“If we know where we are and something about how we got there, we might see where we are trending, and if the outcomes which lie naturally in our course are unacceptable, make timely change.”
--Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
16th president of the United States

I don’t want Virus just to be a book that you read. This is an experience that we will share together, as you learn what it takes to develop your own Human Factor (more on this in a moment) and use it to spread the great news about your company.

I believe that if you read Virus, you are a relatively disciplined person so I’m going to let you in on a secret in this book and what will be part of this amazing experience. There is a surprise at the end. But please don’t flip to the end: you’ll ruin the surprise and you won’t get as much out of this book if you do. Read each chapter. Apply what will work for you to your business. At the end, you will be glad you waited.

Virus is full of stories and examples that are a testament to the connectivity of people, their relationships, and the contagious way our businesses can spread around the world. Through case examples and interviews, you will understand why this “story” is essential for you to grow your businesses today.

There is human value to all aspects of business including employ-ees, customers, the business networks that we create either to expand our business or increase the knowledge base for our business, and those mentors or think tanks that helped us and continue to help us along the way. There is human value in what we give back to humanity from what our businesses create. As consumers we vote with our checkbooks when we have a choice, to do business with companies that value the human side of business--how they treat their employees via benefits, pay and general fairness. We have the chance to vote with our voice by speaking out against companies who don’t show they value The Human Factor in business.

Buy Local
When possible, I believe we need to patronize local businesses and support them when we purchase goods and services. As you and I travel across this great country of ours, the towns and cities across our nation are starting to look the same with the same familiar chains in every town we visit, leaving little character or variance to intrigue or inspire us. This is what I call The Human Factor.

The Human Factor
This book is about why today, The Human Factor is more import-ant than ever. And if you and I value and use The Human Factor to grow our businesses, we will not only prosper, we will improve humanity and at the end of the day feel generally good about what we have created.

This may seem a little idealistic to you now, but when you are done with this experience, you will have seen many examples of how very large corporations and small businesses choose to value the human side of business and as a result have prospered because they did so.

“ Everyone’s Doing Business with China”
After reading this book, if your product or service can be marketed overseas, then my hope is that you will not stop spreading the word of your business at U.S. borders. As in Thomas L. Friedman’s book, The World is Flat, the world has gotten flatter, and I believe, in a sense, smaller. As evidence, in an interview with Pam Minick of Billy Bob’s Texas, the world’s largest honky tonk, she said that Billy Bob’s was planning to expand into Beijing, China. That stopped me in my tracks. I had generally thought of industries like manufacturing or labor “exporting” to China. But franchising the “world’s largest honky tonk” in Beijing? How more western can you get? As I left I thought to myself, “I guess everyone is doing business with China.”

So as a business owner or manager, who can have the foresight to grow your company, I want you to think broader, wider and smaller.

To survive in our ever and rapidly changing technologically advanced, fast-paced and flattening world, we will not only need to rely more and more on our human relationships to succeed, we will actually long for it.
Now that you know what The Human Factor is, let’s start the journey and see how we can apply The Human Factor attributes to grow your business and at the same time be proud of what you created.