800-CEO-READ Blog

Announcing a blog tour: Change the Way You See Yourself

Two years ago, Kathryn Cramer and Hank Wasiak wrote a book on asset-based thinking, Change the Way You See Everything. Here's the Jack Covert Selects review on the book. ABT means focusing on opportunities, strengths and what can be done (rather than the opposite).

This year, Hank and Kathryn went a step further with ABT and applied it to how people can change themselves. On Monday starts a blog tour for the book. The journey starts at Idea Sandbox; there you'll find the full schedule.

New Excerpt - from Executive Stamina

There's a new excerpt up on our Excerpts blog, taken from Chapter 11 of Executive Stamina: How to Optimize Time, Energy, and Productivity to Achieve Peak Performance by Marty Seldman and Joshua Seldman. Here is the publisher's description of the book: "Executive Stamina combines the wisdom and methodology of the very best executive coaching with the cutting-edge training techniques of world-class endurance athletes. This holistic approach uses practical tips and tools to help executives maximize their career potential, maintain their physical health, and stay aligned with their personal values. Readers will better manage their productivity, time, and energy to achieve peak professional performance. Having personally coached more than 1,500 executives, Dr. Seldman reveals all the success factors, derailment factors, and tradeoffs on the fast-paced executive career track, helping today's executives achieve more and live better."

And here's a snippet from the excerpt:

What Is the Best Use of Your Time?

Only you can answer that question, and it will be different for everyone, and will change with circumstances. Nevertheless, there are some guidelines you can follow to help you identify those activities that should be a priority in your current role. To begin, ask yourself:

• What is my unique position on the team?
• What are the factors necessary for me to succeed in this role?
• What are the current risks and priorities of my role?

Here's a direct link to the excerpt: http://800ceoread.com/excerpts/archives/008109.html

Warren Buffett Picks

Ryan over at Business Pundit posted on 10 investing titles that Warren Buffett recommends. Details over here. The list of the 10:

Take on the Street	The Little Book of Common Sense Investing
Benjamin Graham on Value Investing	The Theory on Investment Value
Where are the Customers' Yachts?	The Intelligent Investor
Paths to Wealth Through Common Stocks	Bull: A History of the Boom and Bust
Security Analysis	Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits

Big IDEAS to Big RESULTS

Last week Mike Kanazawa, co-author of Big Ideas to Big Results, joined our 8cr family for two days and keynoted for two events in Wisconsin.

One of the stories Mike shared is that of touring an office building. The woman giving him the tour boasted having the longest group of cubicles west of the Pentagon! This city of cubicles was the breeding ground for Scott Adams' Dilbert comic strip. His former cube is memorialized by a serial number.

That lead into the question of "Is your goal to get the most of people or to get the best out of people?"

My guess is you would agree that it's to get the best out of people. That takes an environment and a culture that supports that mission. Easier said than done. I'm paraphrasing Mike here, two suggestions:

Do More on Less. It's easy to keep pushing more on the plates of your best employees. Stop. Take projects off their plates so they can spend more time on fewer projects. They'll be able to dedicate the time necessary to grow and complete the project. You (the boss) will be more satisfied with the results, as will be the employee.

Delete "buy in." There's this corporate idea of getting people, employees, to "buy in." Buy into an idea, a strategy, whatever change needs to happen. Many times companies wait to implement top-down structures and don't engage employees until after the process is implemented. Instead, work up front on engagement. Involve everyone from the beginning of a new change. Then when you reach the back end, there's no need to sell the idea to anyone in the company and everyone can focus on executing the change.

I'm hoping to have some video footage from the event to post here soon. Todd interviewed Mike on the process of writing the book. I hear Mike's on board for a ChangeThis manifesto. Stay tuned! In the meantime, jump over to Mike's blog.

Mike, thanks for coming!

Cinderella or Cyberella

Two leading scholars in the gender and information technology field have put together essays that bridge women in age, culture and educational backgrounds. These writings are found within the book Cinderella or Cyberella? and they provide women with the information to be more empowered in finance, work and families.

One author, Nancy J. Hafkin, has worked in these fields for thirty-plus years and has been the Chief of Research and Publications at the African Training and Research Centre for Women of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. Hafkin has also headed the Pan African Development Information System. She also has a degree in African history from Boston University.

The other author, Sophia Huyer, is the Executive Director of Women in Global Science and Technology and Senior Research Advisor with the Gender Advisory Board of the United States Commission on Science and Technolgy for Developement. She has a Ph.D. in Environmental Studies and International Development form York University.

The essays include case studies from Africa, Asia and Latin America to show different perspectives from all over the world of how women are participating in today's information society.

Book reviews in The Economist

The Economist regularly reviews history, business, and nonfiction books in its "Books and arts" section. This week, two reviews caught my eye. Here are brief excerpts from the reviews.

Tall tales
The Pixar Touch: The Making of a Company

A number of interesting things about Disney emerge in this excellent, readable account of Pixar's early years. David Price claims, for instance, that Disney's chief executive, Michael Eisner, considered shutting down the company's animation unit after he took over as chief executive in 1984, an astonishing fact given the subsequent success of cartoon films such as "The Lion King". Mr Price also makes clear just how much Pixar owes to Disney: it was the larger company's marketing for "Toy Story", for instance, that gave Mr Jobs the confidence to launch an initial public offering of shares in Pixar in 2005. Go to the review.

and

Marketing maestros
Alpha Dogs: The Americans Who Turned Political Spin into a Global Business

James Harding, who is now the editor of the London Times but used to report on American politics for the Financial Times, has written a punchy book about spin. Its title, "Alpha Dogs", refers to an American company, the Sawyer Miller Group, which for a while shaped and polished political campaigns all around the world. Go to the review.

Finding new books to read.

Ben Casnocha (My Start-Up Life) blogged about and added to Tyler Cohen's (Discover Your Inner Economist) post on how to find new book recommendations. Both have good recommendations on where to start.

Ben mentioned us as the spot to find out about business books (thanks, Ben!). On that note, allow me to introduce you to what's available:

• Excerpts blog where you can read excerpts from the latest books.


• Podcasts. Clips from various audio books and our interviews with authors.


• ChangeThis. We call this the Harvard Business Review with a bit more color.

If there's ever a book you'd like to see, drop us a note: kate (at) 800ceoread.com. We'll see what we can do.

Another spot, there's a site called Goodreads; kind of the MySpace equivalent for readers. Where you can share what you're reading with friends, keep lists of what you have read and want to read, and find fellow readers to share book suggestions with.

Where else do you look?

New Spanish Titles

Welcome back from the holiday!! Hope everyone had a safe and fun-packed weekend!! I just got listings of books now available in Spanish!! So.....for those of you that taught yourself Spanish during your time off (can anyone be THAT productive??) or if you have bi-lingual friends.... here you are!

El Gerente de Suenos (The Dream Manager) by Matthew Kelly (Matthew Kelly is the author of numerous inspirational books, including the "New York Times" bestseller "The Rhythm of Life", "The Seven Levels of Intimacy", and "Perfectly Yourself". The founder of the Matthew Kelly Foundation, he has appeared before more than 3 million people through his talks, seminars, and retreats. Kelly lives in Cincinnati, Ohio.)

El Circo De Tres Pistas (Juggling Elephants) by Jones Loflin and Todd Musig (Jones Loflin is an internationally recognized speaker and corporate trainer. He also lectures widely about the bestselling book Who Moved My Cheese? Todd Musig has more than twenty years of experience in training, marketing, and consulting at organizations such as Franklin-Covey and AchieveGlobal. He is currently the CEO of Previdence Corporation.)

Emociones Destructivas (Destructive Emotions) by Daniel Goleman (Daniel Goleman, PH.D. is also the author of the worldwide bestseller Working with Emotional Intelligence and is co-author of "Primal Leadership: Learning to Lead with Emotional Intelligence," written with Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee.
Dr. Goleman received his Ph.D. from Harvard and reported on the brain and behavioral sciences for The New York Times for twelve years, where he was twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. He was awarded the American Psychological Association's Lifetime Achievement Award and is currently a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science His other books include Destructive Emotions," The Meditative Mind, The Creative Spirit, and Vital Lies, Simple Truths.")

La Era de las Turbulencias (The Age of Turbulence) by Alan Greenspan (Alan Greenspan was born in 1926 in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City. After studying the clarinet at Juilliard and working as a professional musician, he earned his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. in Economics from New York University. In 1954, he co-founded the economic consulting firm Townsend-Greenspan & Co. From 1974 to 1977, he served as Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Gerald Ford. In 1987, President Ronald Reagan appointed him Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, a position he held until his retirement in 2006..)

Again, welcome back - oh, and enjoy the short work week!

The train wreck that was Bear Stearns

Caption: "An August conference call fails to calm investors."

On Tuesday May 27, The Wall Street Journal begins a three part analysis of the collapse of Bear Stearns.

Buffeted by the most treacherous market forces in a generation and hobbled by indecision, the firm's leaders missed opportunities that might have been able to save the 85-year-old brokerage.

Part one was sad yet fascinating...I look forward to the next installment.

Powerlines Bonus

Being placed at the crux of an industry as we are means we're sometimes privy to material you may not see elsewhere. Authors sometimes send us reviews and articles to post, for example, and we were able to post "the lost chapter" of Dan Roam's book on ChangeThis. I've just posted something new from Steve Cone, author of Powerlines: Words That Sell Brands, Grip Fans, and Sometimes Change History, over on our excerpts blog. It was finished just after deadline and didn't make it into the book itself, so it's not officially an excerpt, but we thought you'd enjoy it anyway. It doesn't have much to do with business, but oddly enough on Memorial Day weekend, it does have a lot to do with death. More specifically, it is a list of epitaphs and famous last lines. There is even one, from the tomb of the unknown soldier, that fits the purpose of Memorial Day itself.

Unknown U. S. Solder: A reminder that the ultimate sacrifice is the price of enduring freedom.

"Here rests
In honored glory
An American Soldier
Known but to God"

Most of the rest are substantially lighter in spirit.

Here is the link to the post: 800ceoread.com/excerpts/archives/008101.html

Thoughts on Seth Godin's "How To Read a Business Book"

Seth Godin wrote a great post on Wednesday titled How to read a business book. I encourage everyone to go read it in its entirety. The main points are that business books are essentially recipes for action, but that the majority of a book's words are spent convincing and motivating the reader to action. "Cookbooks don't spend a lot of time trying to sell you on why making a roast chicken isn't as risky as you might think," Godin writes. He continues saying that readers don't get enough from the experience if they are just reading for the recipe.

Here are my extensions to what Seth started with his post:

• I think business books are self-help, in the most positive sense of the word. And you'll pay $30 for a business book in hardcover because the potential payoff is huge.
• I am not sure cookbooks are the right metaphor for business books. Business in all its components lacks the certainty of the physics and chemistry. There is a repeatability problem. Following a business book recipe does not guarantee the same results for different cooks.
• Having said that, the biggest contributor to failure is most don't follow the recommended recipe to start with. People like picking and choosing the easiest pieces and are surprised when they don't get the roasted chicken like the one in the picture.
• Book summaries are the distilled recipes. I know they are popular with a certain segment, but I don't get it. You don't remember the five important points from a book by reading them in a list. You do it by understanding the context and internalizing the stories the author uses. Whenever we write a Jack Covert Select or publish a manifesto on ChangeThis, our intention is tell you about the book and convince you it is worth your time to read it in its 225 page form.
• I surprised by the number of people who tell me they skip the introductions to business books. I will admit before I started reading "professionally", I did the same. DON'T SKIP THE INTRODUCTION. It often does the same thing as the opening credits to a good movie. You get an idea of what you are getting into, the sort of language the author will be using, and what the compelling points are going to be. If the introduction doesn't grab you, put the book down and find another.
• Take notes and I am going to strongly suggest you do this electronically. Open a text file. Name it with the title and author. And just start writing what you think as you are reading or right after you are done. Writing about what you learned and ability to go back to find it later will pay back in spades. If you want to keep things in the meatspace, get some of these. They were invaluable as we were doing research for our book.
• Finally, reading books is an act of meditation. It is a mental refuge for you to explore your thoughts and feelings about work, but also life as a whole. Take some time to help yourself.

Roam on Television

Back of the Napkin author Dan Roam has made the rounds of cable television lately, appearing on Fox Business, CNN Money and MSNBC's Consultant's Corner. In both the CNN and FOX interviews, Dan breaks down Microsoft's bid for Yahoo on his whiteboard, and implements the same approach on MSNBC to explain how small businesses can be heard in the marketplace. If you're going to watch only one, I would suggest the one from FOX (I've placed it at the bottom of this post. In it, Dan was able to get in a few points about why his approach works that were absent from the others. In the other two interviews, he shows that drawing pictures can help solve problems or explain ideas, but not why. One of the great things about Dan's book is that it gives you an understanding of the science behind how we process information visually, establishing right away why visual thinking is hugely beneficial in the process of selling ideas and solving problem--and not just some gimmick. He gets that point across very well in the FOX interview. We get a bit of his biography at the end of the interview as well, which is nice.

The Philadelphia Inquirer recently reviewed the book as well. You can find that here.

Also, If you missed it the first time around, it was one of March's Jack Covert Selects, and we posted the book's "missing chapter" over at ChangeThis. If you'd like to read an excerpt from the book, we have that too.

Read Books, Any Kind Will Do

Florian Hollender at Killer Consultant recommends gurus read something other than business books every once in a while. He says you'll relax, get new ideas, and enjoy reading business books more.

The World Bank and the Gods of Lending

Ever wonder about what has been going on behind the closed doors of one of the most powerful and omnipresent financial institutions? Steve Berkman, a 16-year veteran of World Bank, answers that question and more in his new book. He uncovers mismanagement and hypocrisies that have gone on for decades behind the scenes of the banks' loan programs.

Berkman joined the bank in 1983 and has worked in 'all the major economic sectors throughout the region'. After he retired in 1995 he was brought back from 1998 to 2002 to assist in setting up an Anti-Corruption and Fraud Investigation Unit which lead to several findings of corruption cases in Latin America and Africa. The World Bank and the Gods of Lending delves into such corruptions like the bloated bureaucracy and misguided leadership that penetrates what should be a wholesome, nurturing and honest business. Due this June, Berkman's personal accounts of the bank's failures (bank projects in Nigeria for example) will make for one heck of a summer read!

"A passionate, informed, and devastating first-hand account from the front lines of World Bank operations. Students, development professionals, and especially policy makers in Washington should read this book." - Jeffrey A. Winters (Professor of political economy, Northwestern University and co-editor of Reinventing the World Bank)

"Recommended reading as a hard-hitting lesson on how not to run the Bank." - Paul Arlman (Former Executive Director of the World Bank (1986-1990) and member of the Dutch Treasury

New Books for Spring

It may be the social and political climate we are in, but I am seeing more and more books coming out lately dealing with race, gender and politics then ever before. Ideas about how business is conducted on personal and corporate levels are now commonplace areas open for debate and change. How we view business, politics and life are vastly different from even five years ago, let alone 80-plus years past when women weren't allowed a voice in our government. These new books are not just for CEOs or business-minded people, but for anyone that wants to broaden their perceptions of where we've been, where we are now and where we're going. Take a look at these from the University of Illinois Press:

Working Girl Blues: The Life and Music of Hazel Dickens by Bill C. Malone and Hazel Dickens - Tells the life of one of the most influential leaders of folk feminism whose roots reach far into Appalachia and the working poor of America.

Voting the Gender Gap by Lois Duke Whitaker - How gender affects people's voting habits, taking examples as far back as the 1980s.

The Making of "Mammy Pleasant": A Black Entrepreneur in Nineteenth-Century San Francisco by Lynn M. Hudson - Examination America's folklore and the complete lack of historical records of black women's lives through Mary Ellen Pleasant.

The Workers' Union by Flora Tristan (translated by Beverly Livingston) - The story Flora Tristan and her integral part in women's rights and the working-class reformation of the early nineteenth century.

Designing for Diversity: Gender, Race and Ethnicity in the Architectural Profession by Kathryn H Anthony - Once considered a predominately 'good ol'boy' institution, architectural firms all over are experiencing a surge in not only women architects, but co-workers from different cultures as well. This examination of the architectural business and the need for change will strike a cord with many people experiencing this in their own jobs and lives as well.

Robert Mondavi passes away - The House of Mondavi

As many of you know, legendary winemaker and benefactor Robert Mondavi died last Friday. The Mondavis have been called the "Kennedys" of American wine. They transformed Napa Valley from a small, family-owned network of wine producers into the huge hub it is today, helping to establish America as one of the world's great wine producers. Mondavi and his wife have spent the past several years donating to and building up various wine schools and performing arts instututes.

It feels a bit timely, then, that Julia Flynn Siler's biography of this family and its business, The House of Mondavi: The Rise and Fall of an American Wine Dynasty, has just been released in paperback. This book is considered both a family saga and a dramatic tale of America's foothold in a competitive global industry.

City of Thieves - A summer reading recommendation

Once in a while I take a little liberty and write about non-business books on this site. Before I came to 800-CEO-READ, I worked for our sister company, Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops, Milwaukee's oldest and largest independent bookseller. Even though this site highlights the best in business book publishing, I suspect there are quite a few business book readers who enjoy a good novel now and then.

These days I read a lot about design and business, but I make time to keep up with what's going on in the fiction world, and the books that our retail counterparts are excited about. One such book, which is actually being championed by one of our business book colleagues at Penguin, is City of Thieves by David Benioff, the author of The 25th Hour and When the Nines Roll Over.

City of Thieves is about a young journalist assigned to writing a personal history. When he decides that his life is too uninteresting to make for a good essay, he turns to his Russian grandparents, retirees in Florida, who lived through the devastating siege of Leningrad during WWII. As his grandfather, Lev, speaks for the first time about his experience as a brave but insecure teenager charged with a dangerous and unusual mission, this young journalist learns realizes the severity of his grandparents' lives in occupied Leningrad and the resilience it takes for human beings to overcome unimaginable odds. I just started reading City of Thieves this past weekend, and I'm looking forward to going home each night just so I can rejoin Lev Beniov and another young soldier on their remarkable journey.

Schwartz Bookshops is hosting an event with David Benioff this Wednesday. If you're in the Milwaukee area, join us to hear him talk. If the book sounds intriguing, Schwartz is offering signed copies through its web site: www.schwartzbooks.com.

P.S. If you enjoy books in this vein, try The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean.

P.P.S. Or The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman.

What is Wrong With Business Books?! - Part II

On the heals of my Fast Company news, I found a wonderful essay that berates business books. Yes, I said wonderful.

An anonymous writer under the byline "Uncle Saul" wrote The Author's Dilemma - Why Most Business Books Suck for socialtech.com. The piece is clearly written by a book reader as it points the vast number of ways business books fail the entrepreneurs. Among the reasons:

Entrepreneurs Need Tactical Guidance -- Obsessing about strategy is a luxury that only Big Dumb Companies ("BDCs") can afford. Entrepreneurs must define a series of skirmishes, they do not need to devise elaborate battle plans. Entrepreneurs need only develop a basic strategy and craft an evolving and iterative tactical plan which guides them in the general direction dictated by their overall strategy. Although a few books attempt to act as entrepreneurial field guides that offer tactics in specific areas (e.g., selling, marketing, PR, etc.), their usefulness is often limited. Books that highlight tactics are valuable for entrepreneurs whose specific circumstances match those outlined in the text. However, specific tactics are often difficult to translate into markets outside of those described in such books.

Entrepreneurs Have Corporate ADD -- A pithy format, offering bite-sized data, serves entrepreneurs well. If you prefer to pour through 400-page academic tomes, you may be a nice person, but you are probably not an entrepreneur.

Entrepreneurs "Get It" -- Consistent with their Corporate ADD, entrepreneurs tend to excel at digesting numerous disparate facts and making quick, gestalt decisions. This inherent impatience causes entrepreneurs to quickly become frustrated with books that repeatedly reinforce their central point through multiple examples, analogies and anecdotes.

Entrepreneurs Are Contrarians -- In general, the use of multiple examples is an appropriate means of convincing someone to change their behavior. However, since most entrepreneurs have no allegiance to the status quo, they find books which rely on numerous examples as a means of changing the reader's behavior to be frustrating and largely irrelevant.

Uncle Saul does like one book: Guy Kawasaki's The Art of the Start, saying, "Guy succinctly addresses a number of relevant startup issues in pithy chapters and offers concrete, tactical suggestions for addressing a number of typical challenges faced by most startups."

What Is Wrong With Business Books?! - Part I

I first found out through email from my friend Sara at Cave Henricks Communications about the publication of my letter to the editors of Fast Company. Below is the full text of the letter I sent in response to Elizabeth Spiers' Library of the Living Dead essay that appeared in the April 2008 issue. I have used bold to highlight the portion they published in the magazine. I'll leave it to you to determine if their editing captured the essence of my argument:

I write to provide a needed counterpoint to Elizabeth Spiers April 2008 Not So Fast column titled "Library of The Living Dead."

I will start where she ends, agreeing in fact with Spiers' ultimate conclusion: Business books are self-help, by their very definition. The implication that business books fall strictly into the "I'm OK, You're OK" segment of self-help is where Spiers and I diverge. A book publisher recently shared research with me that showed the number one reason people buy business books is to find a solution to a problem. Sitting at the educational crossroads between "I know nothing about this," and "Let's hire a consultant," business books contain a high value proposition for the twenty dollars and two hours spent. Not, as Spiers says, to abdicate responsibility for the choices they make. Instead, it takes a great deal of personal awareness to look for answers from those who offer experiential lessons in books.

The packaging of those lessons receives the majority of criticism in Ms. Spiers column and I am always dismayed by the problems pundits have with this aspect of the industry. Human civilization is built upon stories and when an author chooses a fable as the delivery device, the writer is making the lessons more accessible to a wider audience.

The "12-step-ification" is a crutch that bloggers, business magazines, and book publishers certainly use alike, in the same way celebrity authors are used to garner attention and sell product. This is simply product marketing through concreteness and social proof.

The bestseller list as a guide to the "best" in the category is just another form of social proof. My optimism for the category would bring me to highlight Gallup's research-based StrengthsFinder 2.0 or Jim Collins' insightful and wonderful written Good to Great as evidence that some books that make the bestseller list really deserve the title.

In the case of John Kotter, we have the benefit of choosing either his current top-selling fable, or his 1996 book "Leading Change," which has sold over a million copies. Both books tackle the same content, but offer options for the reader to choose his method of consumption.

Ms. Spiers overall indictment of the entire business book category is an easy mark and one that could be applied to any genre of media. Her elitism about what constitutes good reading compounds the problem further. While I can appreciate her hyperbole as a method to communicate some criticism about the genre, a more subtle treatment of the subject would, I believe, be more effective.

Beyond that, Fast Company is a magazine that has always supported business ideas. A simplistic column like Spiers' goes against the very DNA of your publication. The mantra "WORK IS PERSONAL" matches well with Thoreau's or Emerson's definition of self-help. The publication of this column leaves me wondering just how that mission has been served.

Article from Bob Livingston, author of How you do...What you do

Thanks to Bob Livingston for offering this article to post on our blog.

How Others Serve Internally
By Bob Livingston
author of How You Do...What You Do

Great service companies share common beliefs about the importance of culture, behaviors, people, and relationships. These beliefs manifest themselves in different ways, but they form the core of each company's operating principles. There is great value in understanding and exploring how all of these benchmark companies do what they do. Looking for points of commonality that define their approach to Service Excellence is important to understand. Here are some of those points:

• They treat everyone as equals in matters of service


• They tend to put associates first, customers second or at least on equal footing


• They all seem to hire for attitude and then train for specific skills


• Everyone is empowered to interact with clients to solve problems and resolve conflict


• There are no "superstars" ; the focus is on teamwork


• Rewards and recognition are a visible support of their service strategy

All benchmark companies may not embrace all of the above, but they all embrace most of them.

They treat everyone as equals in matters of service
Hierarchies are necessary for spelling out what people do. But in the scope of how you do what you do, great service benchmark companies treat everyone as equal. This is not inscribed on a wall plaque; it is evidenced, very simply, by watching how everyone behaves.

They tend to put associates first, customers second or at least on equal footing
Are you willing to put your associates first? Great service companies value a setting where associates feel significant, respected, and well treated. They understand that attitudes and behaviors are contagious and that their treatment of employees will rebound to their clients, who in turn will be made to feel significant, respected, and well treated. Do not mistake this as minimizing clients' significance in any way. Rather, think of it as a team game where the better your teammates, the better you play. Great service companies understand that the more they empower and respect their associates, the happier their clients will be.

Perhaps the best way to illustrate this notion of "Associates First" is to look at a few of Fortune's Best Companies to Work For in 2007 and see how these practices reflect their cultures:

Google (No. 1 ranked) offers free gourmet meals daily; allows you to bring your dog to work; provides car wash, free laundry, barber and massage services; pays you $5,000 to buy a hybrid car; has no dress code; has a swimming pool, spa, gyms, and game rooms; and offers free on-site medical care. Engineers can also spend 20 percent of their time on independent projects, which led to the development of Gmail. Is it any wonder they're ranked No. 1?

Genentech (No. 2 ranked) is a biotech leader with uncommonly loyal staffers. "Wild horses could not drag me away," says one employee. Last year 537 employees took six-week paid sabbaticals, available to every associate for each six-year term of service.

The Container Store (No. 4 ranked), a storage products retailer, pays sales employees 50 to 100 percent above industry average. Nearly one-tenth of all employees take advantage of the family-friendly shift, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., allowing for school drop-offs and pickups.

Methodist Hospital System (No. 9 ranked) sent all but the top executives a $250 Chevron gift card, in the wake of soaring gas prices. This gesture prompted more than 500 staffers to send thank you e-mails to CEO Ron Girotto.

Here is an interesting statistic we uncovered regarding health-care benefits for employees. Of the Top 100 Best Companies to Work For, 40 percent pay 100 percent of the health-care premiums for their employees. Among the Fortune 500 companies, that number is 14 percent. If you have ever wondered about the extent to which insurance premiums impact an employee's perception of their value, this is telling.

This is very uncomplicated really. If you put your associates first, your clients will feel as though they have been put first. That is the subtle translation of how great service companies, who sincerely value their associates, become great partners to their clients.

They all seem to hire for attitude and then train for specific skills
You are vigilant about your culture, doing all of the right things. The last thing you want to do is sabotage your progress by hiring people who do not fit well with your culture. This is not to say there's anything wrong with these potential candidates. It's simply that neither party will be happy, and your culture will suffer should you engage the services of someone who is not suited to live and own the culture. This suggests the need for a defined interviewing protocol.

Everyone is empowered to interact with clients to solve problems and resolve conflict
Within logical parameters, service-centric companies empower their associates to make decisions in order to satisfy the needs of those they serve. Great service companies publicly commend associates who proactively address problems even though they may occasionally fail. Their message is, better to step up and act in the best interests of the client than do nothing. Creativity in problem solving is encouraged, limiting the need to ask for permission within reasonable boundaries.

There are no "superstars"; the focus is on teamwork
Everyone is equal in matters of service, so it follows that all positions are of equal value when it comes to service. Titles then become meaningless and fun. You will laugh at the following list of actual titles we found on various blogs and Web sites. But looking beyond the humor for a moment, you will see how these titles support the principle that attitudes and behaviors (how) define you or your company--not skills (what). Some examples:

Chief Evangelist (aka CEO)
Chief People Person (aka human resources director)
Director of First Impressions (aka receptionist)
Director of Mind and Mood

An environment that doesn't cotton to superstars has the character and integrity to genuinely respect all positions and levels within the organization. These companies value the success of the culture or team over the success of the individual.

Rewards and recognition are a visible support of their service strategy
People are motivated by rewards and recognition. Particularly in a service culture, recognition must be creative and meaningful or the result will be the opposite of the desired effect. In recognizing great service, personal attention resonates most with colleagues. Remember, personal interactions not only define you; they also satisfy the soft needs of those you are recognizing. Consider the possibilities:

• A personal, handwritten note of appreciation is far more meaningful than an e-mail.


• Public recognition through a Service Excellence communique works wonders.


• Praise from and among peers provides great inspiration.


• A team meeting is a great forum for acknowledging and celebrating outstanding service actions.


• Widely sharing recognition from external clients is both appreciated and flattering.

Done well, you cannot recognize people enough for their achievements. Be creative, and guard against trite forms of gratitude. Have a filter; don't try to create something where there is nothing. Favoritism has no place in reward and recognition programs. Doing this well requires listening, thinking, creativity, and time, but the upside potential is tremendous.

These are some of the approaches Service Excellence companies take in defining how they do what they do. These are wonderful behaviors to emulate and model yourself after.

(c) Bob Livingston 2008

Bob Livingston formerly head of sales at Unilever's The Lipton Company, is the founder and CEO of REL Communications, a consulting firm that moderates the Client Service Advisory boards. He also leads service-based cultural transformations within the companies with which he consults. He is the author of How You Do...What You Do.

BusinessWeek Review of The Post-American World

If you enjoy reading both history and business books, check out BusinessWeek's recent review of what might be the next book on your pile. The Post-American World is Fareed Zakaria's analysis of the new era we're entering, where America will not have the global dominance it has experienced since the end of the Cold War.

Here's a brief excerpt from the review by Stanley Reed:

Zakaria, a native of India and the editor of Newsweek International, argues that the U.S. has squandered opportunities in the past few years. "[It] has had an extraordinary hand to play in global politics--the best of any country in history. Yet by almost any measure--problems solved, success achieved, institutions built, reputation enhanced--Washington has played this hand badly." As a result, he argues, the U.S. is now an enfeebled superpower, and anti-American sentiment is high "everywhere from Great Britain to Malaysia."

What went wrong? Zakaria says the preeminence of the U.S. following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 has "made Washington careless, arrogant, and lazy." He compares U.S. foreign policy to General Motors' (GM) 1970s business strategy, "an approach driven by internal factors with little sense of the broader environment in which it was operating." But, Zakaria says, it's far from certain that the U.S. will suffer from what he calls "the rise of the rest." In fact, America may well profit from the change if it plays its cards right. "The world is going America's way," he says. "Countries are becoming more open, market-friendly, and democratic." Even most of Africa, considered hopeless not long ago, is making major strides, he says.

Read the review here.

Interviews Galore!

If you haven't been over to the IT Conversations website yet, we would highly recommend it--specifically this interview of Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations. He discusses social networking technologies, how they are rarely used as envisioned by their creators, and how they are evolving. Or, listen to Fred Krupp and Miriam Horn of the Environmental Defense Fund talk about their new book, Earth: The Sequel: The Race to Reinvent Energy and Stop Global Warming. They discuss "The New Industrial Revolution," and some of the technologies that can help save the planet.

Personality Not Included author Rohit Bhargava and Accidental Branding author David Vinjamuri have done something rather interesting on their blogs. They interviewed each other, asking ten questions each, and posted the interviews at the same time. You can read David's interview of Rohit here, and Rohit's of David here.

I spoke recently with David Bach, author of Go Green, Live Rich, about how--contrary to popular belief--going green can actually save you money.

And finally, if you can't wait for his book to come out later this year, you can get your Gladwell fix by watching his talk at the 2004 TED Conference, or listening to him tell stories about his time at The Washington Post on This American Life (Act Four of the episode). These two aren't actually interviews, but they are hilarious.

A Book Publisher's Manifesto

For all of you interested in what the future of publishing will look like, Sara Lloyd has begun posting her essay on the topic over at the digitalist (the digital team at Pan Macmillan's blog). Because of it's length, she's posting it in six parts. Today's installment was part two.

From the introduction posted yesterday:

Crucially, we will need to work out how we can add value as publishers within a circular, networked environment.

One of the key perception shifts that publishers need to make, then, is about the book as 'product'. Whilst the book continues to be viewed as a definable object within covers, as a singular 'unit', publishers will continue to limit their role in its production and distribution, and this is a sure fire way for publishers to write themselves out of the future of content creation and dissemination.

This is a conversation we have quite often here. While we were handing out books at an author event recently, a gentleman walking by turned to us and said, "no one reads books anymore"--and, keep in mind, this man was there to see the author of the book speak. It's that sentiment that causes so much panic in our industry about the possible demise of the printed book, and I think that that panic sometimes clouds our vision of the future and what great possibilities it holds. So far, Sara Lloyd's essay has provided a very thoughtful and sober view of the situation. I'm looking forward to the next four posts.

And, speaking of the future of publishing, you can now browse inside HarperCollins books on your iPhone.

Jack Covert Selects -The China Price

The China Price: The True Cost of Chinese Competitive Advantage by Alexandra Harney, Penguin Press, 336 pages, $25.95, Hardcover, April 2008, ISBN 9781594201578

Many of the books written about business in China in the past few years have come at the situation from a "half full" perspective. As a thinking person, you know there is another side to all these products we are buying so cheaply. This is the book that addresses that "half empty" side.

Alexandra Harney reveals the damage our seemingly insatiable need for cheap goods causes. She explains that "as much as the responsibility seems to lie with Beijing, it also lies with the global consumer. Our appetite for the $30 DVD player and the $3 T-shirt helps keep jewelry factories filled with dust, illegal mines open and 16-year-olds working past midnight. We all pay the China price" (289). The China Price compiles an impressive list of some serious infractions in the international code of conduct. For example, the author joins a Wal-Mart representative as she audits a factory for compliance to the company's ethical standards with regard to child labor, factory safety and pay. Unethical factory owners, she is told, often carry a separate set of books with fake time sheets and fake pay stubs to satisfy the standards large American companies demand.

These practices are driven by the desire of the factory owner to make more money, but, as Harney explains, it is also driven by the "race to zero" where the customer is demanding a reduced cost for the product. Because of the size of the country and the number of factories, customers can shop and demand better prices. This demand puts huge pressure on the environment, labor costs and safety issues. Harney also digs into the troubles China has gone through during its evolutions from a state-controlled economy to a country trying to cope with one of the largest migrations in human history. These conditions are simply not conducive to a rational growth policy.

This book tells sobering stories with the quality you can expect from a Financial Times reporter. To fully understand our relationship with China and the internal state of that country, The China Price is a must-read.

Jack Covert Selects - It's Our Ship

It's Our Ship: The No-Nonsense Guide to Leadership by Michael Abrashoff, Business Plus, 208 pages, $25.99, May 2008, ISBN 9780446199667

One of our best-selling books of the new century has been Michael Abrashoff's first book, It's Your Ship. Abrashoff was then a recently retired captain in the US Navy, and the book told the story of his successful turnaround of the USS Benfold. That book continues to sell in ever-increasing numbers, and Abrashoff is now in much demand as a speaker.

In his new book, Abrashoff returns to his experience on the Benfold, this time focusing solely on leadership lessons. He asserts that there are key skills a good leader needs to learn. He offers 8 of them, and each skill is represented in a chapter within the book.

In the chapter on inspiring your people to be their best, Buoy Up Your People, Abrashoff tells a story about Bill Walsh, the late, revered coach of the San Francisco 49ers. During one game, an offensive lineman was called for a holding penalty that cost the football team a touchdown, and, naturally, the player was dreading the film session the following Monday. As the coach was going over the film with the team, however, he said, "We all know what Bruce did on the play, but I want you to see what he did on the next play." Because the player was angry with himself, he had flattened the defensive lineman. Walsh said, "This is what I want you to do after you make a mistake. You don't need to be thinking about your mistakes. Do something constructive about it." Walsh had just changed the way the players viewed failure with a few minutes of game film.

Abrashoff's writing is a joy to read. Very simple, basic sentences convey rather profound ideas. Sprinkled in with the stories of his ship, he includes stories from the civilian world of business and profiles a variety of people dealing with leadership issues. One of the strengths of It's Our Ship is that Abrashoff introduces us to businesses that are not your usual suspects. Following the Walsh story, for example, he includes a story on how the West Coast chain In-N-Out Burger manages to attract and motivate its great employees. I won't spoil that one for you though.

Jack Covert Selects - The Game-Changer

The Game-Changer: How You Can Drive Revenue and Profit Growth with Innovation by A.G. Lafley and Ram Charan, Crown Business, 336 pages, $27.50, Hardcover, April 2008, ISBN 9780307381736

Ram Charan has written some of the finest business books in the genre--most notably Execution, which he coauthored with former Honeywell Chairman Larry Bossidy. In this new offering, he teams up with another executive, Chairman and CEO of Proctor and Gamble A.G. Lafley.

When Lafley took over P&G, the company was in trouble, trying to respond to the quick changes of the global economy and not meeting stakeholders' expectations. In Lafley's words, the company was "trying to do too much, too fast, and nothing was being done well." This book documents P&G's turnaround. It is a practical, nuts-and-bolts guide to innovation, written in three parts.

In the first part, "Drawing the Big Picture," Charan and Lafley stress that the customer is always the boss of any company, and discuss how to shore up an organization's core strengths and choose the right goals and strategies for future growth accordingly. This part of the book inspires reflection, and you'll immediately start forming a view of what you want the future of your business to look like. The second part gives you the tools to design innovation structures into everything you do. In "Making Innovation Happen," the authors show you how to funnel outside ideas into your company effectively, and how to create innovation teams within your existing structure. This phase is when you design your organizational structure, consumer products and interaction.

Throughout the book, Charan and Lafley stress that "innovation is a social process." In the third part of the book they give you a view of what "The Culture of Innovation" looks like--and not only within your company, but also with your customers, suppliers, retailers, and even competitors. Lafley made a change to put P&G back on the right track--putting the customer in their rightful spot as boss--but he has also did some remarkable things in that pursuit, such as sharing propriety technology in a joint venture with Clorox, a key competitor for over 20 years, to develop a new line of GLAD products.

Every chapter in The Game-Changer ends with great takeaway questions to "Ask Yourself Monday Morning." But with the combined talents of Charan and Lafley at your disposal, you'll find that you'll be thinking about this book every day of the week.

Jack Covert Selects - The Pixar Touch

The Pixar Touch: The Making of a Company by David A. Price, Knopf, 304 pages, $27.95 Hardcover, May 2008, ISBN 9780307265753

Disney's The Sword in the Stone may have inspired some youngsters with dreams of becoming a knight or magician, leading them to a life of role-playing and dice-throwing. But, one little boy, John Lassater, thought instead about becoming an animator right then and there. He's now one of the people at the helm of Pixar, and yes, he did get to animate some pictures.

David A. Price's The Pixar Touch walks readers through the genesis of Pixar. Its beginnings reach far back into the 1960s, before computer technology was even a glimmer on the horizon of film making, let alone in our everyday workforce and home life. The book weaves the tales of not just one or two great masterminds behind Pixar, but actually dives into the contributions of the many different people who helped establish what it is today. This is no small feat, as there are literally thousands of such individuals to acknowledge (George Lucas, Tim Burton, Ed Catmull and Steve Jobs, just to name a few).

The author also takes on the huge task of talking about the technology, innovation and expertise that fueled Pixar into an Academy Award-winning company. He does so with great care, making the story accessible and easy to comprehend even though readers may not know anything about mainframes, pixels, frame buffers and other such computer hardware.

Detailing the histories of the company's huge hits (including Monster's Inc. and Finding Nemo) as well as some of its misses, Price shows how Pixar demonstrates the value in having faith not only in yourself, but also in those around you. The Pixar Touch never loses sight of the company's greatest renewable resource, the human spirit. Just envision that little boy looking up at the big screen, watching another little boy pull a huge sword out of a stone, thinking, "Hey, I could do that!"

April's Best Sellers NOW on Compact Disc

I know you've ALL been waiting to see which books from our TOP 25 books last month are now available on CD....

Anticipate no longer.... Here's the scoop!

Earth: The Sequel (*) by Dick Hill, Miriam Horn and Fred Krup - # 2 Spot

Rich Dad's Prophecy by Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter - # 3 Spot

Wins, Losses and Lessons (*) by Lou Holtz - # 8 Spot

Rules to Break and Laws to Follow by Don Peppers and Martha Rogers - # 15 Spot

For One More Day (*) by Mitch Albom - # 21 Spot

Blue Ocean Strategy by W Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne - # 22 Spot

Wikinomics by Don Topscott and Anthony Williams - # 23 Spot

Awakening the Entrepreneur Within by Michael Gerber - # 25 Spot

If you can, place your orders quick! Audio/compact disc formats usually only last a short time! If you have any questions about this list or you don't see your favorite book listed, let us know!!
Enjoy your Monday!

PS: (*) = Selections brand new to the list!

Making Things Happen

Scott Berkun's latest book is out: Making Things Happen, it's an updated edition of his bestseller, The Art of Project Management. Scott was a manager at Microsoft from 1994 - 2003. Back when Microsoft was working on developing Windows, Internet Explorer and MSN.

His inspiration behind the book:

"I'd yet to find a book on leading project teams that didn't bore me to tears," said Berkun when asked about his motivation for writing the book. "Every great engineered thing ever made, from the Brooklyn Bridge to the Eiffel Tower to the Internet was made by teams of people, and I thought it was a crime against those triumphs if there wasn't a book about what really happens on project teams and how leaders handle it. I wanted to capture all the things I'd learned over a decade and increase the odds other people wouldn't have to make the same mistakes I did.

"How much of the software on the web that you use do you think is good?" Berkun asks. "If it's a small percentage, you can't blame the lack of amazing technology available to developers. The cause of poorly made things is something else--it's how projects are led and managed. My book is a handbook for people trying to make good things happen and who care about the intangible, human elements that software engineering and technology books typically overlook."

His publisher O'Reilly received an onslaught of comments on project management after blogging about Scott's new book. One of the best was from Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching:

Learn from the people Plan with the people Begin with what they know Of the best leaders When the task is accomplished The people will remark We have done it ourselves.

I'll share more as I get into the book. The final copy just arrived this week. And before I forget, he's also authored two ChangeThis manifestos which are a good starting point for Scott's topics.

Gullible's Travels

Yes! Another CornerStone book has made it on my desk!! This one, entitled Gullible's Travels, is a leadership book that has about 100 tips/lessons for all kinds of leaders. Whether you are in a new leadership position or have been at the helm awhile, this book gives new insight to not just work but life as well. How to deal and cope in todays fast changing world.

One thing that stood out for me was when the author, Topper Long, addressed the need to find balance. He suggested using "The Four Ps".

Pulling Together ("teamwork, open communication, sharing ideas, and working together")

Perfection ("doing it right everytime, on time")

Positive Attitude ("finding the good in your particular situation...part of the solution")

Progress ("not focusing on where we've been, but working toward a successful future")

Long tells us that to achieve this we must use