interacting with others.”

—  YU CHI LARRY HO, Professor Emeritus, Harvard University, School of Engineering and Applied Science

 

“Flair is like chi. Chi is the energy force of life. Products need flair like people need chi!”

—  JOHN C.C. FAN, Chairman of the Board, CEO, and President of Kopin Corporation

 

 

The Story Behind Writing FLAIR

 

About Jim Poage describes Jim’s journey to understanding and using flair in his consulting work: helping clients use flair to energize their customers and helping their workers to energize colleagues and audiences.

 

The co-author of FLAIR is Jim’s daughter, Jennifer Poage, who works in fashion design. She learned about flair when she studied art history in college and fashion design in graduate school and then in her career in the fashion industry. While studying art history as an undergraduate at Drew University, Jenn learned that memorable art engages the viewer emotionally, provokes further thought, and adds to the evolution of art. Her understanding of the principles of design was expanded when she obtained a degree in fashion design from the Parsons The New School for Design. There she learned to meld elements of flair with good business practices. She gained further experience with effective flair while working as an apparel technical designer for Reebok and adidas. She is currently pursuing a degree in fashion design management at the London College of Fashion. Jenn has put design methods to practical use, and she has observed how effective flair in products, marketing, and daily work improves sales, profits, and career advancement. Read more about Jenn at her blog: https://25thandpine.wordpress.com/

 

Jim began to think about, and play with ideas for, writing a book about adding flair to one’s work and to products and services. Jim talked to his daughter about the book idea since she worked every day with flair. It was immediately evident that she and Jim were both excited about flair and would make a great team to write a book on flair.

 

They began discussing how the techniques used in creative fields, such as fashion design, graphic design, and dance chorography, could be adapted to almost all products and services to engage customers emotionally and rationally. These discussions grew into the substance of the FLAIR book: to provide an understanding of what effective flair is and to explain practices used to create that flair.

 

Jennifer and Jim brainstormed on how to have flair in the book. They decided against splashy visuals to convey flair since these might not be sincere to the book. Instead they decided to incorporate flair into the text itself. Thus, the book is written in the narrative nonfiction style, which is rarely used in business books. They hope you find their writing draws you through the book and that the content is readily understandable. They had fun writing the book and hope you will have fun reading and applying the material in the book.