Making It Happen


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Paperback
294 pages
ISBN 9781935618454 Published April 2011
Benbella Books
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Making It Happen
Turning Good Ideas Into Great Results
By Peter Sheahan 

Related Blog Posts
2011 Business Book Awards: The Short List
Posted Jan. 4, 2012 7:40 a.m. by 800-ceo-read
In - 800 CEO Read Blog

What was the Best Business Book written in 2011? Watch this 90 second video and find out more.

Ok, so we didn't tell you what the best book was. We didn't even tell you what the winners of each category were. But below, you'll see the books that made our short list of the best business books of 2011, ordered by category.

General Business

Demand: Creating What People Love Before They Know They Want It by Adrian J. Slywotsky with Karl Weber, published by Crown Business

Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge From Small Discoveries by Peter Sims, published by The Free Press

Once Upon a Car: The Fall and Resurrection of America’s Big Three Automakers—GM, Ford, and Chrysler by Bill Vlasic published by William Morrow

The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World by Daniel Yergin, published Penguin Press

The Responsible Business: Reimagining Sustainability & Success by Carol Sanford published by  Jossey-Bass

Leadership

Being the Boss: The 3 Imperatives for Becoming a Great Leader by Linda A Hill & Kent Lineback, published by Harvard Business Review Press

Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck—Why Some Thrive Despite Them All by Jim Collins & Morten T. Hansen, published by HarperBusiness

I Moved Your Cheese: For Those Who Refuse to Live as Mice in Someone Else’s Maze by Deepak Malhotra, published by Berrett-Koehler

We: How to Increase Performance and Profits Through Full Engagement by Rudy Karsen & Kevin Kruse published by John Wiley & Sons

You Need a Leader—Now What?: How to Choose the Best Person for Your Organization by James M. Citrin & Julie Hembrock Daum, published by Crown Business

Management

Breaking the Fear Barrier: How Fear Destroys Companies From the Inside Our and What to do About by Tom Rieger, published by Gallup Press

Designing for Growth: A Design Thinking Toolkit for Managers by Jeanne Liedtka & Tim Ogilvie, Columbia Business School Publishing

Escape Velocity: Free Your Company's Future from the Pull of the Past by Geoffrey A. Moore, published by HarperBusiness

Good Strategy/Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters by Richard P. Rumelt, published by Crown Business

Reputation Rules: Strategies for Building Your Company's Most Valuable Asset by Daniel Diermeier, Ph.D., published by McGraw-Hill

Marketing & Sales

Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant by David A. Aaker, published by Jossey-Bass

Brandwashed: Tricks Companies Use to Manipulate Our Minds and Persuade Us to Buy by Martin Lindstrom, published by Crown Business

The Thank You Economy by Gary Vaynerchuk, published by HarperBusiness

Users, Not Customers: Who Really Determines the Success of Your Business by Aaron Shapiro published by Portfolio

We First: How Brands and Consumers Use Social Media to Build a Better World by Simon Mainwaring published by Palgrave Macmillan

Entrepreneurship & Small Business

Eat People: And Other Unapologetic Rules for Game-Changing Entrepreneurs by Andy Kessler published by Portfolio

The Entrepreneur Equation: Evaluating the Realities, Risks, and Rewards of Having Your Own Business by Carol Roth published by BenBella

The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses by Eric Ries, published by Crown Business

Making It Happen: Turning Good Ideas Into Great Results by Peter Sheahan, published by BenBella

The Method Method: Seven Obsessions That Helped Our Scrappy Start-Up Turn an Industry Upside Down by Eric Ryan & Adam Lowry, published by Portfolio

Personal Development

Break Your Own Rules: How to Change the Patterns of Thinking That Block Women's Paths to Power by Jill Flynn, Kathryn Heath, & Mary Davis Holt, published by Jossey-Bass

Harper's Rules: A Recruiter's Guide to Finding a Dream Job and the Right Relationship by Danny Cahill, published by Greenleaf

It's Not About You: A Little Story about What Matters Most in Business by Bob Burg & John David Mann, published by Portfolio

Tell To Win: Connect, Persuade, and Triumph with the Hidden Power of Story by Peter Guber, published by Crown Business

Uncertainty: Turning Fear and Doubt Into Fuel for Brilliance by Jonathan Fields, published by Portfolio

Innovation & Creativity

The Accidental Creative: How to Be Brilliant at a Moment’s Notice by Todd Henry, published by Portfolio

Best Practices Are Stupid: 40 Ways to Out-Innovate the Competition, by Stephen M. Shapiro, published by Portfolio

Brainsteering: A Better Approach to Breakthrough Ideas by Kevin P. Coyne & Shawn T. Coyne, published by Harper Business

Disciplined Dreaming: A Proven System to Drive Breakthrough Creativity by Josh Linkner, published by Jossey-Bass

The Innovator’s DNA: Mastering the Five Skills of Disruptive Innovators by Jeff Dyer, Hal Gregersen, & Clayton M. Christensen, published by Harvard Business Review

Finance & Economics

The Coming Jobs War by James Clifton, published by Gallup Press

Currency Wars: The Making of the Next Global Crisis by James Rickards, published by Portfolio

Fixing the Game: Bubbles, Crashes, and What Capitalism Can Learn from the NFL by Roger Martin, published by Harvard Business Review Press

The Price of Everything: Solving the Mystery of Why We Pay What We Do by Eduardo Porter, published by Portfolio

Retirement Heist How Companies Plunder and Profit from the Nest Eggs of American Workers by Ellen Schultz, published by Portfolio

Stay tuned next week when we announce the winners from each of these categories, and the following week we'll announce The Best Business Book of 2011! The suspense!!!

 



Introducing the Candidates: Leadership, Management
Posted Dec. 22, 2011 2:45 a.m. by sally-haldorson
In - 800 CEO Read Blog

Over the course of this week, we will be introducing, by category, the candidates for the 2011 800-CEO-READ Business Book Awards. Even though only one of the candidates can win the big prize, good business books deserve an audience, and perhaps one on this list will be the winning book..to you.

Today, we take a look at the candidates in two categories, Leadership and Management.

Leadership

So which book is going to win the Leadership and the Management categories and be in the running for the 800-CEO-READ Best Business Book of 2011? We'll announce the shortlist and winner in January!

Stay tuned!



Introducing the Candidates: Entrepreneurship & Finance
Posted Dec. 21, 2011 2:07 a.m. by sally-haldorson
In - 800 CEO Read Blog

Over the course of this week, we will be introducing, by category, the candidates for the 2011 800-CEO-READ Business Book Awards. Even though only one of the candidates can win the big prize, good business books deserve an audience, and perhaps one on this list will be the winning book..to you.

Today, we take a look at the candidates in two categories, Entrepreneurship/Small Business and Finance/Economics.

Entrepreneurship/Small Business:

Finance/Economics:

So which book is going to win the Entrepreneurship and the Finance categories and be in the running for the 800-CEO-READ Best Business Book of 2011? We'll announce the shortlist and winner in January!

Stay tuned!



Making It Happen
Posted March 28, 2011 9:19 p.m. by jon
In - 800 CEO Read Blog

Occasionally, each of us can say we have good ideas. But how often do we act on them, and were they in fact really good ideas? Young entrepreneur and best-selling business author Peter Sheahan's new book, Making It Happen: Turning Good Ideas Into Great Results addresses those very questions.

As Sheahan explains, there are many forces at work that will enhance or obstruct our idea, not only from working, but also from even getting out of our heads, and entrepreneurs need to consider these things in order for their ideas to be as successful as possible.

And Sheahan walks the talk. By 30 he had founded two international mulitmillion dollar consulting practices with clients like Google, BMW, and Goldman Sachs.

After reading the book, I sent Peter a few questions, and his answers are an enlightening glimpse into what's fully covered in the book. Check it out:

What's an early sign that a good idea won't be a good business?

When it is all about the founder. Seriously, people get so enamored with their own ideas that you just know they will be inflexible with the market. It is a fine line between being passionate, and being blinded by your personal aspiration. The very first thing I look for, and suggest the early stage entrepreneur work towards is a clearly defined offer. In other words, what exactly are you selling? Where does it fit? What value does it bring?

This can be a challenging process for the entrepreneur, and often they avoid it out of fear of rejection. As long as your idea is abstract - I want to start a company, I want to work on social issues in Africa, I want to transform education – it is hard to disagree with. When you dig deeper into the idea, (down the ladder of abstraction) it becomes easier to pick holes in the idea, and rejection ensues. We must learn to reject acceptance, and pursue a clearly defined offer.

Although it is challenging to get this clarity at first, the process is quite simple. Using a Socratic method, replacing the question of why with how and you quickly move from the entrepreneurs aspiration to the market defined offer.

Many great ideas are based on things people want. How can an entrepreneur turn that perception into something more?

Some of the most successful ideas, were not in fact in line with existing market needs/wants. Steve Jobs is famous for saying that he has no desire to learn what customers want, suggesting they have a limited view of what is possible. He says his job is to give them something they did not know they wanted, and make it so desirable it manifests closer to a need. In Making it Happen we call this Moving the Market, and if you truly want a point of difference, and a sustained competitive advantage being bold enough to push a market into a new adjacency, or even establishing a new market altogether is a very profitable activity if you can pull it off.

In Making It Happen we offer a number of strategies for getting this done, referencing case studies of who utilized such strategies.

How will one know when they've "made it?"

The entrepreneur never actually “makes it”. Part of what makes an entrepreneur set off in pursuit of their dream, is that they are never satisfied. It is something you feel deeply. It is not that you can’t learn how to be more successful, you can. My point is that the entrepreneur is never done. In a way, we are always chasing the sunset.

The key in my experience, is to come face to face with this reality, and embrace it. Once you recognize it for what it is, you can control it. You can transform it from a fear of never having enough (burning platform so to speak) to harnessing it as a desire to push the envelope (burning desire). When you have made this leap, you can also begin substituting your perennial “search” with other pursuits. Philanthropy has become HUGE for mega-successful entrepreneurs like Gates and Buffet.

And as much as I hate to say it. Markets move. Buyers evolve. And competitors up their game. We must always be on the move, or we become the very mediocrity we set out to destroy.

When is it time to reinvent?

The time to reinvent is when you are at the top of your game. It is when you have the most momentum, the best cashflow and the highest levels of trust that we need to ante up and take new risks. The business world is littered with entrepreneurs and companies that failed to evolve. Think of Kodak – they invented the first consumer accessible digital camera, and then turned their back on it because they could not see the vision and possibilities in the technology. At the time they were profitable, had great distribution, and a powerful brand. Now they are forced to find new segments – namely Printers – with little cashflow, a damaged brand and a massive up hill battle on patent infringement on technology they should have lead the world in. Imagine that. You invent something. Turn your back on it. Then when everyone else makes a killing, develop a strategy based on litigation. They missed their time, so to speak.

One of the challenges around reinvention is finally you get to enjoy the fruits of your labor and you need to ante up again. However, I think with the massive destruction caused by the GFC, the tight credit markets still for small to medium business, that the concept of reinvention is a call to action for the entrepreneurs who are feeling battered and bruised. Roll with the punches as they say. McKinsey just published a fascinating paper, similar to a piece of research done by the Corporate Executive Board which confirms what most of us know intuitively to begin with. Those who move earliest in the upswing profit the most when things are in full swing. It is obvious from the outside, but when you are the CEO / owner it is much harder to do.




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