800-CEO-READ Blog

Jack Covert Selects - What's Next?

What’s Next? Exploring the New Terrain for Business by Eamonn Kelly, Peter Leyden and Members of Global Business Network. Perseus Publishing, 360 pages, $27.00, Hardcover, October 2002, ISBN 0738207608

The future. If only we had a looking glass or crystal ball and could tell the future. Well, maybe we don’t have a mystical way of guiding our moves, but perhaps What’s Next is the perfect stand-in. The publisher that brought you Business, has now gathered the insights of 50 business thinkers that “doesn’t dwell on the typical concerns and common preoccupation of companies today but looks outside the traditional business realm at the broader forces in the world that are increasingly influencing the business environment.” During these turbulent times, it is readily apparent that any hard and fast rules regarding business have dissolved and it’s a free-for-all out there. The publisher asks us: “Who better to guide us through these tumultuous times than the thought leaders of Global Business Network, the renowned futures reseach group, learning network and strategic consulting firm.

Sections titled Power, People, Potential, and Planet include such chapters as: “Toward a New World Order – Geopolitics and Governance”, “The Search for Deeper Meaning – Values and Belief Systems”, and “The Earth as a Whole – Environment and Sustainability”. Okay, by now, you probably have your brow-furrowed and are shaking your head, thinking that this surely seems like some kind of dry philosophy book. Don’t be misled. Despite its seriousness, the way the book is laid out makes it quite palatable. For example, a few members of the “cast of characters” include: Laurie Anderson, performance artist, writer and musician, Walter Parkes, Hollywood movie producer and president of Dreamworks SKG; Betty Sue Flowers, poet, writer, educator and director of the LBJ presidential library. Not exactly the driest of people and obviously creative thinkers. These folks are mixed in with economoists, historians, visionaries and other all-around heavy hitters. Still not convinced that this thing is readable? In a very timely section called “Terrorism and Security” contributors keep their thoughts to less than a page long – no drawn out philosophical entries, just opinions, guidelines for our own thoughts. And that is really what I liked about this book. It was a little like listening to NPR – imperative questions and the information we need for rich thinking and relevant debate. Not only will this make your next dinner party conversation more exciting, it will help you find out about where you stand as you gaze into the future.

Jack Covert Selects - Free the Beagle

Free the Beagle: A Journey to Destinae by Roy H. Williams, Bard Press, 127 pages, $14.95, paperback with audio CD, October 2002, ISBN 1885167571

Having just finished Free the Beagle, I am at a loss as to where to start this review. The funny thing about it is that I think Roy Williams would approve of such hesitancy. First of all, Free the Beagle tells a fantasy story of a lawyer and a beagle traveling together on the rough road to destiny. Is there an allegory buried within this simple adventure story? Most certainly, but the success of the book is that there are more than one interpretation to be had, perhaps one for every type of reader out there. Though, as a business book, Free the Beagle will most certainly find itself in the company of Who Moved My Cheese, Peacock in the Land of Penguins, and Roy Williams’ Wizard books, I warn you now to not limit yourself to that interpretation. Instead, pick it up with no preconceptions. Knowing little to nothing about the book until I received my copy (meaning, I didn’t read a bunch of hype about it first) I went into it with an open mind. What have I decided? That Roy Williams is a master and I have just received my education. He understands his audience so clearly… How can I explain?

I read Free the Beagle expecting a simple business allegory. I was charmed by the little dog, amused by the rigidity of the logical lawyer, and the journey Roy Williams concocted for them. They traverse through such places as the Forest of Confusion and the Sea of False Hope, overcoming loss. The tale harkened back to The Little Prince or Flatland or even those new popular book/movies “Harry Potter” or “The Lord of the Rings”. Enjoying allegorical fiction, I figured I’d enjoy this also. When I concluded the first section as the lawyer’s journey concluded, I thought, huh. Nice story. Very applicable to any sort of interpretation depending on what the reader is needful of. Maybe a little precious with the cute little beagles and the clever destination names…and it wasn’t exactly profound, but it worked. Then I moved on to the startling second section. It surprised me that Williams included a transcript of a roundtable meeting held to discuss this book. I was initially put off by this section because I tend to think an allegory to should be able to succeed without any additional explanation, and yet, here was a whole section to dissect the story! I continued to read. In attendance are a number of educated, successful folks who have all read the book. The discussion is led by Ray Bard, the publisher. For 20 pages, the book is discussed by this diverse group of people and each person brings his or her own interpretation to the book, such interpretations that I never really even considered. Of course, as I read, I realize that my interpretation fell in line with that of the skeptic, the literary critic. Obviously Roy Williams included a skeptic in the roundtable because he expected a few readers like me to be skeptical. However, not everyone saw it that way, in fact, each interpretation (I won’t list them here because, hey, why ruin it for you?) was so fully realized, it became clear that Roy intended each from the very beginning. And, instead of allowing the reader to only see one reading (as I would have), he included the roundtable discussion to open each reader up to the myriad of interpretations. Of course, this could be preening on Williams part and reminded me of the Agatha Christie mystery 10 Little Indians where a mysterious stranger gathers together just the right group of folks to get just the right results. But just like the other skeptic at the table, I will be rereading the story, maybe even a few times, but I can say this: Free the Beagle is a book for everyone and will tell you a lot about yourself.

Jack Covert Selects - Double Lives

Double Lives: Stories of Extraordinary Achievement by David Heenan, Davies Black, 2002; 0891061673

What do Winston Churchill, Sally Ride, and Tom Lynch have in common? According to David Heenan, they are all great jugglers – of a double life. Double Lives is a compilation of short biographies. Each biography features stories of highly accomplished people who were able to broaden their world view by following their dreams as well as their career goals. Tom Lynch is a mortician, but also a poet. Tess Gerritsen was a practicing physician who added writer to her resume, and now writes medical mysteries full-time. Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, now operates in cyberspace having founded “Imaginary Lines, Inc” which connects young girls interested in math and science to female scientists and other mentors. The chairman of Sony, Norio Ogha, directs a symphony. And Churchill? The painter and author once said “To be really happy and really safe, one ought to have at least two or three hobbys and they must be real.”

Heenan writes: “Double Lives looks at these extraordinary individuals to demonstrate that pursuing multiple interests contribetes to happiness and personal fulfillment.” The options are endless as long as one pursues their passion. And these success stories are not limited to the famous. Double Lives includes the biographies of a stockbroker/wood carver, a construction executive/sculptor and museum chief/flamenco guitar player/artist. Read this and be inspired to do a little juggling of your own.

Jack Covert Selects - Blockbusters

Blockbusters: How New Product Development Teams Create Them—And How Your Company Can Too by Gary Lynn & Richard Reilly, HarperBusiness, $24.95 Hardcover, 280 Pages, October 2002, ISBN 0060084731

One of the constructs that sets Jim Collins’ book Good to Great apart from the rest of the field is how extensive the research is. It stands to reason, and it is true with that book, that the larger the net, the more fish you can catch. This principle is also applies to this book, Blockbusters, and they bring some big ones up to the surface. The authors of this book spent eight years studying 800 new product development teams in widespread companies and ultimately picked 20 extraordinarily successful teams to discuss here. These are the teams that bring you the Apple iMac, Colgate Total Toothpaste, the Iomega Zip Drive, Gillette’s Sensor Razor, the Palm Pilot, and more. Not bad examples of success. They then go into an in-depth study of why this product is success, and ultimately, offering the reader five critical practices, called “Five Pillars”, that are described in detail.

What especially made this reading experience a pleasure was the feeling that I was a “fly on the wall” during the creation of some of the greatest products. The book is loaded with fascinating stories like the creation of a new stapler. That’s a fascinating story, you may ask? Actually, yes. The authors follow three entrepreneurs in their quest to create, and market, a new stapler design and we get to sit in as they meet with Black and Decker and we watch them redesign it and learn from their failures.

One notably helpful section is where the author offers you questions to ask clients about your product or service to elicit comments that you can then use to improve your product or generate ideas for new products. And a concept that really caught my eye was that of “Lickety Stick.” Described here by the authors:
“Go from concept to prototype to market test to next prototype to market test to next prototype lickety split and so on until the product “sticks” with the customer. Each iteration doesn’t have to be perfect: it just has to be better than the last one. We call the process “Lickety Stick.”
This book is compelling and very well-written, just loaded with information about product development, with the information gleaned from real life succcesses.