800-CEO-READ Blog

Jack Covert Selects: Call of the Mall

This is a Jack Covert Selects from April 2004. I thought this went well with Todd's prior post today.

The Call of the Mall: A Walking Tour Through the Crossroads of our Shopping Culture by Paco Underhill, Simon and Schuster, 200 Pages, $24.95 Hardcover, February 2004, ISBN 0743235916

Mall shopping is a sensual experience that combines lights, music, food, people, and an American favorite, consumerism. The Call of the Mall guides you on a tour of a typical mall through the eyes of author Paco Underhill, a retail-anthropologist, who points out all the oddities of the shopping experience. Underhill’s first book, Why We Buy, was an enthralling observation of the buying public. I consider myself to be a pretty astute salesman, but I’ve learned a lot from both books.

The Call of the Mall is literally set up as a shopping experience. The story unravels as you approach the parking lot from the highway, you enter the mall, shop, go to the bathroom, eat, and observe. As this is going on, Underhill is explaining the hidden details happening around you. You are introduced to two professionals along the way: one is a visual merchandiser and the other is a store designer. They offer their observations and knowledge to point out many helpful tips on making a store a place to discover, rather than just a place to buy. Actual customers also offer their point of views, and are examined to determine what would make their shopping experience more enjoyable.

This book is interesting and useful, but also humorous. For example, Underhill points out that when men go shopping with their wives, they walk around with their hands in their pockets; check it out next time you are shopping – it’s true! Underhill’s writing is conversational and concise, which makes it easy to relate to his professional observations.

I consider myself a merchant in the classical sense, as I have spent most of my life selling books and music, but The Call of the Mall gave me a load of new valuable marketing advice. As a consumer, I thought it was interesting to learn about the purpose of a store’s layout, and the psychology that goes into retail sales. This is a great study of sociology, not just the phenomenon of the mall and shopping. The Call of the Mall is some thing everyone who takes part in the exchange of goods should read.

Armstrong at AT&T

There is a feature article* in Wednesday's (5/26/04) Wall Street Journal about C. Michael Armstrong. He is retiring as chairman of Comcast after forty years in business. It will be interesting to see how history treats him as a business leader. He has taken hits for his reign as CEO of AT&T, but many are looking at that period again with the information now available.

In Armstrong's words from commencement at Shenandoh University: "What we didn't know was that WorldCom was fraudulently cooking their books for $6 billion in the year 2000. Qwest was federally investigated, individuals criminally charged and it has restated billions of its financial reporting."

Here is the business book angle of the story. This from the WSJ article:

A low point for Mr. Armstrong came in 2002, when he learned that Mr. Bossidy devoted a section of his book "Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done" to Mr. Armstrong's mistakes. The three-page section said AT&T's strategy went wrong because of bad personnel choices and faulty assumptions. Mr. Bossidy and co-author Ram Charan noted that long-distance rates declined faster than AT&T assumed and that it took AT&T longer than expected to execute its plan.

Writing before WorldCom's fraud was disclosed, the authors said AT&T "did not take into account its organizational inability to compete against aggressive rivals in a fast-moving marketplace."

Mr. Armstrong complains Mr. Bossidy never called him for comment. A spokeswoman for Mr. Bossidy declined to comment on why he didn't speak to Mr. Armstrong before publication. She also said the comments in the book about Mr. Armstrong "were not personal" and were "consistent with widely reported accounts of the company's strategy."

Mr. Bossidy declined to comment on whether WorldCom's fraud changes his opinion of Mr. Armstrong's strategy.

Making matters worse, Ralph Larsen, a former AT&T board member who had been one of Mr. Armstrong's biggest supporters, wrote a blurb praising the book that appeared on its back cover. Mr. Larsen says that when he read the galleys of the book, the section about AT&T wasn't included. Mr. Bossidy's spokeswoman says that the AT&T material was in the galleys.

*subscription needed

Busy Bee

Matthew at nonbillablehour is really busy this weekend. I was hoping to just get some yard work done, but you should see Matthew's list. The book related item on his agenda is finishing Seven Day Weekend.

Wine and Business

I first read about Paul Dolan and Fetzer Vineyards in the December issue of Fast Company. The article highlighted Dolan's book True to Your Roots: Fermenting A Business Revolution.

Dolan left Fetzer in April. He plans to start a new winery and has been doing some speaking engagements. Curt at Occupational Adventure had a chance to hear Dolan speak in Seattle and wrote about some of the key takeaways.

Additional links:

• Sustainable Business.com reviews the book and interviews Dolan [via Economic Development Futures Web Journal]
• Here is a press release/review of the book from Tizwine.com

Creative Commons Coolness

Suw Charam writes an extensive post on Lawrence Lessig's new book Free Culture and all the derivative work that came from the use of Creative Commons.

This from Lessig's blog: "36 hours after the book was released, I know of nine versions available, including: MS-reader, Rocket e-Book, zipped, iSilo, Mobipocket, EasyRead, PostScript, Plain Text, and HTML."

Charam's post details the quick evolution and creation of the audiobook. People from all over the world recorded themselves reading a chapter of the book. Within three days, the whole book was available.

If you aren't familiar with the Creative Commons effort, Charam's post is a great way to get caught up.

[via Creative Commons Weblog]

Hearing the Call of the Mall

Here is what people have been saying about Paco Underhill's new book Call of the Mall.

• You start by reading the first chapter at the ABC's Good Morning America website.
• Nicole at Fuzzy Signals has a pretty extensive review of the book and she talks about how she has used Underhill's work on other projects.
• In their fifty book challenge, infinitejess.com is not so thrilled with the book.
• Monica and Deepak at webjives.com pull the book review from the Wharton newsletter.
• Jessamyn at jessamyn.com gives her take on the book.

Switzerland and Innovation

Joel Kurtzman (former HBR editor and editor of MBA in a Box) writes a piece for European Business Forum. He says you need to be messy to innovate and that places like Switzerland and Japan are a little too organized.

This goes well with a post from Evelyn at Crossroads Dispatches. The original article she quotes is Where To Get a Good Idea: Steal It Outside Your Group - by Michael Erard, Think Tank, NYT, May 22, 2004:

A cautionary real-life anecdote is in Hans Finzel's book, "Change Is Like a Slinky: 30 Strategies for Promoting and Surviving Change in Your Organization" (Northfield Publishing).

He describes how 50,000 of the 62,000 Swiss watchmakers lost their jobs from 1979 to 1981 because the world began shifting to quartz watches -- mostly ones made in Asia. The Swiss didn't realize how the world was changing until it was too late.

"It was the Swiss themselves who invented the electronic quartz movement at their research institute in Neuchatel, Switzerland," Finzel writes. "Yet when the Swiss researchers presented this revolutionary idea to the Swiss manufacturers in 1967, it was rejected.

Hope we didn't hurt anybody's feelings by picking on the Swiss today :)

What Lip-Sticking Recommends

This week, we are showcasing Lip-Sticking by Yvonne DiVita for our "What Do You Recommend?" feature. I liked seeing a lot of titles I am not familiar with.

• Dickless Marketing: Smart Marketing to Women Online by Yvonne DiVita
• Release 2.0 by Esther Dyson
• Selling To VITO (The Very Important Top Officer) by Anthony Parinello
• Networlding: Building Relationships and Opportunities for Success by Melissa Giovagnoli
• Pink Think: Becoming a Woman in Many Uneasy Lessons by Lynn Peril
• Marketing to Moms : Getting Your Share of the Trillion-Dollar Market by Maria T. Bailey
• Pretty Good for a Girl : The Autobiography of a Snowboarding Pioneer by Tina Basich
• Why We Blog by Dave Young
• FutureConsumer.Com: The Webolution of Shopping to 2010 by Frank Feather
• The Natural Advantages of Women by Michele Miller
Posted by Todd S. at 7:31 AM | Comments (0)

Introducing Dennis, My Mechanic

I was at my mechanic yesterday and he was lamenting being a small business person. He has gone to some classes put on for mechanics, which has helped. I sent him the Jeffrey Fox new book on small business and I told him that I would like him to review the book for the blog. He is extremely computer literate and he said he would.

BTW, I consider a good mechanic more important than a good doctor. You need a mechanic many more times..that said, now that I am officially a senior citizen, that may change. Dennis has been my mechanic for twenty plus years and I love the fact that I can say that the car does something and I know it will be fixed and what it costs is in fact what I should pay. He is really good.

A New Enterprise

It is no secret that business books as a catagory are suffering. Certain classic publishers are now selling cook books--The Free Press--and some have disappeared--Perseus Books, actually they still exist but as the name of a collection of publishers.

W.W. Norton, an employee owned independent publisher--not owned by some major "media" company--is launching a new imprint called Enterprise, an Atlas/Norton Book. They describe the imprint as "The business book as literature." The first two books being published in September are a bio of Ted Turner by Ken Auletta and a book on Chess Records and the Business of Rock and Roll called Machers and Rockers.

My understanding is that Norton will official announce everything at next weeks book convention in Chicago. I should have galleys of the two books before the end of the week and will report my thoughts shortly. It is always exciting when something new is launched.

Can't Everybody Play Nice?

Katherine at Decent Marketing wrote a great post called "I'm A Lover Not A Fighter". She challenges the conventional wisdom that says you need to take an aggressive, assertive and confrontational stance in business. A part of her argument includes a list of books including Sun Tzu, Guerilla Marketing, and Brand Warfare. The comments readers left are as good as the original post.

Links for 'Death by Meeting'

I wanted to see what business books people were talking about. So I did some searches on Technorati and Feedster. Here are some people's thoughts on Death by Meeting by Patrick Lencioni:

• Haral Leitenmuller links the book and recommends some others
• Manny Herendez at blogcritics.org gives it 4 stars.
• John Porcaro was so exicted about it he sent copies to friends and family (i hope you got them from 800-CEO-READ :)
• Dave Murphy reviews the book for the San Francisco Chronicle

Selling Means Listening

There is a special report in June issue of Inc. magazine that is devoted to sales. I usually gloss over articles about sales. I know sales is important, but sales articles never get me pumped up.

The first article in the report is about Dan Weinfurter and his company Capital H Group. Weinfurter is a GE alum and bought a Milwaukee-based company to start Capital H. As a fellow GE alum who lives in Milwaukee, I had to read the rest of the article.

Weinfurter uses Let's Get Real or Let's Not Play by Mahan Khalsa (FranklinCovey 1999) in his sales training sessions. From the article:

[Malan Khalsa] contends that selling is a "dsyfunctional activity because so many people try to sellpreconceived solutions without listening to what clients want or ascertaining their needs. His enlightening approach to selling is instead based on the mantra: " We and our clients share identical, mutual self-interests: We both what the same thing...a solution that truly meets the client's needs," Khalsa writes.

The trick, as Wienfurter sees it, is to teach salespeople how to gather as much information about a prospect as possible, and then to offer them something they will value. But you must go about this process unobtrusively. "The natural inclination of people in organizations is to not want tell you things because they're afraid of being sold," Weinberger says. "You need someone very good to ask the right questions and get at the truth." [pg. 71]

Jack Covert Selects: How to Grow a Backbone

How to Grow a Backbone: 10 Strategies for Gaining Power and Influence at Work by Susan A. Marshall
Format: Paperback, 197pp, $14.95

It is always fun to read a book that you can instantly apply to your everyday life and work. Since I started "Jack Covert Selects", I have been reading many more business books than I had in the past. While most of these books have an application to your work life, some can be very dense and you have to dig to get at the nuggets of value. Not this book: the nuggets are right on the surface.

To start, Marshall defines "backbone"-the kind that will bring you greater power and influence at work-as being composed of three segments: competence, confidence, and risk-taking. You need to acquire these traits to have backbone. She then picks ten help tools to assist in your search for a backbone, and has a chapter on each tool. At the end of each chapter are exercises relevant to the past chapter covering the three important segments.

The real beauty of this book is her simple, instantly-applicable suggestions. She covers meetings, note taking, asking the right question, stating your opinion without fear, learning who has the power-and who doesn't. One of her subchapters in the power chapter talks about "suits and shirtsleeves." Shirtsleeves are doers, suits are talkers. She suggests studying the shirtsleeves to see how things are done.

Other notable strengths? Marshall incorporates stories of regular people, and then details how and why each have succeeded or failed. Plus, she references some very important classic business books, such as: The Fifth Discipline and Leading Change.

While you need to know that this book will never be taught at Harvard or Wharton, I have found a load of valuable, quickly applicable material in this book.

One more Buffett Book

I caught the original post from Steve at Rodent Regetta about Warren Buffett's book recommendations from the annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting.

I missed a follow-up entry where he reported one other Buffett recommended book: A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson.

More Ries

Kevin Dugan at Strategic Public Relations has a second part to his interview with Al Ries. They are talking about the new book The Origin of Brands.

I also found an Albany Business Review article that uses Ries' The Fall of Advertising and Rise of PR for a lot of supporting material. [via PR Machine and PR Opinions]

Semler Radio Interview

You can hear Ricardo Semler, author of The Seven Day Weekend, in the archives of the Kojo Nnamdi Show at WAMU. Look under Wednesday's show. The interview requires Real Audio and lasts 53 minutes.

[thanks Ken!]

Biz Media - From All Over 5/24/04

Here is what the biz media is giving airtime to:

• Wired (May 2004) - In their reviews [pg94], they give a nod to Alex Frankel's Wordcraft: The Art of Turning Little Words Into Big Business.
• Fortune (May 31, 2004) - Their book review is The Art of the Steal: Inside the Sotheby's-Christie's Auction Scandal by Christopher Mason.
• Forbes (May 10, 2004) - The Cruelest Miles by Gay and Leney Salisbury. Steve Forbes calls is a "well-researched, well-told tale of the heroic dogsled rescue of diphtheria-hit Nome, Alaska in 1925".
• Inc. (June 2004) - The article "Time Trap" [pg42-42] mentions a book called The Human Organization of Time by Allen Bluedorn.

Two Books on My Desk

Being involved with 800-CEO-READ now, I get a lot of business books to look at. And I love business books, so this is wonderful.

I do run into a bit of trouble though. The first is the number of business books I get. I got 10 books this week. It is impossible for me to more than browse through them. I probably end up spending some time with one or two of them.

The other problem is my interests. I am naturally drawn to certain kinds of books. To partially solve that problem, we are bringing in other reviewers like John, Evelyn, Cathy, Rich, and Diego.

There are two books on my desk that are victims of both of these problems. I am not going to have time to get to them and they are about economics.

The first is Deflation: What Happens When Price Fall by Chris Farrell. Its very topical based on what was going on in the world economy. The second is Rational Exuberance: Silencing the Enemies of Growth by Michael Mandel. Mandel makes the argument that economists are "the biggest enemies of innovative transformative growth." Both seems to have important mesages.

So, I am looking for help. I need someone who has time to read these two and are interested and informed in the area of economics. Write me at todd at 800ceoread dot com and I will send you these two books to get your reviews.

Book Review--Into the Unknown

Into the Unknown: Leadership Lessons from Lewis and Clark’s Daring Westward Expedition by Jack Uldrich, AMACOM, 256 Pages, Hardcover, April 2004, ISBN 0814408168

A few years ago, I saw the PBS film by Ken Burns called Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery. I was moved enough to get Stephen Ambrose’s book Undaunted Courage. Both the book and the film made me realize how amazing their accomplishment was. I mean they were basically walking off the edge of the earth. How did that group of people accomplish this? Jack Uldrich tells us: Their accomplishments were a result of great leadership by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. To be perfectly honest, when I first saw that this book was being published, I was more than a little skeptical. I figured the book was another of those “Leadership Secrets…” But nope, this is a book with good information supported by solid data. Uldrich has identified ten leadership principles that helped them succeed. These ten principles are represented by a chapter for each of the principles:

Passionate Purpose, The Principle of a Higher Calling: Lewis and Clark were committed to higher purposes that transcended aspirations like power, glory and ego.

Productive Partnering, The Principle of Shared Leadership: They started this mission knowing full well that they were in a 50/50 partnership.

Future Think, The Principle of Strategic Preparation: Their success was due to meticulous preplanning, using the best equipment available, attention to detail, a focus on efficiency and long-term planning.

Honoring Differences, The Principle of Diversity: A very applicable principle in today’s business world is to not only accept other’s differences, but to also honor it.

Equitable Justice, The Principle of Compassionate Discipline: A principle they executed, very important to note, with flexibility and compassion.

Absolute Responsibility, The Principle of Leading from the Front: This includes standing your ground, and the willingness to be in the line of fire.

Meaningful Mentoring, The Principle pf Learning from Others: Both Lewis and Clark had (different) mentors, which they acknowledged to be instrumental in their lives, and were willing to accept not only praise but also criticism from.

Realistic Optimism, The Principle of Positive Thinking: Even in difficult times, they always emphasized the positive, and simply refused to be pessimistic. It just wasn’t an option.

Rational Risk, The Principle of Aggressive Analysis: Leaders have to make the strategic decisions, and this involves prioritizing. Some things simply are more important than others.

Cultivating a Corps of Discovery, The Principle of Developing Team Spirit: Their team building efforts were a constant part of the expedition, that was nurtured on a daily basis, not a mere afterthought taken care of once in a while.

The beauty of this book is that it is the ultimate training book because the author uses compelling stories to support contemporary issues. It’s also a useful tool to help create a positive work environment where teams can begin to think of the unknown as a possible world of exciting discovery.

The Economist's take on the decline in MBAs

As they say:

"APPLICATIONS to business schools are down this year—at least in America, where management education was born and where business schools still award about 85% of the world's business degrees. Kenneth Dunn, dean of Carnegie Mellon's Tepper School of Business, says that applications for the full-time MBA programme, one of the country's best, are about 30% lower than this time last year. Allan Conway of the University of Calgary, and programme director of the MBA Roundtable, an industry body, estimates that applications this year for MBA programmes in America are down by between 15% and 25% on 2003.

Does that spell disaster? Not for top schools such as Tepper, which turn away far more applicants than they accept. Applications for MBA courses are counter-cyclical: they tend to rise when executive jobs are scarce and shrink when they are plentiful. This year's decline is a sign of the current economic boom, just as the 40% rise in applications to Tepper two years ago partly reflected hard times in the managerial job market."

Read the rest.

World Business Forum

I got a direct mail piece yesterday for the World Business Forum - Chicago 2004. The event runs two days (November 17-18) and has ten outstanding speakers. I have listed the speakers below. The price is $2,500 and $1,700 if you register before June 25th.

In the event, you can't make the Forum (or it is a little steep for your pocketbook), I have listed the latest book by each speaker.

Here they are in the order they are appearing:

• Larry Bossidy - Execution
• Rudy Giuliaini - Leadership
• Madeleine Albright - Madam Secretary: A Memoir
• Bill George - Authentic Leadership
• Tom Peters - Re-imagine
• Gary Hamel - Leading the Revolution
• Jack Welch - Jack:Straight from the Gut
• Philip Kotler - Ten Deadly Marketing Sins
• Jeremy Siegel - Stocks for the Long Run
• Clayton Christensen - The Innovator's Solution

Interview with Ries

Kevin Dugan at the Strategic Public Relations blog has posted an interview he did with Al Ries. They are talking about the new book by Al and Laura Ries called The Origin of Brands.

If there is any chance that you are reading this blog and don't know who Al Ries is, I'll give you a few of hints: Positioning, The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR.

BOOK REVIEW: Your marketing sucks.

Title: Your marketing sucks.
Author: Mark Stevens
Pages: 223
Reviewer: Rich...!

Some facts up front. Firstly, there is very little that Stevens says in his book that I disagree with. In fact there is many things I agree with passionatley. Why then am I not ecstactic?

Perhaps because this book is more a text book of how-to processes, rather than power, new, thoughts.

Perhaps because the book reads like a brochure for the author and his company.

And perhaps because he uses the ultimate cliche; the 'E' word, when there is very little "Extreme" about it.

Whatever it is, I wasn't bowled over, and that's a pity. I feel that Mark Stevens has some great insight, but this is first and foremost a book, and I just didn't enjoy the reading.

I'm tempted to suggest that every marketer should read this book and take notice; if not to the processes, then to the underlying principals. However, most won't (read it, or take notice). I believe that small businesses with owner-driven marketing innitiatives will get the most out of this. But please, don't take my word for it.

Last word: Disappointed

What's the Blog's Name?

People have been asking what we have decided to do with the name of our new blog.

There were a lot of comments about just leaving the name as is. We also had 67 people vote for new names.

We have decided to use both ideas.

The official name for the blog will be 800-CEO-READ Blog.

We are also going to use all of the finalists' names. They are going to be taglines on the banner.

As for rewarding great ideas, every person who had a name in the final poll will receive a gift certificate to the company store. Taylor will also get one for being the first person to suggest leaving well enough alone.

Thanks to everyone for participating.

Building Momentum

Not only does she write a great review of Momentum, Evelyn takes on critics of the book at her blog.

Wow.

Links on 5/20/04

• Lee at Commoncraft reviews The Paradox of Choice
• Tom at RIMproInsider quote an excerpt from The Radical Leap
• Rajesh from Emergic pull some great thoughts from Peter Drucker's Managing in The Next Society

Excess Voice Recommends Business Books

When I ran across this list of recommended busines books from Excess Voice, I immediately liked it.

Why?

The list has a lot of books that I like.

I have always thought that line of thinking was a double edge sword. On the one hand, if I buy a book off the list there is a really good chance I am going to like it. It is very similar to the lists of books you see on Amazon under the heading "Customers who bought this book also bought".

On the other hand, how do you ever find out about new books and new thoughts? Reading more of the same reinforces more of the same. I have always thought the Amazon recommendations had that same problem. As people buy more of the recommended titles, those books who become even more associated with each other. How do you ever get out of that loop?

Amazon probably has some complex mathematical algorithm to avoid these reinforcing loops. We readers may need a push from time to time. That is part of what this blog is about. We want to expose you to some titles you haven't seen before and maybe get you out of a mental rut.

I have the list below the fold. You can see if you agree with me on the quality of the list.

• FEATURED TITLE
• Good to Great by Jim Collins
• SALES AND MARKETING
• Purple Cow by Seth Godin
• Selling with Emotional Intelligence by Mitch Anthony
• The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries
• The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
• Selling the Invisible by Harry Beckwith
• http://www.1800ceoread.com/details.asp?productid=0786868244 by Jeffery Fox
• Commonsense Direct Marketing by Drayton Bird
• The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp
• Cluetrain Manifesto by Chris Locke et al
• WRITING, DESIGN & USABILITY
• Read This! Business Writing that Works, by Robert Gentle
• It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want To Be, by Paul Arden
• STARTING AND BUILDING YOUR BUSINESS
• Adventures of a Bystander, by Peter Drucker
• Getting Business to Come to You, by Paul and Sarah Edwards
• The Business Side of Creativity: The Complete Guide for Running a Graphic Design or Communications Business, by Cameron S. Foote
• The Six Month Fix: Adventures in Rescuing Failing Companies, by Gary Sutton

Momentum and the Essence of Digital Product Marketing

Every once in a way you stumble on a book that is so useful, revelant and strategically insightful that you are loathe to share the title with anyone. It's similar to the way you feel about your favorite B&B or a beautiful, pristine hike. You don't necessarily want people to beat a well-shod path to its doors.

Then there are the books you want shout from the rooftops "Hey, world! Go out and read this now!" You want to shake up and revolutionize the workplace and business everywhere -- and the more the merrier. (Books like Re-Imagine and Lovemarks and Seven Day Weekend come to mind).

Well, Momentum: How Companies Become Unstoppable Market Forces falls in the former camp. And I don't know why I am writing this review. I am definitely tempted to hoard it.

So that's my theory of why this book is virtually a secret. Another factor could be it came out in 2002 -- not exactly great timing for a book on positioning for digital products. And the third could be that the authors are digital product marketers rather than book hawkers.

The book is written by two ex-consultants whom did extensive research on the topic of differentiating digital products. They conducted more than 20,000 customer interviews with business and technical decision makers as well as consumers on their impressions on more than 60 different companies and brands that fall in the realm of creating and selling "digital products".

Now, that seems to be a narrow category, but certainly one that is growing larger. The authors contend that these strategies "apply even if the product's primary function is analog-powered, but the customer relationship is digital-centric." For instance, companies like Sears, GE, Panasonic, Sony would fall into this category. Even the automobile industry, with the advent of digital entertainment and telemetry features such as GM's OnStar. Then add the move towards a Dell-like model for customer configuration and delivery of new car purchases. And more and more entertainment and household goods have a digital component.

I read a lot about marketing in general, and have been intrigued by the emotional and branding aspects. I intuitively understand that evoking emotion plays a crucial role in marketing in some segments...but exactly how does Coca-Cola (Jack, please stock Emotional Branding by Marc Gobe), Nike, or Starbucks strategy translate for an enterprise infrastructure software product, a computer networking product or a chipset?

Truthfully, I didn't have much of a clue as much as I love books in that genre. For consumer oriented digital products, I could effectively apply quite a few of the concepts from these branding gurus, but what about B2B digital products?

I know there was some "emotional" aspect that went beyond sleek industrial design. Many of these B2B digital products aren't inherently "sexy". Luxury and trading up doesn't quite enter CIO's minds that often these days.

Just reading the jacket of the book, I realized that these authors had nailed a concrete analysis of what I intuitively think about when I am the buyer (and not the seller) of a digital product. I'm thinking about whether this company will even be around in three years and if I'm making the right long-term bet.

"The static nature of markets like toothpaste, film, cars and airplanes, among thousands of others, produced approaches to strategic positioning that would never be completely appropriate for digital products and services.

Digital markets are intrinsically dynamic, and momentum comes straight from the field of mechanics and the study of dynamic conditions."

While reading the book don't be too hung up on the snapshots of company case studies outlined. The model is meant to be dynamic with feedback ideally feeding back into the system. Even though the author's use the words "unstoppable market forces" -- anyone can topple -- and their momentum model can show how and why. (They explain how Microsoft faltered with the DOJ trial and how Cisco faltered after the dot-com crash that left it in a wake of unused inventory.)

Their interviews reveal that an important emotional characteristic they call a customer's sense of "inevitability" about the company's long-term success. And they tie this to customer purchase decisions.

"...We were observing what brand gurus such as David Aaker, David Ogilvy, and Trout and Ries predicted for decades: Purchase and loyalty are empirically linked to how people perceive differentiation. But differentiation, whether real or fabricated, exists only in the context of a person's expectations for a product or service."

"The sense of inevitably described by...customers appealed to us because it suggested a state of mind for the digital customer, rather than an attribute such as customer service. We decided at this point to attempt to model the purchase considerations that created this state of mind, as well as how those considerations influenced the sources of differentiation valued by people when purchasing a digital product or service."

Now this all sounds pretty fuzzy and well, emotional, compared to a blow-by-blow feature-by-feature comparison of products. Or that ever-faithful 2002-era ROI calculator.

But the amazing thing is this "sense of inevitability" is measurable. The authors created a dashboard to measure it. They share these conceptual "dials" sprinkled with a generous dose of company momentum snapshots and case studies with us.

I'll set your expectations now. If you were hoping for a layout of this dashboard along with the full 57-question survey and methodology or an outline for an action plan, it's not in this book. It's probably a consequence of the fact that they don't own the intellectual property (the consulting firm they were employed at the time does). But I think the book provides enough context and the framework of the model for any strategic marketer to use it as a starting point.

I had feared the book would be a not-so-subtle plug for their consulting services. But it doesn't read that way at all. And they are both gainfully employed by former clients. In fact, Ron Ricci is now VP of Corporate Positioning for Cisco.

I would say that the Cisco success story is outlined pretty well in this book, and the meteoric rise of Cisco into the realm of a 800-pound gorilla in their market is testament to their successful application and continuous adjusting their positioning based on the feedback provided by the momentum model's dashboard.

To me, the book successfully encapsulates the high-level findings of their metrics for the state of mind of a digital customer.

Just in case you are skeptical that there is any difference between "analog" and "digital" products, I'll share the two characteristics that distinguish digital from analog products -- 1) they are never done and 2) they don't stand alone (but rather are part of an ecosystem).

They chart the evolution of marketplace from one of image to products to ideas. Whereas the Marketplace of Products is about the present, the Marketplace of Ideas is about the future and thought leadership. Customers are essentially implicitly buying a futures contract with the company. They are wondering: "Will this product satisfy the expectations I have from the last time I bought it?" which typified the marketing challenge from the Marketplace of Image -- buyers of PCs started asking new questions, based on their expectations: "Will this product keep up? When is the next upgrade? How can I trust that the upgrade is worth buying?"

Cisco broke from the pack of competitors (mainly 3Com and Bay Networks) by using the authors' dashboard to measure and get feedback on their market positioning. Among the things that stand out in the Cisco case study is a strong ecosystem approach (providing a platform for variety of partners), laying out the future for your customers (thought leadership as well as providing guidance for your customers) and creating a CEO visionary celebrity.

"But the most interesting aspect of Chamber's view of the future was not its ultimate accuracy. What was different about his vision was the fact that it wasn't a vision for Cisco. Chambers was offering a perspective on the future business model of his customers...Until the Marketplace of Ideas, a company's vision typically stayed inside the walls of the organization." In addition, momentum companies "ate their own dog food" -- applying the same advice and guidance they dished out within its own walls.

I still am musing over myself the authors' insistence on individual personalities, specifically that of the CEO. I wonder if they wrote it in 2004 if they would consider Microsoft's strategy of humanizing the company through an army of individual voices all blogging away as an equally viable thought leadership strategy. A few of these bloggers do become blogosphere (and yonder) celebrities in their own right. On the other hand, the book 80/20 Individual and Tom Peter's Brand You philosophy say individual personalities do move product.

All in all, I think the book effectively crystallized how to capture digital customer "mindshare" which correlates to marketshare.

And there, now the secret's out.

My Intro

Quick intro. I look forward to writing reviews for the 800-CEO-READ blog. On my own blog, Crossroads Dispatches, I especially like to write about the future of (life-affirming and increasingly global) work and ideas, innovation, imagination and creativity. I also write about innovations in innovation and marketing. For a living, I do strategic market research for new products and services and provide advise on participatory (and customer-centric) / evangelist marketing for companies that fall somewhere in the blurring computing, media and communications landscape. And I read a lot.

More from Jeffrey Fox

I wanted to point you to Tom Ehrenfeld's blog called Start-up Garden.

Tom had the chance to interview Mr. Fox and the Q&A is posted over there today.

Wall Street Journal

I love the Wall Street Journal. What I think makes it successful and wonderful is that fact that there is something in it for the everyone. If you subscribe to the print edition of Wall Street Journal, you would have seen two interesting stories side-by-side on D10 yesterday.

The first was "The Necessary Etiquette of Book Signings". The article talks about how many rules there for book signings with blockbuster authors. In a newspaper ad for a Donald Trump signing, it said, "will sign up to four books per person, at least one of which must be 'Trump: How to Get Rich'. No personalization or memorabilia, please."

Next to that article was Daniel Akst's review [sub. needed] of Fire Your Boss by Stephen Pollan and Mark Levine. If you are familiar with their other books like Die Broke, they take a contrarian view to many topics. Pollan and Levine contend the best job is the best paying job and "The best route to emotional satisfaction is to stop looking for it at work."

If somone else has read it, I would love to post another review.

Good Business

Readers of the Miami Herald give their thoughts on Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

What Do You Recommend? - Ardinger

In this new feature "What Do You Recommend?", I am going to highlight a blog that I have run across in my travels and list the business books they recommend you read. Simple enough?

This week's blog is Ardinger, The Design Studio for Big Ideas:

• Chasing Lightning: The Pursuit of Successful Living in America by Chris Moeller (Iuniverse 2002)
• Free Agent Nation: The Future of Working For Yourself by Dan Pink (Warner 2002)
• Unstuck: A Tool for Yourself, Your Team, and Your World by Keith Yamashita and Sandra Spataro (Penguin USA 2004)
• Free Prize Inside by Seth Godin (Portfolio 2004)
• Purple Cow by Seth Godin (Portfolio 2003)
• The Brand You 50 by Tom Peters (Knopf 1999)
• The Project 50 by Tom Peters (Knopf 1999)
• The Pursuit of Wow by Tom Peters (Random House 1994)
• Re-imagine by Tom Peters (DK 2003)

He says this is it.

John at Brand Autopsy finds his answer for Re-imagine.

Book Review: How To Make Money in Small Business

How to Make Big Money in Your Own Small Business: Unexpected Rules Every Small Business Owner Needs to Know by Jeffrey J. Fox is a delight. This wise collection of linked aphorisms gracefully presents solid ideas without ever sounding parochial. Unlike some books that relentlessly sell their “ideas,” Fox cleverly focuses on short, pithy, and useful lessons for the reader. He doesn’t cite companies you’ve read about in flashy magazines. He bases his authority on what he knows, presumably from direct experience or observation. This gives his book a sense of authenticity that, for me, is refreshing.

Many of his lessons qualify as “unexpected”. Learn some Latin (such as quid pro quo and carpe diem.) Hire a personal driver to free up your time for more important matters, since, he explains, “any activity that robs you of your customer-getting time robs you of your business.” Run like the plague from a home office, since “tax deductions never equal the cost of reduced productivity and reduced flexibility inherent with a small office.”

Not all his core lessons are this quirky. For example, Fox returns often to the fundamental rule of always, always having customers, and selling to them. He runs through the financial basics in a way that most readers can benefit from. He goes into detail on small but important matters as hiring, running (or avoiding) meetings, and keeping records.

While many of Fox’s myriad lessons tackle very particular practices, they add up to a handful of wise principles. As the owner you need to spend your time on the most important activities, which are selling, and tending to customers. You need to use your time, which is limited, in the most effective manner. You need to create an organization, which, through outsourcing, wise hiring, and bootstrapping, leverages the talents and passion of everyone.

If you’ve read Fox’s past books (How to Become a Great Boss, How to Become a Marketing Superstar, How to Become a Rainmaker, Don’t Send a Resume, and, How to Become CEO), you will find some overlap—such as his advice that young entrepreneurs tend to grow into the best business people, that hard work trumps anything else, and that customers are the life-blood of business. If you haven’t read his other books, I recommend that you do.

A business book editor who I admire enormously once said to me that there’s a great difference between simple and simplistic. I’m a bit grumpy about many popular business books today that can’t tell the difference. (Which bring to mind one of the many great lines in Spinal Tap, namely, “There such a fine line between clever…and stupid.”) Readers will enjoy Fox’s books because they accessible and resonant without being simplistic or smarmy. They are quirky, surprising, fun and easy to read, and, yes, useful.

Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan newest effort

One of the best books of this decade, along with Good to Great, was Bossidy's and Charan's Execution. I just got word today that I will be getting the manuscript to their next book called Confronting Reality : Master the New Model for Success. The book is due in mid Fall of this year. I'll let you know what I think.

It Seems Like It Is "Book Review Monday"

The Feiner Points of Leadership: The 50 Basic Laws That will Make People Want to Perform Better for You by Michael Feiner, Warner Business Books, 304 Pages, Hardcover, June 2004, ISBN 0446532762

Does the world need another book on leadership? Yes, when the book not only clearly defines the difference between management and leadership, but also has fifty practical laws for being a good leader. I found the first part of the book where he defines the difference between leadership and management especially valuable. To give you an idea of how Feiner’s mind works:

"One interesting note here. It’s much easier to think of examples of firms and individuals suffering from too much management and not enough leadership than it is to think of examples of the opposite problem. First, business schools and universities have done a very thorough job of teaching management skills. They’re easily identified, easily quantified, and easily communicated. The second reason for the imbalance has to do with the nature of leadership itself. Leadership seeks to create change—and most of us are afraid of change. Indeed, our response to the threat of change, the looming possibility of the unknown, is to seek refuge in order, consistency, and predictability—to seek refuge, that is, in management.”

Michael Feiner was a senior executive at Pepsi and now teaches at Columbia University Graduate School of Business. He has put together a book loaded with stories from his teaching, corporate and consulting careers, that not only relates the fifty laws but makes them easy to remember too. Because the author moved from management into academia, the book has an authentic flavor and also makes it a practical and hands-on reading experience. I especially like the way the book is laid out. He divides the fifty laws into three primary categories. Relational Leadership explains the how-to’s of managing relationships with peers, teams, bosses and subordinates. Situation-Specific Leadership gives insight into dealing with conflict, change or even something as simple as a difference of opinion. Values-Based Leadership explores all the various laws, as well as the influence a leader’s values has on building a followership.

At the end of each section he summarizes the different laws which is especially helpful as a quick and easy reference tool. Hand in hand with the summaries, is the clever Laws Matrix at the end of the book that emphasizes the leadership laws most valuable and helpful in specific situation. The Feiner Points of Leadership is an applicable book that it is easy to follow, whether it involves dealing with a difficult boss, fierce competitors or unproductive subordinates.

BOOK REVIEW: Hidden Value

Title: Hidden Value
Author: Charles A. O'Reilly and Jeffrey Pfeffer
Reviewer: Cathy Alper of C Results

We’ve all been there – the job where you check you passions, your best thinking, and your creativity at the door. We transform ourselves from the vital powerful beings we know ourselves to be into numb automatons who smile, nod and try not to explode at the stupidity and banality of our work lives.

Numerous studies have show that once we enter this conflict avoiding zone, even the strongest of us will conform rather than risk the isolation. The need to stay connected to the group is embedded deep without our collective unconscious. Jerry Harvey (The Abilene Paradox, How Come Every Time I Get Stabbed in the Back My Fingerprints are on the Knife) has made a career of outlining the pain and waste of this conflict avoidance zone. His books clearly document the phenomenon, analytic depression, and the common business practices that exacerbate it.

We’ve all been there. Jerry Harvey outlines the problem, Hidden Value reveals the solution.

Hidden Value looks at real companies which have created cultures and management practices that support excellence. It reads more like a collection of short stories than a business book because the company stories, not business rhetoric take center stage. You will learn about a company that knows how to bring newly acquired companies into it’s cultural in a respectful and successful way, companies that experience impressive growth in a declining market, and companies that maintain an employee turnover rate that is 1/3 of the industry average. While these results are impressive, it’s the patterns between and among these companies that is the real story. The company stories taken together highlight cultures and management practices that encourage great people to actually use their talents and that allow almost everyone to produce extraordinary results.

This book was written in 2000 and researched even before that. With the changing economic times, not all the companies highlighted in this book have fared well. Don’t let this distract you from the lessons of the book. The changing fortunes of these companies only shows that although this can be done, it is difficult to achieve and even more difficult to maintain.