Change to Strange: Create a Great Organization by Building a Strange Workforce

“It’s not just a war for talent out there, it’s a war for the right talent. Cable sheds light on how managers can identify and attract the right people to turn strategy into reality.” —Susan Ashford, Associate Dean for Leadership Programming and the Executive MBA Program, University of Michigan   “Change to Strange takes the mystery out of the gap between strategy and strategy execution. Daniel underscores that success is dependent on the quality of your workforce, specific targets, and disciplined measurement. The book provides a useful process and a set of questions that your leadership team needs to address to create a great organization that stands above competitors.” —Stan Kelly, Senior Vice President, Wachovia Corporation   “In an era of over-emphasis on best practices and benchmarking, it is so refreshing to see a blueprint for how an organization can invest in its people to truly drive competitive advantage and create uncommon value for its customers and owners. Daniel Cable’s insightful, practical, and rigorous ‘strange workforce value chain’ will help your organization build a workforce with distinctive and compelling capabilities that better serve your customers and beat the competition.” —Christian M. Ellis, Senior Vice President, Sibson Consulting, A Division of Segal   “Change to Strange helps you ask the right questions about what will differentiate you in the marketplace and the strange (distinctive, extraordinary) steps you must take to make it happen. Be strange; get Change to Strange and have fun cooking up the special sauce your customers will love and your competition will find tough to imitate.” —Ben Schneider, Senior Research Fellow, VALTERA; Professor Emeritus, University of Maryland; and author of Winning the Service Game.   “Cable’s model is highly thought-provoking. The book is full of great ideas for standing out from the competition and getting your workforce fully engaged!” —Sara Rynes, Editor, Academy of Management Journal; Murray Professor of Management, University of Iowa   “What a great read! I found plenty of great ideas and examples in this book that I can use at VIF, and now my executive team is reading it.” —David B. Young, Chief Executive Officer, Visiting International Faculty Program   “Change to Strange...a fascinating and thought-provoking approach to extracting value from your human value chain. A must read for leaders engaged in reinvigorating enterprises in highly competitive markets.” —Sean Crane, Senior Vice President of Operations, The Fresh Market   “You can’t be great if you just do what everybody else does. Dan Cable sheds light on how companies can get extraordinary business results by creating a workforce that consistently ‘wow’ their customers.” —Sven-ke Damgaard, Vice President Human Resources, Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications   “At SAS we have our own definition of ‘strange,’ and it has yielded more than three decades of continual growth. What’s your definition? Use Cable’s book to figure it out. Then be prepared to be extraordinary!” —Jeff Chambers, Vice President Human Resources, SAS   “One word about this book: Terrific. It’s time for companies to stop saying people are their competitive advantage when they don’t know what it means. Cable’s book is essential reading if you want to do more than hope that your people are your competitive advantage.” —Michael Sayeau, Former Executive Vice President, Nabisco   “If you want your organization to attain and sustain a competitive advantage, Change to Strange is a must read. This is the book to help you develop a winning workforce that will impress your customers and overwhelm your competitors.” —Vice Admiral Gerald Hoewing, Retired Chief of Naval Personnel, U.S. Navy   “Dan Cable hits the nail on the head with regard to several critical issues facing today’s business leaders. Change to Strange will help you select the right things to measure, which will determine the culture and ultimate success of your organization.” —Jim Parker, Former CEO of Southwest Airlines   "Change to Strange is an imperative for those companies that want to grow and create lasting value in their industries. Companies that have the guts to embrace a Strange workforce are the companies that will have the power to lead and generate sustainable differentiation and innovation in their businesses." --Tim Kelly, President/Consumer Division, Sprint Nextel   To achieve sustained competitive advantage, you must create and deliver something that’s valuable, rare, and hard to imitate—and you can’t do that with a run-of-the-mill workforce. Your workforce needs to be strikingly different, obsessively focused on delivering on your unique value proposition.