The Wow Factor: How I Turned One Idea and My Unbridled Enthusiasm Into a Golf Revolution | 
 enlarge | Author: Barney Adams
Creator: James Dodson
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $12.47
You Save: $12.48 (50%)
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Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 457607
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.1
ISBN: 160239248X
Dewey Decimal Number: 338.768876352092
EAN: 9781602392489
ASIN: 160239248X
Publication Date: June 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New. 100% money back guarantee. All books shipped from Strand Bookstore, New York City, USA.
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Product Description
The founder of Adams Golf and the inventor of Tight Lies, the most popular fairway wood of all time, tells his rags-to-riches story.
In the early years of Adams Golf, entrepreneur Barney Adams labored in obscurity. He collected six patents for his golf products, manufacturing fine equipment but enjoying no sales. Everything changed for him and his company in 1996, though, when he invented the Tight Lies fairway wood. Working as a custom fitter, his customers repeatedly asked for a club they could play from "long iron" distance, from 180 to 220 yards to the green. Adams knew the technical secret was to lower the club's center of gravity. He did this by designing the traditional head shape upside down, which not only lowered the center of gravity, but also increased the hitting surface. The result was a club that was easier to hit, and suddenly Adams and his club, after years of diligent work, became overnight sensations.
As lean as those early years of Adams Golf were, the amazing success of Tight Lies more than made up for them. Sales skyrocketed beyond Adams's wildest expectations, and earned Adams Golf two placements on the Inc. 500 Fastest Growing Small Companies list, an Industry Week Top 25 Award for Growing Manufacturing Companies, several golf industry awards, and led to the largest IPO in the history of the golf industry in 1998. This is Barney's unvarnished story of how he made this happen, and how you, too, can make your entrepreneurial dreams come true.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Fun read with an excellent message August 26, 2008
As one reviewer already noted, the message regarding the WOW factor is simple, but too often overlooked. Anyone in sales or product development should ask themselves what their WOW factor is. Answer that question and you'll increase your market share, as Adams did.
Beyond the business case, the book was a fun and interesting read. I'm a little biased, as I was an early adopter of the Tight Lies club, so I immediately knew what Adams was referring to when I saw the title of the book.
Barney Adams August 25, 2008
Always nice to read about the golfindustry. Not just instruction or history is interesting so a nice read for all those who are interested in stuff like this.
 The casual truth about Tight Lies August 14, 2008
"The WOW Factor" is a well-designed business book that tells the story of how Barney Adams, the creator of the Tight Lies fairway wood and the founder of Adams Golf, turned a career of missteps and disappointment into a stunning success.
I call it "well-designed" because it's not too long, not too serious, not too heavy and remarkably, if discreetly, candid.
Adams ties his experiences, starting with his unremarkable years as a manager for Corning and ending with the realization that his executive leadership was not what his own company needed to be able to prosper, together with his WOW factor theory. Simply stated, he says hard work and a good product is not enough to crack into an established industry. The essential ingredients, he maintains, are the ability for your product to cause consumers to say, "WOW!" and the marketing technique to get that product into consumers' hands.
While this may not be earth-shaking, he does offer it as caution to all those would-be entrepreneurs who believe they can make it in the fickle, trendy but inbred golf business.
It's refreshing to hear a successful executive recount how he helped run a small company into the ground by taking too high-altitude a view of its operations. And it's intriguing to read how he desperately searched for a way to get golfers to try his innovative Tight Lies fairway woods.
For business purposes, what the book lacks is analytical detail. Adams can tell you what, in hindsight, he did wrong and what turned out to be right. He really can't tell you why, except as a matter of empirical result.
For insight purposes, Adams reveals little about his personal life, except for his obvious passion for his work. While the development of his golf businesses apparently cost him a great deal in his personal and family relationships, he touches on that issue only a bit.
Still, it's a remarkably pleasant, quick read. Adams may be a seat-of-the-pants contrast to the standard modern MBA, but he seems right on target in the fashioning the kind of book that golf fanatics would enjoy.
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