800-CEO-READ Blog

Friday Links: What we've been checking out this week

Howdy. Time for another round of Friday links. Here's what we enjoyed this week:

*We found that Carnegie Mellon University surpassed a lofty goal: the digitization of over 1,500,000 books.

*Get ready for this winter's galactic light show.

*If you've started shopping for the holidays, check out The New York Times holiday gift guide.

*Dylan wrote earlier this week about manufacturing jobs in America. The second part in the News Hour's series details America's response to globalization with hope. It's worth a watch.

*Google announced their plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars going green in 2008.

*The Broadway strike is over.

What have you been reading?

Guest essay from Ram Charan

Today we're pleased to feature an essay from Ram Charan, author of Leaders at all Levels. Here, Charan discusses the impact profit and loss has on the balance sheet and overall health of an organization, especially when a leader is in tune with those numbers. An intuitive feel for business is evident in good leaders, whether seasoned or rookie, and it is the ability to harness that acumen that makes the difference, especially when it comes to adding value to the organization or when promotion opportunities are at hand.

Business Acumen
By Ram Charan

Every successful businessperson, whether a street vendor or the CEO of a global empire, has a basic understanding of how the business makes money. The essence of making money is managing the profit and loss (P&L) as well as the balance sheet of a business in the context of the external world. Let there be no mistake, profit and loss is a much broader concept than profit or loss. Managing the profit and loss within a business requires that a person take in myriad factors and pieces of information -- much of which is incomplete or distorted -- that contribute to either a profit or a loss, connect those various conflicting things, and make the trade-offs among them with the clear goal of making money and generating cash on a sustained basis. The leader must also know how profits and losses interact with the company's balance sheet, which indicates the health of the company.

This cognitive ability to conceptualize the working of the business is present and highly developed in every successful CEO I have known. It is the CEO nucleus defined in Chapter 2: "the intuitive ability to comprehend the total picture of a business and how it makes money in the language of a street vendor."

We can't expect a thirty-year-old leader to have the business acumen of a forty-five-year-old, but an intuitive feel for business is evident at an early age if we bother to look for it. These are the people who intuitively understand the connections between customers, profits, money they borrow, and money they take in. This business acumen is evident even in the simplest contexts, such as that of a small shop with a well-defined customer base and a handful of competitors. You see it in shopkeepers who mark the prices down in the right increments at the right time, buy the right merchandise, and create the right shopping experience, constantly making adjustments to keep the cash flowing. They have a knack for making the right trade-offs and decisions, and the business prospers.

You also can see it in some leaders at the lowest organizational levels and in the earliest stages of their careers in a big company. They have a sense of how their company makes money, what it really offers customers, and how it compares with the competition. Given the chance to run even a tiny P&L center, they have the ability to weigh multiple factors, from changes in the external environment to internal constraints, in deciding how to position the business and expand its money making. They understand the relationships between the variables, do the mental processing to determine which are most important, and make decisions that deliver clear, measurable business results.

As the scope of a leader's job increases, so do the number of variables and the uncertainty about them. The complexity grows exponentially. The leader needs greater mental breadth and depth to make the connections between the complexities of the outside world and the intricacies of money making. She also needs incisiveness to cut through that complexity to the shopkeeper fundamentals. When leaders are unable to make good decisions, or any decisions at all, it may be that their business acumen is not expanding. They cannot be considered to have CEO potential. A sales manager who becomes the executive vice president of marketing and product development may face the problem of identifying the need for innovative products that will satisfy new customer needs. He has to balance the risks of developing those new products against the business's growth, all of which requires a broader scope of thinking and acting. If he can't do it, that's a sign that his business acumen will not develop fast enough for him to become a successful CEO of a major company. Leaders who continue to develop their business acumen, or CEO nucleus, expand their capability, or their ability to add more value per increment of time by taking on more complexity, ambiguity, and uncertainty.

The search for business acumen will help keep other traits and skills in perspective. For instance, great communication skills help leaders motivate people, implement a strategy, and win over customers, investors, and the public. But business acumen defines the substance of the message being communicated. Some young leaders can excite and lead their group to deliver on stretch goals, but can they define where the group is going? Are they decisive, and can they sort through multiple alternatives to find the right pathway forward? Can they use their business acumen to choose the right goals and KPIs? With practice, any leader can improve, but some leaders are naturally better at it.

Copyright (c) 2008 Ram Charan from the book Leaders at All Levels by Ram Charan Published by Jossey-Bass; December 2007; $27.95US/$33.99CAN; 9780787985592

Ram Charan is the author or coauthor of many bestselling business books, including What the CEO Wants You to Know and Execution. For more than thirty-five years, he has worked behind the scenes at Fortune 100 companies like GE, Bank of America, DuPont, Thomson financial, Honeywell and Home Depot to help senior executives develop and implement strategic plans.
www.ram-charan.com

The Rust Belt Redux

The News Hour with Jim Lehrer began a new series on America's response to globalization last night, and their first installment focused on our home city of Milwaukee. We don't see Milwaukee on television that often anymore, so it was kind of odd to turn on the news and see them tearing down the old tannery on Water Street. "Wonderful," I thought to myself, "another uplifting story about the demise of the Upper Midwest and decline of manufacturing in America."
After the shot of the tannery coming down, there were the requisite shots of other abandoned factories accompanied by stories of the thousands of jobs lost when they stopped churning out their truck frames, beer, and all the other things that made Milwaukee famous. And then something unexpected happened. A shot of a factory that's not abandoned, a shot of sparks flying in front of welding masks. News Hour Economics Correspondent Paul Solman had found Bucyrus, a manufacturer that is not only staying, but currently expanding inside America. This story wasn't about the demise of manufacturing after all, but its unlikely comeback. It focuses on Bucyrus and Harley Davidson, and how the management and unions there are now working together to keep high-end manufacturing jobs here in the Industrial Midwest to produce high-end products. "In fact," Solman reports, "Bucyrus is expanding right here in Milwaukee, increasing its manufacturing space by 50 percent, doubling its workforce, tripling its production." After moving jobs overseas to China for years, Tim Sullivan--president and CEO of Bucyrus--is now bringing them back, explaining his philosophy of productivity this way:

The misconception really is that by paying a guy $22 bucks an hour, that's not cost-effective. That's the wrong way to look at it. You pay a guy $22 bucks an hour, you expect $22 bucks of good productivity out of him. If you pay a guy $10 bucks an hour, you're going to get $10 bucks an hour.

I was 17 when I got my first job in Milwaukee. It was in a factory on the south side, where I packed bricks and cut the fiberglass used in steel furnaces. My three older brothers all worked for that same company around that time, but they worked on the road, traveling across the Midwest cleaning and repairing furnaces on weekends and holidays when the factories were shut down. They'd have to bust out the old brick in recently shut off--and therefore sweltering--steel furnaces with 50-pound jackhammers and lay in new brick. It wasn't glamorous work, but it was honest, and it paid relatively well. None of them wanted to do that work forever, but more importantly, we didn't think it was possible. None of us thought that the factories they were going out to were going to be around much longer. We were using the job to save some money, to move onto other things. With companies like Bucyrus, maybe that trend is reversing. Many of the workers there are making $100,000 a year or more. As pointed out in the video (which I highly recommend by the way), that is more than a job, that's a profession.

links for 2007-11-29

• Punched In>>The Wall Street Journal | Will Work for Fodder
  A certain winnowing process can also be usefully applied to "Punching In." By all means, savor the reporting on offer, but don't put too much stock in the big-picture conclusions -- in other words, take the sort of approach that's recommended for reading
  (tags: businessbooks)

The presents we're buying.

If you're looking for a gift guide for books to buy for presents, here are a few of the books the 8cr crew bought for the holidays. Feel free to add your best buys, too:

Proust Was a Neuroscientist by Jonah Lehrer





One Hundred Young Americans by Michael Franzini





Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things by William McDonough, Michael Braungart





When You Were Me by Robert Rodi





The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan, Scott Brick





How to Be Idle by Tom Hodgkinson





Sublime Spaces & Visionary Worlds by Erika Doss, Ruth D. Kohler, Lisa Stone, Jane Bianco, Leslie Umberger (Editor)





The Last Tycoons by William D. Cohan

How morality fits into the global picture.

Business executives have justified their actions with a "when in China, do as the Chinese do" defense. To do business in China, these executives insist, they must comply with local laws. But China's local laws often force executives to make moral and ethical choices that would be intolerable in the West.

The broader problem is that American business executives have little training in how to deal with ethics in a corrupt and totalitarian global business environment -- blame U.S. business schools for that. As a result, moral horizons tend to be short, and executives who find themselves in the heat of a battle don't know where to draw the line, which is what happened to Yahoo.

From Peter Navarro's op-ed in the LA Times. Peter's the author of The Coming China Wars.

Following up on predictions from publishers

It's always interesting to go back and see what the publishing community predicted would do well in a given season. Last May, Publishers Weekly had a great piece about trends in business book publishing. Todd blogged about it in June. From the article:

Business book publishing is no different than what it purports to cover: it is all about either anticipating or (ideally) creating trends. As technology, market forces and consumer preferences change locally and globally, business must react and innovate to stay competitive. The management of people, of course, is key to keeping up, and that's where business management titles come in. Our preview of some selected fall titles demonstrates that there is no handy consensus as to what the near future requires in terms of managing a business.

While you might argue fairly that business book publishing is about more than trends, we certainly do keep our eyes peeled for books that address the issues facing businesses today.

The article featured eight publishers who talked about trends they noticed in publishing, and the books that promised to be big this fall. Just browsing the list, I see that at least McGraw-Hill, Crown, Kaplan, and Portfolio (with Seth Godin's book) were right on. I have a feeling AMACOM's book, One Foot Out the Door, could be a sleeper success this winter.

Have you read any of these titles? What do you think?

links for 2007-11-27

• Punching In >> USA TODAY | Finding a job in retail may not be so simple
  Frankel went undercover to report on the corporate culture of some of the county's leading retailers.ret
  (tags: retail careers organizational_development)

The Opposable Mind

I've been reading the Opposable Mind by Roger Martin. We humans have long been distinguished from other animals by our opposable thumbs. Yes, we're born with the ability to hold something with the tension of our forefinger and thumb. We can sew, write, catch, lift, and move because of our thumbs.

Likewise, our opposable mind enables us to consider two separate ideas simultaneously. We can use the tension between and elements of these two ideas to create new possibilities. A process which Roger labels integrative thinking.

Integrative thinking shows us a way past the binary limits of either/or. It shows us that there's a way to integrate the advantages of one solution without canceling out the advantages of an alternative solution. Integrative thinking affords us, in the words of the poet Wallace Stevens, "the choice not between, but of."

Integrative thinking certainly makes the decision-making process more complex. More variables are added. No longer are the options A, B or C but some combination of a piece of A plus a piece of B and perhaps, a smaller piece of C. Yet, by using integrative thinking we can be more creative and possibly successful with our solutions.

This may seem pedestrian and obvious but look at the structure of today's companies. Marketing sits on one side of the room trying to be creative. While accounting crunches numbers elsewhere and sales reaches out to new customers in another corner. And so the silos of knowledge are built, maintained and even encouraged.

We become specialists in certain types of knowledge (marketeer, financial analyst, accountant, customer service provider). "But specialists aren't optimally suited to solve the biggest problems business face, because as Drucker also pointed out, 'there are no finance decisions, tax decisions, or marketing decisions; only business decisions.'" We're not just marketing, finance, and accounting people, we are business people.

Roger points out that we need to take each of these variables into consideration when making a decision. That means building a team of smart people to come to the table and discuss what's possible. And learning to understand the solutions currently available and use them to build new and better solutions. That's what he teaches in The Opposable Mind.

He backs up his ideas with research from pscyhologists, various theories on thinking and profiles several companies that have been successful in utilizing integrative thinking--including Red Hat (the leading Linux provider), Procter & Gamble (who pursued innovation in a world of commodities), Four Season Hotels (which found a blue ocean between smaller ma and pa places and the big box hoteliers) and a few other examples you may be familiar with. It's worth a look. I'll try and write more on it later.

*FYI: If you're looking for the book, it's due out next week; December 4th, to be exact.

New Spanish Version!

A catalog just came across my desk from Urano, a publisher that puts out Spanish versions of popular English language books. I couldn't help but mention them along with one of their newest releases. It's for one of our Best Sellers: Un Nuevo Impulso ( What Got You Here Won't Get You There ) by Marshall Goldsmith and it became available this September.

Another noteworthy business title from Urano is for the book El Fin de la Supersticion el en... (Hard Facts) by Jeffery Preffer.

New York Times' 100 Most Notable Books of 2007

Here is another list that is good for book lovers but not very helpful for the business reader.

The only crossover is How Doctors Think by Jerome Groopman, an interesting view of decision-making in medicine.

links for 2007-11-22

• King of the Club>>The Wall Street Journal | Big Board, Big Trouble
  The more sophisticated tale is what Charles Gasparino tells in his excellent "King of the Club." The former Wall Street Journal reporter describes, in page-turning detail, a Wall Street world of ruthless financial titans joined by a hard-charging Italian
  (tags: biography businessbooks current_affairs finance)

Happy Thanksgiving

Whether you are officially celebrating or not, tomorrow is a great day to take a moment and give thanks.

We continue to have a lot to be thankful for here at 800-CEO-READ.

You can see here what I am most thankful for this year.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.

Punching In

After reading Alex Frankel's new book, Punching In, I was excited to talk to him more about his experiences working for UPS, Enterprise, The Apple Store, Starbucks, and also to hear about the jobs he 'didn't' get. All in all, his experience sheds light on the current American retail system and how it effects both customers and employees. Take a listen.

Doing Business in Mexico

Earlier this month, I noticed a trend in 800-CEO-READ and global business. Just this week, a major U.S. corporation is sending out to their Mexico based offices a book called Redefining Global Strategy.

More and more American businesses are going global and vice versa. To me, it's interesting to learn what businesses are reading about us and taking back to their companies, employees and even their clients about not only what we think about doing business internationally, but how they can do business with us. In a world that is constantly getting intimate and we find other countries companies and cultures very different from what we are used to. So, it is kind of reassuring that one thing hasn't changed: getting knowledge. Learning from others through conversations and the media. On a personal note I'm kind of glad that there are both books about how we can all do business together and people that actively search out for this knowledge.

Some of the top business books 800CEOREAD sent out overseas in October:

Riding the Blue Train - Australia

Hostage at the Table - Switzerland

Kiss Theory Good Bye - Canada

The Point of the Deal - United Kingdom

Influencer: Mastering the Power to Change Anything - Germany

New Excerpt - from Beat the System

There's a new excerpt up on the Excerpts blog. It's taken from Chapter 2 of Beat the System: 11 Secrets to Building an Entrepreneurial Culture in a Bureaucratic World by Robert W. Macdonald.

In this follow-up to his first book, Cheat to Win, Robert MacDonald shows professionals, business leaders, and entrepreneurs how to overcome the bureaucracy that smothers the innovative, entrepreneurial spirit essential to long-term business success.

Beat the System provides real-world advice for building an entrepreneurial culture in your entire organization, your department, or in your individual position.

A true entrepreneur is not determined by the measure of his or her results, but by how those results were attained. Being an entrepreneur is more about attitude than aptitude. There have been some very talented business managers who failed because they failed the test of entrepreneurialism. (We call them bureaucrats.) Likewise, there have been some people with very little apparent talent who achieve remarkable success as entrepreneurs. (These types are usually abysmal failures in a bureaucratic world.)

Entrepreneurialism is a way of living life, not a way of managing life. The real entrepreneur has a certain spirit, an elan and an approach to issues that is just different. And that is the key. In a system that demands sameness, the entrepreneur is willing to be different. Only by being different can things be made better. That is the philosophy at the heart of being an entrepreneur.

Continue reading the excerpt here: http://800ceoread.com/excerpts/archives/007487.html

Ask 8cr! - Fire Them Up!

Ask 8cr! is a section of our blog used as a forum to address the kinds of issues and challenges people are having in the workplace. We take these issues and apply a business book we feel offers a viable solution. Others then chime in via the comments section. The person with the selected challenge gets a free copy of the book, but everyone who reads these posts, wins. What's your challenge at work? Send it to me at jon(a)800ceoread(dot)com.

Today's challenge deals with managing coworkers when you're not their manager. Here's what one of our readers is dealing with:

"One of the problems I will be facing in the near future is with the different personalities on my team. I will soon be responsible for ensuring our product meets schedules and customer requirements on my team of 8 engineers. There are several different personalities that worry me including some who goof off most of the day and get little work done. I'm unsure of how to ensure they get their work done while still maintaining a jovial atmosphere." - Matt

As a team, everyone's got to chip in, do their part, and give their best. Oftentimes, management only sees the result of the project, but the team undergoes a process like Matt describes: slacking, goofing off, just enough to be annoying but still getting things done on deadline. To the slackers, this is life. To the 'Matts' of the world, this can be extremely frustrating as there's always the concern that the deadline will be missed, and the hammer will come down. Not fun. So, what does one do when they're not in a supervisor position and has to live through this situation project after project?

Carmine Gallo offers guidance in his book Fire Them Up! Even though 8cr's Kate Mytty featured this book in a separate post recently, I feel it's the perfect book for Matt's situation as well. For instance, the first sentence of the introduction is a great indicator that this book is exactly what Matt needs: "You have the power to inspire anyone, anywhere, anytime. You may not have a leadership title, but you exert influence over someone every day." The book continues on with discussions on getting yourself inspired (I think Matt's likely already "inspired"), and then how to get others on board through conversation, telling stories, inviting participation, getting others to care, creating optimism; and how to live by the principles outlined in the book. In communicating these principles, Gallo reveals a set of "simple secrets" that are concise, insightful points to put into place that will strengthen your vision and your team, whatever the project is. Gallo states, "Inspiring people is not that complicated. It's rather simple, really. But it does require that you examine how you communicate to the people you intend to motivate."

If Matt went in to work on Monday morning and told his coworkers, "Ok everyone, here's what we're going to do," he'd be met with resistance. However, by developing a story around each project, and getting each team member to participate and buy into it, everyone is then on the same page, with a clearer understanding of what needs to be done, and potentially more concerned with when and how it needs to be done. Fire Them Up! shows Matt, and each of us, how to accomplish this successfully.

The future of the book: How does Amazon's Kindle affect it?

The future of the book conversation continues...

I imagine most of you have heard about Amazon's new e-reader, Kindle. Steven Levy wrote it up in the latest Newsweek. Of course, it spurred conversations here. Some of us admittedly curious about the newfangled gadget that can hold 200 books; others, swearing off e-books altogether.

At $399, it's the first e-reader with internet access (and free wireless, at that). Add books in a minute's notice. Download your Word documents and pictures; take it on the go. Blogs, newspapers, books and wikipedia, all available at your fingertips. It sounds just about perfect.

As with everything, there's the other side. Seth points out, "The beauty of real books is that they don't require a reader, which means that millions of people are eligible members of the market. Even if you only have .0001% market share, you can still get your book read."

I can't help but wonder when (if not already) the e-reader gains a following like the iPod. It will certainly happen; it's just a matter of time. Is Amazon's Kindle the answer to digital books?

Maybe the question is, will you buy one?

Ahoy Matey!

Books come in all shapes and sizes. Some you expect great information out of and they never deliver and others may look like they wouldn't be even worth the time to open the cover. This paperback from Corner Stone press, may not win any Pulitzer prizes or teach anyone something they don't already think they know. What it will do is give you a different view on leadership tactics in a very unique way. Its name? Lead Like a Pirate! Leadership Secrets of the Pirates of St. Croix . I think it has something to bring to table in a unique and off the beaten 'treasure map' way.

You be the judge:

Again, like I mentioned, it's not astounding, groundbreaking or earth shattering. There are simple explanations of what it takes to be a good leader and tests along the way to see how you would fit in as 'captain of your own ship'. I liked this because by taking itself not so seriously, the reader can just have fun with the business world. It'd make a great stocking stuffer (especially for the CEOs that you think have everything).

Just a thought, an odd quirky thought, but a thought just the same!

Friday Links

And now for another installment of Friday Links.

*This month's bonus issue of ChangeThis: The Hard Reality of Semiglobalization and Competing in a Flat World.

*Oxford has announced their word of the year.

*Wendy Waters' great post on whether more bicycle friendly cities attract more talent, and Richard Florida shares some biking stories of his own.

*The Guardian's technology correspondent writes about the team from the Hokkaido Industrial Research Institute that has built roads "which use cars as tuning forks to play music as they travel."

*John Moore weighs in on Whole Foods' decision to barr their top executives from participating in online conversations not sponsored by the company.

*Robin Kinross writes about the history of Penguin Books.

*Gabor George Burt ponders trading employees over at the Creating Blue Oceans blog.

*Ever wonder what to do with those old business cards?

:::::

Let us know if you've found something you'd like to share. Have a great weekend everyone!

Author and Reader's Choice voting update

The Author and Reader's Choice voting page has experienced some technical difficulties with the image placements but the problem should be fixed by the end of the day. We thank everyone for being patient with us as we figure out any gliches as they come along.

Nevertheless, the site is still up and running so be sure to keep voting for your favorite book by November 30!

Jack Covert Selects - Zoom

Zoom: The Global Race to Fuel the Car of the Future by Iain Carlson and Vijay Vaitheeswaran, Twelve, 336 pages, $27.99 Hardcover, October 2007, ISBN 9780446580045

"The Stone Age did not end for lack of stone, and the Oil Age could well end long before the world runs out of oil." That statement pretty much sums up the argument made in Zoom, and ironically, it was not made by an environmentalist, but by former Saudi oil minister Sheik Yamani. Having built our economy on the internal combustion engine, which burns carbon-heavy fuel and emits harmful greenhouse gases, we are now facing a dilemma in our country. But, we are a nation of drivers, and not only would we not want to give up our cars, it would be impossible to do so considering the miles we are conditioned to traverse. This new book by two correspondents for The Economist suggests that a change of course is a must.

Their premise is simple enough. "Oil is the Problem. Cars are the solution." That may sound odd at first (big oil in Texas and the "big three" auto makers of Detroit have been so linked for the past century that they now seem inseparable), but it seems painfully obvious when you've finished the book. Zoom looks at the current state of affairs in Detroit, Texas, and Washington, and prescribes steps needed to move us toward the car of the future. A car that is healthier for us, better for business, and cleaner for the environment. They believe two separate approaches are needed:

Both top-down public policies and bottom-up marketplace innovations must play a role in propelling the world to the post-petroleum age of carbon-free cars. On the policy front, it looks like Washington politicians may finally be shamed into serious action by the clamor in states and cities for action on global warming, a real budding grassroots revolution. As for those marketplace innovations, will the dinosaurs of the car and oil industries finally learn to dance? Or will it be an unruly and disruptive bunch of upstarts, entrepreneurs, and innovators that leads the effort...?

Toyota surpassed GM earlier this year as the world's top auto seller, in part by addressing this need for a new approach, and is now forcing American auto makers to look at a world beyond petroleum. If Detroit wants to remain relevant and viable, the big three must come out of their entrenched positions and address the concerns of consumers and challenges of innovation. The authors believe that what they call the "Great Awakening" of American consumers will lead to a demand for change, "promising a clean-energy revolution even bigger than the telecommunications and Internet revolutions," and that belief--and this book--are infectious.

Shanachie Tour

The LBI Shanachie Tour (a project of the Delft Public Library) traveled from the East Coast to the West, stopping in at the nation's libraries along the way to document what innovations are occurring there. They maintained a blog on the trip, and every post includes a video of them discussing innovations with other librarians. One recurring theme is how many are hosting gaming tournaments to attract teens. Another is Web2.0. The post from Florence, Colorado even features librarians singing a song they've composed about using open source software in libraries. Seeing the library in Salt Lake City almost makes me want to leave this Midwestern paradise and move into the middle of the dessert.

The Shanachies have put together a very attractive site. You can look at photos from their trip on flickr and listen to music that inspired them along the way. At its core, however, it is how to best serve their customers, and that is why I've written about it. I think it's remarkable that a library in the Netherlands has employed people to travel around our country looking for ways to best serve their public. We've pointed out before that the private sector can gain something from looking at other models, and I think this is another example of that. It is especially important when considering the rise of "Free Culture." It is something libraries have always been a part of, relying on their service to keep people's attention. The Shanachie Tour has certainly kept my attention. I've been watching the videos for about a week now. Thanks to LibrarianInBlack for the heads up on this project.

links for 2007-11-15

• Surprised by Opportunity>>The Wall Street Journal | Strategic Intuition
  Instead of setting goals first, he says, it is better to watch for opportunities with large payoffs at low costs and only then set your goals. That is what innovators throughout history have done, as Mr. Duggan shows in a deliriously fast-paced tour of hi
  (tags: strategy businessbooks)

Fire Them Up! Excerpt

Comparing a Steve Jobs presentation to most presentations is nearly impossible he is in a league all his own. It would be like comparing a silent movie to Independence Day. Where do you start? In my opinion, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs is the most charismatic pitchman in business today. His presentations are brilliant demonstrations of visual storytelling that motivate customers, employees, investors, and the entire computer industry.

...

In January 2007 Jobs gave perhaps his greatest presentation to introduce the new iPhone. As I expected, the content of his speech met the qualities shared by inspiring leaders. Here are a few ways Jobs wowed the audience...

Keep reading from Fire Them Up! 7 Simple Secrets to Inspire Your Colleagues, Customers & Clients over on the excerpts blog.

Jack Covert Selects - Two books! - One Foot Out the Door - and - Giving Notice

One Foot Out the Door: How to Combat the Psychological Recession That's Alienating Employees and Hurting American Business by Judith M. Bardick, Ph.D., AMACOM, 240 pages, $24.95 Hardcover, October 2007, ISBN 9780814480588

Giving Notice: Why the Best and the Brightest Leave the Workplace and How You Can Help Them Stay by Freada Kapor Klein, Jossey-Bass, 240 pages, $27.95 Hardcover, October 2007, ISBN 9780787998097

Two books out this fall address a serious issue facing employers: a nation of disengaged workers. In June I wrote about Off-Ramps and On-Ramps, a book that challenged the current career model and its shortcomings for women--and, consequently, a major brain drain in this country's businesses. These two books, One Foot Out the Door and Giving Notice, delve deeper into the reasons all types of employees are feeling dissatisfied in their work, and draw attention to a growing problem that has the potential to shape new generations entering the workforce.

In One Foot Out the Door, Judith M. Bardwick, a former professor of psychology and now a highly-regarded management consultant, begins by giving an overview of the economic ups and downs of the past half-century. She points to the economic recessions of the late '70s and early '80s as the time when our economy's unwritten "social contract"--employees work hard and employers take care of them--fell apart. As cutbacks were made, work was outsourced and people were laid off, the workforce became disengaged and discouraged as they saw their job security vanishing before their eyes.

Today, the author claims, as many as two thirds of American workers are in what she calls a psychological recession: "an emotional state in which people feel extremely vulnerable and afraid for their futures...[and] expect the worst to happen, so they see no reason to give it their all." They're either actively looking for new jobs or are going through the motions in current positions. Bardwick calls for a "twenty-first century safety net that will reduce the fear by providing financial support and a good sense of community, while avoiding a reinstatement of entitlement attitudes."

On another front, Freada Kapor Klein, co-founder of the Level Playing Field Institute, looks into discrimination that drives knowledge workers out of the well-intentioned corporations that don't fully realize the assumptions and stereotypes that continue to plague their corporate culture.

To show the cost of bias, financial and human, and to bring to life the types of discrimination and unfair treatment many people face, the author profiles three fictional characters "as they negotiate life in a high-end corporate workplace." Then, she offers a framework corporate leaders can follow to identify and uproot those barriers.

If you're looking for ways to recruit or retain talented people, both Bardwick and Klein offer strategic, smart suggestions for establishing a workplace that is welcoming to a diverse set of people and committed to their job satisfaction and growth.

Author's Choice and Reader's Choice voting begins today

Part II of the 2007 Business Book Awards is now underway as voting for the Author's Choice and Reader's Choice begin today. Any author with a title published in 2007 as well as all readers are eligible to cast a vote for what they feel is the best book of the year.

Voting will last until November 30 and can be done at:

Author's Choice and Reader's Choice Vote

The 8cr staff is currently busy reading entries as nearly 300 books were entered for the awards this year. Be sure to stay tuned as the semifinalists will be announced December 17 and final winners on January 15.

Ask 8cr! - What Should I Do With My Life?

Ask 8cr! is a section of our blog used as a forum to address the kinds of issues and challenges people are having in the workplace. We take these issues and apply a business book we feel offers a viable solution. Others then chime in via the comments section. The person with the selected challenge gets a free copy of the book, but everyone who reads these posts, wins. What's your challenge at work? Send it to me at jon(a)800ceoread(dot)com.

Today's challenge deals with developing underutilized skills and getting on a path that's more in line with your interests. Here's what one of our readers is dealing with:

"I am not happy with the career path I seem to be on. I would like to get out of the accounting field but don't want to 'start over' or go back to school. I know I have some skills that will translate but have doubts whether others might see them. Any thoughts on mid-career changes?" - Roger

The previous Ask 8cr! post featured Seth Godin's The Dip, which also addressed the issue of personal change, and knowing when and how to adapt to it. This week we have a reader looking to move forward based on skills that might not be recognized and utilized enough. And not utilizing them often enough is exactly what others will analyze when considering Roger's move into another area. "What should I do with my life?" might be the fundamental question. It's something we ask ourselves when we're young, but, as Roger proves, something we can ask ourselves throughout our careers. People change, skills change, and each person's perspective on what they want becomes an internal issue, regardless of the physical work they've spent their lives doing. Author Po Bronson recognizes this, and wrote a New York Times Bestseller called, appropriately, What Should I Do With My Life?: The True Story of People Who Answered The Ultimate Question.

The author traveled the country and met with a variety of people and listened to their stories. He discovered a wide range of challenges overcome, internal stumbling blocks, people finding happiness, and people struggling, all to answer the question posed by the book (and themselves). It's about discovering and pursuing something to devote your life to. Maybe that happens where you already are, but maybe not. Take Roger, for instance. He admits he's not happy, he wants change, BUT, he doesn't want to do what he feels is likely the solution to make the change. He knows he has other skills (and those might be his true interests), but he has doubts about their validity to others. As the book shows, Roger is not alone in this situation. But things can, and do, change.

By reading the 50+ stories in the book, you walk away with a deeper sense of all the variables, both internal and external, that make the title of the book such a profound question. From a New York housewife, a content editor, a White House assistant, to a California police officer, the stories in this book are interesting glimpses into real people's lives that end up reflecting our own pursuits, missed opportunities, hopes, dreams, and quite possibly, our decision to finally take life by the horns and follow our interests simply because we want to, despite all the "reasons" not to. It's an inspiring book and a great read, revealing evidence of those who overcame the "buts" and doubts that hindered them. Pick it up and find your answer to the question it poses.

Amazon's Best of 2007 List

Another list is out: Amazon's Best Books of 2007!

You can see the categories by Editors' Picks, Customers' Favorites, the Top 100...and you can browse by category. Here's a brief sampling:

Literature and fiction (Customers' Favorites)
* A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
* The Yiddish Policemen's Union: A Novel by Michael Chabon
* Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
* On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan
* Playing for Pizza by John Grisham
* The Choice by Nicholas Sparks
* Shopaholic & Baby (Shopaholic) by Sophie Kinsella
* World Without End by Ken Follett
* The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian
* Spook Country by William Gibson

Nonfiction (Editors' Picks)
* The Long Road Home by Martha Raddatz
* Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell
* The Kings of New York by Michael Weinreb
* Until Proven Innocent by Stuart Taylor
* Gomorrah by Roberto Saviano
* The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
* The Human Touch by Michael Frayn
* Poor People by William T. Vollmann
* Other Colors by Orphan Pamuk
* Once Upon a Quinceanera by Julia Alvarez

Current Events (Editors' Picks)
* The Nine by Jeffrey Toobin
* The Age of Turbulence by Alan Greenspan
* Dead Certain by Robert Draper
* Once Upon a Country by Sari Nusseibeh
* The Terror Presidency by Jack L. Goldsmith
* Supreme Court by Jan Crawford Greenburg
* The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein
* Blackwater by Jeremy Scahill
* The Occupation of Iraq by Ali A. Allawi
* The Art of Political Murder by Francisco Goldman

There isn't space here to list all 100 of the Top 100 Customers' Favorites (ranked based on orders through October), but check it out when you have a chance; I was pleased to see that within the top 30 there was a number of books we at 800-CEO-READ took under our wing this year, including StrengthsFinder 2.0, Made to Stick, What Got You Here Won't Get You There, The Age of Turbulence, and The Black Swan. You can probably guess this year's #1 most-ordered book on Amazon.

It's Quite Fashionable

This year, 800-CEO-READ became painfully hip. We really didn't mean to, it just sort of happened that way. You know how it is...just minding your own business and suddenly you're thrust in the limelight. Sort of like being asked one of those problem solving math questions in 6th grade and getting brought up to the blackboard. Well, in this case our "black board call" was Fashion Week. Yes, you heard correctly: we were picked to provide materials for goody-bags at Fashion Week. It does not get more chic than that, right? I took the call about a month or so ago, thinking they were just a regular customer checking to see if we handle bulk orders. "Of course we do," I assured the client and that we can get them during a certain week in New York. I wasn't sure of it but by the time they ordered the book that they wanted: The Grown-Up Girl's Guide to Style - Instinctively I thought that this wasn't the regular business convention or author signing. It turned out that we were to be part of a popular woman's magazine package that they were handing out to some elite individuals of the fashion world.

This little introduction to another realm made me do a little think about business and fashion and the fashion of business. There are more and more people working either full or part-time from their homes. This means that the culture of most companies is in a state of flux. Co-workers are now wearing PJs, slippers and robes while corresponding to emails, trouble-shooting computer problems or booking lunches. It makes one wonder where this is all going and how it is effecting the work environment. More people are finding that they can bring their personal style to work. This means cute stuff on the desk to what they wear. Fashion Week may be the tip of the iceberg for 800-CEO-READ. We may get requests from Janice Dickinson and Tim Gunn fans now. Who knows, we just might get another audience that is both concerned about what they wear and how they do business ...

Of course on the other hand, this could just be another fad.

Other books that deal with business and fashion to keep you as painfully hip as 8CR:
New Woman's Dress for Success
Details Men's Style Guide
Beyond Business Casual
Fit In!: The Unofficial Guide to Corporate Culture
The End of Fashion

Speaking of New York: More Information on the Strike on Broadway.

Jack Covert Selects - Judgment

Judgment: How Winning Leaders Make Great Calls by Noel Tichy and Warren Bennis, Portfolio, 365p, $26.95, Hardcover, November 2007, ISBN 9781591841531

You make decisions constantly--sometimes subconsciously, sometimes deliberately--throughout every day. Some decisions are simple choices: Will you wear the brown shoes or the black shoes today? Others change the course of your life. The choice of university, first job and partner come to mind. The judgment you use at each important crossroads helps determine the success you will have in life. Many of the decisions made by managers affect not only their own futures, but the futures of every employee or shareholder.

Authors Noel Tichy and Warren Bennis consider the essence of decision-making in their new book, Judgment: How Winning Leaders Make Great Calls. It would be hard to find two more qualified authorities. Tichy developed GE's leadership program under Jack Welch and co-wrote Control Your Destiny or Someone Else Will about the conglomerate. Bennis defined the genre of leadership literature with his books, Leaders and On Becoming a Leader. The acknowledgments thank a "Who's Who" of Fortune 50 leaders from Jack Welch to Jeff Immelt, A.G. Lafley to Jim McNerney, all who provided in-depth access and anecdotes to reinforce the authors' framework.

In Judgment, Tichy and Bennis describe how successful leaders show good judgment and focus on what they found to be key aspects of decision-making. The authors found the most important types of judgments made by leaders were those regarding people, strategy, and crisis, adding that leaders could recover from poor judgments on the latter two, but rarely with bad decisions on people. Their process for good judgment consists of three steps: preparation, making "the call" and execution. The defining characteristic for good judgment was leaders who were willing to revisit prior steps to gather more information or organization support.

This book just feels like a classic, from the cover art to the authors' authority. But more importantly, the 365 pages address a topic not effectively written about in previous books. The true test for a timely treatment is when you feel like a book's topic is one you should have been talking about and the conclusions feel natural--Judgment passes that test with flying colors.

links for 2007-11-10

• Asian Godfathers >> BusinessWeek | "The Trouble with Asia's Tigers"
  "Asia's economic ascendancy by turns awes and terrifies Western executives. Yet it's China and India that fascinate now—not the once-fabled Southeast Asian Tiger economies."
  (tags: businessbooks global economics)
• The Oil and the Glory >> BusinessWeek | The Oil Rush to the Caspian Sea
  "Steve LeVine has gathered the whole Wild East tale in one canny and entertaining book..."
  (tags: businessbooks global economics industry)

Friday Links

* The Chief Executive of Nestle Waters explains that people will keep buying bottled water no matter how much criticism bottled water receives. Hat tip to FastCompany where Charles Fishman's fascinating expose (e should have an accent mark) on the bottled water industry can be found.

* The U.S. dollar keeps falling, partly because of China's clout (from NPR).

* Steve Farber, author of The Radical Leap and The Radical Edge is giving away his audio series for a limited period of time. Get your own here.

* Publisher Simon & Schuster (known for publishing Stephen King, David McCullough and Bob Woodward) recently announced their greening plans.

* Gladwell's third book is nearly complete.

* Chris Resto, author of Recruit or Die, tackles How to Manage Generation Why.

* Grist helps us recycle sneakers, computers, cell phones and PDAs.

* Meet Wind. He's found his place among the energy generators. Take a break and check out the award-winning ad on wind power.

* Mentalrobics for Friday on writing a letter to help solve a problem.

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What did you follow this week? If you have Friday links to share, drop me a note at kate [at] 800ceoread.com. Cheers.

ChangeThis

The latest issue of ChageThis has been put up. It includes manifestos from the authors of Forces for Good and Zoom along with four other very solid pieces. We'll be putting out another issue of two manifestos sometime this month as well. The issue will be a kind of point-counterpoint. Both manifestos discuss strate