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Posted June 5, 2001 11:31 a.m. by katie
As Ive discussed in previous JCS reviews, certain publishers can be counted on to do a certain kind of book very well. High-end, scholarly, strategy books come from publishers like The Free Press or Harvard Business School Press. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. has been around for almost 200 years and they publish consistently good quality books on subjects like small business, careers and personal finance with an occasionally spectacular book like last years best-selling Against the Gods. New Sales Speak by Terri Sjodin is a classic John Wiley title. The author was the youngest female professional speaker to ever earn the CSP, so she knows what she is talking about. I recently spoke to two people who read this book and swear to me that Sjodin is right on and that her 9 mistakes are exactly what they have experienced. These 9 mistakes are:
1. Winging it
2. Being too informative versus persuasive
3. Misusing the allotted time
4. Providing inadequate support
5. Failing to close the sale
6. Being boring, boring, boring
7. Relying too much on visual aids
8. Distracting gestures and body language
9. Wearing inappropriate clothes
Each one of these mistakes is described in depth and solutions are offered. The book has a self-evaluation test included. This book is invaluable whether you are selling to a client or making a presentation to your boss.
Posted June 5, 2001 11:29 a.m. by katie
I must confess that I am not a fan of those fluffy, quick-fix business books that promise to improve your worklife better simply by reading them. These fluffy books tend to be overly vague, asking you to reinvision your processes, to optimize your time by reassessing your priorities, to acquire a new outlook which will reinvigorate your career. The fix-it books I do value are not those that provide you with only vague suggestions, instead, those that supply you with concrete methods that you can apply first thing Monday morning. With Eat That Frog!, Brain Tracy has written an economical book that gets straight to the point and contains real nuggets of value.
The title of the book, Eat That Frog!, refers to that rarely-admitted reality that we always have one large important task that we really don't want to dothe frogand this book suggests ways to make that dreaded project eatable. The book has 21 chapters ranging from such counsel as Apply the 80/20 rule to everything to Identify your key constraints. A particularly useful chapter is called Practice the ABCDE method continually. This exercise really works to help you to prioritize the projects in a sensible logical manner. Many time management books will tell you to make lists to get a handle on your many projects, but this book actually teaches you how to take those lists and employ them during your workday. Interspersed throughout the book are useful quotes that summarize Tracys methods. For example, Resist the temptation to clear up small things first. Pacifying myself with accomplishing small things while ignoring the larger, often more dreaded and challenging projects has always been a huge issue for yours truly and that quote is a critical takeaway for me.
This is a classic Jack Covert Selects: Airplane Read. Focal Point: A proven system to simplify your life, double your productivity, and achieve all your goals. This book will not provoke you to change your lifes direction, but it will give you some very good where the rubber meets the road help in uncomplicating your life. Not bad for $20.00 and 120 pages.
Posted May 5, 2001 11:27 a.m. by katie
One of the real treats of this job is to pick up a book when you need something to keep yourself occupied, like while eating lunch or waiting at the doctors office, and finding an authentic treasure. John Steele Gordon is a frequent contributor on NPRs Marketplace and the writer of a column in American Heritage called The Business of America. This book is a collection of these columns. This immensely fun book belongs next to the most important place in the housethe toiletor, depending on what you regard as the most important place in the house, by the bed or in the briefcase for the usual waits at the airport). This book is also the perfect gift for the graduate this summer. Arent I helpful?
Seriously, Gordon writes about Sears before 1930 and the importance of Julius Rosenwald advice. He also illustrates how brilliant Desi Arnez was in his negotiations with CBS. He writes about how New York City wasnt the most active port in the US until around 1830, and how the mayor of New York suggested that New York join the south when it was seceding from the Union because of the importance of cotton to New Yorks economy.
Dont get me wrong, this book wont make you a million dollars or teach you how to turn around your dot.com, but it will make you smile and teach you stuff that is fun to know about business in America. Buy it.
Posted May 5, 2001 11:25 a.m. by katie
As you all know, Sumner Redstone is the Chairman and CEO of Viacom, which also happens to own Simon & Schuster. When I first heard about this book, I was afraid it was going to be one of those books that are heavily vetted by lawyers, drained of anything potentially damaging (read: edgy or informative). But this book is the real deal, not just an I love everybody, we are all one big happy team book, written by a highly visible tycoon. Mr. Redstone tells it like he lived it, actually naming names and expressing emotions.
Instead of I was born in a little house on a., Passion to Win begins with a torturous account of Redstones survival (he survived with third degree burns over 45% of his body) of a horrible fire in 1979. After the fire, he needed five operations, totaling sixty hours in surgery, and underwent many skin, and even bone, grafts. I can not imagine the pain he must have gone though. He uses this harrowing story to illustrate us his Herculean drive to survive and how his tenacity carried the day.
Chapter 1 tells the story of how Redstone acquired Blockbuster, how important it was in his acquisition of Paramount Pictures, and ultimately, how Blockbuster, in Mr. Redstones words, tanks. He tells the story completely unvarnished. He has his opinion and he shares it, straightforward, so by that time, I was completely hooked. The book then reverts to the more traditional How I got to be format, beginning with graduating first in his class from Boston Latin to his graduating from Harvard in three years to his humiliating D from Harvard Law. He graduated in 1947 and clerked in San Francisco with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. He then went to work at the Department of Justice where he argued cases for the government in the U.S. Court of Appeals. Ultimately, he ends up at the business his father started and ran called Northeast Theater Corporation, which later became National Amusement. This journey lead to the acquisition of Viacom International and then the merger with Paramount Pictures. I think the essential, and unaswerable, question is: will the world have been better off because of people like Sumner Redstone? Time will tell, but this book has given me quite a lot insight into a fascinating man.
Posted May 5, 2001 11:24 a.m. by katie
The Other 90% could be the next 7 Habits of Highly Successful People. (Did I just write that? That this book could be the next 7 Habits? Yes, I guess I did, and Im not going to second-guess myself here. While the success of 7 Habits continues, and a great many people find the book life-changing, this book really does deserve the comparision). Robert Cooper, who is one of the bright stars in the Lessons in Leadership stable, which features such brilliant motivational minds as Tom Peters and Ken Blanchard, has here a very good book. His previous, Executive EQ, was a strong seller for us, but Cooper has really come into his own with The Other 90%. The main premise of The Other 90% centers on Coopers assertion that most people use only 10% of their potential. Now, if you are thinking what I initially thought: Hmmmm, I thought I tapped into at least 25%!, youll find The Other 90% to be quite an eye-opener.
Cooper presents 4 keystones, motivational and practical approaches, to unlocking that other 90%. These keystones are: Trust, Energy, Farsightedness, and Nerve. Each of the four keystones has its own section of the book. For example, in the Trust section, Cooper features a chapter called Dare to Trust. He begins by discussing Lincoln in the final year of the Civil War, and how Lincoln has always been perceived as being very connected to his troops. It was as if both the president and the troops suffered together during those trying days. Cooper encourages leaders to appropriate this same kind of closeness with our troops. Offering concrete ways to implement his ideas, Cooper says that a person should slow down to show you care. First, breathe before you speak, which gives you a chance to slow down, make eye contact and be there. Second, be clear about time. Instead of saying I only have two minutes, say, I have two minutes to spend with you now. Finally, when possible, sit down. Neuroscientists have found that a standing talk is far less genuine than a seated talk. As a guy who runs a small shop, but really wants to improve my connectedness with my staff, this information is priceless. The Other 90% makes complete sense and is instantly applicable sound anything like the 7 Habits to you?
