800-CEO-READ Blog

Business Books: Fall 2006 Preview

I am starting to get asked what the big books for the fall are, so I thought I should get a list up here. As always, there is something for everyone.

September

• A Leader's Legacy by James Kouzes and Barry Posner (Jossey-Bass) - This is a follow-on to the best-seller The Leadership Challenge; alot of people like Kouzes and Posner's take on leadership.
• Hoopla by Crispin Porter + Bogusky (Powerhouse) - Powerhouse has been doing the Lovemarks/Kevin Roberts books and I have been looking forward to seeing what they do with another ad agency.
• Success Built to Last: Creating A Life That Matters by Jerry Porras et al. (Wharton School Publishing) - Built to Last author Porras this time asks what people rather than companies need to do to find success.
• Bangalore Tiger: How Indian Tech Upstart WIPRO is Rewriting the Rules of Global Competition by Steve Hamm (McGraw-Hill) - The senior writer goes inside this Indian phenom to find out what has brought all the success.

October

• Mavericks at Work: Why The Most Original Minds In Business Win by Bill Taylor and Polly LaBarre (William Morrow) - Bill and Polly created business conversation in the 90's at writing Fast Company magazine. If you have missed that passion and energy, you'll love the book.
• Tough Choices by Carly Fiorina (Portfolio) - This is going to be a big book. The former CEO of Hewlett-Packard tells her rise to the top and what happened when she got there.
• L.L. Bean: The Making of an American Icon by Leon Gorman (Harvard Business School Press) - Word has it that HBSP has been bugging the folks at L.L. Bean for years to do a book; it finally here and expect to see lots of cross-promotion in other L.L. Bean communications.
• Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage by Daniel Esty and Andrew Winston (Yale) - This title shows how companies can use green issues as a competitive weapon.
• The Starfish and The Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations by Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom (Portfolio) - What do Alcoholics Anonymous, Napster, and al Queda all have in common? No one runs them. I love this book and highly recommend you check it out.
• Setting the Table: The Power of Hospitality in Restaurants, Business, and Life by Danny Meyer (HarperCollins) - Meyer knows something about delivering service. His restaurants occupy four of the top twenty spots on Zagat's.
• Tailgating, Sacks, and Salary Caps: How The NFL Became the Most Successful Sports Franchise in History by Mark Yost (Kaplan, Nov.) - This is about the business of football in all its glory.

800ceoread Presents...

We are branching out this fall and are hosting two events in Milwaukee. This is not completely new for us. We have worked with other organizations in the past to bring speakers to the city, but the last event we were involved in was probably five years ago.

Our first event is with Bill Taylor. Bill co-founded Fast Company Magazine and is releasing a book in October called Mavericks At Work. If you were a fan of FC in its glory days, you will love the book. The event is going to be on October 12th at 6pm.

Our second event is two weeks later when Carly Fiorina visits Milwaukee. The former CEO of Hewlett-Packard is touring on her new book Tough Choices. This one is going to be a breakfast event at the Midwest Express Center on October 27th.

If you are in within driving distance of Brew City, consider coming to these. If these work out, we are going to bring another slate of business speakers to Milwaukee in 2007.

Caught my eye.

A few posts on the art of word of mouth in the last week have caught my eye.

First is Guy Kawasaki's early review of Andy Sernovitz's (CEO of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association) book Word of Mouth Marketing due out this November. Guy posted on some of the highlights:

The most powerful word-of-mouth advocates might be the customers who have only done business with you once so far.

First impressions are important. What are you doing to encourage this w-o-m?

Two interesting examples, also from Andy, are:

The Prostate Net, a not-for-profit educational organization, contacted 50,000 barbers to talk to their clients about prostate cancer detection and prevention.

The Wynn Las Vegas resort gave free rooms to cabbies to generate word-of-mouth advertising via this very influential part of the transportation infrastructure.

Wynn and the Prostate Net both gave their possible advocates the tools (some would call experience) to talk about.

. . .
. . .
Next along the same lines...

Why companies should make prettier user manuals. Customers are attracted by pretty brochures and advertisements but what about user manuals? How many times have you actually enjoyed picking up the DVD manual or reading how to build an IKEA item?

How J. Crew remembered Jackie. It's hard to believe that a chain like J.Crew would remember someone's favorite sports team. I'm amazed. There's always more to learn about customers.

New podcast with John Maxwell

I just posted a new podcast with John Maxwell. We spend 30 minutes talking about the importance of attitude.

Review of The Long Tail by Steve Sherlock

1. the tail of available variety is far longer than we realized


2. it's now within reach economically


3. all those niches, when aggregated, can make up a significant market (1)

Amplified word of mouth is the mnifestation of the third force of the Long Tail: tapping consumer sentiment to connect supply to demand. The first force, democratizing production, populates the Tail. The second force, democratizing the distribution, makes it all available. But those two are not enough. It is not until the third force, which helps people find what they want in this new superabundance of variety, kicks in that the potential of the Long Tail marketplace is truly unleashed.
(2)

When you can dramatically lower the cost of connecting the supply and demand, it changes not just the numbers, but the entire nature of the market. This is not just a quantitative change, but a qualitative one too. Bringing niches within reach reveals latent demand for non-commercial content. Then as demand shifts toward the niches, the economics of providing them improve further, and so on, creating a positive feedback loop that will transform entire industries -- and the culture -- for decades to come. (3)

Talking Blogging with Debbie Weil

Debbie Weil is running a great offer in conjunction with us on her new book The Corporate Blogging Book. She will give you a seat at a free teleconference if you buy 5 or more books of her book from us. Read all the rules and regulations on her blog.

So we're competitive...

A quick BusinessWeek stat for you:
18,038
business books on
Amazon.com mention
"competitiveness"

Wow. We're a competitive little bunch of consumers.

Do sequels help the original?

Today you will find How Full Is Your Bucket? on at the #15 spot on the WSJ bestsellers list. What is a book that came out in July 2004 doing back on the list?

My theory: the release of Tom Rath's second book Vital Friends.

There seems to be phenomenon that a business book author's first book gets a bump when the second comes out. I can't show you data (yet), but I have heard this often anecdotally from authors and publishers. I am sure there is also a popularity threshold for the first book has pass, in order for this to be true.

We are working on some research, and might be able to tell you more soon on this.

Learning to teach

There are two solutions that will ensure you reach apprentices with differing styles. One solution is to hand this chapter to your apprentice and have a frank discussion about what works and what doesn’t for him. It won’t take long, and you’re bound to learn something from each other. At the very least, you’ll give your apprentice language that he can use to speak up and give you feedback. The last thing you want is to have him be a victim of your approach to teaching.

--Steve Trautman

Read part of that chapter...

Killing time at the airport

New York Times talks about the safety of WiFi at airports and other public places. Some good advice.

"Robert Vamosi, a senior editor with the online technology publisher CNET, said wireless networks at airports — or for that matter, hotels or cafes — are not as secure as most people think.

“Someone may have some software on their computer that allows them to look at all the wireless transactions going on around them and capture packets that are floating between the laptop and the wireless access point,� he said.

These software programs are called packet sniffers and many can be downloaded free online. They are typically set up to capture passwords, credit card numbers and bank account information — which is why Mr. Vamosi says shopping on the Web is not a great way to kill time during a flight delay.

“Where I’d draw the line is putting in your bank account information or credit card number,� he said, adding that checking e-mail messages probably is not that risky, but if you want to be cautious, change your password once you are on a secure connection again."

Succession Planning

Slate has an article about the succession planning and how it is bad news if the child of the CEO takes over. From the article:

The question of how installing the boss's kid as CEO affects firms' performance is actually quite hard to answer. An initial step is to look at how a company's performance changes after a CEO succession, comparing firms with scion CEOs with those in which executive power passes outside the family. The authors of the new study do this, and they show that in a sample of 5,000 Danish firms from 1994 to 2002, firm performance (measured by the ratio of operating income to assets) improved only after a nonrelative took over. The ratio of operating income to assets averaged 3.3 percent in their sample—for a firm with a million dollars in assets, that puts annual operating income at $33,000. Company performance improved 1.3 percentage points ($13,000 in annual income per million in assets) after the succession of outside-the-family CEOs. And it declined 0.1 percentage points ($1,000 in annual income per million in assets) when scion CEOs were chosen.

Mauboussin quoting Dr. Seuss

The more that you read, the more things you will know.
The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.

Michael Mauboussin in More Than You Know quoting Dr. Seuss.

Ehrenfeld Blogging

Tom Ehrenfeld is a frequent contributer to 800ceoread. He writes for our blog and recently published a popular ChangeThis manifesto. I am happy to report he is doing some blogging of his own at startupgarden.com. You'll find him writing about Snakes on a Plane, good writing, and why Turner and Hooch was such a great movie.

We Have Finally Made It

Publishers send catalogs for each season they publish books. This is still the primary way books are marketed and sold in the industry. A salesman sits with a book buyer and they walk through the catalog.

One of the things you will see in catalogs and on galleys (pre-published versions of books) is a list of the things publishers are going to do to promote the book. This is to show book buyers of a publisher's commitment to a title.

We have been slowly building our promotion methods for business books. Jack told me about a year ago that we will have made it when we start making the lists.

Here is the blown-up back cover of The Difference Maker by John Maxwell.

The podcast will be up next week.

:)

More Info on Little Black Book

I sent a note to Ray Bard at Bard Press asking him for some more info on Little Black Book of Connections. I think this description helps:

People in all kinds of jobs, in big and small companies — career builders, sales people, and aspiring executives — will love this
edgy, practical, and fun book

In the spirit, style, and format of the bestselling Little Red Book of Selling, the country’s #1 sales trainer, Jeffrey Gitomer, offers a fresh take on networking and connecting your way to success.

The Little Black Book of Connections is based on the power of
“give value first�. It’s about how you can climb the ladder without stepping on people’s backs. It’s about how to earn the respect of a powerful mentor without begging. It’s about how to build stronger relationships with customers, bosses, co-workers, vendors, friends, and family. It’s about being in the same room with powerful people. It’s about how to connect — and how to not connect. It’s about how to say the right things to the right people in the right circumstances to make the right impression.

The book is small. The cover is classic black cloth. The four-color text graphics makes it attractive and easy to read — the compelling content is easy to understand and implement.

Jeffrey Gitomer, the leading, world-class authority on selling, is the most-read syndicated “sales� columnist— in 95 business newspapers worldwide with 4 million weekly readers. His books, including The Little Red Book of Selling (Bard Press), The Little Red Book of Sales Answers (Prentice Hall), The Sales Bible (Wiley), and Customer Satisfaction is Worthless, Customer Loyalty is Priceless (Bard Press) have sold more than 1 million copies. Annually, he presents more than 100 seminars to Fortune 500 companies and public audiences. He lives in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Keeper or Deleter?

A friend of mine forwarded me an article from the WSJ awhile ago (indicating that perhaps I stray towards the side of being an email hoarder). It's on how what goes on in your inbox reflects your lifestyle. I'm sure we've all been in the position of feeling overwhelmed from the emails sitting in our inbox. Or perhaps by the number of email reminders popping up on the lower righthand part of your screen.

There's a lot to be learned from how emails are handled. It can reflect what's going on in other areas of your life. Jeffrey Zaslow (writer for the WSJ) has two categories for inbox owners:

1 ) HOARDER:
According to psychologist Dave Greenfield, who founded the Center for Internet Behavior in West Hartford, Conn., "If you have 1,000 emails in your inbox, it may mean you don't want to miss an opportunity, but there are things you can't pull the trigger on."

2) DELETER
On Deleters, Greenfield says, "If you have only 10 emails in your inbox, you may be pulling the trigger too fast and missing the richness of life."

--
I found this story interesting. If you've emailed Scott lately, now you know what happened to your reply:
Zaslow profiled a "inbox paralyzed" Scott Stratten in Ontario who had hundreds of old unanswered messages in his inbox. What did he do? Deleted all his messages and explained to his contacts that his faulty Internet service was the reason for not responding.

"Mr. Stratten describes what he did as "pure evil," but he also calls it a turning point. He realized he had to find a better way to ease his guilt over not coming through for people. He is now hiring an assistant who will handle his email."

---

Marilyn Paul's advice on how to handle your emails is to:
Try organizing your emails into folders based on subject or necessary follow-up. Then go through it each week at a certain time. Also try alphabetizing by sender.

------
From The Wall Street Journal; Hoarders vs. Deleters: What your inbox says about you; By Jeffrey Zaslow; 2006-08-10.

Vital Friends Interview on Podcasts Blog

I had been holding back on posting new audio until I could get the RSS feed working. With the change to Feedburner, we are reading to get going again.

Our new interview is with Tom Rath, author of Vital Friends. The book was a Jack Covert Selects in August and I would recommend you check it out. This book is the PERFECT airplane read and the online assessment tool alone is worth the investment.

Godin Giveaway on iBW

I put the Seth post up and forget to mention that we are giving away autographed copies of The Small Is The New Big today.

Jump over and put your name in the hat.

Using Feedburner for Feeds Now

We have changed all the blogs over to Feedburner today. Using the standard RSS feeds in Movable Type were causing us some trouble. The biggest was over on the Podcasts Blog, where we could not get enclosures for you podcasting listeners. Below you will find the old and new feeds. Switching over will provide more reliable service for all.

800ceoread Daily Blog

old -> http://www.800ceoread.com/blog/index.rdf (or .xml)
new -> http://feeds.feedburner.com/800ceoreaddailyblog

800ceoread Excerpts

old -> http://www.800ceoread.com/excerpts/index.rdf (or .xml)
new -> http://feeds.feedburner.com/800ceoreadexcerpts

800ceoread Podcasts

old -> http://800ceoread.com/podcasts/index.rdf (or .xml)
new -> http://feeds.feedburner.com/800ceoreadPodcasts

If they worries you at all, don't do anything. You will still be able to get your feeds the way you always have.

Small Is The New Big Links

Here are some of the Small Is The New Big links:

• Richard Pachter at The Miami Herald
• A Cool Friend at tompeters.com
• Guy Kawasaki interviews Seth
• The Squidoo Lens
• Across the Sound Podcast with Joe Jaffe

You can join a Skypecast with Seth tomorrow (August 21st) at 2:00PM Pacific Time.

New Gitomer - The Little Black Book of Connections

Jeffrey Gitomer has released his newest book The Little Black Book of Connections. It made the WSJ bestseller list today at #15. As I was looking around for information about the book online, I found things to be pretty sparse. The standard book description reads:

A fresh take on networking your way to success. The book is small, the cover classic black cloth - full of edgy, witty,and practical resources.

There is nothing on Gitomer's site right now.

I did find one blog had reviewed it, after the buying the book while on vacation.

With so little available on the book, I thought I could at least give you the table of contents.

Table of Contents

Asset 1 - Who Do I know?
Asset 2 - What Do I Want?
Asset 3 - What Do I Do?
Asset 4 - How Do I Connect?
Asset 5 - Who Knows You?
Asset 6 - The Secret Power of Connections
Asset 6.5 - The Value of Connections

If you want to sum up the book, I think you can get it in Jeffery Gitomer's Universal Truth of Connecting:

If you make yourself valuable, and memorable, others will want to make you part of their network.

If you liked his other books, you'll be a fan of this one and you may want to save some money in your fall book budget. In November, The Little Gold Book of Yes! Attitude will be hitting bookstores.

Employees as Owners

The employee-owners are the board of directors of the company and they make all policy decisions. Only employees may serve on the board. Ownership is inextricably tied to employment; upon termination of employment or retirement, an owner’s share must be sold back to the corporation. Although we get plenty of advice from accountants, attorneys, bankers, and consultants—the best ones we can find—and we have the utmost respect for them and listen carefully to their counsel, they do not make decisions about the company; only employee-owners do. -- John Abrams

Keep reading...

Brand Autopsy's Best Business Blogging Book

John at Brand Autopsy has declared Debbie Weil's The Corporate Blogging Book the best. As John points out, there are alot of books that have been published in the category. The biggest splash was probably Naked Conversations. Here is John's conclusion:

Debbie’s book is the best of the bunch because it’s actionable. She wastes little space in telling stories about blogging and instead, shares practical insight and guidance on all the relevant issues businesses face when deciding how, when, where, and why to blog.

If you need a taste, Debbie wrote a ChangeThis manifesto that we re-released this month to coincide with the book's release. Check out the Beginner's Guide to Business Blogging.

Small Is The New Book

Seth Godin's Small Is The Next Big is being released today. Seth was nice enough to mention us as a source on his blog this morning.

If you don't know the story, this book is a compilation of seven years worth of Seth's writing. You'll find blog posts and Fast Company columns organized in alphabetically order. Under F you will find Fluffernutter:

I was dishing out some Marshmallow Fluff yesterday (this is a great product) and I saw the recipe for a Fluffernutter on the back. What did that invention net them? It's almost as good as putting baking soda in your fridge. Suddenly, there's a reason for every household with kids to have Fluff in stock, all the time. The Fluffernutter turns it from a desert topping into a daily staple.

Do you think you could invent a new use for your product?

We have a ChangeThis manifesto called Polkas, Pyrotechnics and Point D's with some other pieces and parts from the book.

If you are interested, you can get a good price on one book and a great price on 10 or more books.

Impossible

Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.

-John Maxwell in The Difference Maker quoting a Adidas ad he saw in ESPN Magazine.

*Bonus YouTube Link: Nothing Is Impossible

Moltz hosts Carnival of the Capitalists

Barry Moltz (You Need to Be A Little Crazy) is hosting the Carnival of the Capitalists this week. If you are not familiar, each week a different blog hosts a compilation of the business blog posts. The COTC has been going on for almost two years. It is a great way to keep up with everything going on and find some new people you should be reading.

The Long Tail Videos

The Long Tail continue to do well (#10 on WSJ's list this week). Here are two Long Tail videos you might be interested in checking out.

The first is the Random House UK promo video for the book's release there. Visuals can do amazing things to help people understand ideas.

The second is called Day of the Long Tail and gives you the trailer for what the film adaptation would be like.

Update: I have messed up the UK link twice. I promise it is working now.

BtoB Recommends...

...these marketing books.

1. Naked Conversations
2. The Corporate Blogging Book
3. Waiting for Your Cat to Bark?
4. Marketing Metrics
5. Lead Generation for the Complex Sale

Due out this fall:

1. What Sticks: Why Most Advertising Fails and How to Guarantee Yours Succeeds
2. B2B Brand Management

Schwartz Bookshops partners with Froedert on Small Stones

There is some very exciting news from the retail side of our business.

The Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops is partnering with Froedert Hospital on their Small Stones store. Small Stones is an interesting combination of bookstore, classroom and medical resource. The store will have a nurse on staff 40 hours a week to answer questions and help direct people to resources. There are workshops that take place throughout the week. In addition, visitors are able to get health screenings.

The Small Stones location will move from Watertown Plank Road to a space next to our Brookfield location. The planned opening for the new location is early November.

You can read the full press release on Froedert's website.

Citizen Marketers In Mainstream Media

Ben and Jackie of Creating Customer Evangelists are in today's Chicago Sun-Times talking about their new book Citizen Marketers.

Got Some Time on Your Hands?

Friday's LA Times has an article about what business travelers are doing now that lap tops are not allowed. Jonathan Daniel, the supervisor of a Borders store at Heathrow Airport, says that the popular titles included "Freakonomics" and "The World Is Flat.

We at 8cr would add a few more current titles like The Long Tail and More Than You Know and Uncommon Carriers.

Playing in the background All Mod Cons by The Jam

Fast Company: The Book

Jory Des Jardins writes a love letter about Fast Company and its latest release in book form.

Found Essential - Purple Cow

Todd has been posting all of his Lost Essentials this week. I thought I would confirm what he said yesterday. We both loved Purple Cow. I realized that I wrote this pre-Todd which means pre-blog. Here is my Jack Covert Selects on Purple Cow.

***

Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable by Seth Godin, Portfolio. 140 Pages, $19.95 Hardcover, May 2003, ISBN 159184021X

The one and only time I offered a money-back guarantee was with Lou Gerstner's story of the IBM turnaround, Who Said Elephants Can't Dance? However, I just finished a book that is so powerful, it is compelling me to offer the same money-back guarantee again! The book is Seth Godin’s latest, Purple Cow. It is absolutely laser-focused on a subject that is near and dear to all of us: how to sell/market our products. The title comes from a story Seth tells about when his family was traveling in France and marveling at the pretty cows. After awhile, there were so many cows that they became boring. This brought to Seth this idea: "A purple cow, though. Now that would be interesting. (For a while.) The essence of the Purple Cow is that it must be remarkable." To help you understand what he means by remarkable, he states that the opposite of remarkable is "very good." Not bad or mediocre, but very good. He states that he doesn't think that there is a shortage of remarkable ideas; he thinks that what is missing is the will to execute the ideas. He says:

"My goal in Purple Cow is to make it clear that it’s safer to be risky—to fortify your desire to do truly remarkable things. Once you see that the old ways have nowhere to go but down, it becomes imperative to create things worth talking about."

The case studies used in the book are perfectly selected. Although I had heard some of the stories before, many were new to me. At the end of each case study/story he has a "takeaway" which is a group of questions that should be used to stimulate discussion or idea generation. The case studies range in length from a couple of paragraphs to a few pages and are written in a breezy, casual style that draws you into the book and makes you want to keep turning the pages. I don’t think I have ever used the term "page-turner" to describe a business book, but this book is special and deserves the designation.

Dana Need Your Help!

Dana VanDen Heuvel is working on a project to create posts on The 50 Greatest Thinkers In Modern Marketing. He posted a list and I added a few more in the comments.

Go help him out!

Lost Essentials - Purple Cow

I am continuing to post some reviews I wrote a couple years ago for my personal blog.

I know Purple Cow is not a lost essential. You all have your copy, right? We only talk about this book every other day. This is a book that Jack and I both liked before we even knew each other.

***

Purple Cow is Seth's latest work and continues to build on the ideas from his other books. Here he talks about the importance of being remarkable. And his meaning for the word is the definition that has you telling other people. It is another flavor of an ideavirus.

I have really been struck by this concept. When you put the remarkable litmus test on something, you start to think how rare the reamarkable is. Harry Potter is remarkable. Anheuser-Busch is not. Circuit City is not.

Seth again used the concepts to sell the book. It started with a pre-release edition of the book that was available in quantities of 12 for $60. The book came in a purple cow milk carton. The 4,000 copies were sold in 19 days. And every person that bought a dozen gave friends the other eleven copies. The virus spreads and interest builds as the release approaches.

In conjunction with the release, Seth wrote an ebook called 99 Cows. He wanted to further illustrate the idea of being remarkable with real live examples. He makes it available through Fast Company for free until August 1st. He makes it available through Amazon here and all the proceeds go to charity.

He also offers a Purple Cow workshop. And how do you spread the virus some more? Offer the workshop for free if you buy 25 copies of the hardcover. It got me and most of the other 50 people that were there.

I think it is another Essential read. There are plenty of resources below to find out about the Purple Cow phenomenon.

Purple Cow Links:

• Purple Cow - the Website
• Purple Cow - the book
• 99 Cows - the ebook
• Purple Cow - the summary Seth wrote for Fast Company
• Seth's description of the marketing plan for Purple Cow
• Purple Cow - Seth's Remarks from Real Time Miami
• Company of Friends Tele-Conference with Seth Godin talking about Purple Cow
• Moogle - The Other Google

***

Also see The Big Moo by Seth and the Group of 33.

[The Original A Penny For... Entry]

Listening to S***

A while ago the WSJ had an article about John Hammond. For you non-music folks John Hammond literally discovered some of the greatest talents of the twentieth century. Little known people like Billy Holiday, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Count Basie, Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Ray Vaughan. This guy was there at the beginning of some great music, for example “In two consecutive work days in the fall of 1933, Bessie Smith made the last records of her career and 17-year-old Billy Holiday made the first. Each session was produced by Hammond, then 22.� What were you doing when you were 22?

How did Hammond find these people? Again, I quote “Years before, I once asked Benny Goodman what it was like to be with John at those moments “when you first heard Billy Holiday, Lester Young, or Charlie Christian.� Goodman seemed amused at my naiveté. “We listened to an awful lot of s*** too,� he said with a smile. “Did John ever tell you that?�� How much s*** have you “listened to� today to find the next big thing? I know I haven’t listened to enough.

The article is reminiscences of Hammond by John McDonough who writes about Jazz for the WSJ and it was stimulated by a new book called “The Producer: John Hammond and the Soul of American Music� by Dunstan Prial…Gots to get that book!

Playing in the background Oh Yeah by Roxy Music

Lost Essentials - Jump Start Your Business Brain

More from the archives...

***

I read Jump Start Your Business Brain about a year ago. As an engineer, I don't like many of the mishy-mushy aspects of marketing. Neither did Doug Hall. His background was chemical engineering and he struggled with "a lack of disciplined principles" while working at Procter and Gamble.

After left P&G, he started his own company and began a quest. Hall looked at a set of 4000 concept descriptions for new products and services and tried to find out why some ideas succeed and some fail. They looked at things like brand category, sizing, and pricing versus the competition. None of the concrete measurements correlated with the success of the idea. The big break came when they started to look at the perceptions and archetypes the customers had running through their head. Some examples of this are benefits, features, focus, value perception, and emotional versus rational orientation.

The research yielded three factors that Hall claims can be statistically linked to improving the success of a business idea:

• Overt Benefit - What is in it for the customer? You must be very direct in the cluttered marketplace for your customers to get it.
• Reason to Believe - Customer confidence is at an all-time low. You must provide persuasive credibility that you will do as you promised.
• Dramatic Difference - Without uniqueness, you are selling a commodity. The difference must be dramatic, 10X more dramatic then you think.

Only 20% of business ideas actually succeed in the marketplace. Hall says you can double your chances of success by marketing around these three ideas.

I used these principles as I developed a marketing plan for my business. I think they helped focus my message. Looking back now, I think I could push the envelope on all three aspects and get an even greater benefit.

P.S. And that is only half of the book. The second half talks "The Three Laws of Capitalist Creativity" - improving the quality of your ideas.

***

[The Original A Penny For... Post]

Lost Essentials - Advertising Secrets of the Written Word

I like this book alot. At the time I read it, I was writing copy for some direct mail pieces. Joe Sugarman's advice was invaluable and still is.

***

Last week, I talked about the amazing copy in Nike's advertising.

Advertising Secrets of the Written Word by Joseph Sugarman shows you how to write great advertisting copy. Joe knows what he is talking about. BluBlocker sunglasses were his creation. He sold a couple million pairs through magazine ads and infomericials.

There are alot of reasons I like the book. He is a great storyteller. Each chapter starts with a story about a product he was trying to sell and he proceeds to use that situation to illustrate the point he is trying to get across. The products are a little dated, but I also found that enjoyable. You'll read about the Pocket CB, Consumers Hero, and Magic Stat. He once sold his $240,000 personal airplane through a magazine ad.

The biggest reason I recommend this book is that you will be a better copywriter when you are done. I know for a fact that I am better. The advice is very practical and can be used immediately. Joe lays out 57 points every ad should cover and ends the book with 12 ads that he wrote and his explanation of their success or failure.

The knowledge he presents translates to any written communication where you are trying to persuade someone of something. I used his recommendations to improve a cover letter for a direct mail piece. I think you could apply his stuff to resumes, company memos, or school term papers.

Advertising Secrets of the Written Word costs $39.95 - a bit more than your normal hardcover. Don't let that stop you. It is an outstanding book.

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[The Original APF Post]

Ideas: Get them moving.

How?

Guy Kawasaki's summary of a piece in Seth's latest:

For an idea to be spread, it needs to be sent and received.

No one sends an idea unless:

1. They understand it.
2. They want it to spread.
3. They believe that spreading it will enhance their power (reputation, income, friendships) or their peace of mind.
4. The effort to send the idea is less than the benefits.

No one “gets� an idea unless:

1. The first impression demands further investigation.


2. They already understand the foundation ideas necessary to get the new idea.
3. They trust or respect the sender enough to invest the time.

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Here's something else from Seth you might like.

Lost Essentials - Fierce Conversations

In my pre-8cr days, I wrote alot on my A Penny For... blog. In moving things over to the Astronaut Projects site, I found some entries over there that I thought you all might be interested in. This first book is one that still sits on my shelf...

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What is at the basis of everything?

It is conversations that people have or don't have with each other.

I really like Fierce Conversation by Susan Scott. I originally got the lead from a posting on the FC Now blog by John Byrne. I was drawn to the questions Susan says you should be asking those around you:

• What is currently impossible to do that, if it were possible, would change everything?
• If you were competing with our company, what would you do?
• What topic are you hoping I won't bring up?

Those questions cut to the chase. They don't dance around sensitive subjects. They are truly powerful.

I worked on a team about six nine years ago where those questions were common. We had fierce conversations daily about the project we were working on. I think it was the best work experience I have ever had. We accomplished something rare: a successful software implementation.

I also like the book because it applies to life. Susan says the conversation is the relationship. Think about the quality of the conversations you are having with those around you. It reflects the quality of the relationship.

Here it is in Susan's words.

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[The original APF post]

Wayne Hurlbert's Review of Is That Your Hand in My Pocket?

Is That Your Hand in My Pocket?
By Ron J. Lambert and Tom Parker

Published: Jul 18, 2006
ISBN: 0785218777
Format: Hardcover, 256pp
Publisher: Nelson Business

If relationship marketing and looking for the win-win solutions is your sales technique, then it needs some serious reconsideration. That is the message from authors Ron J. Lambert and Tom Parker in their powerful negotiation primer for sales representatives titled Is That Your Hand in My Pocket?The Sales Professional's Guide to Negotiating. As the title implies, the book is about negotiation and it delivers on that promise.

Both authors Ron J. Lambert and Tom Parker have over twenty-five years ofin training sales people with the negotiation skills necessary to survive and prosper in the modern global economy. They say the days are long gone when a representative could spend years with a client, building and nurturing a mutually beneficial relationship over time. In their view, the modern purchaser doesn't want a relationship with any sales people. They add that the buying company doesn't want one either. The rules of the game have changed, and the modern sales negotiator has to change along with it.

In a series of chapters crammed full of practical hands on advice for negotiating successfully, the authors move from basic negotiation styles to tactics for getting results from even the most difficult prospect. By presenting a breakdown of various negotiation techniques, the writers provide the best means of addressing each method. Whether the potential buyer is a hard nosed type who sees everything in terms of winning and losing, or if the prospect is a bend over backwards compromise specialist, the best way to sell to each person is presented. The authors make it very clear that one technique does not fit all situations. Adapting to the circumstances is essential to successful negotiations in the view of the authors.

• Set the agenda for the sales negotiation to maintain control.
• Establishing the negotiator in a powerful bargaining position whether that is indeed the case or not.
• Read the other side's non-verbal signals to pick up cues as to their thinking.
• Finding creative solutions to very difficult or stalled negotiations.

As an added bonus, the authors provide a chapter that turns the negotiator from a seller to a prospective buyer. In an information laden section on buying a car, the authors teach would be automobile owners how to hold their own against some of the best negotiators in the business. Instead of car buying being a negotiations nightmare, the authors provide the tips to help the buyer drive away with a fair deal.

Overall, Is That Your Hand in My Pocket?The Sales Professional's Guide to Negotiating by Ron J. Lambert and Tom Parker is a book that everyone entering into negotiations should read. Whether a person is buying or selling, or negotiating a raise, or reaching a mutual agreement with family and friends, this book will get them to a mutually satisfactory conclusion.

That's as win-win as you can get.

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Review by Wayne Hurlbert

Jack Covert Selects: Vital Friends

Vital Friends: The People You Can't Afford to Live Without
By Tom Rath, Gallup Press, 240 pages, $22.95 hardcover.

Gallup Research has been studying friendship and workplace productivity for some time. In this book, Tom Rath presents their full-length findings for the first time.

What does friendship have to do with work? A lot. Rath believes companies are too focused on development at the individual and organizational level. They're missing a focus on one-to-one interactions.

The benefits of these interactions and resulting friendships are endless. Duke University Medical Center found patients with less than four friends to be twice as likely to die from heart disease. Gallup research discovered that when your best friend has a healthy diet, you are five times more likely to have a healthy diet. In the workplace, employees with "vital friends" are happier, more engaged, safer, have higher customer loyalty ratings, and work in teams that are more profitable. How's that for impact?

Each of your friends plays one of eight vital roles (builder, champion, collaborator, companion, connector, energizer, mind opener, and navigator). Evaluate your friends and their roles with the integrated online assessment tool. You can even share the results. The more friends you evaluate, the more you will understand what roles are being filled by your current friends and where you need additional support.

Overall it's a great package. You've got nothing to lose and everything to gain by checking it out. Take their advice: help yourself and your business by building stronger friendships

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Chasing Daylight on iBW

Chasing Daylight is the book on inBubbleWrap today.

Everyone who reads it says it is the most important book they have read all year.

Get Back In The Box - Rushkoff on other books

This is the final post in a series on Doug Rushkoff's Get Back In the Box.

In my last installment, I thought I would highlight his mention of other business books. Rushkoff has no hesitation about calling people out. His first swing is at HBSP's Got Game (John Beck, Mitchell Wade):

In a classic misunderstanding of play culture, a Harvard Business School Press book about how "the gamer generation is reshaping business forever" contends that kids who grew up with videogames need to be treated differently in the workplace. True enough, but the authors but the authors surmise that game play has made young workers more competitive "because the object of all of those games is to win." They couldn't be more wrong. Beyond technology, the main difference between video games and those that came before them is that many videogames have no winner. That should be a clue: the real difference in creating a work environment for the gamer generation is finding ways to allow them to participate actively and consciously in the evolution of the enterprise itself.

I would say he goes a bit further with Clotaire Rapaille, author of The Culture Code. In this section, he is referencing his Frontline documentary The Persuaders where he spent time with Rapaille (watch section four The Science of Selling):

I've watched another consultant, an eccentric French former psychologist named Clotaire Rapaille, utterly transfix the CEOs of dozens of Fortune 500 companies by claiming to have a system through which he can discern "the code" underlying each of their industries. Through focus groups and hypnosis sessions , Rapaille uncovers people's earliest remembered associations for anything from coffee to jet planes, in order to help clients redesign their products, packaging, and promotions in accordance with the buried archetype or "code".

One Boeing executive I interviewed fully believes that the new Dreamliner aircraft will achieve its success with customers primarily because of Rapaille's input. "It's not enough to make bigger baggage compartments. They have to be 'on code.' " Of course, the executive could not tell me Rapaille's code for the Dreamliner, for it I released it, the competition would be able to redesign its aircraft using the same secret formula.

An interesting feature of Rapaille's work is his insistence on hypnotizing not only random focus groups, but also key executives involved in making decisions. His combined role of hypnotist, psychologist, and brand guru puts his clients in a particularly passive--what Freud would call "regressed"--position The net result is to make these executives more dependent on his advice and support. From what I've witnessed at baronial estate in Tuxedo Park New York, his clients are quite under his spell. They drink champagne, marvel over his car collection, and listen with rapt attention as he explains that women's experience bearing children makes them more conscious of automobile interiors, or that a luxurious air travel experience is undermined by aggressive search routines at the gates. His insights are either absurd, obvious or both, but his audience of executives focus on his every inflection with their jaws slack and eyes glazed over.

By hypnotizing this clients, Rapaille also gains insight into their true personal and business aspirations. The information about airplanes he gets from airplane executives is just as, if not more, important than what he gets from their customers. For those who have forgotten how to get back to the source of their passion and expertise, a hypnotist and psychologist like Rapaille might be useful--at least in the short run--as a form of psychotherapy or internal inquiry. The problem is, of course, that, unlike a course of therapy where the patient learns to solve his or her own problems, here Rapaille ends up receiving credit for insights gained and retains the exclusive ability to mine for more.

If you stuck with me on this post, the first thing I like about the book is Rushkoff's challenge of other people's thinking. It is often too polite in the world of business thought and we don't get to work really works.

Get Back In The Box - It's OK To Have Fun

This is the fourth in a series on Doug Rushkoff's Get Back In The Box.

The final theme I want to discuss is the importance Rushhoff puts on play. He says Apple is the company it is because Jobs let people have fun. He says companies do all sorts of things to make it difficult for their employees to play -- incentive bonus structures, short-term consultancies, and "business as war" mentalities.

That's right: the driving force behind our new renaissance society is play.

Sure, groups can organize around a variety of things: fear, patriotism, even hatred. But these are more suitable for armies than cultures. They require blind allegiance to a single idea on the commands of a leader, and are compromised by feedback or cross talk. They can't handle complexity, freedom, or natural selection. And because they tend not to be fun, they require enforcement. That means additional resources must be spent just maintaining cohesion, which eventually leads the whole enterprise towards diminishing returns

Play, on the other hand, allows for engagement on an entirely more voluntary and complex level. Participants in a successful brand culture are not cajoled or coerced into membership, but simply invited. Even the spread of media viruses--the word of mouth promoting products and ideas through culture--is a form of play. The reward, as in a game of "telephone," is seeing what the whole collective has wrought. We pass on tidbits of social currency because it's fun. The mediaspace becomes a kind of play space, where the object of the game is to get the most Web "hits" for one's homemade animated video, or to see if a media prank can get coverage on the national news.

In a renaissance society driven by the need to forge connections, play is the ultimate system for social currency. It's a way to try on new roles without committing to them for life. It's a way to test strategies of engagement without being defined by them forever. It's a way to rise above the seemingly high stakes of almost any situation and see it as the game probably is. It's a way to make one's enterprise a form of social currency from the beginning, and to guarantee a collaborative, playful, and altogether more productive path toward continual innovation.

Think Red Rubber Ball.

Jack Covert Selects: Small is the New Big

Small Is the New Big: and 183 Other Riffs, Rants, and Remarkable Business Ideas
by Seth Godin, Portfolio, 352 pages, $25.95 hardcover.

Seth Godin's books are frequently featured in my reviews. Purple Cow is a classic. Free Prize Inside and All Marketers Are Liars were great. The Big Moo pulled together a great group (and all for the benefit of charity). His latest is no exception.

It's a compilation of Seth writings from over the last decade. You'll find pieces highlighted on his blog. There are essays from his days at "Fast Company". Some are short (a few sentences) and others go on for pages.

Who is Seth? I know you know the answer: a business writer and consultant. Here's a new twist; Seth would say he's in the business of selling fireworks.

[People] are stuck because society, or their bosses, or their spouses, or their co-workers won't let them do what they already know they should do. It's like their briefcases are filled with compressed propane, but they can't get anything to happen.

So that's where I come in. I bring fireworks with me. Not particularly loud or powerful ones, but fireworks capable of attracting attention--and, more important, igniting the propane you've already got.

I will personally attest to Seth and his fireworks. He has ignited more cans of explosive gas at the offices of 800ceoread than I can count. Read this book a few pages at a time, let the ideas form, and light that propane.

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Seth does it again

Seth Godin is one of the smartest people I know. He has proven it again with his blog post titled Advice to Authors.

It is brilliant, hilarious, and spot on. I have printed it, framed it and put it on my office wall. The post applies to publishers, published authors, people thinking of writing a book. Classic stuff.

Playing in the background Candy's "Whatever Happened to Fun"

Get Back In The Box - People Need People

This is the third post in a series on Doug Rushkoff's Get Box In The Box.

Rushkoff's next theme is the concept of Social Currency. This is his way of talking about word-of-mouth and comes at it from the authentic angle.

People don't engage with each other in order to exchange viruses; people exchange viruses as an excuse to engage with each other. Media viruses, and their massive promotional capability, are all dependent on the newfound collective spirit of our age and the increasing need for social currency that has resulted. It's not about convincing a few key individuals to sell products; its about creating products that provide everyone the currency they need to forge new social connections. Sure, if we analyze the movement of an idea across the community, we'll be able, retroactively, to determine which individuals gave it the most word of mouth.

If we want to understand or even replicate this effect, however, we must instead learn to see people not as individuals looking for power or social status, but as parts of a group looking for cohesion...That's why, in spite of growing fears that we are living in a materialistic society, social currency almost always wins out over pure ownership as a motivator for buying.

I like Rushkoff's confirmation of what I and many other already believe. People need people and with our basic needs met long ago, we now look for ways to connect in a Bowling Alone kind of world.

Help your customers become mavens

"Most buyers about to shell out big bucks want to know as much as they can about the product and brand they’re buying. These prospects become “mavens� (Yiddish for experts) in the category. Help them if you want to sell to them."

-- Steve Lance and Jeff Woll

Learn more on how to help your customers become mavens.

Jack Covert Selects: Rejuvenile

Rejuvenile: Kickball, Cartoons, Cupcakes, and the Reinvention of the American Grown-up
By Christopher Noxon, Crown Books, 288 pages, $23.95 hardcover.

There are generally two kinds of books on which I do a Jack Covert Selects. One is the prescriptive kind, "How to [insert topic here]." The other is a big picture book and I don't mean full of graphics. It's a book that spins a subject around and allows you to look at it from various points; by doing so, it gives you a new perspective. Freakonomics, Wisdom of Crowds kind of books. This book falls into that category. First a definition:

...rejuvenile describes people who cultivate tastes and mind-sets traditionally associated with those younger than themselves. It can be used as an adjective ('Those sneakers are so rejuvenile'), a noun (Pee Wee Herman's brand rejuvenalia is more subversive than Raffi's), or infrequently, a verb ('Most adults are busy rejuveniling,' filmmaker Randy Barbato remarked on NPR shortly after I coined the word in an article in the New York Times.)

Now some entertaining stats:

Evidence of the presence and influence of rejuveniles is all around. The Cartoon Network boasts bigger overall ratings among viewers aged eighteen to thirty-four than CNN, Fox News, or any cable news channel. Half of the visitors to Disney World are childless adults, making the Magic Kingdom the number-one adult vacation destination in the world. Department stores stock fuzzy pajamas with attached feet in adult sizes...

Reading this book made my toes curl with frustration because I completely agree with it. Who doesn't enjoy the art of play? (I, for example, devote my playtime to way too much Battlefield 2.) As I read, I couldn't help but wonder, what about the mortgage? The answer:

Rejuveniles tend not to think much about the future. The joy of being a kid, after all, is mostly about being absorbed in the present, and there’s nothing to yank you out of Now faster than mention of a Five-Year Plan. Sooner or later, however, all of us bump up against one inevitable question: What's next? At some point will we snap out of it and trade our motor scooters for lawn mowers? Or are we laying down new track on the developmental pathway? Any thinking rejuvenile can't help but wonder whether his or her dedication to play and love of kid stuff will at some point--if it hasn't already--morph from fun and free-spirited to just plain pathetic.

Now that makes sense.

The author shows that a bunch of people are changing the way they deal with adulthood. As a society, we need to realize that. As marketers and managers, we need to realize that. Personally, I enjoyed this book because I kept seeing myself and the rest of the crew at 8cr as examples of people that are redefining our world. Plus the dude can write and made for a fun read.

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