May 16, 2008
What is Wrong With Business Books?! - Part II
On the heals of my Fast Company news, I found a wonderful essay that berates business books. Yes, I said wonderful.
An anonymous writer under the byline "Uncle Saul" wrote The Author's Dilemma - Why Most Business Books Suck for socialtech.com. The piece is clearly written by a book reader as it points the vast number of ways business books fail the entrepreneurs. Among the reasons:
Entrepreneurs Need Tactical Guidance – Obsessing about strategy is a luxury that only Big Dumb Companies ("BDC’s") can afford. Entrepreneurs must define a series of skirmishes, they do not need to devise elaborate battle plans. Entrepreneurs need only develop a basic strategy and craft an evolving and iterative tactical plan which guides them in the general direction dictated by their overall strategy. Although a few books attempt to act as entrepreneurial field guides that offer tactics in specific areas (e.g., selling, marketing, PR, etc.), their usefulness is often limited. Books that highlight tactics are valuable for entrepreneurs whose specific circumstances match those outlined in the text. However, specific tactics are often difficult to translate into markets outside of those described in such books.
Entrepreneurs Have Corporate ADD - A pithy format, offering bite-sized data, serves entrepreneurs well. If you prefer to pour through 400-page academic tomes, you may be a nice person, but you are probably not an entrepreneur.
Entrepreneurs "Get It" – Consistent with their Corporate ADD, entrepreneurs tend to excel at digesting numerous disparate facts and making quick, gestalt decisions. This inherent impatience causes entrepreneurs to quickly become frustrated with books that repeatedly reinforce their central point through multiple examples, analogies and anecdotes.
Entrepreneurs Are Contrarians – In general, the use of multiple examples is an appropriate means of convincing someone to change their behavior. However, since most entrepreneurs have no allegiance to the status quo, they find books which rely on numerous examples as a means of changing the reader’s behavior to be frustrating and largely irrelevant.
Uncle Saul does like one book: Guy Kawasaki's The Art of the Start, saying, "Guy succinctly addresses a number of relevant startup issues in pithy chapters and offers concrete, tactical suggestions for addressing a number of typical challenges faced by most startups."
What Is Wrong With Business Books?! - Part I
I first found out through email from my friend Sara at Cave Henricks Communications about the publication of my letter to the editors of Fast Company. Below is the full text of the letter I sent in response to Elizabeth Spiers' Library of the Living Dead essay that appeared in the April 2008 issue. I have used bold to highlight the portion they published in the magazine. I'll leave it to you to determine if their editing captured the essence of my argument:
I write to provide a needed counterpoint to Elizabeth Spiers April 2008 Not So Fast column titled "Library of The Living Dead."
I will start where she ends, agreeing in fact with Spiers' ultimate conclusion: Business books are self-help, by their very definition. The implication that business books fall strictly into the "I'm OK, You're OK" segment of self-help is where Spiers and I diverge. A book publisher recently shared research with me that showed the number one reason people buy business books is to find a solution to a problem. Sitting at the educational crossroads between "I know nothing about this," and "Let's hire a consultant," business books contain a high value proposition for the twenty dollars and two hours spent. Not, as Spiers says, to abdicate responsibility for the choices they make. Instead, it takes a great deal of personal awareness to look for answers from those who offer experiential lessons in books.
The packaging of those lessons receives the majority of criticism in Ms. Spiers column and I am always dismayed by the problems pundits have with this aspect of the industry. Human civilization is built upon stories and when an author chooses a fable as the delivery device, the writer is making the lessons more accessible to a wider audience.
The "12-step-ification" is a crutch that bloggers, business magazines, and book publishers certainly use alike, in the same way celebrity authors are used to garner attention and sell product. This is simply product marketing through concreteness and social proof.
The bestseller list as a guide to the "best" in the category is just another form of social proof. My optimism for the category would bring me to highlight Gallup's research-based StrengthsFinder 2.0 or Jim Collins' insightful and wonderful written Good to Great as evidence that some books that make the bestseller list really deserve the title.
In the case of John Kotter, we have the benefit of choosing either his current top-selling fable, or his 1996 book "Leading Change," which has sold over a million copies. Both books tackle the same content, but offer options for the reader to choose his method of consumption.
Ms. Spiers overall indictment of the entire business book category is an easy mark and one that could be applied to any genre of media. Her elitism about what constitutes good reading compounds the problem further. While I can appreciate her hyperbole as a method to communicate some criticism about the genre, a more subtle treatment of the subject would, I believe, be more effective.
Beyond that, Fast Company is a magazine that has always supported business ideas. A simplistic column like Spiers' goes against the very DNA of your publication. The mantra "WORK IS PERSONAL" matches well with Thoreau's or Emerson's definition of self-help. The publication of this column leaves me wondering just how that mission has been served.
Article from Bob Livingston, author of How you do...What you do
Thanks to Bob Livingston for offering this article to post on our blog.
How Others Serve Internally
By Bob Livingston
author of How You Do...What You Do
Great service companies share common beliefs about the importance of culture, behaviors, people, and relationships. These beliefs manifest themselves in different ways, but they form the core of each company's operating principles. There is great value in understanding and exploring how all of these benchmark companies do what they do. Looking for points of commonality that define their approach to Service Excellence is important to understand. Here are some of those points:
- They treat everyone as equals in matters of service
- They tend to put associates first, customers second or at least on equal footing
- They all seem to hire for attitude and then train for specific skills
- Everyone is empowered to interact with clients to solve problems and resolve conflict
- There are no "superstars" ; the focus is on teamwork
- Rewards and recognition are a visible support of their service strategy
All benchmark companies may not embrace all of the above, but they all embrace most of them.
They treat everyone as equals in matters of service
Hierarchies are necessary for spelling out what people do. But in the scope of how you do what you do, great service benchmark companies treat everyone as equal. This is not inscribed on a wall plaque; it is evidenced, very simply, by watching how everyone behaves.
They tend to put associates first, customers second or at least on equal footing
Are you willing to put your associates first? Great service companies value a setting where associates feel significant, respected, and well treated. They understand that attitudes and behaviors are contagious and that their treatment of employees will rebound to their clients, who in turn will be made to feel significant, respected, and well treated. Do not mistake this as minimizing clients' significance in any way. Rather, think of it as a team game where the better your teammates, the better you play. Great service companies understand that the more they empower and respect their associates, the happier their clients will be.
Perhaps the best way to illustrate this notion of "Associates First" is to look at a few of Fortune's Best Companies to Work For in 2007 and see how these practices reflect their cultures:
Google (No. 1 ranked) offers free gourmet meals daily; allows you to bring your dog to work; provides car wash, free laundry, barber and massage services; pays you $5,000 to buy a hybrid car; has no dress code; has a swimming pool, spa, gyms, and game rooms; and offers free on-site medical care. Engineers can also spend 20 percent of their time on independent projects, which led to the development of Gmail. Is it any wonder they're ranked No. 1?
Genentech (No. 2 ranked) is a biotech leader with uncommonly loyal staffers. "Wild horses could not drag me away," says one employee. Last year 537 employees took six-week paid sabbaticals, available to every associate for each six-year term of service.
The Container Store (No. 4 ranked), a storage products retailer, pays sales employees 50 to 100 percent above industry average. Nearly one-tenth of all employees take advantage of the family-friendly shift, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., allowing for school drop-offs and pickups.
Methodist Hospital System (No. 9 ranked) sent all but the top executives a $250 Chevron gift card, in the wake of soaring gas prices. This gesture prompted more than 500 staffers to send thank you e-mails to CEO Ron Girotto.
Here is an interesting statistic we uncovered regarding health-care benefits for employees. Of the Top 100 Best Companies to Work For, 40 percent pay 100 percent of the health-care premiums for their employees. Among the Fortune 500 companies, that number is 14 percent. If you have ever wondered about the extent to which insurance premiums impact an employee's perception of their value, this is telling.
This is very uncomplicated really. If you put your associates first, your clients will feel as though they have been put first. That is the subtle translation of how great service companies, who sincerely value their associates, become great partners to their clients.
They all seem to hire for attitude and then train for specific skills
You are vigilant about your culture, doing all of the right things. The last thing you want to do is sabotage your progress by hiring people who do not fit well with your culture. This is not to say there's anything wrong with these potential candidates. It's simply that neither party will be happy, and your culture will suffer should you engage the services of someone who is not suited to live and own the culture. This suggests the need for a defined interviewing protocol.
Everyone is empowered to interact with clients to solve problems and resolve conflict
Within logical parameters, service-centric companies empower their associates to make decisions in order to satisfy the needs of those they serve. Great service companies publicly commend associates who proactively address problems even though they may occasionally fail. Their message is, better to step up and act in the best interests of the client than do nothing. Creativity in problem solving is encouraged, limiting the need to ask for permission within reasonable boundaries.
There are no "superstars"; the focus is on teamwork
Everyone is equal in matters of service, so it follows that all positions are of equal value when it comes to service. Titles then become meaningless and fun. You will laugh at the following list of actual titles we found on various blogs and Web sites. But looking beyond the humor for a moment, you will see how these titles support the principle that attitudes and behaviors (how) define you or your company--not skills (what). Some examples:
Chief Evangelist (aka CEO)
Chief People Person (aka human resources director)
Director of First Impressions (aka receptionist)
Director of Mind and Mood
An environment that doesn't cotton to superstars has the character and integrity to genuinely respect all positions and levels within the organization. These companies value the success of the culture or team over the success of the individual.
Rewards and recognition are a visible support of their service strategy
People are motivated by rewards and recognition. Particularly in a service culture, recognition must be creative and meaningful or the result will be the opposite of the desired effect. In recognizing great service, personal attention resonates most with colleagues. Remember, personal interactions not only define you; they also satisfy the soft needs of those you are recognizing. Consider the possibilities:
- A personal, handwritten note of appreciation is far more meaningful than an e-mail.
- Public recognition through a Service Excellence communique works wonders.
- Praise from and among peers provides great inspiration.
- A team meeting is a great forum for acknowledging and celebrating outstanding service actions.
- Widely sharing recognition from external clients is both appreciated and flattering.
Done well, you cannot recognize people enough for their achievements. Be creative, and guard against trite forms of gratitude. Have a filter; don't try to create something where there is nothing. Favoritism has no place in reward and recognition programs. Doing this well requires listening, thinking, creativity, and time, but the upside potential is tremendous.
These are some of the approaches Service Excellence companies take in defining how they do what they do. These are wonderful behaviors to emulate and model yourself after.
(c) Bob Livingston 2008
Bob Livingston formerly head of sales at Unilever's The Lipton Company, is the founder and CEO of REL Communications, a consulting firm that moderates the Client Service Advisory boards. He also leads service-based cultural transformations within the companies with which he consults. He is the author of How You Do...What You Do.
May 15, 2008
BusinessWeek Review of The Post-American World
If you enjoy reading both history and business books, check out BusinessWeek's recent review of what might be the next book on your pile. The Post-American World is Fareed Zakaria's analysis of the new era we're entering, where America will not have the global dominance it has experienced since the end of the Cold War.
Here's a brief excerpt from the review by Stanley Reed:
Zakaria, a native of India and the editor of Newsweek International, argues that the U.S. has squandered opportunities in the past few years. "[It] has had an extraordinary hand to play in global politics--the best of any country in history. Yet by almost any measure--problems solved, success achieved, institutions built, reputation enhanced--Washington has played this hand badly." As a result, he argues, the U.S. is now an enfeebled superpower, and anti-American sentiment is high "everywhere from Great Britain to Malaysia."
What went wrong? Zakaria says the preeminence of the U.S. following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 has "made Washington careless, arrogant, and lazy." He compares U.S. foreign policy to General Motors' (GM) 1970s business strategy, "an approach driven by internal factors with little sense of the broader environment in which it was operating." But, Zakaria says, it's far from certain that the U.S. will suffer from what he calls "the rise of the rest." In fact, America may well profit from the change if it plays its cards right. "The world is going America's way," he says. "Countries are becoming more open, market-friendly, and democratic." Even most of Africa, considered hopeless not long ago, is making major strides, he says.
Read the review here.
Interviews Galore!
If you haven't been over to the IT Conversations website yet, we would highly recommend it--specifically this interview of Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations. He discusses social networking technologies, how they are rarely used as envisioned by their creators, and how they are evolving. Or, listen to Fred Krupp and Miriam Horn of the Environmental Defense Fund talk about their new book, Earth: The Sequel: The Race to Reinvent Energy and Stop Global Warming. They discuss "The New Industrial Revolution," and some of the technologies that can help save the planet.
Personality Not Included author Rohit Bhargava and Accidental Branding author David Vinjamuri have done something rather interesting on their blogs. They interviewed each other, asking ten questions each, and posted the interviews at the same time. You can read David's interview of Rohit here, and Rohit's of David here.
I spoke recently with David Bach, author of Go Green, Live Rich, about how--contrary to popular belief--going green can actually save you money.
And finally, if you can't wait for his book to come out later this year, you can get your Gladwell fix by watching his talk at the 2004 TED Conference, or listening to him tell stories about his time at The Washington Post on This American Life (Act Four of the episode). These two aren't actually interviews, but they are hilarious.
May 14, 2008
A Book Publisher's Manifesto
For all of you interested in what the future of publishing will look like, Sara Lloyd has begun posting her essay on the topic over at the digitalist (the digital team at Pan Macmillan's blog). Because of it's length, she's posting it in six parts. Today's installment was part two.
From the introduction posted yesterday:
Crucially, we will need to work out how we can add value as publishers within a circular, networked environment.One of the key perception shifts that publishers need to make, then, is about the book as 'product'. Whilst the book continues to be viewed as a definable object within covers, as a singular 'unit', publishers will continue to limit their role in its production and distribution, and this is a sure fire way for publishers to write themselves out of the future of content creation and dissemination.
This is a conversation we have quite often here. While we were handing out books at an author event recently, a gentleman walking by turned to us and said, "no one reads books anymore"--and, keep in mind, this man was there to see the author of the book speak. It's that sentiment that causes so much panic in our industry about the possible demise of the printed book, and I think that that panic sometimes clouds our vision of the future and what great possibilities it holds. So far, Sara Lloyd's essay has provided a very thoughtful and sober view of the situation. I'm looking forward to the next four posts.
And, speaking of the future of publishing, you can now browse inside HarperCollins books on your iPhone.
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Categories: Information Technology, Innovation, Internet, Publishing Industry
Jack Covert Selects -The China Price
The China Price: The True Cost of Chinese Competitive Advantage by Alexandra Harney, Penguin Press, 336 pages, $25.95, Hardcover, April 2008, ISBN 9781594201578
Many of the books written about business in China in the past few years have come at the situation from a "half full" perspective. As a thinking person, you know there is another side to all these products we are buying so cheaply. This is the book that addresses that "half empty" side.
Alexandra Harney reveals the damage our seemingly insatiable need for cheap goods causes. She explains that "as much as the responsibility seems to lie with Beijing, it also lies with the global consumer. Our appetite for the $30 DVD player and the $3 T-shirt helps keep jewelry factories filled with dust, illegal mines open and 16-year-olds working past midnight. We all pay the China price" (289). The China Price compiles an impressive list of some serious infractions in the international code of conduct. For example, the author joins a Wal-Mart representative as she audits a factory for compliance to the company's ethical standards with regard to child labor, factory safety and pay. Unethical factory owners, she is told, often carry a separate set of books with fake time sheets and fake pay stubs to satisfy the standards large American companies demand.
These practices are driven by the desire of the factory owner to make more money, but, as Harney explains, it is also driven by the "race to zero" where the customer is demanding a reduced cost for the product. Because of the size of the country and the number of factories, customers can shop and demand better prices. This demand puts huge pressure on the environment, labor costs and safety issues. Harney also digs into the troubles China has gone through during its evolutions from a state-controlled economy to a country trying to cope with one of the largest migrations in human history. These conditions are simply not conducive to a rational growth policy.
This book tells sobering stories with the quality you can expect from a Financial Times reporter. To fully understand our relationship with China and the internal state of that country, The China Price is a must-read.
May 13, 2008
Jack Covert Selects - It's Our Ship
It's Our Ship: The No-Nonsense Guide to Leadership by Michael Abrashoff, Business Plus, 208 pages, $25.99, May 2008, ISBN 9780446199667
One of our best-selling books of the new century has been Michael Abrashoff's first book, It's Your Ship. Abrashoff was then a recently retired captain in the US Navy, and the book told the story of his successful turnaround of the USS Benfold. That book continues to sell in ever-increasing numbers, and Abrashoff is now in much demand as a speaker.
In his new book, Abrashoff returns to his experience on the Benfold, this time focusing solely on leadership lessons. He asserts that there are key skills a good leader needs to learn. He offers 8 of them, and each skill is represented in a chapter within the book.
In the chapter on inspiring your people to be their best, Buoy Up Your People, Abrashoff tells a story about Bill Walsh, the late, revered coach of the San Francisco 49ers. During one game, an offensive lineman was called for a holding penalty that cost the football team a touchdown, and, naturally, the player was dreading the film session the following Monday. As the coach was going over the film with the team, however, he said, "We all know what Bruce did on the play, but I want you to see what he did on the next play." Because the player was angry with himself, he had flattened the defensive lineman. Walsh said, "This is what I want you to do after you make a mistake. You don't need to be thinking about your mistakes. Do something constructive about it." Walsh had just changed the way the players viewed failure with a few minutes of game film.
Abrashoff's writing is a joy to read. Very simple, basic sentences convey rather profound ideas. Sprinkled in with the stories of his ship, he includes stories from the civilian world of business and profiles a variety of people dealing with leadership issues. One of the strengths of It's Our Ship is that Abrashoff introduces us to businesses that are not your usual suspects. Following the Walsh story, for example, he includes a story on how the West Coast chain In-N-Out Burger manages to attract and motivate its great employees. I won't spoil that one for you though.
Jack Covert Selects - The Game-Changer
The Game-Changer: How You Can Drive Revenue and Profit Growth with Innovation by A.G. Lafley and Ram Charan, Crown Business, 336 pages, $27.50, Hardcover, April 2008, ISBN 9780307381736
Ram Charan has written some of the finest business books in the genre--most notably Execution, which he coauthored with former Honeywell Chairman Larry Bossidy. In this new offering, he teams up with another executive, Chairman and CEO of Proctor and Gamble A.G. Lafley.
When Lafley took over P&G, the company was in trouble, trying to respond to the quick changes of the global economy and not meeting stakeholders' expectations. In Lafley's words, the company was "trying to do too much, too fast, and nothing was being done well." This book documents P&G's turnaround. It is a practical, nuts-and-bolts guide to innovation, written in three parts.
In the first part, "Drawing the Big Picture," Charan and Lafley stress that the customer is always the boss of any company, and discuss how to shore up an organization's core strengths and choose the right goals and strategies for future growth accordingly. This part of the book inspires reflection, and you'll immediately start forming a view of what you want the future of your business to look like. The second part gives you the tools to design innovation structures into everything you do. In "Making Innovation Happen," the authors show you how to funnel outside ideas into your company effectively, and how to create innovation teams within your existing structure. This phase is when you design your organizational structure, consumer products and interaction.
Throughout the book, Charan and Lafley stress that "innovation is a social process." In the third part of the book they give you a view of what "The Culture of Innovation" looks like--and not only within your company, but also with your customers, suppliers, retailers, and even competitors. Lafley made a change to put P&G back on the right track--putting the customer in their rightful spot as boss--but he has also did some remarkable things in that pursuit, such as sharing propriety technology in a joint venture with Clorox, a key competitor for over 20 years, to develop a new line of GLAD products.
Every chapter in The Game-Changer ends with great takeaway questions to "Ask Yourself Monday Morning." But with the combined talents of Charan and Lafley at your disposal, you'll find that you'll be thinking about this book every day of the week.
May 12, 2008
Jack Covert Selects - The Pixar Touch
The Pixar Touch: The Making of a Company by David A. Price, Knopf, 304 pages, $27.95 Hardcover, May 2008, ISBN 9780307265753
Disney's The Sword in the Stone may have inspired some youngsters with dreams of becoming a knight or magician, leading them to a life of role-playing and dice-throwing. But, one little boy, John Lassater, thought instead about becoming an animator right then and there. He's now one of the people at the helm of Pixar, and yes, he did get to animate some pictures.
David A. Price's The Pixar Touch walks readers through the genesis of Pixar. Its beginnings reach far back into the 1960s, before computer technology was even a glimmer on the horizon of film making, let alone in our everyday workforce and home life. The book weaves the tales of not just one or two great masterminds behind Pixar, but actually dives into the contributions of the many different people who helped establish what it is today. This is no small feat, as there are literally thousands of such individuals to acknowledge (George Lucas, Tim Burton, Ed Catmull and Steve Jobs, just to name a few).
The author also takes on the huge task of talking about the technology, innovation and expertise that fueled Pixar into an Academy Award-winning company. He does so with great care, making the story accessible and easy to comprehend even though readers may not know anything about mainframes, pixels, frame buffers and other such computer hardware.
Detailing the histories of the company's huge hits (including Monster's Inc. and Finding Nemo) as well as some of its misses, Price shows how Pixar demonstrates the value in having faith not only in yourself, but also in those around you. The Pixar Touch never loses sight of the company's greatest renewable resource, the human spirit. Just envision that little boy looking up at the big screen, watching another little boy pull a huge sword out of a stone, thinking, "Hey, I could do that!"
April's Best Sellers NOW on Compact Disc
I know you've ALL been waiting to see which books from our TOP 25 books last month are now available on CD....
Anticipate no longer.... Here's the scoop!
Earth: The Sequel (*) by Dick Hill, Miriam Horn and Fred Krup - # 2 Spot
Rich Dad's Prophecy by Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter - # 3 Spot
Wins, Losses and Lessons (*) by Lou Holtz - # 8 Spot
Rules to Break and Laws to Follow by Don Peppers and Martha Rogers - # 15 Spot
For One More Day (*) by Mitch Albom - # 21 Spot
Blue Ocean Strategy by W Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne - # 22 Spot
Wikinomics by Don Topscott and Anthony Williams - # 23 Spot
Awakening the Entrepreneur Within by Michael Gerber - # 25 Spot
If you can, place your orders quick! Audio/compact disc formats usually only last a short time! If you have any questions about this list or you don't see your favorite book listed, let us know!!
Enjoy your Monday!
PS: (*) = Selections brand new to the list!
May 9, 2008
Making Things Happen
Scott Berkun's latest book is out: Making Things Happen, it's an updated edition of his bestseller, The Art of Project Management. Scott was a manager at Microsoft from 1994 - 2003. Back when Microsoft was working on developing Windows, Internet Explorer and MSN.
His inspiration behind the book:
"I'd yet to find a book on leading project teams that didn't bore me to tears," said Berkun when asked about his motivation for writing the book. "Every great engineered thing ever made, from the Brooklyn Bridge to the Eiffel Tower to the Internet was made by teams of people, and I thought it was a crime against those triumphs if there wasn't a book about what really happens on project teams and how leaders handle it. I wanted to capture all the things I'd learned over a decade and increase the odds other people wouldn't have to make the same mistakes I did."How much of the software on the web that you use do you think is good?" Berkun asks. "If it's a small percentage, you can't blame the lack of amazing technology available to developers. The cause of poorly made things is something else--it's how projects are led and managed. My book is a handbook for people trying to make good things happen and who care about the intangible, human elements that software engineering and technology books typically overlook."
His publisher O'Reilly received an onslaught of comments on project management after blogging about Scott's new book. One of the best was from Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching:
Learn from the people Plan with the people Begin with what they know Of the best leaders When the task is accomplished The people will remark We have done it ourselves.I'll share more as I get into the book. The final copy just arrived this week. And before I forget, he's also authored two ChangeThis manifestos which are a good starting point for Scott's topics.
May 8, 2008
Gullible's Travels
Yes! Another CornerStone book has made it on my desk!! This one, entitled Gullible's Travels, is a leadership book that has about 100 tips/lessons for all kinds of leaders. Whether you are in a new leadership position or have been at the helm awhile, this book gives new insight to not just work but life as well. How to deal and cope in todays fast changing world.
One thing that stood out for me was when the author, Topper Long, addressed the need to find balance. He suggested using "The Four Ps".
Pulling Together ("teamwork, open communication, sharing ideas, and working together")
Perfection ("doing it right everytime, on time")
Positive Attitude ("finding the good in your particular situation...part of the solution")
Progress ("not focusing on where we've been, but working toward a successful future")
Long tells us that to achieve this we must use the 'Three Key Secrets" - balance, balance and balance. Yes, he basically says we need to find the middle ground of these perspectives and maintain what works for us. For more about this book visit CornerStone
links for 2008-05-08
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Despite such nuggets, "Powerhouse Principles" has the slightly moribund feel of a 2002 guide to picking tech stocks. Not so long ago Americans were eager to jump into the real-estate market in the hope of making a killing – and they needed plenty of adv
May 7, 2008
New Excerpt Up - The Power of Adversity
We have a new excerpt up on the Excerpts blog, from chapters 2 and 9 in The Power of Adversity: Tough Times Can Make You Stronger, Wiser, and Better by Al Weatherhead with Fred Feldman. Weatherhead says adversity is not a curse but a gift and that when we embrace our problems we temper and empower ourselves to achieve unimagined success.
Problem Solving Is One of the Great Joys in Life (from Chapter Nine)Harnessing with relentless passion the infinite power of adversity has led me to stunning revelations. Before adversity struck, I was preoccupied with false impressions of personal appearance and grandiosity. Adversity beat out of me self-delusion and stripped me of false vanities. And as I began to understand my own suffering, I began to view life with new eyes.
For example, I came to see that Weatherchem, my plastic cap and closure company, was alive. It is not merely a place built of concrete, steel, machinery, and motion, but a living, breathing entity pulsating with energy and in possession of a soul. When I am in my factory and listening closely, I can hear its heartbeat, and not just in the rhythms of its machinery but individually and collectively from the people who work within its walls.
Here's a direct link to the excerpt: http://800ceoread.com/excerpts/archives/007968.html
ChangeThis: Issue 46
The latest issue of ChangeThis has been posted. In it, the "human CliffsNotes" John Spence condenses his years of consulting and research into six strategies that all great companies focus on. "Performance Architect" Carlos Salum teaches us how to reach our peak performance, sharing his own incredible journey along the way. PR 2.0 author, Deirdre Breakenridge, discusses the new opportunities Web 2.0 provides to PR people, and the authors of Finding Keepers discuss hiring during an economic downturn. Concluding the issue, Marc Michaelson and John Anderson share their L3 Leadership model, and Vasu Srinivasan lays out his ideas for a Connected Intelligence Operating System. Excerpts and links below.
Achieving Business Excellence by John Spence
"There is no single strategy that will carry your company forever--just ask my buddy Tom Peters, who wrote the fantastic book In Search of Excellence back in 1982, only to watch more than half of the companies he highlighted go out of business! Markets shift, consumer preferences change, new competitors appear, technology advances--and so must you. Even though I can recommend which of today's popular strategies I believe deserve your attention, there is no guarantee that these same strategies will still be as relevant in 20 years. I think they will, but no one can see that far ahead.
With all of that said, [these] are the six strategies on which all the great companies I studied were relentlessly focused."
http://changethis.com/46.01.AchievingExcellence
http://changethis.com/pdf/46.01.AchievingExcellence.pdf
Performance Architecture: A Blueprint to Go "Beyond Personal Best" by Carlos Salum
"Regardless of our profession or activity, adaptation is what separates peak performers from the rest. The way we think about pressure influences the way we feel and the way we react. Conversely, acting is adapting. If we act confidently and relaxed, our body tells our brain 'no problem here' and we start feeling calm and controlled. The better we become at acting out the emotions we need to feel, the better we can adapt to pressure.
[...]
Peak Performance Thinking is about drawing out high energy when it counts: it's about Responsiveness and it applies to any area of life. Peak performers can reproduce the thoughts, feelings and behaviors that lead to a state of high, positive emotion or the 'Ideal Performance State' (IPS), as defined by [Jim] Loehr. We all have the ability to access IPS and cultivate it towards greater achievement."
http://changethis.com/46.02.PerformanceArchitecture
http://changethis.com/pdf/46.02.PerformanceArchitecture.pdf
PR 2.0: A Communicator's Manifesto by Deirdre Breakenridge
"Today, an immense change is happening to PR and it will affect communications professionals around the world from this point forward. The concept of PR 2.0 was born about 10 years ago (although not many people know this). PR 2.0 places a whole new meaning and value on PR and marks the true convergence of PR and the Internet. I believe that with PR 2.0, a new breed of Web savvy PR/marketing professionals has been born. As a result of PR 2.0, brands are able to have conversations directly with their customers in niche Web communities. They are invited to participate in dialogue, in places where they have never been invited to participate before. PR 2.0 puts the 'public' back in public relations with the ability to speak to more people. The concept is driven by technology (the Web 2.0 platform and social media applications) and 21st century consumer behavior."
http://changethis.com/46.03.CommunicatorManifesto
http://changethis.com/pdf/46.03.CommunicatorManifesto.pdf
The Upside of a Downturn by Steve Pogorzelski, Jesse Harriott, Ph.D., and Doug Hardy
"A slowing economy has tangible burdens, as employers become cautious in hiring (or even lay off workers). More subtle and insidious is the way even a gentle slowdown in consumption can trigger a well known vicious cycle: Lower corporate revenues lead to job insecurity, which causes consumers to tighten spending, which hurts revenues, which causes more corporate belt-tightening, and so forth until something (government spending, easier credit, unforeseen demand) halts the cycle.
This cycle offers a break in the fevered efforts to attract and acquire the most talented employees, a chronic problem that has beset booming economies for the past decade. To take advantage of a temporary lull in the chronic shortage of top talent, managers in HR and executives leading companies must adopt the longer-term practice we call the Engagement Cycle."
http://changethis.com/46.04.UpsideDownturn
http://changethis.com/pdf/46.04.UpsideDownturn.pdf
The L3 Leadership "State of Being": A Holistic Approach to Leadership by Marc Michaelson and John Anderson
"With all the talk about Leadership these days, many managers and executives are frustrated by the myriads of approaches to Leadership Development. The L3 Leadership model assumes a different position than traditional, or even more progressive leadership models. L3 Leadership is more about who you are than it is about what position you hold, what training you have had, or what personality traits you bring to work and other life situations. L3 is based on the fact that personal leadership is a "state of being." It is who you are, what you believe, and how you behave.
The L3 model of Leadership explores three critical attributes of effective leaders. These three attributes are:
o L1--Leading Self: Total Life Leadership. Achieving personal mastery and work/life integration.
o L2--Leading With Others: Creating and sustaining Collaborative Advantage.
o L3--Cultivating The Best Place To Work: A culture of high engagement, retention, performance and productivity."
http://changethis.com/46.05.L3Leadership
http://changethis.com/pdf/46.05.L3Leadership.pdf
Connected Intelligence: Leveraging Collective Wisdom by Vasu Srinivasan
"The World is Flat, declared Thomas Friedman.
It is a Long Tail, says Chris Anderson.
Everything is Miscellaneous, avers David Weinberger.
Seeing it as The Wisdom of Crowds was a profound insight from James Surowiecki.
Their perspectives addressed several aspects of business, life and the human condition in general.
The truth is that we have reached not one era, but a multitude of eras, all at once and in a time-space compressed fashion. This has caused a shift in our expectations and our practices that impacts how we work, what we consume and how we live life.
Currently, the only tool that we have in our hands to combat this phenomenon is Change Management. It is a linear response to the non-linear set of changes happening in this Poly-Era (or Era containing multiple Eras). It is so Newtonian. We need a holistic new paradigm.
Complex Systems, on the other hand, has the beautiful notion of Emergent Structures, which are patterns not created by a single event or rule. Instead, the interaction of each part with its immediate surroundings causes a complex chain of processes leading to some new order.
The Connected Intelligence System is a practitioner-centric corporate operating system that augments Knowledge Work. The principal components emerge out of simple interactions of fundamental components and are based on Complexity Thinking.
It provides tools to address the changes that have taken place all at once in the human enterprise due to the coming of the Poly-Era in a holistic fashion.
This manifesto presents the case for the need of a Connected Intelligence Operating System."
http://changethis.com/46.06.ConnectedIntelligence
http://changethis.com/pdf/46.06.CollectiveIntelligence.pdf
May 6, 2008
The Wall Street Journal Business Gurus List
The Wall Street Journal yesterday had a major feature titled "New Breed of Business Gurus Rises." The article provides a ranking of the thought leaders in business today. The ranking system is based on the 2003 book What's the Big Idea? : Creating and Capitalizing on the Best New Management Thinking by Thomas Davenport. Davenport compiled the rankings using data from Google mentions, Lexus-Nexus media hits, and academic citations.
The methodology creates a systematic way of measuring popularity, but it seems problematic. Take the case of Bill Gates at #3 on the list. For the man who created Microsoft, people are constantly talking about him in the media, online, and in academia. It seems a stretch that business people look to Gates for advice.
Outside of Gates, the folks at the top are no huge surprise to folks who follow business books. Gary Hamel, Tom Friedman, Gates, Malcolm Galdwell, and Howard Gardner round out the top five. Below is a list of the gurus with their 2008 rankings and one of their noteworthy books:
| |Name | |2008 Ranking | |Book |
| Gary Hamel | 1 | Competing for The Future |
| Thomas Friedman | 2 | The World is Flat |
| Bill Gates | 3 | Business @ The Speed of Thought |
| Malcolm Galdwell | 4 | Tipping Point |
| Howard Gardner | 5 | Frames of Mind |
| Phillip Kotler | 6 | Marketing Management |
| Robert Reich | 7 | Supercapitalism |
| Daniel Goleman | 8 | Emotional Intelligence |
| Henry Mintzberg | 9 | Mintzberg On Management |
| Stephen Covey | 10 | Seven Habits For Highly Effective People |
| Jeffrey Pfeffer | 11 | The Knowing Doing Gap |
| Peter Senge | 12 | The Fifth Discipline |
| Richard Branson | 13 | Losing My Virginity |
| Michael Porter | 14 | Competitive Strategy |
| Michael Dell | 15 | Direct From Dell |
| Geert Hofstede | 16 | Culture's Consequences |
| Clayton Christensen | 17 | The Innovator's Dilemma |
| Jack Welch | 18 | Winning |
| Tom Peters | 19 | In Search of Excellence |
| Myron Scholes | 20 | --- |
| Ikujiro Nonako | 20 | The Knowledge Creating Company |
There are some gurus listed here who we have not given much attention to. Anybody read much on Hofstede or Nonaka? We will do some research as well.
P.S. Rebecca also has a post on the side conversation going on at wsj.com about the lack of women on the list.
Predictably Irrational
A book that's seen a lot of press and hit the bestseller lists this year is Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces that Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely. Paul Dunay over at MarketingProfs had a chance to interview Dan. You can listen to that interview here. And follow Dan's blog over here.
New Version of Gitomer's Sales Bible
When the Sales Bible first came out from William Morrow in the 1994, it got a slow start. I was selling it with some success in the bookstore and Jeffrey Gitomer called to see what I was doing. I told him it was nothing in particular, just that I had found it very helpful and was suggesting it to many of our customers.
When Jeffrey created the proposal for the paperback edition and took it to Wiley, he asked me for a quote. When the book came out, I was shocked they had taken my words:
"Every once in a while ONE book defines a category."
--Jack Covert, 800-CEO-READ
and pasted them across the top of the book.
A new, new edition of The Sales Bible is being released today and you won't find my quote on the front cover anymore. The book has been redesigned to match the other titles in his "The Little Book..." series. The folded over info piece on the book still contains my quote, it's just on the back now.
One other note: if you order the book today from Amazon, Jeffrey has put together a whole pile of free giveaways from other authors.
A glaring gap in the list
There's a post up on the WSJ's Independent Street Blog pointing out that the Journal's list of the top most influential business thinkers does not include a single woman. The author, Wendy Bounds, poses these questions:
Why do you think there aren't more influential women business thinkers on today's list? How can this change? If you're a man, would you be motivated hearing a female speaker? If no, why? If yes, who? Women, what about you?
These aren't easy questions to answer, but not for lack of examples or role models. A few of the names mentioned in the comments include author Laura Ries (co-founder of Ries & Ries, with her father, Al Ries), co-author of Blue Ocean Strategy Renee Mauborgne, prominent gender and workplace issues expert Sylvia Ann Hewlett, strategic sourcing expert Mary Lacity, and others.
A question I might add is, Why does it take lots of time and a historical perspective to give women the credit they deserve? Perhaps the issue isn't that there is a lack of influential women thinkers, but that we're all--men and women alike--still uncomfortable with acknowledging their influence. We can admit that female leaders of the past made a profound impact on our society; why not the leaders of today?
In our line of work, we encounter this issue over and over again. Why aren't more women business book authors? Why don't their books hit the big-time like Gladwell, Friedman, and Hamel's books? (All made the top 5.) And, perhaps more constructively, what will it take for us to issue women the same credit we quickly hand over to male business gurus?
Who do you count among the most influential women thinkers of today?
May 5, 2008
April 2008 International Best Sellers
Here are our TOP 10 business books that people across the world are reading:
1) Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne - Malaysia
2) Fire Them Up! by Carmine Gall - Norway
3) One Billion Customers by James McGregor - Switzerland
4) It's Not About the Coffee by Howard Behar - Canada
5) Citizen Marketers by Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba - United Kingdom
6) Rules to Break and Laws to Follow by Don Peppers and Martha Rogers, PhD - Singapore
7) Leadership from the Inside Out by Kevin Cashman - The Netherlands
8) Who's Your City? by Richard Floriday - Canada
9) Payback by James P. Andrew and Harold L. Sirkin - Australia
10) Experience Economy by B. Joseph Pine II and James Gilmore - United Kingdom
