Dan Kennedy Foreword for Business Kamasutra

If you laid all the business books published this year end to end, you could probably walk to Mars and back – and be mind-numbed by the sameness and redundancy of so many of them. I write business books myself, so I am sensitive to the difficult challenge of breaking new ground. Of having a legitimate reason for existence, other than being a published author. It’s not an easy hurdle to get hurdle to over come. Most don’t. Most can be ignored. Partiv Shah’s little book, Business Kamasutra, should not be.

“BUSINESS IS SEX” is a different, provocative idea. When he ran it by me, I encouraged Partiv to, pardon the pun, flesh it out, and he has done so brilliantly and concisely. I have often said that marketing done well may be the most fun you can have with your clothes on. I co-authored one book on selling with a former, famous ‘madam.’

Most of my strategies focus on attraction in place of pursuit, and consent in place of rape. I was practicing and preaching this long, long before phrases like “permission marketing” were popularized by others in corporate America. This little book puts structure and system and technology for implementation underneath these ideas.

THE CHIEF PROBLEM with which most business operators – small and large – wrestle is not understanding what needs to be done. Smart owners, professionals and executives get past that. But when they understand the dance they need to do with the prospective customer, client, patient or donor, the seduction they need to succeed at, they are And having only better understanding is akin to knowing 365 different sexual positions but staying home alone every night. IMPLEMENTATION separates those who score from those who don’t. It’s never just what you know, it’s what you do, get done, can get done by others and by automation, and can get done right consistently. Partiv is an implementor. He has, bluntly, a clever thief inside him, that I am not always comfortable with, but then, the “swipe and deploy”, the aggregation of best strategies is what is often incorrectly characterized as “innovation.” Innovation is far too highly prized, when it is implementation that matters most. Schultz didn’t invent the coffee shop, and freely admits taking “inspiration” from European bistros. Jobs did not invent the computer – he mastered the merchandising of it as no one else ever has. Kroc did not invent the hamburger stand or “fast food.” This book gets from concepts to practical implementation. Which is where you want to be.

“Business Is Sex” is a really great conceptual way to understand relationships with prospects and customers, but without the methodology and means and resources of implementing, it’s empty.

COMPLEXITY IS EMBRACED in this book, and enabled by the suggestions late in this book. A current pet peeve of mine is the childish pursuit of simplicity. Businesses build sustainable advantage with complexity, not with simplicity. McDonalds is currently suffering in part because it is too simple a business, thus easily chewed at by countless copycat competitors. Disney is thriving because it is an incredibly complex business eco-system. PROCESS COMPLEXITY is an extremely valuable asset. As the Kama Sutra greatly complicates sex but gives its master dramatic advantage in sustaining the interest of his lover(s), the ability to implement this Business Kamasutra gives sustainable competitive advantage to a company.

Too many business books are nothing but flowery words and foreplay, a romancing, with no consummation. Here, Partiv has provided method and means for consummating change in your business.