Barack, Inc.: Winning Business Lessons of the Obama Campaign

Barry Libert · Rick Faulk

Jan 2009 · FT Press

About this ebook

Barack Obama's campaign didn't just make history: it teaches lessons that every business can profit from. The Obama campaign was brilliantly planned, strategized, and executed, and built to drive home a powerful, consistent core value proposition: the proposition of change. Moreover, it had an extraordinary understanding of innovation, manifested by its extraordinary use of technology to achieve specific, quantifiable goals. In Barack, Inc., Barry Libert and Rick Faulk present the Obama campaign as a business, identifying lessons any business leader can use to maximize performance. Libert and Faulk cover issues ranging from marketing to leadership, strategy to execution. They reveal how Obama's team identified and honed a powerful core message, and applied it flexibly in response to changing circumstances without ever compromising core brand values. You'll discover how Obama built a focused, "no-drama" organization that empowered local decision-makers without sacrificing nationwide consistency or discipline. Finally, the authors, executives at the world's leading provider of business social networking services, show how Obama leveraged social networking at a scale unprecedented in the history of either politics or business. From start to finish, Barack, Inc. is actionable: packed with ready-to-use strategies and tactics that can help you succeed with any goal, in any marketplace.

Ratings and reviews

“The indispensable quality of a leader whose decisions and actions can change people’s lives is his cool-his calm rationality, steadiness under pressure, and ability to stay on message and control strong emotions…Be cool: Ignore the side shows, keep your eye on the center ring… Be cool: Fix the problem, forget the blame… Be cool: Play hardball when you have to…” Barry Libert and Rick Faulk write. “…Staying cool doesn’t mean being a wuss. In his pickup basketball games, Obama is not above throwing an elbow under the basket-and in politics, much of his success has come from playing hardball. If an opponent is down, Obama is not about to let up. His first campaign was a bid for a seat in the Illinois state senate. The incumbent, Alice Palmer, was giving it up to run for Congress, and she endorsed him. But when she lost her congressional race, she changed her mind and asked Obama to withdraw and give back her senate seat. By then, he had launched a campaign, recruited a staff, and attended countless neighborhood meetings. To Palmer’s righteous fury, he refused to stand down. When Palmer scrambled to get enough petition signatures to qualify for a spot on the ballet, Obama challenged many of her signatures-and a judge ruled enough of them invalid to end her bid. Still playing hardball, the Obama team went on to vet the petitions of the other two candidates, and he wound up as the only name on the ballot…” Barry Libert and Rick Faulk continue to cover other winning business lessons of Obama Campaign, including Be Social, Be the Change, etc. This is one of the few books that keep my attention. It is short, useful and still has some details. I enjoy reading it.

頗難看，穿鑿附會可能大於實際情況。

About the author

Barry Libert is chairman and Rick Faulk CEO of Mzinga, a leading enterprise social technology and services provider. The company manages over 14,000 online communities, which draw more than 60 million total online visitors every month.

Libert is a recognized authority on entrepreneurial leadership strategies and a pioneer in the business use of social technologies. He recently co-authored We Are Smarter than Me, a critically acclaimed book created in collaboration with Wharton Publishing and more than 4,000 community participants that illustrates how businesses can profit from the wisdom of crowds. A one-time McKinsey and Company consultant, Libert has also co-authored two other highly regarded books about the business value of information and relationships entitled Cracking the Value Code and Value RX. He is also a regularly featured keynote speaker who has delivered speeches to audiences of 20,000+ globally.

Faulk is currently the CEO of Mzinga, and has more than 21 years of executive leadership and marketing experience at some of the world’s most notable high-tech companies, among them Cisco, WebEx, Intranets.com, PictureTel, Shiva Corporation, and Lotus. Early in his career, he also founded First Software, which grew to sales of more than $175 million in less than four years and was ranked on one of Inc. magazine's lists of fastest-growing companies in the United States.