800-CEO-READ Blog

New Excerpt - from Beat the Odds

There's a new excerpt up on our Excerpts blog. It's taken from Beat the Odds: Avoid Corporate Death and Build a Resilient Enterprise by Robert A. Rudzki. From the publisher: "The odds of organizations enjoying long-term success are quite poor. Robert Rudzki illustrates why great organizations slip from leader to follower to road kill and how organizations can Beat the Odds and avoid this fate. Rudzki provides diagnostic tools to help access your current health and he presents a comprehensive unified framework of nine elements for ensuring short-and long-term organizational success regardless of changing economic, financial, regulatory, and technology factors."


Here's a brief excerpt:

The Hackett Group points out that the use of key performance indicators is not a choice between focusing on effectiveness and focusing on efficiency. The strategic advisory firm's research shows that "world-class firms use efficiency as a means to free up funds to invest in high-impact people and technology--not as an end unto itself."3 To say it another way, they use efficiency gains to fund adding additional resources to those activities (e.g., strategic themes), which can then drive fundamental business performance.

Performance metrics are either leading indicators or lagging indicators of performance. Examples of leading indicators include the following:

• Customer satisfaction
• Employee satisfaction and commitment
• Adherence to core values
• 360-degree feedback on leadership practices
• The number of supply chain alliances designed and implemented

Following are some conventional lagging indicators:

• Last quarter's net income
• Last year's return on assets
• Last year's cash flow
• The number of purchase orders processed per employee
• The average cost to process an invoice

Leading indicators give a clue to the likely future success of the organization. They indicate whether or not you are "building for the future," and can provide an early warning signal of future problems. For instance, persistent indications of customer dissatisfaction are an alarm bell about future order rates and revenues. Employee dissatisfaction can be a leading indicator of future key employee departures. Customer and employee indicators are among the strongest leading indicators of future performance. Lagging indicators are like looking in the rearview mirror. It's useful information about where you've been, but it's dangerous to steer by it. Financial performance, by its nature historical, is typically a lagging indicator.

Here's a direct link to the excerpt: http://800ceoread.com/excerpts/archives/007619.html

links for 2008-01-31

• The Illusions of Entrepreneurship>>The Wall Street Journal | The Real Start of Something New
  Each year in the United States more people start a business than get married or have children. And as much as 40 percent of the US population will be self-employed for some part of their work life." What is the typical entrepreneur like?
  (tags: businessbooks entrepreneurship smallbusiness)

Sleeping On the Job

I came across a book called The Eight Constants of Change by Stacy Aaron and Kate Nelson on my desk today and was reading a bit of it to myself during lunch and came across this little story:

A Real Life Example

A president of a mid-size company began work 18 months ago to define how his new, more complex organization needed to operate. Month after month, he stood in staff meetings and pronounced emphatically that the new, more complex organization would mean that everyone would have to play at a higher level.

Leadership demanded excellence from every single employee. For the first few months, the discussions got people excited about the future of their company and gave them pride in what they did and where they worked.

Then, this same company hired a young man as a manger in marketing. His task? To bring new ideas and energy to the group. Everyone liked him and he built strong relationships quickly. After a few months on the job, he started falling asleep at his desk on a regular basis....literally asleep!

At first, people thought it was funny and they would put hats on him or move things around on his desk while he slept to surprise him when he woke up. But after a while, the situation became a pathetic joke.

Recently, a review of all of the functions across the company was done, and leaders were surprised to find that the productivity and creativity of the entire marketing department had dropped in the last six months.

Leaders realized that the message of 'playing bigger' and 'excellence' had been lost as people walked past their sleeping new hire. Clearly, the talk of excellence was just talk if the organization was going to let a sleeping dog lie. It was a hard lesson for leadership, but they finally got it. They fired the guy and owned up to the mistake. They were also honest about the fact that they should have acted sooner and that they, too, were leaning how to take their company to the next level.

The organization recovered in time to make up for the temporary lag in productivity, and leaders built credibility and support from their staff in the process.

I entertained thoughts about what company this could have been.... hrmmmmm. Anyone have a guess? Let me know what you think.

New Excerpt - from The Open Brand

There's a new excerpt up on the Excerpts blog. It's from The Open Brand: When Push Comes to Pull in a Web-Made World by Kelly Mooney and Nita Rollins, Ph.D. The authors discuss marketing strategy in the new world of participatory media and consumer-generated content. The book isn't out until March, so be sure to bookmark this post if you're interested in getting a copy.

People Like Me In contrast to the pre-internet world, a "person like me" no longer has to live in the same neighborhood, belong to the same book club, have kids at the same school or work at the same firm. In fact, a "person like me" doesn't have to be anything like "me" -- at least, not demographically. That person just has to share a similar interest or experience, which I discover while surfing, searching or checking out my favorite social networking site. That "person like me" becomes an ally and advisor by virtue of having a seemingly independent, informed opinion about a subject that is relevant to me.

Forrester Research reports that over 52 percent of adult consumers typing queries into search engines are doing so to make or influence routine purchase decisions. All consumers are 50 percent more likely to be influenced by word-of-mouth recommendations from their peers than by radio or TV ads, according to a Nielsen BuzzMetrics 2005 report. Why? Because trust is now in the network -- in groups of interconnected "people like me."

Here's a direct link to the post: http://800ceoread.com/excerpts/archives/007616.html

Kelly Mooney is the author of The Ten Demandments, which was a Jack Covert Selects in June 2002.

The Celebrity Experience

I went to one of my favorite places for lunch last week. It's simply called Soup's On, a great little spot to get, well... Soup!

It's an art gallery showcasing the works of local artists with an eatery in the back featuring a great view of the Milwaukee River. Awesome to say the least, but that's not the only thing that's cool about it. It's Mary, she makes the homemade soups fresh everyday. Four of them: a chili, a chicken themed concoction, one vegetarian and the other is usually vegan.

But I digress, back to business, so, I came in the other day with a friend of mine and she said hello to each of us by name. We stood in the line with about 10 other people (it's usually like that all the time during the lunch rush). She also said hello's to most of the other people, by name as well. When it was my time to place my order, I asked her about the Pumpkin Basil and was immediately given a sample. I loved it and ordered a large bowl. When the line of customers finally slowed down, she came over and asked my opinion of the soup. She thought about adding peppers or even making it into a chili. I gave her my thoughts about adding various colors of peppers and she said she'd give it a try.

Basically, Mary made me feel sort of like Jack Nicholson at the Oscars. Johnny Depp on the red carpet. Paris Hilton....well maybe not like Miss H., but still she treated me like a celebrity nonetheless.

It's not that hard for a company to do this. Donna Cutting's new book: The Celebrity Experience gives great examples of how an organization can do this, no matter what! She emphasizes that too many people say no or can't see a way to make things happen. Cutting gives us six tasks or ways to make everyone feel like a Rock Star.

1. Ask (What if....?)

2. Choose Your Customers over Convenience

3. Think Big

4. Partner with Others

5. Own the Problem

6. Refuse to Be Satisfied

I'm not going to go into each of these steps, you HAVE to get the book and see for yourself! But I will mention one more thing about this book, it also tells you HOW to get the Celebrity Experience for yourself! Yep, it's possible to be on the red carpet yourself! (And just in time for the Oscars.)

Tell ya what, to get the word out to you, I'm going to offer free regular ground shipping on all orders placed on our web site for this book until the first of February. Hurry up and experience The Celebrity Experience (paparazzi not included).

Optimism and Mastery

"More than anything, I associate mastery with optimism. It's the feeling at the start of a project when I believe that my whole career has been preparation for this moment and I am saying "Okay, let's begin. Now I am ready." Of course, you're never one hundred percent ready, but that's a part of mastery, too: It masks the insecurities and the gaps in techniques and let's you believe you are capable of anything."

-Twyla Tharp
The Creative Habit
(Our Jack Covert Selects of Creative Habit)

Quirkology, An Annual Omission

We recently produced our first annual magazine, In The Books, reviewing the most notable business books of 2007, and we have been receiving great feedback on it. I thought some of you would be interested in some things that, for a variety of reasons, didn't make it in that piece. One of the very last things cut, and among the most painful to cut, were two reviews by Todd Lazarski. Todd joined us in June, and is a Marquette-educated journalist, writing for The Onion and our alternative hometown weekly, The Shepherd Express. He took the task of writing reviews of some of the quirkier business titles of the year for us, the first aptly titled Quirkology. And so... ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, Todd Lazarski...

Quirkology: How We Discover the Big Truths in Small Things by Richard Wiseman, Basic Books

Liars are just as likely to look you in the eyes as truth-tellers: Not so much a tip for deciphering the reliability of that guy in shipping's sick claim; but an example of how the understanding of human psychology continues to change, and more so a glimpse of how the smallest of our human quirks can, sometimes, reveal the most.
Dr. Richard Wiseman has the distinct claim of being the first and only Professor of Public Understanding of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire. What does such a title mean? Basically that the author has devoted a scholar's lifetime to analyzing the idiosyncratics of human behavior, and, in Quirkology, Wiseman guides the reader through the backwaters of our actions--ranging through astrology, lying and deception, superstition, decision-making and humor.
Wiseman, who has authored eight books including the highly regarded The Luck Factor, concludes that, it's not the dime-store Dr. Phil insights, Freud complexes, or repressed memories, but rather our seemingly arbitrary, everyday tendencies that shape and reveal who we are.
Never erring from a playful, self-reflexive tone, and boundless enthusiasm for his subjects, Quirkology is not only an entertaining scientific read, but a smorgasbord of a meal for inquisitive minds. Each chapter reads like a bathroom reader--on steroids. Wiseman's body of work has resulted in an encyclopedic collection of dinner-party conversation nuggets (the concluding chapter is even designated as such): Women's personal ads would attract more replies if they were written by a man; words containing the 'k' sound are especially likely to make people laugh; people would rather wear a sweater that has been dropped in dog feces and not washed than one that has been dry-cleaned but used to belong to a mass murderer...
Among such inanities it is easy to miss the forest for the trees--Quirkology ceaselessly demonstrates the "complex science lurking beneath the seemingly simplest."

Friday Links

Here's what we thought was interesting for this week! Happy clicking and enjoy your Friday!

30 Women Writers Pen Ways of Looking at Hillary - a new book by Susan Morrison - gets to the heart of the presidential candidate.

Jay Leno won over joke books by getting them to stop printing/publishing his and his colleagues' one liners, jokes and stories. Read more HERE

Reinvent your cat! Just a little diversion to help ya through the day, don't laugh too hard!

Here's some new news about some old news: Miss America gets a facelift

Daily Show Vid - get your daily dose of the Daily Show!

Radio talk show host, John Gibson gets heat from a Heath Ledger remark. The anti-gay remark was made by the Fox News host concerning the death of the famed actor on the Jan. 22nd broadcast.

Copper Canyon Press gets a huge, anonymous donation when an envelope showed up at their offices one day.

Here's more about the Tax Rebates for 2008.

And something for the Milwaukee Natives: The Fonz is getting immortalized in a new downtown statue! AAAYYYYYEEEE!!!

Have a GREAT weekend!

Charles Handy on Gurus

So far this is my favorite book for the year. OK, I know it's only January, but that means a lot of books will have to live up to this one. It's an insightful look into the life of one of the best managerial writers and observers in the business book world.

Book Excerpt from: Myself and Other More Important Matters by Charles Handy:

Tom Peters was the first management teacher to turn public performer in a serious way. Fortune called him the 'Ur-guru' or original guru. The Economist described him as the 'Ober-guru'. Peter Drucker had written more and for longer (he died aged ninety-five in 2005, writing to the end) and was probably the wisest of all, but he preferred to describe himself as a writer and was, in truth, a poor performer on a platform. Who first coined the word 'guru' to describe Peters and his like is unclear, and the word is not in any case particularly appropriate. Peter Drucker once quipped that journalists only came up with the word because 'charlatan' was too long for a headline. These management gurus do not cultivate groups of acolytes nor do they hold forth in any sort of management ashrams, but they do lay claim to certain truths about organizations and how they should be manged, and they are certainly not shy about their beliefs and ideas. There are now guru tables that rank the top fifty or so performers according to their popularity among managers, and there is a recognized core of people on the 'guru circuit' rather like professional tennis players. Some of these gurus reckon to do at least one hundred performances a year, usually at opera-star fees with the same sort of billing.

It is unclear how one comes to be a guru. You cannot apply to join the club, for there is in fact no formal club. Nor can you nominate yourself as a guru. It is a title that is given to you by the media or the speaker agencies that manage these folk. Most of them are American, because the circuit of conferences mostly exists in America, although it is now expanding alongside the spread of the global marketplace...

Posted by Roy at 10:55 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

500 votes and counting...

If you haven't voted for your favorite books yet, jump over to our Reader's Poll and click a few buttons.

Excerpt from Fast Profits in Hard Times

The following is an excerpt from the book Fast Profits in Hard Times by Jordan E. Goodman Published by Business Plus; January 2008; 9780446581561

Copyright (c) 2008 Jordan E. Goodman

10 Strategies: An Overview

Fast Profits in Hard Times will teach you everything you need to know and give you specific resources (websites, toll-free numbers, etc) to implement the following 10 strategies:

1. Invest in Tax Liens
   Buy liens placed on properties by municipalities because owners have fallen behind in paying their property taxes. Then, when the property owners pay what they owe to the municipalities, receive not only a return of your principal but also a penalty interest rate set by the municipality, typically in the range of 8% to 25%. If the property owner defaults altogether, take possession of the property for a fraction of its real value: the sum of the back taxes you've already advanced. You can then sell the property, even a bit below its market value, for a huge profit.
2. Buy Real Estate Below Market Value
   
   Identify real estate sellers who are willing to accept less than their property's full market value for a variety of reasons. Then resell the property immediately at a profit, rehab it, rent it out, or even live in it yourself, all with the built-in financial cushion of having purchased the property for far less than it is truly worth.
3. Invest in Income Trusts and Master Limited Partnerships
   
   Earn high yields of 8% to 13% by investing in trusts that extract or transport natural resources such as oil, gas, coal, or timber. Such trusts pass a large amount of their earnings directly to investors through monthly dividends. Depending on the trust or MLP, some of the distributions may be considered a tax-free return of capital, boosting your after-tax return even more.
4. Invest in High-Yield Stocks
   
   Invest in stocks with stable businesses that pay dividend yields of 5% to 15% or more. Some industries offering such high yields include electric utilities, oil tankers, and real estate investment trusts, and several broad-based closed-end mutual funds. This is a way to make your capital compound with very little risk when you reinvest the dividends or to boost the income you live on if you take the dividends in cash.
5. Enroll in Dividend Reinvestment Plans
   
   Invest in companies that offer Dividend Reinvestment Plans, known as DRIPS, which allow you to use dividends to purchase shares directly and thus bypass brokerage fees. Automatically reinvest dividends back into further stock purchases, thereby compounding your portfolio's assets over time. Several companies offer discount DRIPS, meaning that you get an additional 2% to 5% bonus every time you reinvest dividends, compounding your return even more at no additional cost to you. So if you get $100 in dividends, you receive $105 worth of stock when you enroll in a 5% discount DRIP.
6. Buy High-Yielding Bonds
   
   Buy bonds of companies, municipalities, or foreign governments, either individually or through open and closed-end funds, which pay yields of 5% to 12%. In addition to the high rate of interest, you will receive the return of your principal when the bond matures. There are many types of hybrid bonds available in today’s market with catchy names like STRIDES, ELKS, MITTS and HITS which offer guaranteed return of principal, high yields and potential bonuses based on how the underlying instruments perform.
7. Use Put and Call Options
   
   Rather than buying and selling actual stocks or stock indexes, you can, for a fraction of the cost, trade rights to buy and sell those stocks or stock indexes at specific prices within a specified period of time up to two years into the future. This form of leveraged trading allows for far greater gains but also runs the risk of far greater losses than normal stock investing. It is therefore imperative to follow careful strategies that limit risk while optimizing profits.
8. Profit from Foreign Exchange Trading
   
   Trade one currency against another currency, on the expectation that the currency you've bought will gain in value relative to the one you sold. This provides a convenient way to profit from the decline of the US dollar against most major foreign currencies.
9. Invest in and Broker Cash Flow Opportunities
   
   Identify people and/or businesses willing to sell future receivables at a significant discount in exchange for ready cash. Then either buy the payments yourself or serve as a broker for a third party, typically a large financial company, which provides the funds. For example, you can broker or buy cash flows from lottery winners, lawsuit winners, mortgage notes or reimbursements due to a doctor’s office from insurance companies or Medicare.
10. Set Up Passive Income Strategies
    
    Set up some kind of system that needs minimal ongoing management but continues to produce significant cash flow far into the future. A few examples include:
    
    • placing vending machines in high-traffic locations to collect passive income whenever customers make purchases
    
    
    • placing ATMs or point-of-sale (credit/debit/card swipe) machines in high sales volume locations to earn small fees paid by merchants whenever customers use the machines
    
    
    • Buy high-quality timeshares in desirable locations and seasons and rent them out over the internet to earn substantial rental income

Copyright (c) 2008 Jordan E. Goodman

Author
Jordan E. Goodman is a former Money magazine journalist and the author of several bestselling books, including Everyone's Money Book, The Dictionary of Finance and Investment Terms, and Master Your Money Type. He provides financial advice to millions of people each month through regular appearances on radio call-in and TV shows and through his seminars to corporate, association, and university audiences. He has been a regular contributor to NBC News at Sunrise, The Marketplace Morning Report on Public Radio, and many other shows. He hosts a popular financial resources Web site, www.moneyanswers.com, and is the host of The Money Answers Show on the VoiceAmerica Radio Network at www.voiceamerica.com. You can find out more about this book at www.fastprofitsinhardtimes.com.

Fast Profits in Hard Times

Rethinking Work: An Interview With Tom Hodgkinson

Since 1993, Tom Hodgkinson is the editor and co-founder of The Idler, a biannual book-shaped magazine that discusses the virtues of loafing. He's also written two incredibly insightful books from his country home in the UK, How to Be Idle and The Freedom Manifesto. Using a wealth of historical knowledge and research, current political and economic thought, as well as personal practice, both books discuss ways that we can achieve more by doing less.


The following is from an email interview I conducted with Tom Hodgkinson after many years of joyfully reading his words (I first picked up The Idler in '94). Now, you might be thinking, "Why would 800-CEO-READ be talking to someone about the virtues of idleness?" Well, read on, and I think you'll understand. There's something very important in his words. As we pore over business books, we're essentially looking for ways to make our jobs easier, our work more fulfilling and our accomplishments more personal. Tom Hodgkinson just might have all the answers.

8cr: First off, please clarify the difference you see between idleness and laziness.

Tom Hodgkinson: Idleness for me is not a giving up on life but a spirited grabbing hold of it. I was idle when faced with wage slavery, i.e., doing boring work for somebody else at times of their choosing, in return for money. In that situation, I would become very lazy. But idleness really consists of doing stuff which is not really recognized as productive behaviour in our profit-driven economies. I might look as if I am lying in bed, but in fact I am turning ideas over. Often I get good ideas in the bath, when I am perfectly relaxed and my mind is flowing freely. And now that I am in control of my own work, I find that I am quite productive. Since retiring from the world five years ago, I have written three books, edited twelve more, written countless articles, run a small magazine from home, and had time left over to play a role in our local community, teaching ukulele at the local school, for instance, and to play with our children. In general I work from nine am till 1, and the rest of the day is for sleeping, outdoor work, walking, playing, cleaning, etc.

8cr: You started publishing The Idler in 1993, and have since turned it into quite a remarkable literary publication - which is no small feat! How does being idle allow such activity to get anywhere, and what can others learn from that?

TH: Idleness leads to good work! To me idleness is a bit like the punk ideal: do it yourself. A band is a good example. Here is a bunch of people motivated by a desire to escape the world of boring jobs and get out of bed when they feel like it. But they end up practicing hard, touring, recording, etc. Paradoxically, the more I have embraced my own idleness, rather than rejecting it as before, the more productive I have become. If work is self-directed, autonomous, and creative - then it does not feel like work. It feels like play. And that is the goal of the idler, to create work for oneself that does not feel like work. To play.

8cr: "Productivity guilt" plagues many. How might people overcome this and possibly see more productivity in the process?

TH: Guilt is a waste of energy. I used to waste a lot of time in beating myself up about early rising or whatever. We are constantly telling ourselves to "do more." But who does this guilt serve? Does it really help us or is it just a useful tool for our employers? Is guilt an innate emotion, or one that is planted in us by conditioning? I would argue the latter, and when we recognize that there is nothing natural about guilt, but by contrast it is a man-made emotion, then it becomes easier to cast it off. And is "doing more" necessarily a good thing? What about doing less, but with more pleasure?

8cr: What do you feel is the most profound thing that can happen in times of idleness?

TH: A feeling of being joyfully in the present, rather than worrying or regretting.

8cr: Talk about the paradox of work being fun and fun sometimes being work.

TH: We resent work when we feel it has been imposed on us. When we choose it for ourselves, it is fun. Take vacations. Actually, they can be a lot of work: sightseeing trips, water-sports, horse-riding. But because we have chosen and paid for them, we see them as leisure. The same things, were they imposed on us, would feel like work. So there is a question of mental attitude here. Is doing the dishes actually unpleasant? Or is it our mind that makes it so?

8cr: How do you think idleness helps develop a person's true interests without turning them into a bum? When balanced appropriately, what do you see as the ideal outcome?

TH: Well, first let me defend bums. Bums are independent. Think of the Beatniks, think of Walt Whitman (who wrote: "how I love a loafer"). Layabouts are good for society: they are there to help out when things go wrong, when everybody else is busy working. They provide a commentary on the vanity of human wishes. Bums in old Europe were welcomed: they were called wandering monks, or musicians. Bums can bring a lot of good into the world. It is not true that "hard work" is the only appropriate approach to life (although if you want to work hard, I certainly won't stand in your way - I'd love to watch). Having said that, I think an increased portion of guilt-free idleness is a useful and healthy addition to anyone's life. Work kills us, you know. The ideal outcome is for each of us to do work that he or she enjoys and make a reasonable living from it.

8cr: Companies scramble to design systems that address work/life balance issues with their employees. What's it like at your office?

TH: I work in my study at home which is generally in a state of chaos. There are two desks - one with computer and one without, where I write, with an ink pen, and read. There is also a deckchair for napping. I think the ideal office would house three or four people. There would be a fire burning in the grate and books around the wall. There would be a sofa in the corner for after-dinner naps. The trend towards open plan - i.e., observable at all time - fills me with horror. I think staff should be allowed to create their own working environments rather than being forced to fit the vision of some idealistic architect maniac or profit-hungry CEO.

8cr: The West works pretty hard, but mostly by choice. What are your thoughts about countries where this is more of a cultural act (Japan), or necessity (China)?

TH: My thoughts are sad. In fact, in those countries you mention, the old traditions were against hard work. Taoism is the idea that you should not strain or stretch, but go with the flow. In China till recently, they all napped after lunch. For some reason they have decided to compete and work hard. I suppose that's up to them, but I wish they would set us a better example.

8cr: What role does technology play in idleness? Technology is supposed to make work and life easier for us. Is this really the case?

TH: I'm afraid not. It seems to create more work. Right from the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, technology has promised to free us from toil. The steam-powered machines were supposed to do all the work. These days, digital technology is always telling us that it makes our lives easier. But does it? The Blackberry, for example, actually ties us to work 24/7. Ditto mobile phones. Email and computers suck time, and waste it. What happened to dancing, and singing? People have more fun in societies with less technology. Technology actually makes us dependent. When our broadband connection went down last month for a couple of days, I initially felt bereft. Then I read a book and picked up the phone and wrote some letters. That was much better. Labour-saving devices just make us try to cram more pointless activities into each day, rather doing the important thing, which is to enjoy our lives.

8cr: Your latest book, The Freedom Manifesto has a chapter about competition. How can a company apply the ideas therein to perform better by not competing?

TH: Well, they can't! You would have to prioritize other issues over mere performance, things like quality, pleasure in work, creativity. Once you have a company that is publicly owned, its priority is going to be share price, and all other considerations - quality of product, customer service, and employee welfare - become secondary. But the old-fashioned system of business stressed community and fairness in dealings. For example, strange as it may seem to apostles of the free market, the old way was fixed prices. You were not allowed to undercut another guy in the same business because that was unfair (a cynic might point out that oil companies do a similar thing today). Businesses were arranged on a principle of brotherhood rather than competition. Overwork was frowned on because it might give you an unfair advantage over your brother. And this system worked: there was a huge amount of global trade in the 13th and 14th centuries, with fantastic innovative products flying around the world.

8cr: Consumer debt is out of control in America, and causes tons of people to work more, at things they'd rather not be doing, in order to address this. Is there a better solution?

TH: Yes, being thrifty. Don't buy anything. Strip down your expenses. Throw away the credit card. Don't commit yourself to $500 monthly payments on an automobile. Buy an old wreck instead. Take fewer trips. Reject holidays. Make bread at home. The new aspiration will be towards a self-controlled, creative, pleasure-filled life where the home becomes productive and we don't buy rubbish that we don't need. Throw away the television, don't buy the newspaper. Try and cut down on the amount of advertising that you take in.

8cr: If practiced on a large scale, this could drastically affect the economy, employment, etc. Thoughts?

TH: I think that would be good. I'm not a big fan of conventional employment and conventional economic thinking anyway. In any case, what of the alternative? We are seeing a lot of value being wiped off Wall Street right now. Banks are failing in the US and Europe, with a direct effect on employment and the economy. This meltdown and loss of confidence is a direct result of greed, sometimes called "the free market." But now even the most fervent free marketeers are beginning to wonder whether we need to introduce more restrictions on trade, etc. I think people are beginning to question the wisdom of "greed unrestricted" which might describe the financial philosophy of the 80s-90s-00s.

We need to reinvent the principles of economy and put well being and quality of life at the top of the agenda. We need to abandon the notion that the markets, left alone, will sort out all the ills of the world.

We need to ask ourselves: has the Puritan/Enlightenment programme failed?

Jack Covert Selects - Do the Right Thing

Do the Right Thing: How Dedicated Employees Create Loyal Customers and Large Profits by James F. Parker, Wharton School Publishing, 288 pages, $22.99, Hardcover, January 2008, ISBN 9780132343343

We've all heard the success stories of the small, short-haul, Texas airline that grew out of a loophole in federal legislation to become one of the most profitable airlines in history. James Parker, the former CEO and chairman who led Southwest Airlines during the tumultuous times of 2001 through 2004, is the author of Do the Right Thing. He shares the lessons he learned from the people he worked with during his 25 years of service to Southwest.

Parker tells us that "[t]he overriding lesson I learned doesn't involve a lot of management guru buzzwords and acronyms. It is the simplest of principles, which we learned from childhood: When in doubt, just do the right thing." For Southwest, that means being dedicated to people. Both principles are embodied and reinforced in everything the company does; employees and customers respond, in kind, by showing their loyalty. For example, on 9/11, the pilots and crewmembers took it upon themselves to make sure each passenger was safe; customers responded by offering to send money or forego their refunds.

Parker tells the story of a speaking engagement in Boston. Hundreds of people packed a hotel ballroom eager to hear more about Southwest. At the end of Parker's speech, one person asked for a Southwest employee to explain why they loved Southwest. The employee "stood up and said without hesitation, 'I think I love working there because it's a company that loves you back.'"

Southwest's focus on people has made a world of difference; it shows in its income statement, in its customer service and in its employees' satisfaction. Do the Right Thing does not unveil revolutionary insights into the business world nor give you a detailed strategy to follow. What Parker does well is remind us of the important lessons that he learned along the way. It's easy to become so immersed in the present and forget the simple lessons of business: appreciate your employees, treat your customers well and have fun. Sometimes we all need a little encouragement and a reminder to do the right thing.

Which Are You?

"There are always two parties, the party of the past and the party of the future; the establishment and the movement."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson, quoted in the paperback edition of Competing for the Future,

Ask 8cr! - In the Books

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.

This week's installment of Ask 8cr! is a little different. As Rebecca mentioned elsewhere on our blog, we recently published our first magazine called In The Books, featuring articles and write-ups on the most notable current business books. It's a handy resource people can use to quickly find some specific topics, or discover something entirely new. Looking at it made me think that this publication is sort of an Ask 8cr! umbrella, in that it leads readers to a variety of sources that cover the most common business challenges. So, I'm using it for today's Ask 8cr! book, and sending everyone who's sent me a challenge in the past a free copy.

But that's not all. The next 100 people that order In The Books get 40% off by using the discount code g6kjm when you purchase online.

Vote For the Best Business Books Of All Time

Jack and I have been a little quiet on the blog lately. We are pushing to finish the manuscript for our book, which comes out next year.

Our book will feature the 100 books everyone in business should read. There will be many titles that you would expect and more than a few that will be surprising.

We'd like to get your help. Tell us what you think the best business books of all time are. We have set-up a poll for all of you to vote on. If you see something missing, drop kate a note (kate {at} 800ceoread [dot] com).

We are going to feature your favorites in the book, alongside ours. So, get voting!

Thanks for your help and spread the word!

http://800ceoread.com/bookvote/

Remember When....

So, it was snowing.

Not just snowing, but really snowing. You know that snow when you were a kid where the piles were high and went almost to your hips and it was just GREAT? It was like that kind of snow. I was, I think 8 or 9 and it went a bit past my hips and yes, it was GREAT! I was tumbling in in, running in it, climbing the great foothills they created in front of the mountains (ok a building). In this particular case, it was the Library building and the foothills abounded in front of it. I loved the Library, especially that day! I found a mammoth one right by the parking lot, climbed on it and started playing King of the Hill with my self, having a blast. Until. Yep, turned out that the hill was actually a bush.

A rose bush.

A rose bush that was big, and huge just like that snow mounds around it. Being such a large bush, it had large thorns and yours truly felt the sting in two places on his knee. I cried, wouldn't you? If only I knew better. If only I had great, vast information at my disposal....well hopefully this listing of audio books will bring some knowledge to you!

Here's what books are available on compact disc in our
Top 25 Books of 2007:

Speed of Trust - # 1

It's Your Ship - # 3

Made to Stick - # 5

What Got You Here Won't Get You There - # 8

Power of Nice - # 9

The Long Tail - # 11

Blue Ocean Strategy - # 20

Wikinomics - # 21

QBQ! - # 23

The Starbucks Experience - # 25

Jack Covert Selects - Stirring It Up

Stirring it Up: How to Make Money and Save the World by Gary Hirshberg, Hyperion, 240 pages, $24.95, Hardcover, January 2008, ISBN 9781401303440

When Gary Hirshberg started in business, he looked at the standard definition of efficiency in our economy and saw it as ultimately unsustainable. In Stirring It Up, he gives us a new standard to gauge efficiency that is both profitable and sustainable, inspired by his 25 years worth of experience applying this standard at Stonyfield Farm.

Hirshberg concludes that we have the power to quicken this process as consumers--that if we show the demand for environmentally sound products, more industries will shift to making more products sustainable. He also discusses the best environmental practices companies are implementing--from newer companies like his own and Patagonia that built these principles into their original mission, to behemoths like GE that have had to change with the times.

To come up with sustainable solutions for his own company, Hirshberg has enacted some practices at Stonyfield that most business people would think are ridiculous and unsound--pay substantially more for materials than competitors, never advertise products, encourage more government oversight of his industry, and release reports on how much it pollutes--but he goes on to explain why each practice has reaped huge benefits and helped the company's growth. Paying twice as much as competitors for the milk they use to make yogurt, for instance, helps strengthen the small organic farmers who produce it, ensuring Stonyfield will continue to have access to the quality ingredients their customers expect. Instead of needing big budgets for advertising, the quality of the product and their loyal customers have become the best advertising one can imagine. Conversely, Stonyfield's main competitor, Yoplait, spends much less on producing its product, but spends large sums advertising it. These differences have created a situation where Stonyfield loses in the gross margin battle, but actually wins in net profits.

Stirring It Up is filled with examples of how thinking about your business's impact on the earth is not only responsible, but profitable. We're used to viewing big industries as being part the problem. Hirshberg suggests that business, even the smallest, has to be the solution, and his book can be used as a guide for the best ways to bring about that change in mission and behavior.

Special Offers on Seth Godin Books

For those you have been following the tour and to our loyal readers, here are a few offers:

1. We are offering Meatball Sundae for 40% off. This will run through the weekend and close on Tuesday.
2. If you buy 10 copies, we'll send along a Seth Godin Marketing Guru Action Figure. Use this link for the offer.
3. We also have a Seth Godin Library. Nine Books for $99.

Other Reviews of Meatball Sundae

Here is a list of reviews to give you an idea of what other have been saying about Meatball Sundae:

• Jack Covert Selects - "Meatball Sundae is a wake-up call for companies to get rid of old ideas. I was captivated by the examples Godin uses to explain how the trends work, why the new marketing tactics don't work for many companies and how they can use this knowledge to grow and change along with the trends. This is a must-read for anyone who thinks that, by default, they have to use new media to sell their products."
• Church of the Customer - Jackie actually eats a Meatball Sundae (no, not the book). Watch the video.
• Gaping Void - Hugh asks Seth ten questions including "The fact that blogging changed your book writing style over time is well documented. Has anything come down the pike recently that's affected your blogging style?"
• Bruce Clay - "What is a meatball sundae? A meatball is a worthwhile commodity. They are things we need and sold to everyone. The sundae is the hot fudge and the peanuts, the tactics of social media and the MySpace profiles."
• Copyblogger - "Seth explains that you’ve got to reinvent your business to fit the realities of the new marketing (rather than the other way around), because ideas that spread through groups of people are far more powerful than ideas delivered at an individual. Those are Seth’s words, and that’s the best definition of social media marketing I’ve heard."
• WebInkNow - "Godin says fourteen trends are completely remaking what it means to be a marketer. And while these trends are transforming organizations that have the right approaches, they are crippling the organizations that are stuck with nothing but meatballs. Once again, marketing is transforming what we make and how we make it."
• MSNBC - Contributor Peter Hartlaub says "Chances we’ll be using [Meatball Sundae] in 2017: A new marketing book comes along every few minutes, but this cool new coinage has some staying power."

Seth in Stereo

We have a 30 minute podcast with Seth posted. We talk Google, Civil War books, and how all the cool stuff happens in marketing.

Jack Covert Selects - Meatball Sundae

Meatball Sundae by Seth Godin, Portfolio, 256 pages, $23.95 Hardcover, January 2008, ISBN 9781591841746

In Meatball Sundae, marketing guru Seth Godin explains that not all products are created equal in terms of marketing approach. In the old days of marketing, consumers really had no choice but to listen to whatever marketers, sales clerks, or the media ads wanted them to hear. And for companies trying to promote a product, there were only a handful of media tactics to control. But things have changed, and the old target audience can fast-forward through commercials and block ads with TiVo, DVRs, and SPAM blockers. So, companies must turn to other media channels like YouTube, MySpace, Google, blogs and blog trackers. Consumers have adapted to hearing those messages from this new media and, Godin assures, there are plenty of consumers to target. But, he cautions against doing a new media patch job on any old product. Certainly we've all done it, tried to pass off something as different from what it is. Maybe it's growing a beard to cover a blemish or wearing black because it's slimming. But in the marketing world, that's like making a meatball sundae.

Godin refers to any kind of base company, product and/or service as meatballs. The new marketing tools and tactics--YouTube, Google, blogs--are the whipped cream with cherries on top that these companies think they should be using in this time of new marketing. Godin offers the Proctor and Gamble line of cosmetics, Reflect, as an example of how a meatball can get drowned in whipped cream. Six years of being in the red, P&G stopped production because their demographic did not want cosmetics from a small appliance company. Godin urges companies to be smart, and either find the ice-cream for their toppings, or just stick to meatballs without the sweets. Marketers can use Godin's 14 Marketing Trends, which include outsourcing, authentic product stories, the long tail, and the triumph of the big idea, among others.

Meatball Sundae is a wake-up call for companies to get rid of old ideas. I was captivated by the examples Godin uses to explain how the trends work, why the new marketing tactics don't work for many companies and how they can use this knowledge to grow and change along with the trends. This is a must-read for anyone who thinks that, by default, they have to use new media to sell their products.

Marketing Mismatch - A ChangeThis Manifesto

This month, ChangeThis published Marketing Mismatch: When New Won't Work with Old (Riffs on Meatball Sundae). This is consolidation of the ten Meatball Monday riffs Seth wrote leading up to the release of the book.

If you followed along, it might not be a piece for you, but I imagine you know someone you could be helped by hearing the message.

This link will get them there:

http://www.changethis.com/42.01.MarketingMistmatch

Final Stop on Meatlball Sundae Post2Post Virtual Book Tour

Welcome to all the visitors for the Post2Post Virtual Book Tour.

We are featuring Seth Godin new book Meatball Sundae: Is Your Marketing Out of Sync?

We'll be putting up some posts this morning, but first you may want to check out the other stops that have already been made this week.

Monday - John Moore at Brand Autopsy summarized, questioned, and took Seth on a photo shoot.

Tuesday - Phil Gerbyshak at Make It Great interviewed Mr. Godin. The 30 minutes is available as a mp3 file or pdf transcript.

Wednesday - Martin Bishop at Brand Mix asked Seth five questions from the viewpoint of a Fortune 500 executive.

Thursday - Patrick Greer at SpinningSilk Multimedia talks with Seth about Star Trek, buying stories, and the forwarding email button.

Friday - You are here with us. We have a podcast with Seth, a ChangeThis manifesto, and a list of others who have talked about the book including our Jack Covert Selects of Meatball Sundae. Being a good bookseller, we also have a few of offers on Seth's books for those who have been following along.

Edison on Innovation

I just read a neat book that's coming out soon (Feb. 2008) about Thomas Edison. Now, for those of you who just know the man from the movies starring Rooney ( "Young Tom Edison") or Cagney (Edison the Man or "Edison 2.0" if you want to be cheeky), you may not really KNOW him.

Alex Axelrod, the author of Edison on Innovation: 102 Lessons in Creativity for Business and Beyond describes the man as a real, 3-D kind of guy. People now-a-days, explained in the book, put Edition on a huge, unattainable pedestal. Edison has had more patents out there than anyone (1,093 of them to be exact) and that may make him ominous to emulate. But the author suggests that we should not envision him as this all knowing, awe inspiring 'genius' that we could never become. Axelrod suggests instead, like Edison did (remember his old saying, "Genius is 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration.") that anyone can be a know-it-all, just act like one. There are 101 different ways to do this, according to Axelrod and actually it is a refreshing way to go about invoking creativity, especially in this present day in which everything already seems to have been done.

Edison on Innovation shows us that you should never really give up on your beliefs and ideas, never stop observing and don't lose faith in yourself.

ChangeThis

A new ChangeThis issue has been published!

Head on over for a new manifesto from our friend, marketing guru and founder of the site, Seth Godin. There's also a manifesto from the CE-YO of Stonyfield Farm, Gary Hirshberg, on sustainability and business that I'd highly recommend. Other manifestos in this issue cover topics ranging from customer service to problem-solving, from how to manage your ideas to how to manage your overall physical and mental acuteness. More detailed descriptions, straight from the manifestos themselves, are below.

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Marketing Mismatch: When New Won't Work with Old (Riffs on Meatball Sundae)
By Seth Godin

"People treat the New Marketing like a kid with a twenty-dollar bill at an ice cream parlor. They keep wanting to add more stuff--more candy bits and sprinkles and cream and cherries. The dream is simple: "If we can just add enough of [today's hot topping], everything will take care of itself." Most of the time, despite all the hype, organizations fail when they try to use this scattershot approach."

http://changethis.com/42.01.MarketingMismatch
http://changethis.com/pdf/42.01.MarketingMismatch.pdf

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The Future is Here and It is Bright: What Are We Waiting For?
By Gary Hirschberg
"We need more than simple awareness to break our generations-old, fossil-fuel-induced stupor. We have known what we should do, but we clearly have not done it. And the situation has deteriorated because of our lack of action. After more than three decades spent working in the environmental movement, I am convinced that economic self-interest--whether it is achieved by saving, earning, or a combination of the two--is the most powerful, if not the only, force capable of bringing about the future we need in time to make a difference... ."

http://changethis.com/42.02.FutureHere
http://changethis.com/pdf/42.02.FutureHere.pdf

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Humanize It: Bring a five-star sparkle to your customer interactions and watch your business flourish.

By Leonardo Inghilleri and Micah Solomon

"The best thing you can do for your business is not about new technology, brute force, or first-mover advantage. It's something simpler. And more dependable. Humanize each customer interaction, in order to turn your product or service into much more than a commodity. In your customer's mind, commodities are interchangeable and replaceable. Humanized relationships are not."

http://changethis.com/42.03.HumanizeIt
http://changethis.com/pdf/42.03.HumanizeIt.pdf

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A "Where's Waldo" Approach to Problem-solving
By Adelino de Almeida, PhD

"We've all encountered bad solutions that come from bad problem-solving; heck, we've even encountered good solutions that were somehow generated from bad problem-solving... . All you need to become a proficient problem-solver is a basic understanding of the concept behind the Where's Waldo books: unbeknownst to most, these books encapsulate all the wisdom necessary for sound problem-solving."

http://changethis.com/42.04.WhereWaldo
http://changethis.com/pdf/42.04.WhereWaldo.pdf

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Ideaicide: How To Avoid It And Get What You Want
By Alan Parr and Karen Ansbaugh

"Ideaicide is deadly. People come up with lots of new ideas everyday, but nothing happens... The problem is not usually the ideas themselves... Corporate forces act to eliminate risk and make an idea conform to the company's existing business model, not to the needs of the marketplace. The edginess of the idea is gone, replaced by cold, calculated efficiency and predictability. We will show you how to bring your ideas to life."

http://changethis.com/42.05.Ideaicide
http://changethis.com/pdf/42.05.Ideaicide.pdf

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Free Your Ass and Your Mind Will Follow: Embodied Leadership
By Jaime Wheal

"Somewhere between Ancient Athens and today's Aeron, we've lost the plot and come to believe that all of Reason and Innovation resides inside our skulls. Organizational leaders require more than coaching "from the neck up" to compete in today's information age. We need to develop our physical, cognitive and relational capacities and expand our bandwidth."

http://changethis.com/42.06.FreeYourAss
http://changethis.com/pdf/42.06.FreeYourAss.pdf

In The Books: Most Notable Business Books 2007

It's here!

Yesterday a pallet of boxes arrived at our office. We get pallets nearly every day, but this one was special: it contained copies of our first ever 800-CEO-READ review of the year in business books.

The publication is called In The Books: Most Notable Business Books of 2007. Our editorial team here at 800-CEO-READ, along with help from Erika Andersen, Dan Roam, and designer Joy Panos Stauber, compiled this annual of what we consider to be the year's most notable titles and trends in business book publishing. Check out the Table of Contents below to get an idea of what's covered.

We're extremely proud of this publication; it marks a big step for our growing business and the people here who make 800-CEO-READ such a fun place to work. We hope you'll see the spirit of our company throughout the piece.

Table of Contents

Introduction
1 Jack and Todd's Year in Review
2 Our Mission
3 An Insider's Perspective
4 Why We Love Business Books

Awards
7 Book of the Year
8 Sales
9 Leadership
10 HR and Organizational Development
11 Entrepreneurship and Small Business
12 Finance and Economics
13 Advertising and Marketing
14 Globalization
15 Fables
16 Biographies and Memoirs
17 Personal Development
18 Innovation and Creativity
19 Industry
20 New Perspectives

22 800-CEO-READ Best Sellers

Trends
25 China Redux
28 We the Internet
30 Sustainability is Smart
32 Business is You
34 The Silent Revolution: A ChangeThis! Manifesto
38 InBubbleWrap: A Farewell Interview

Views, Reviews and Excerpts
41 Jack Covert Selects
44 The Value of a Good Story
46 Industry Books
48 In Their Own Words
53 On the Importance of Books
56 The Birth of a Book

Order your copy here: http://800ceoread.com/products/?ISBN=8crannual

2007 800-CEO-READ Business Book Awards announced today

The day has finally arrived. After careful consideration, the winners have been determined for our first annual Business Book Awards. Nearly 300 titles were submitted which were then critiqued and reviewed by our editorial staff. A list of 13 titles make up the winners for each category as well as the Best Business Book of 2007.

8cr would like to congratulate all the winners for their hard work and say thank you to all who participated in our first awards program!

Best Business Book of 2007

Made to Stick
Chip Heath and Dan Heath

Category Winners

Advertising/Marketing:
Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath, Random House

Biographies/Memoirs:
Bill & Dave by Michael S. Malone, Portfolio

Entrepreneurship/Small Business:
No Man's Land by Doug Tatum, Portfolio

Fables:
The Dream Manager by Matthew Kelly, Hyperion

Finance/Economics:
A Demon of Our Own Design by Richard Bookstaber, Wiley

Globalization:
The Elephant and the Dragon by Robyn Meredith, W.W. Norton

HR/Organizational Development:
One Foot Out the Door by Judith M. Bardwick, PhD., AMACOM

Industry:
The Last Tycoons by William D. Cohan, Doubleday

Innovation/Creativity:
Group Genius by Keith Sawyer, Basic Books

Leadership:
The Secret Language of Leadership by Stephen Denning, Jossey-Bass

New Perspectives:
In Spite of the Gods by Edward Luce, Doubleday

Personal Development:
Responsibility at Work by Howard Gardner, Jossey-Bass

Sales:
The Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes, Portfolio

: : : :

Congratulations! You can find the full list here.

Ask 8cr! - What the Customer Wants You to Know

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 re-examining your sales culture by looking at your most important asset - your customers:

"How do you change a sales culture to be more aggressive? To be more responsive? To keep pushing even though sales goals are being met? To make them realize that when things are going well is when we ought to keep prospecting. To teach them the long term benefits of being responsive." - Larry

The sales war rages on. Organizations scramble for leads, battle over price, bend over backwards to close deals. Still, it never seems to be enough. Larry's challenge is a clear example of this. How can sales people be more aggressive and keep pushing even when goals are met? It seems the answer is a shift in perspective.

Ram Charan has written a wonderful little book about this shift called What the Customer Wants You to Know: How Everybody Needs to Think Differently About Sales. In it, Charam describes his system of "value creation selling," a practical method of understanding your customer's problems and finding ways to solve them. Through this system, Charam details a method that takes attention off of price and places the focus on what the customer really needs. By describing how to develop a value creation sales force, the book is a guide that can be used by management to change the culture on a larger scale, as it reveals that sales is every employee's business - not just the sales department.

In creating the process, sustaining the process, and taking it to the next level, value creation selling becomes a way for organizations to be their customer's trusted partner. However, it does require the right perception and work from all involved. This important fact will change current employees as well as better define future hires. Charam states, "If people don't have the gregarious personality and psychology that lets them work in groups and build relationships, they won't succeed."

I'm sending Larry a copy of the book to address his questions by hopefully changing them. After reading, he'll ask questions like, "What problems do my customers have? What risks do they see having with their customers? How can we provide solutions for them?" These are questions every organization should be asking themselves, and this book is a practical guide to help us work out the answers.

Make the Impossible Possible

Bill Strickland, President and CEO of Manchester Bidwell Corporation, and author of Make the Impossible Possible , has had a huge impact on thousands of people throughtout his years of being involved in the community. Manchester Bidwell Corporation and its subsidiaries, Manchester Craftsmens Guild (MCG) and Bidwell Training Center, have created a jobs training center and community arts program that gives disadvantaged kids and adults the opportunities and tools they need to envision and build a better, brighter future. If you're not familiar with Bill and the amazing work that he's done, take a couple minutes to visit his homepage and browse around.

An Evening of Web 2.0

Last night I attended a talk by Sarah "Intelligirl" Robbins (of Mediasauce) on applying Web 2.0 practices in the B2B environment. Well spoken, with a vast knowledge on the topic (and pink hair to boot), Sarah delivered an insightful hour long discussion on how companies can collaborate and communicate better using a variety of free web based tools. From Google to Second Life, Sarah broke down the business applications into categories that people who've never used these things could wrap their heads around. Those with even a small grasp on the subject could then realize the huge benefit these tools can have for internal communication. On a grander scale, those from interactive companies in the crowd gained more insight into how to apply these tools to client work.