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Posted Dec. 29, 2000 9:48 a.m. by katie
The Free Press is the publisher of some of the seminal business books of the twentieth century. Despite this reputation, the one complaint I might muster up about Free Press is that they can get a little, how can I say this, dry. From the first page of this book you will be assured that dry is not an adjective you will use when recommending this book to your colleagues. The author has written a breezy, completely understandable, and entirely convincing book about leading in this new technological world that seems to have snuck up on us older folks while we were busy paying the mortgage and putting the kids through school.
This is how the author herself puts it: This book is designed primarily for those of you who lead traditional American businesses. My goal is to prove to you that the opportunity of a lifetime may be sitting right in front of you: the opportunity to transform your company into a player in the eRevolution while winning the hearts and minds of your workforce.
As an old guy who works with a great group people who are all close to half my age, I really valued her information about leading and motivating Babyboomer, Gen X, and Gen Y employees. What other business book have I told you about that does that? Annunzio makes extensive use of bulletpoints that add to the books efficiency and usability. Heres an example:
What distinguishes eLeadership:
Honesty
Responsiveness
Vigilance
Willingness to Learn and Relearn
Sense of Adventure
Vision
Altruism.
Then, each one of these points is thoroughly explained and examples are given. What really propels this book to the head of the class, however, is that the authors writing style is really special. She draws you in with her use of examples. The book is a great airplane book because you can pick it up, put it down and possibly change your life.
Posted Dec. 10, 2000 7:12 a.m. by 800-ceo-read
In the world of contemporary marketing, a couple of new names stand out - besides the classics like David Aaker, Philip Kotler. Seth Godin is one. He has written many books and one of them I looked at was Permission Marketing. I enjoyed the book because it made huge sense to me. What I got out of it was that you didn't market AT your customers, you got permission to supply them with the information they wanted to get. This bumps into the One-to-One marketing ideas of Don Peppers and Martha Rogers. This book has a forward from Malcolm Gladwell, the author of The Tipping Point. That is a perfect choice for the forward because idea of an idea being a virus is not unlike using word-of-mouth to promote. Godin argues, effectively, I might add, that the best marketing is done from customer to customer, not company to customer. It sure makes sense to me. The book will not educate the professional but it will give neophytes like me ideas to ruminate on. What Seth Godin supplies to us the readers is a very readable, understandable, logical book on internet marketing. What a concept.
This book was one of the first books by a recognized published author that was given away on the Internet. I don't know the number that were down loaded but it was significant.
Posted Dec. 5, 2000 6:55 a.m. by 800-ceo-read
It Takes a Prophet to Make a Profit: 15 Trends That Are Reshaping American Business by C. Britt Beemer and Robert L. Shook, Simon and Schuster, 280 Pages, $26.00 Hardcover, January 2001, 0684865467
Britt Beemer, founder and CEO of America's Research Group out of Charleston, South Carolina and the author of Predatory Marketing, has written a very interesting and fun to read book about the world of business today. Readers of previous "Jack Covert Selects" know that I love "factiods." Britt has written a book that is not only loaded with fun information about how our world works and how it is changing and how fast the buying trends are changing but he tells you how to profit from these changes. The 15 trends he mentions about in the subtitle have some trends that I have heard before like the world's obsession with the internet and how Americans have less free/discretionary time. He also talks about trends that make sense when I hear them like consumers are reluctant to pay full price and how we are caring for our aging parents. Then he has some trends that I havent heard before like people complain about being invisible as customers- I can relate to that- and today's consumers want brand name products. Those are six of the fifteen trends, he also talks about employee loyalty- loaded with great and simple ideas to keep your people- the gap between the haves and have-nots and how it is widening.
As a researcher, the book is overflowing with charts and stats to support his position but again, the book isn't just "this is the way I see it" and then he leaves you hanging. He uses the information to show you how you can profit from these trends. I am sending copies of this books to a couple of my friends that are in business because I am sure the will profit from the book and I am sure you will also. This book has serious value.
Posted Dec. 3, 2000 6:48 a.m. by 800-ceo-read
When I started Jack Covert Selects I promised myself that I would only write and talk about books I liked and got excited about. Well, once again I have broken a promise I made to myself. This book is a fascinating look at managing people in modern organizations in a very unconventional way. Executive Instinct is a book that has caused me to think about some very fundamental issues in a different light. The author is at the forefront of a new field called Evolutionary Psychology. That field believes that we are struggling with the complexities of modern life and the modern organization with our brain hardwired to Stone Ages. Issues like gossip is bad, he believes that gossip is an essential feature of all human communities and cannot be eliminated from business. Also Boundaryless organizations are good, The author believes "people will always need contexts in which they can work and interact face-to-face. Many traditional forms of organization will persist for this reason."
I really got hocked on the book by reading his foreword. He uses a mugging incident to illustrate many of his points. Points like emotion before reason, confidence before realism, etc. A couple other premises are: We often put confidence before realism and ignore clues of impending disaster (been there, done that) and that some people just aren't born to be leaders. He also uses the Baring's Bank failure in 1995 as an example of his beliefs in action. He breaks down the actions of Nick Leeson of Berings and shows how his actions apply to the author's beliefs.
One of my best books of all time is a book called The Age of Unreason by Charles Handy. It took me awhile to assimilate and appreciate the brilliance of that book. I have a feeling that this book will be the same. It may take a rereading to digest it completely. Reading the book has shown me that managing needs to take into account human nature to succeed and that Nicholson's approach has quite a bit of intuitive logis to it.
Posted Dec. 2, 2000 7:02 a.m. by 800-ceo-read
When my kids were little, one of their favorite expressions was "No Duh, Dad!" Well, that's the way I felt about this book when I first glanced at the title. I thought: "Yeah you've got a clever title, but there's no way you can carry the title forward and supply actual valuable information throughout the book." Once again (as was often proven to me by my children), I was wrong. I have read many business books - seeing as they are the focus of my life - , and this book ranks as one of the most fun, loaded with innovative thoughts and ideas that make perfect sense. When I read a book for JCS, I use paperclips to mark the pages where I find something notable that I want to tell you about. "It's Not the BIG that Eat the SMALL" is my most 'papercliped' manuscript yet.
One of the things I've learned as a business owner and founder is that innovation is all well and good, but if it takes a year for your ideas to reach fruition, you are probably a year too late. This book understands this, and as you can tell from the four section titles - "Fast Thinking","Fast Decisions"; "Get to Market Faster"; "Sustaining Speed" - it is your backseat driver down the speedway of change. The chapters are short, fun and full of understandable examples. After stating the premise of the chapter, the authors offer illustrative 'one-liners', which are then expounded upon. Then, at the end of each chapter, they include a "A 60-Second Heads-Up", which is a synopsis of the past chapter. My favorite chapter is called Spot Trends, where the authors tell us we must 'Understand the Drivers of Change', 'Get a 'Clue'', 'Look for New Combinations', and 'Develop a Sense of Taste' in order to pounce on the richest new opportunities. The book may be over 250 pages, but the book has a huge amount of 'white space' making it organized and readable.
I also love the examples included within the chapters. You can open the book anywhere and find something stunning. Just sitting here, I opened the book to manuscript page, 132, and found the following: "When famous jazz violinist Stefan Grapelli was asked why, after sixty years as a successful musician, he didn't take a break, he replied that he frequently had the urge, but was afraid, saying, 'If I ever stopped I might not get started again.' Obvious, yes, but surprisingly wise - just like the title, and this book.
"It's Not the BIG that Eat the SMALL" is the featured book of the December "JCS". You will hear a lot about this book, but, remember, you heard it here first.
