800-CEO-READ Blog

Jack Covert Selects - Good to Great

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don’t by Jim Collins, HarperBusiness, 400 Pages, $30.00 Hardcover, October 2001, ISBN 0066620996

Seven years ago, Jerry Porras and Jim Collins published the bestselling classic, Built to Last, which demolished a couple of deeply entrenched myths like this one: great companies start with a great product and/or a great leader. After completing that book, Jim Collins was nagged by the lingering question that he had been pondering since before Built to Last: are there any mediocre companies that became great? Once he had established his delimiters, he set out to collect data. Jim and his research team spent over five years and studied every company that made the Fortune 500 from 1965 until now—over 1400 companies—and found only eleven companies had truly gone from mediocre to being a long-term star. Then, they looked at why. Here’s where it gets really interesting.

From studying these organizations, Collins and crew came up with some really mind-stretching conclusions. One of the most interesting: every good-to-great company has a “Level 5” leader during the transitional years. However, a “Level 5” leader is unlike strong leaders of our imaginings. All Level 5 leaders have a mix of personal humility and professional will. Fanatically driven to produce results, they are ambitious, first and foremost, for the company—not for themselves. Ultimately, they do whatever it takes to make the company great. A few of the other most useful findings include something called The Hedgehog Concept, which advocates breaking out of mediocrity with a single terrific product or service; and Technology Accelerators, which encourages a fundamentally diverse attitude and approach to technology.

Simply put: this book is going to be talked about for years—it is so solid in its findings, but written so superbly that you will practically learn just by holding it in your hand. But don’t stop there: I guarantee that your copy will be as marked up with notes as mine.

Jack Covert Selects - The Agenda

The Agenda: What Every Business Must Do to Dominate the Decade by Michael Hammer, Crown Business, 250 Pages, $27.50 Hardcover, October 2001, ISBN 0609609661

Michael Hammer’s biggest book, written alongside Jim Champy, was called Reengineering the Corporation, one of the best-selling business books of the 90’s. Hammer has written other books since, but this one, The Agenda, is by far the best thing he has done in 10 years. Perhaps the greatest compliment I can give The Agenda is that my manuscript copy is in very bad shape. I tore out the chapter on “Process” and gave it to Sally, our head person (we don’t really have titles here, but “head person” is an extremely important person in my world), so she could look at it and reassess our client services processes following Hammer’s guidelines. The next chapter, on sales was torn out and given to my sales person to initiate conversation regarding our sales approach. It has been a long time since I have treated a book like this.

The next greatest compliment I can give this book is that it will inspire you to look directly at your everyday business experience, at the work being done in your office at this moment, work that is fundamental to your business. Instead of warning you to look out for competitors, or be the fastest implementer of technology, or even to predict the future, Hammer encourages us to take a deep look at what is in front of us, to make sure our current business is efficient, concentrating on customer value. He uses two acronyms throughout the book to illustrate his points: ETDBW (Easy To Do Business With) and MVA (More Value Added). I have heard of both of these concepts before, but Hammer uses such great examples to portray how they work, the ideas came alive. The other quality that sets this book apart, for me, is the conversational writing style—it is as if you are having a conversation with Michael Hammer, not being lectured at by Michael Hammer.

My final compliment? I can only say that this is a book that will stimulate long hours of conversation around the offices of 800-CEO-READ.

Jack Covert Selects - Getting the Bugs Out

Getting the Bugs Out: The Rise, Fall, and Comeback of Volkswagen in America by David Kiley, John Wiley and Sons, 280 Pages, $27.95 Hardcover, November 2001, ISBN 0471403938

Before discussing this book, I must make a confession. In fact, I need to make two confessions. One, I currently own a VW—for you gearheads out there, it is a 2001 1.8T Yellow 5 speed. Two, I also owned a brand new 1965 Beetle, fully-equipped, which, in 1965, fully-equipt was a crank sunroof. I paid almost as much in sales tax on my new car as I paid for the whole car in 1965; I drove the ’65 off of the showroom for a total cost of $1895. I am fascinated by these cars and enjoyed this book, not only because it is about my car of choice, but because the book is keenly reported by the Detroit Bureau Chief at USA Today and includes a nice mix of history and business. Those of you who have been reading JCS for awhile know that I really like a good business bio. I think that good business bio’s put theory into practice, but I was concerned that this one would be a disappointment, a fluffy, feel-good book that was just capitalizing on a hot brand.

The first chapter gives us the history behind VW’s decline in popularity in America and how important the New Beetle would be for the future of the company. Essentially, the original Beetle gave Americans an alternative to the huge tanks American carmakers were churning out, but then the Toyotas and Hondas took over that market. VW was left with no toehold in the US. Who would have thought that a new Beetle would actually capture the imagination of Americans, sick to death of the bland Ford Taurus and and disappointed in the quickly declining quality of such cars as the Corolla. Here, the author takes you to the various Detroit Auto Shows where the New Beetle was premiered and includes the amazing reviews the press (covers on Time and USA Today and many more) gave the new car. According to JD Powers in 1998, after the car was released, VW led four of the seven categories in the APEAL study that measured how car owners feel about their new cars in the first six months. Granted, VW’s Beetle success has waned a bit in the years since, but people like me, and a goodly number of car owners in my parking ramp, are still buying them. But the book doesn’t just talk about the new Beetle, but discusses the Jetta, Golf, and Passat, and the impact these models had and will have on the resurgent VW brand.

I was especially curious about how the book would handle VW’s serious baggage carried from the Second World War and was reasonably pleased with the chapter called “Sins of the Father”. The author sums up the chapter saying, “Dr. Porsche—the father of the Volksauto, which became the Volkswagen—wasn’t a Nazi, but it’s fair to call him a collaborator, opportunist, and a vital cog in the Werhmacht war machine.” I guess that is dealing with the issue. Kiley also addresses the lawsuits the survivors of the forced labor brought in chapter 3.

Seeing as the book is “An Adweek Book” which is a copublish with John Wiley, the advertising campaigns are thoroughly dissected. The author analyses some of the classics from the sixties like: “How does the snowplow driver get to work” (remember that??), to the great commercial from a couple years ago called “Da Da Da” (I’m sorry, I got that annoying song in your head now, didn’t I!). They also talk about some of the serious flops of the 70’s and 80’s, like the Thing (sounds like an Abbott & Costello routine – “Go get the Thing”. “What Thing?”. “You know, the Thing”. “I already brought the Thing”). Anyway…

This book is a book for everybody who is interested in one of the best brands in the world and a detailed history of how it used some of the most revolutionary advertising programs to get them to where they are.

Jack Covert Selects - Big Brands Big Trouble

Big Brands Big Trouble: Lessons Learned the Hard Way by Jack Trout, John Wiley and Sons, 195 Pages, $24.95 Hardcover, October 2001, ISBN 0471414328

Jack Trout has co-written some of the classic marketing titles, such as Marketing Warfare and Positioning, and the fantastically titled, Differentiate or Die. His new book is a fun read about failure. Is that possible? Definitely. A useful perspective also. Trout states: “Not only is learning from failure easier, it offers more thorough analysis of what works and what doesn’t.” So from this look at some of the classic failures like “New Coke”, to Burger King’s many management and advertising agency changes, to Levi Strauss’ problems connecting to the marketplace, we learn the ten “don’ts” of marketing, positioning, and managing.

I have read other books by Trout, but in this one, he includes more personal experiences, which adds a “fly on the wall” feel to our reading experience. He shares details about visits with clients, the resulting ideas and strategies, and how those ideas succeeded or failed. Some of the companies that rate an entire chapter include: the aforementioned Burger King and Levi Strauss, AT&T, Xerox, GM, Firestone, Miller Brewing, and others. I was especially interested in what Trout had to say about our local brewer, Miller, what problems they are having and how they got there. Hilariously, Trout illustrates how Miller has too many brands, and that it is so much easier for a customer to say: “Oh just give me a Budweiser.”

In the second half of the book, he discusses consultants, boards of directors, and other general issues influencing the decision-making of each company. Each chapter has great takeaways or, as he calls them, “Lessons”, which are boxed and highlighted. The book is broken into bite-sized chunks only a couple of paragraphs long and chock full of great stories. I think the story on page 78 is worth the price of admission – check it out. This is one of those books that, after you’ve finished with it, you feel as if you have just spent a night sitting on the front porch, drinking beer and watching the sun set, while listening to a real pro tell stories.